It's about 3:30 a.m. and some dude you just met a couple of days ago on Craig's List is shaking you awake. Crawling out of your thin, damp sleeping bag in the dark, you knock over a mug of watery, long-cold cocoa left over from earlier in the evening. The dank marine air cuts to the bone. You grimace mightily while pulling on your clothes, which are soaking wet. Your crotch still hurts from the last time, but you agreed to do this so there's nothing to do but bite the bullet and take your pull.

A bonus scene from the recently released interactive Brokeback Mountain DVD? Nah, it's just a glimpse into what about 600 lost and tortured souls will be experiencing this weekend during the 24 Hours of Laguna Seca. Part of the 24 Hours of Adrenaline nationwide series of 24-hour endurance cycling events, the 24 Hours of Laguna Seca mountain bike endurance relay race runs this weekend on the Fort Ord trails surrounding the Laguna Seca racetrack outside Monterey from 10:00 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday. Twenty-four hour events typically run from noon to noon, but the start time for this race was moved up in deference to Mama Hallmark's retail guilt trip.

In endurance racing, teams of racers complete laps on a circuit course. The team with the most amount of completed laps wins. In addition to the teams, many racers choose to solo, or ride the entire race by themselves. Yeah, that sounds like fun.

Cheeseball mountain bike clock from Bar-Decorations.com. Sorry.