2015 Buffalo 105
The Buffalo 105 is a race I organize and promote which
starts and finishes at the Newton YMCA.
This race was first held in 2011 on a 72 mile loop. It has grown into a double race, 55 miles or
105 miles consisting of a 55 mile loop ridden by everyone followed by a 50 mile
loop for the 105 racers. The last
Saturday of October seems to have stuck as the time for this race. My job as a marketer will never take off
because I seem to be able to draw only around 20 starters in total. There is no entry fee and the entire
registration is conducted via email.
Marketing consists of Facebook posts, events on bikeiowa.com and
ridinggravel.com as well as flyers posted in bike shops. To say this race is low budget is an understatement;
there is no budget (ok, I print about 30 waivers on new paper every year).
At this late point in the season, I try not to take the
race too seriously. I am normally a
little tired from racing and am busy getting everyone checked-in and started in
the race. I waffled a bit in the week
prior to the race, but decided to ride my heavy (30 lbs.) circa 2002 hardtail
mountain bike. I wanted to give myself a
challenge and save the wear and tear on my light race mountain bike. There is about a mile of B surface road (also
known as minimum maintenance road, or dirt road) which can cause problems with
bikes. How hard can it be to ride a
heavier bike, I asked myself? I should
be in good shape at this time of year and tough enough to show myself the bike
does not make that much difference.
The forecast a week prior to the race was for rain on
Saturday. As the day drew closer the
rain ended up being forecast for Friday afternoon and night. By Saturday morning at 2 AM the rain was to
be gone and the skies were to become partly cloudy by mid-day. The high was forecast to be close to 60 with
a NW breeze at 15 mph. I was checking
the hourly forecast frequently the last 24 hours, and it did not change. We did receive about .35 in. rain in the 24
hours prior to the race. Since it had
been so dry I was not sure this would affect the B road significantly.
Race morning finally arrived with one more check of the forecast. It was holding, it looked like a good day for a fall bike ride. There would be some wind; however, since these were loops there would be equal miles with headwinds and tailwinds. It was cool at registration and I noticed there was a stiff NW wind. As we gathered for my start line speech (safety crap, etc.) it was cloudy, windy and IT STARTED TO MIST! Having dressed for racing in temps. around 60 I was wearing shorts, a jersey and a wicking undershirt. I was shaking as I was trying to deliver the few words I needed to say. I could not decide if I was cold, nervous or both. I desperately needed to start riding my bike to get warm.
I cut my speech to the necessities and we were off. Within a few minutes I was warming up and
soon we arrived at the point on our way out of town where I raised my arm and
declared “game on.” After leaving Newton
there a couple long and steep hills into the NW wind. The hills were hard and a couple groups were
in front of me. I knew I had at least
100 miles to go so I was trying to conserve.
I was also thinking I did not want to ride the next 15+ miles into the
wind by myself. I was able to bridge up
to one group by the little town of Metz and rode a mile dangling off the back
before we turned south and they got away from me. I was able to join them in the next three
miles and ended up with a couple friends with me to share the work for the
entire westerly section.
The B road is found in the last three miles of the
westerly section. Just as we were
crossing a road and entering the gravel run-up to the B road, a beat up pickup
pulled over. The driver rolled down the
window to release a huge cloud of cigarette smoke. He said something like “Fellas, you know this
is a dirt road?” We assured him we knew
and pressed on, now a bit more concerned at what we might find. The B road was wet, but not so wet it picked
up on our tires. Since I was riding a
mountain bike the group let me lead. I took
it cautious to make sure we did not suddenly find our tires caked with mud and
not turning. It was about as wet as it
could be without causing a problem.
Finally, I caught a break!
I was still with my friends and we were now a group of
four. We turned with the wind and the
speed picked up. I was feeling like the
pace was just slightly over my 105 mile pace, but I knew I needed all the help
I could get once we started riding the last 15 miles into the wind. I pushed my legs to stay with the group as we
clicked off the miles. After we passed
through the town of Monroe the route contains a few sections of north into the
wind. We were nearly to Reasnor, going
down a large fast hill and I felt my rear wheel thump over something fairly
hard. Within a half mile I could tell my
rear tire was going down. I knew this
was going to kill my chances of riding with the group to Newton into the wind. The group was super nice and turned around to
make sure I had what I needed to fix the flat.
I told them I did and encouraged them to go on without me.
I fixed the flat in no time and was on my way into the
wind. I was flying up the road at what
seemed like 10 mph while watching my back for someone to catch me, which never
happened. With about three miles to go I
began to realize I was getting hungry and started to calculate the calories I
had taken in. I had eaten 385 calories
for nearly four hours of riding. I
should have taken in at least 600 calories, so I started eating another Clif
bar. It tasted very good and by the time
I hit the Newton city limits I had eaten about half, so my total caloric intake
was up to 510. Still low, but I knew I
could make up the difference before I started the 50 mile loop.
I rolled into the start / finish table at the Y as the
sun was peeking out intermittently. It
felt so good on my back. I was reassured
to learn the race was going fine, volunteers Julie and Carrie had everything
under control. There was only one rider
who needed rescued and others were rolling into the finish. I quickly filled the one bottle I had
consumed with Hammer Perpetuem and restocked my pockets with Clif bars. I also grabbed a peanut butter and honey
sandwich I had made and started nibbling on the first half. On my way out I devoured a pumpkin bar one of
the volunteers had made (let’s call her Carrie-Betty-Crocker). I knew it would be difficult going back out,
and I learned the 105 racer I was riding with in the group of four had a sick
child and needed to go home. There was
only one 105 racer on the course and he was literally hours ahead of me. I knew the longer I hung around the harder it
would be to go back out, so I pulled on my big boy pants, said thank you and
good bye to everyone and started riding the 50 loop.
Even though the first 15 miles were with the wind I was
not feeling very spunky. The longer I
rode on the 50 loop, the worse I felt.
The issue was in my gut, not so much in my legs. I began to think about what had happened at
the halfway point and realized I had ingested too many calories in a short
period of time. I put myself on a liquid
only diet and pushed on in solitude.
After the first 15 miles traveling in a SE direction, the 50 loop spends
the next 30 miles going mostly north.
This left me with a lot of time to think about how tired my legs were
and how slow I was going. I needed
someone else to talk with to take my mind off the ugliness. I tried to occupy my mind with calculating,
from memory, how far until I turned with the wind and how many hills were
left. I am not sure if it was a coincidence
or not, but when I turned to go with the wind towards Newton, I started to feel
better in my gut. By this point I was
quite behind in caloric intake, but I did start slowly eating again. I continued to watch my back, sure the next
rider would be passing me at any minute.
The finish was completely uneventful. I pulled into the Y to find my faithful
volunteers, Julie and Carrie had put everything away in my pickup. They were faithfully waiting for me to
finish. Besides their cars, and my
pickup, there was one other car in the parking lot. I learned there was one other rider who
started the 105 after me. I thanked my
volunteers (I hope I did, I was a bit out of it) and sent them on their
way. I owe them a big favor. The final rider finished within what seemed
like three hours, but was really less than an hour. We chatted a bit and it was over. Just like that, the Y looked like nothing
took place. The entire day was just a
memory.
Looking back, we made mostly good memories on the
day. I delivered over 50 pounds of food
to the food pantry. I am sure there were
good and bad memories for the 19 starters (hopefully mostly good). My experience with an epic effort like this,
over time, the memory of the pain starts to fade and is replaced by the realization of
what I have accomplished. I try to take
this sense of accomplishment into the next event. I believe
it is a new confidence in my ability to survive.
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| The final instructions at the start line. Think cold and wet! |
