Croatan Buck Fifty: The Buck Single Speed Edition

So, this past weekend was my first gravel single speed race... And unsurprisingly it was hard. Leading up, I was waffling on my gearing choice and ended up with an easier gear than I wanted because that was all we had (40x16 for those who care about those kind of things). But first... We should talk about the two days leading up to the race! Dane and I traveled down to Emerald Isle Thursday in an unrelenting rain storm. Other than our stop for lunch, it was a pretty uneventful drive. We checked into our hotel (we spent the first night in a hotel since our group house would not be ready until Friday) and I immediately grabbed a frosty beverage and went out to look at the ocean.

The beach in front of our hotel.

The late afternoon sun after a five hour drive in the rain was glorious! SO glorious! I went back to the hotel to fetch Dane and we walked along the beach for a few minutes while making plans with a friend to meet up for beer before dinner.

Photo I sent to my mum as proof of life.

We ended up at a beer/wine bar that was a super short bike ride from the hotel and remembered it was St. Patrick's Day. Emerald Isle, as you can imagine, really celebrates! The bar was packed by locals and non-locals wearing many shades of green. The highlight of the evening was seeing the bartender's dogs just hanging out in the bar. Well, one was actually hanging out ON the bar! I love beach towns!

This was RC and apparently has his own stool to get up on the bar!

Dane and I grabbed a couple of beers (after saying a proper hello to the puppers) and headed out to the porch to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. After a few minutes, we saw a guy riding on the path and Dane mentioned that he was probably going to be at Croatan as well. Turns out, it was Judd, a friend from back in DC. We convinced him (it was not hard) to grab a beer and hang out. A few minutes later, more friends from back home arrived and we all had a nice time catching up!

Chilling on the porch with beers before all of our friends showed up!

A few minutes later, our friend Joe showed up with our new friend Holly. We had another beverage and then made plans for dinner. We headed over to Gaffer's for dinner and MAN... did I eat WAY WAY WAY too much. They made a garden pasta dish with veggies and some sort of cream sauce that was delicious. And it was HUGE. And I ate it all. And then... I had dessert. Some sort of "beach pie" that is a mash up of Key Lime and Lemon Meringue with a saltine crust. It was delicious. I did not finish it all. I made Dane finish it. Poor him. Ha!

We called it a night (the restaurant closed at 9... it was the off season, after all) and headed back to the hotel, where we watched some HGTV and I complained about my massive food baby. (Seriously... SO much food!)

The next morning, I was still extremely full from my dinner that I was not even remotely hungry. Dane wanted coffee, so he rode off in search of a coffee shop while I took a quick shower. He found coffee and a Belgian waffle, which he offered to me. I took two bites and handed it back. Still so very full!

We headed out for a bike ride to make sure the bikes were still good and to spin our legs out. We really just wanted to enjoy the sun and the warmth. We stopped at a bakery/market for "brunch" and I had one of the best biscuits I have ever eaten (I did finally get hungry!). I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was SO good.

I took a photo while we waited for our food, just not of our food!

We needed to check out of the hotel and move our car, so we started to head back that way. We crossed a road and I noticed two cyclists waiting to cross the street, and low and behold, it was friends Anna and Melanie! We chatted for a minute and then decided I would let them know where on the beach we ended up and they would come meet us.

After we fetched the car, we ended up sitting on the beach and just REALLY enjoying the sunshine. I slathered on sunscreen and then went down to put my toes in the water. WOOOOOW! That water was quite chilly. Our buddy Stearman found us and joined our sun soaking party. Eventually Anna and Melanie came down too. It was really nice to just sit and watch the waves.

The beautiful, beautiful sun!

After a while, we decided it was close enough to the time for us to check into the group house, that we packed up and headed towards the team house. By this time, I could not figure out why my skin felt so scorched. I literally put sunscreen on every 20 minutes or so and still could feel the sunburn happening. I finally figured it out. My sunscreen was expired. DOH! This is going to be bad. (Spoiler alert, it was...)

And this was not even the really bad parts... 2nd degree burns. You can actually see the line on my neck from the face sunscreen I use every day and where I put regular sunscreen.

We got to the house, greeted all the teammates that were already there, threw our suitcases up in the room and immediately went out to check the view of the ocean and the pool. The cool water of the pool looked really refreshing, so I went to stick my toe in it... The pool was HEATED! HECK YEAH! I ran upstairs, threw on my bathing suit bottoms and jumped in! A couple of other folks joined me, and we spent about an hour floating around in a warm, salt water pool. It was amazing!

