Our team discussed and debated at length the order which
each of us would ride a loop. We eventually
decided on me being the first rider because there were two sections of “B road”
and I was riding a mountain bike (good mud clearance) with mountain bike width
tires (float over mud better). We
decided to have Shawna ride the second loop because it contained no “B road”
and this loop would be ridden in the daylight.
Matt and Trevor were fine with the dark loops so we decided Trevor would
ride the third loop and Matt would ride the last loop. I decided to ride loop two with Shawna in
case she needed something (navigation, mechanical, encouragement or hydration).
We arrived at the venue (Cumming Tap) for check-in and
were able to learn there were five total four person teams (three from
Kansas). In years past there had been
very few teams, so it was good to have some competition.
The race was started on-time at 11:00 AM in perfect
weather. There had been quite a bit of
rain in the week leading up to the race so everyone was expecting the “B road”
to be muddy and unrideable. My goal was
to ride competitively, but within my abilities.
I wanted to leave something in the tank for loop two. My plan was to conserve energy whenever
possible. Initially I was able to stay
at the back of a couple small groups to draft.
The pace felt comfortable, but fast.
I asked a person I was riding with and he indicated our average speed
was greater than 18 mph (too fast for a 200k or 400k race). I was sure there were racers ahead of us, but
did not know how many (not that it mattered).
I was anticipating the “B road” and dreading the need to
walk / run the mile of mud. Much to my
surprise, I was able to ride the first part of the road. The last time I road loop one there was a big
puddle of mud and water about a half mile in.
I was very surprised to find the puddle missing, the first “B road” was
100% rideable. At this point in the loop
I was riding by myself and questioning if my pace was too high.
The second “B road” was only a few miles from the
first. I remembered the lead up and was
thinking it could be worse than the first.
I was happy to find it with puddles and ruts, but again, 100% rideable. Now the goal was to get to the finish without
blowing up. As I was watching my pace I
could see I would finish the loop before the time I told Shawna to be ready, by
15 minutes. I decided I needed to let
her know and thought a text message would be best. At 40 miles in I got my phone out and tried
to unlock the screen and open the text application, but I could not get this
done while bouncing along on the gravel.
I decided the benefit was worth the time to stop and text, so I
did. I had been riding ¼ mile behind
another racer on a singlespeed bike for several miles and knew stopping would
mean I would not likely see him again.
I had the text sent in 30 seconds and was on my way. The rider ahead of me was now ½ mile ahead,
no chance of catching him again. As I
was about to cross highway 92, I saw two riders turn off the hard surface and rejoin
the gravel route. They were not very far
ahead of me but were lost or had taken a detour to get liquids. I tried to pick up the pace, but again I did
not want to spend too much energy.
After the first turn I could see we were catching the racer who pulled
away when I was texting. If we could all
get together, and work together, we would be much faster. I was fading slightly and was not able to
join any of the other racers all the way to the end of the loop. We all arrived at the finish within two
minutes of the same time.
As I was finishing the loop I was composing a list of
items I wanted to complete before going out on loop two. There was such a rush to get ready to
ride. I completed most of the important
items, but did forget a couple small items.
Within a few minutes Shawna and I headed out on loop two. I quickly found myself working hard to stay
with Shawna. I knew I would need time to
warm back up and Shawna would be fast at the start, so I thought the situation
would take care of itself. I was able to
ride faster after a few minutes, but I was concerned I was holding her back,
and I was likely to slow throughout the rest of the loop.
We were riding with a strong 400k solo racer (Larry) and
working together to hide from the wind.
We passed a couple 200k solo racers and were eventually joined by the
singlespeed racer. At some point we were
overtaken by a vehicle and Shawna started telling me one of her contacts was
having problems in the dust. She blinked
the problem away without stopping.
