Final Countdown...

May is here, and almost gone, actually!

On May 6th, my friend, gravel mentor, and honestly one of the best people you will ever have the pleasure of knowing, Pete Beers, put on a fund raiser ride to raise money for GRASP (Gang Rescue and Support Project). This is an organisation that is near and dear to his heart, but I will let him tell you that story.  In the meantime, check out their webpage and if you have the means, please donate.  They do amazing work.

This year, was a little different than previous years' fund raiser rides. Pete made several routes ranging from 40 miles to a whopping 132 mile route.  Of course, I was in for the long day in the saddle and got several of my DK200 participant friends to do it with me.  It was the "perfect" day for an epic gravel training ride.  High of 60, raining, and a bit breezy. Honestly, the weather really made the day pretty epic. It was a great day in the saddle.

A long day in the saddle for the DK200 dream team! (Minus a few folks.)

I did learn, however, that I really NEED to eat more once I pass mile 100.  Just like the 200k in April, I started to really bonk after about mile 115.  Laura had blown past a turn around mile 125 and I was able to stop and eat while Steve chased her down and almost immediately felt better. I guess I always feel that when I am that close to the finish of a ride, I can skimp on the food and just eat when I am done.

Most everyone bailed on the epic route, but we persisted.

The bike setup, however, was well dialed.  Everything felt great and while I am sure I am packing WAY too much stuff, I felt prepared for pretty much anything.

The DK200 Dream Machine: 2017 Salsa Warbird.

You may have noticed that my shoes changed colour.  The previous week on the scouting ride, I noticed that I was still getting a lot of pressure on my right foot at the widest part starting around 60 miles into the ride.  Even though I bought a shoe stretcher and stretched it twice, the shoe was just a smidge too narrow when my feet start to swell during a long ride.  After talking with Jan (owner of Bikenetic), who then talked to the Pearl Izumi rep, I decided that I could deal with a slightly too big shoe and opted to order the men's version of the same shoe (Pearl Izumi Alp Launch II).  I have to wear thick socks with them, but they are just wide enough that there is not as much pressure on that part of my right foot.  I thought about trying a different shoe altogether, but I really love these shoes.  They are stiff, have an incredibly walkable sole, drain water well, and dry REALLY quickly.

The next week, I was supposed to do a 9-hour solo mountain bike race, but with the mud and rain, I opted to skip it since I was still traumatised from Baker's Dozen the month before. Instead, I opted to spend the weekend with my SO and do some fun rides.  We ended up checking out a new brewery plus a couple of tried and true ones on Saturday for 72 easy miles.  On Sunday, we had big plans, but got waylaid by a flat tire and finding a new brewery.  We ended up with 40 miles on the C&O.

Yes, I suck at selfies!

That leads to this past weekend.  On May 20th, Paula (DK200 and teammate), Laura (DK200), Bill (friend whose longest ride up to this point was 80 miles), and myself embarked on a 150 mile epic ride to get in one last long day in the saddle before Dirty Kanza.

Because of the elevation on our normal gravel routes (and the fact that the race was in two weeks!!!), I opted to start and end the ride on the C&O canal, which is fairly flat.  So we met at Riley's Lock on the C&O at 6:00.  After some initial chit chat and gear checks, we started westward around 6:30.  The ladies and I had planned to just ride and enjoy the day not worrying about race pace or keeping stops to a minimum.  We just wanted a long day in the saddle.  This ended up being perfect for my friend Bill, who had originally just wanted to do 100 miles and get in his first century ride.

Bill realising that we are only 25 miles into the ride and we have stopped twice to pee.

Point of Rocks was our bail point off the C&O.  When we got there, we figured we should probably pee (again) before heading out and crossing into Loudoun County.  We were a little dismayed to find this as we were heading out of the park:

Well, I guess we will take another quick break!