After a quick shower (and ALL the lotion on my poor damaged skin), we started on the team dinner and just hung out for a bit catching up with the bike family. Luckily, everyone was pretty tired from their day of travel/sun and was ready for bed pretty early.

After a night of normal pre-race sleep (which is to say not a lot of sleep) that was made worse by the blistering of my skin, I got up and took a cold shower to help ease the heat emanating from my body. I was a little worried that my swollen feet would not fit in my shoes for the race. After a quick breakfast and a less quick coordinating and packing up the cars, we were off to the speedway.

We arrived with less than 30 minutes to race start, so it was a blur to get things ported over to the bus and get everything ready. Putting socks on was REALLY painful, so I was surprised when my feet actually fit into my shoes. It was not super comfortable, but it worked. Also, it should be noted that I found unexpired sunscreen and slathered it on before, during (multiple times) and after the race). Also, I sucked at getting pre-race photos; in fact, I only took one photo the entire day.

The one photo I took all day...

I lined up in the back third, since I really hate the initial chaos that is a mass start race. And then, suddenly we were off! Well, some of us were. The front. The rest were still just hanging out, waiting for the people in front of us to move. It was a pretty cool sight to see that many cyclists on a speedway! But then... we were actually off!

The initial start was pretty slow, but a few of us from Team Bikenetic grouped up on the pavement. I immediately regretted my decision to not find a smaller cog and struggled to keep up with my group. Once I did catch up (thank you Sector 4 and my MTB ratchet skills!), I was able to keep up, but at a much higher cadence that I would normally ever keep, my knees would not be happy with me about this.

The first lap at Sector 4... Phil and I were grumbling about being off our bikes.

Photo courtesy of Steve O.

Things rolled nicely for a while until my whole group kept going straight and I turned off for the 100 loop all alone... Into a headwind. All alone.

The last stretch before the aloneness... The world's only six lane super gravel highway.

Photo courtesy of Chris Spurrier.

The 100 mile lollipop was absolutely beautiful, but it was so bumpy that I could not take my hands off the bars long enough to grab my phone and take photos. This is the story of the next whoever many miles.

Nothing super interesting happened for a while. I just rode my bike into a headwind while the sun beat down on me and increased the temperatures by about 15 degrees. I dragged a group for a few miles on the gravel, then they dropped me on the one little paved section. I passed them back in the cornfield/single track section and was alone again. All alone.

Made it through Sector 4 with only having to dismount once (Hi Jan!) where a teammate doing the 150 single speed barreled by me. Found myself on the longest 2 mile gravel road ever (read my previous race reports on this race for more info on THAT) and knew that I was in shouting distance of water (I had run out) and a burrito.

I turned into the speedway, stopped to pee, then headed straight for the bus, hoping for some cold water. Which was nowhere to be found. So instead, I hopped on the bus, grabbed an ice cold IPA from the cooler and chugged it in 30 seconds flat. I grabbed another one and my burrito and sat down to eat. I spent longer than I would have liked to contemplating my life choices. But I realized that I only had about 45 miles left to go, so I pulled on my big girl jorts and went in search of water.

Beer and burrito stop. Regretting everything and nothing.

Photo courtesy of Lizzie Waxler.

After refilling my water bottles and adding some Infinite to them, I found friends (Hi Elaine , Mark and Katie!) and road with them for a bit until my knees needed to move differently. Yay single speed! All alone again...

Man, this next section was a complete and utter blur. It was HOT. My bike computer was reading close to 90 degrees. The sun was blazing and making my already sunburned skin hotter and hotter (I did find some unexpired sunscreen and slathered that one several times during the race, but... Irish). I was drinking way faster than I had on the first lap. I wanted to turn around and head back to the speedway, but I knew I was closer to the turn around point (and therefore water).

I started getting worried about another heat stroke. As I took the last couple sips of my water, I estimated I was about 1.5 miles from the turn around/check point. Low and behold I hear someone call my name from behind me (I was still all alone up until this point). TEAMMIE! (Hi Matt) Matt hung back with me and chatted and took my mind off my suffering, my lack of water, and my absolutely wrong gearing.