We came to a large downhill with an immediate uphill
about 15 miles into the loop. I was
ahead of Shawna at the top and my Joule GPS was signaling a left turn. Shawna’s GPS device had been telling her to
turn in the middle of each intersection, so I started to turn to signal the
correct turn. We were going slowly
through the corner as I pulled alongside Shawna. At that moment she hit a washout rut in the
road at an angle and started to lean (or maybe fall) my direction. For some reason all I could think to do was
put out my hand in an attempt to push her back upright. Because I was slightly ahead of her my hand
found its way to her handlebars. Luckily, my ineffective push connected with
her GPS device which simply rotated on her handlebars. I am sure we did not actually bump into each
other, and by some miracle we both stayed upright. Through the entire 2-3 second incident Shawna
was saying something like “Oh crap!”
When we were safely separated and the shock of the near miss was
starting to set in Shawna said, “I think I am going to throw up!” We both had a good laugh which helped keep my
mind off my tired legs.
At about 25 miles into the loop Shawna, Larry and the
singlespeeder got ahead of me on a long climb.
I was giving all my tired legs would give, but was fading further. I was so dehydrated I was starting to have
difficulty eating (not enough saliva to chew up a bar). I knew my situation was getting worse. I needed to convince Shawna to go on without
me. The main reasons I was riding was to
help with navigation, provide mechanical support if any was needed and for
moral. If she could stay with the other
riders (which seemed to be possible) she would get help with navigation. If she had a flat or other mechanical issue,
I would eventually come along to help.
Having her ride on was the best option for the team.
I eventually convinced her to ride on and she was off to
catch her new buddies. I tried to settle
into a sustainable pace so I could finish the loop. While I was dehydrated and thirsty, I tried
to ration my fluids so I would have something to drink through the remainder of
the loop. At about mile 45 I began to
develop a stomach ache. I knew this was
one symptom of dehydration and tried to stay on my pace (fluids and speed).
As I began to see familiar landmarks indicating I was
nearing the end of the loop I noticed a racer ahead in the distance. I also noticed my stomach was beginning to
feel a bit better. I began to think I
was catching the rider ahead, but was very cautious with my pace. With about two miles to go I did catch the
racer ahead of me. I asked him if he was
Ok as I passed him. He indicated he was
fine so I pushed on. He looked to me
like a solo 200k racer, however I am not sure what characteristics a solo 200k
racer might have.
As I started up the last straight flat gravel road
leading to the finish line I noticed the sun was still visible in the sky. I was wondering how far Shawna was ahead of
me and how Trevor, the third racer for our team was doing. I thought he should be able to complete
roughly an hour of his loop in daylight.
I pulled into the Wrecked’em camp and continued to drink
and eventually started eating. I learned
Shawna had finished the loop about 20 minutes ahead of me and without
incident. I was even more convinced it
was the right thing for her to ride on. Shawna
found her contact towards the back of her eye, so she was racing with
mono-vision for most of the loop.
We all had a fun fireside chat (minus the fire) as Matt
was starting to get ready to ride the final loop. To pass the time we studied the four person
team standings. We were in second place
by around an hour, but the third place team was less than 30 minutes behind
us. Unless there was a mechanical or a
crash it was unlikely we were going to catch the first place team. We did need to ride well and without incident
to stay ahead of the third place team.
Around 11:30 PM Trevor rolled across the finish line to
send Matt off into the darkness. Trevor’s
loop was uneventful, but he did mention he was singing to himself to pass the
time. This signaled the end of the fire
side chat as there was not much going on in the Wrecked’em camp until Matt
returned around four hours later. If
Matt had an incident he could reach me by cell phone which would work fine if
my eyes were closed while I was in my tent.
Matt rolled in from his uneventful loop around 4:10
AM. He texted me his status and
confirmed we finished in second place.
He decided to drive on home to try to get some rest. I decided I did not need to get up and rolled
over to sleep into the morning as much as possible. By 6:00 I could not sleep any longer and
started to break camp. Everything was wet
so it all got stuffed into my trunk. I
drove to the Wrecked’em camp and started putting things into my truck in the proper
sequence. Steve, the race director,
stopped over and confirmed our placing.
We had things packed up and were on the road shortly.
Other than my dehydration issues on loop two, the race
went well for our team. In some ways a
race without any notable events is boring, and makes for boring blog
entries. However, a race with too many
significant hurdles to overcome makes racing very difficult. I suppose life is like this as well, some
days are routine and some days are full of challenges. Too many of either makes life boring. We need variety to keep us healthy.