Luckily, the train was fairly short and we were on our way again in less than 10 minutes. We crossed over Route 15, climbed up Furnace Mountain and meandered our way down into Loudoun County. Our first resupply stop was at mile 57 at a tiny little Shell Station that surprisingly had a pretty good selection.  Everyone was feeling pretty great at that point.  I asked Bill what his plan was and he said he would stick with us until he bonked and then he would call his sister-in-law.  Hmm...  That sounds suspiciously like "I think I am going to do this whole ride"...

Cupcakes, doughnuts, and a fluffy kitty.

We continued on, got detoured around a bridge that was out (and saw some pretty cool things on that detour - strawberry farm, petting zoo, horses), and got Bill that 100 miles that he was looking for!

He was pretty stoked!

And his Garmin literally died about 10 seconds after this photo!

It was kind of entertaining that Bill's first 100 mile ride happened about a half mile before the water ford on Jeb Stuart. It had rained off and on all week, so the water was a bit high. Since it was pretty warm, we decided to just dismount and walk across the deep part.  It was nice and refreshing.  But putting our socks back on was...  hard.  The ground was wet and no one wanted to sit down!

Deep water...

Paula is coordinated enough that she was able to balance on her top tube and put her socks back on.  I almost fell over a million times before my shoes were back on!

Paula lounging while waiting for the rest of us to get ourselves back together!

Laura capturing her bike's best side.

The next resupply stop was just up the street at Philomont.  We ended up staying there for a while and chatting with a couple just finishing up their first ever Loudoun gravel ride. Eventually we made our way back via Leesburg and Old Waterford Road. I had never done that climb near the end of a ride before. At 114 miles, it was much MUCH harder than I wanted it to be, but I ended up riding the whole thing.  I was surprised, as I expected the two steep kickers to be a problem that far into the ride.  We made our way back to the C&O and made it back to Point of Rocks around 7:15.

Over 128 miles on our legs, I was surprised at how good I felt.  My right knee was aching a bit and I was starting to get a little bit of pressure on my right foot, but overall, I was in great shape. Or so I thought.  As it started to get dark (probably around mile 137), I started to get that really antsy feeling of needing the ride to be done.  We crossed over White's Ferry (mile 140) and I needed to stop and turn the back light on my Garmin down.  I told everyone to keep going and I would catch up.  We had been traveling around 12 mph on the canal for some reason (we were all pretty tired) and when I cranked up the speed to about 15 mph, I started to feel a bit better.  I caught up and we slowed down again due to a miscommunication.  Eventually I could not take it any more and asked if we could push the pace.  We were close to the end of the ride, so I did not even think about eating.  Which, obviously is a mistake that I keep making.  I need someone to yell at me to NOT STOP EATING during the race.

We finished with a moving time of 12 hours 11 minutes and a total time out of just shy of 15 hours.  For a day where we were pretty much just trying to get saddle time, I would say we definitely did just that.  Bill ended up staying with us for the whole ride.  I was crazy impressed, especially since he never complained once!  I have now talked him into doing a rational-length gravel race in July!  Woohoo!

Unfortunately, I suck at remembering to take photos, so I did not get any headlight photos of us on the C&O at night.  Nor did I remember to take a photo of us at the finish.  I even regret not taking a photo of my spiderweb encrusted bike.  Whoops.

So...  NINE DAYS.  There are nine (and a half) days between now and Dirty Kanza.  My bike has been prepped and is being packed up by the wonderful folks at Bikenetic as I type this.  It will be picked up by FedEx this afternoon and will (hopefully) arrive in Emporia next Wednesday.

I have to put in a huge plug for my bike shop.  The folks at Bikenetic (Jan, Helen, Pete, Brian, Stearman, Jacob, Ken) have been absolutely instrumental in getting me this far. Between introducing me to the people responsible for talking me into this (ladies of the DC area cyclocross scene), supporting my decision to do this insane thing, getting me the best bike for the race, and getting my bike and gear all set up, they have made sure that I am as physically and mentally prepared as possible.

Helen, Jan, et al. 

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.  

Best Bike Shop EVER.