I limped into the checkpoint and asked Anna (Hi Anna!) if she had a cold beer. Of course not! That would have been silly of her. But she did have pickle juice (ick, but it does the trick) and ICE COLD water! She took such good care of me that had she not been there, no way would I have been able to keep going. 25 miles to go. All alone.

Remember that time I was not alone?

Photo courtesy of Chris Spurrier.

Those last 25 miles were some of the hardest miles I have ridden in a long time. The headwind was unrelenting. There was one point that had I stopped pedaling, I would have 100% come to a stand still instantly. Standing up, pedaling as hard as I could, I was going about 11 mph. And then sun was still there, beating down on me, laughing at my misery on a bike named after a Goddess of the Sun... All alone.

Life was pretty miserable until I hit that corn field for the last time. The single track after that and the sand pits that followed were my absolute favourite part of the course. It was shielded from the wind (mostly) and I could really put down some power and just have fun on the single speed. The sand pits allowed me to have a little fun (and laugh almost uncontrollably) drifting around in deep sand. I knew the next couple of sections were going to be rough gravel into a headwind, so I just put my suffering aside and had some fun for a moment.

Smiles and sunburn...

Photo purchased through Brett Rothmeyer Photography.

Heading through Sector 4 for the last time felt like an achievement all on its own. It honestly felt like each time through (this was the fourth), the ground just kept getting softer and softer. I had to dismount twice this time around and just felt so sloggish while I was on the bike. Until I rounded a corner and saw a teammate on the ground (Hi Pablo!) who had arrived at the checkpoint as I was leaving. OMG! Did he crash? What happened? Is he injured? Dammit, I should have knocked on wood when I said I had not seen any injuries earlier.

Nope, he was fine. His cleat had come loose and was covered in sticky mud. I hung with him for a bit to make sure he was okay, then headed back towards the speedway. Only a few more headwind filled miles to go.

I happened to glance back as I was just about out of Sector 4 and saw another Buck single speeder (Hi Mark!) and wanted to slow down to wait for him, but my legs nixed that idea and said keep going or CRAMPS! So I kept slogging along. All alone.

I finally turned onto the longest two mile gravel road... I KNOW it is only two miles. We KNOW this. Just keep pedaling. Into a headwind. All alone. I have enough water. I am going to get this done.

When I got to the end of that road, there was thankfully not a car in sight on the paved road. So I booked it and kept my head down and power on the pedals (still regretting my gear choice). All alone.

Pulling onto the speedway road, I saw a teammate and his wife leaving (Hi Trey!) they honked and gave my legs a little extra life. There may have been a tear or two shed when I made that left turn into the speedway. I put it into high gear and just wanted to no longer be on my bike (plus, I really had to pee!). BOOM! DONE. And straight to the port-o-pot!

Pulling into the speedway, so much emotion!

Photo courtesy of Brian B.

It took a while for my brain to function properly (and no one handed me a cold beer for quite a while... Bad teammies!), but once I finally got to the point I could actually think, I said I need a beer and to change. I walked over to the bus and was getting ready to drop my jorts when I heard my name being yelled by fellow single speeder Kasey. WHAT?! I heard something about a podium and literally sprinted across in the infield.

I MADE IT ON THE PODIUM!!!! That was a complete and utter surprise, especially since there were 13 folks signed up for the Buck Single Speed.

No caption needed.

Photo purchased through Bruce Buckley Photography.

I finally got to change and have a beer or two. It was glorious. And it only took about 2 hours for my brain to turn the 107 miles of suffering into fun. Can not wait until next year! 

As usual, I must say a HUGE shoutout to Bikenetic Full Service Bicycle Shop for getting my single speed and dialing it in with putting on new (hydraulic) brakes and just being awesome. 

Another shout out for the best bike family in the world. Team Bikenetic, you are AMAZING!

Shout out to all my wonderful friends (new and old) that pushed me, encouraged me, cheered me on, and provided some much needed love at the aid station/race track. You guys rock!

And lastly, thanks to Matt Hawkins and the Blue Ridge Supply team for putting on an amazing event. It was so great to be back down there. If you are on the fence, do this race. It is hard, but it is awesome.  I know I talked about being all alone, but in all honesty, there were tons of happy, smiling faces that were on the race course with me.  I got lots of encouraging cheers, smiles, and high fives from folks going the opposite direction.  It was so SO much fun!