Kanza Report - Part Two (The Race)

After a night of listening to the wind whipping the trees and sleeping intermittently, my alarm clock went off at 04:00.  I got up, got dressed, and Dane and I headed down to grab some breakfast in the dining hall.  The wind was still blowing strongly.  While we were eating, I looked at the radar and saw that there was a storm to the north of us.  It looked pretty nasty and it also looked like we were going to get the tail end of it just as the race was starting.

After finishing up breakfast, I heard from Jamie that they were running late and she would find me at the start.  We headed back to the dorm to grab my bike and gear.  After squeezing myself and my bike into a fully packed elevator, we headed down to make our way to the start line.  As we got into the lobby of the dorm, folks were chatting about the race being postponed due to the storm.  There was a lot of lightning happening and some rain.  I texted Jamie and let her know that the start was delayed by a half hour and to meet us at the dorms.  She showed up a few minutes later and milled around the lobby with the rest of us nervous cyclists.

It stopped raining about 6:10 and we all made our way down to the theater and the start line.  The clouds were getting lighter and the wind appeared to have settled a bit.

I was about halfway in the start mob.  So many cyclists!

Jamie and I lined up about midway through the 14 hour block.  I know it was ambitious, but I learned my lesson last year about lining up at the end of the 16 hour block.  I wanted to be near folks that could ride in a pack and handle their bikes.

We are SO excited!!!!

Turns out, Isabel had the exact same idea as us, so I was stoked to line up next to her, as well.

Have I mentioned how terrible I am at taking selfies?

Dane managed to get a couple of photos of the start as well that were way better than my halfhearted attempts...

Still excited!
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

In front of me.
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

Behind me...
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

At 6:30:07, we were off.  Thirty minutes and seven seconds delayed.  AND...  I actually remembered to load the course map before we set off!  However, I DID forget to restart my Spotify playlist, so was without music for the first few miles.  Whoops.

Jamie and Isabel are stronger starters than I am, so they both took off out of the gate while I cautiously made my way around wobbly riders.  Seeing the faster riders off in the distance and the never ending line of riders after them seriously makes my eyes tear up.  It was, just like last year, an incredible sight.  One that makes me want to go back and do this race again and again.  One day, I am going to be fast enough to not care if I stop and take photos of the first turn onto gravel.  Or, maybe I will just go back and run support for someone and stage myself there to get a few good photos of this mind blowing spectacle.

I rode steady for a while and eventually caught up to Isabel and chatted with her for a minute before continuing on at my pace.  I passed a lot of folks and got passed by a few, but not as many as last year.  I felt confident, strong; and I was riding well.  I was however, missing my music by this point.  I caught up with Jamie and she had on short fingered gloves, so she was kind enough to restart the Spotify playlist on my phone for me.  I was amused that we were able to hand off the phone both ways without dropping it.  I am the biggest klutz!  I rode with her for a bit until I got caught in a group coming up behind me and lost her in the fray.

Always be smiling, always!
(Photo purchased from Gravel Guru, Thanks!)

The first sector was pretty uneventful.  They did detour us around the first B-road section due to the muddy conditions.  There were some sections that were pretty muddy, but overall, I was surprised at how well the roads held up to the storm that had just recently passed by.  The water crossings were all pretty high and everyone was covered in mud pretty quickly, my awesome socks may never be the same.  By the time we got to the cattle pens around mile 26, my drive train was having some shifting issues, though.  Nothing major, but the grit and mud was starting to get to it.  A couple of times, the derailleur would not shift up the cassette, so I had to shift down first.  While annoying, it was not devastating and I did not want to stop unless it was absolutely necessary.

After climbing the steepest hill of the day (which, I totally forgot about), I rolled into CP1 a few minutes ahead of schedule at 3:12 race time.  I felt pretty good and downed a delicious ginger beer and some salty snacks while Dane cleaned up my drive train.  (Thanks, Dane!)  After a quick potty break and resupplying my snacks and water, I rolled out of CP1 and headed out towards the second sector.

Ginger Beer never tasted so good...  Seriously, this was good ginger beer!
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

The second sector was the hilliest sector.  This was a great reminder that Kansas is not flat.  This section also started off with the mud pit that claimed a few folks' shoes last year (it was about six inch deep churned up muck).  I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to try and ride through it, but luckily, everyone in front of me got off and walked, so I figured...  decision made.  I was able to walk on the very edge of the road and ended up not getting much mud on my shoes.  Woohoo!  Shortly after that was also the deepest water crossing that we faced last year.  I rode it again this year (there was a photographer there this time around!) and only managed to get one shoe soaking wet.  Apparently I am getting better at ratcheting at higher speed!

There were some pretty nasty, chunky gravel sections about half way through this sector.  Probably around mile 70 or so, I noticed some red and blue lights in the distance.  There was a particularly nasty descent with a couple of sizeable drops ahead.  Apparently a man had gone down on this section and had some significant trauma to the face.  EMS was already on scene, so I did not stop, just slowed to make sure they had it all under control.  They did, and I am thankful for them being out there and quick to respond.  Hopefully the rider is able to make a full recovery and finish the race next year.

About this time, I had started to notice that without much effort at all, I was going 20 mph on the flat sections.  This made me super nervous about what was to come.  It was a lot of fun having a strong tailwind, though.  I was cruising much faster than I would normally feel comfortable going and was having the time of my life...  Until the course turned westward...  That was when I could actually feel the wind as it was pushing me across the gravel roads and not down them.  Uh oh...  This was going to get ugly REAL soon.

I learned that going south was easiest since the wind was coming from the north.  The cross winds when heading east were not terribly bad and helped more than they hurt.  The cross winds from the west were miserable.  We turned north for a very short section and I thought I was going to die.  Yeah, the next sector was not going to be pretty.

I rolled into CP2 at 7:40 race time.  A little slower than I would have liked to go, but still on pace to make my 16 hour goal.  Dane was there with more ginger beer, snacks, and bike maintenance.  My left foot was starting to bug me, so I took my shoe off for a few minutes while I cooled off and ate.  I ended up seeing one of Patricia's teammates (Colavita) and chatted with her for a minute or two.  I was procrastinating at the check point (and failed to get any photos) because I knew what I was in for.  The winds were 25-30 mph sustained out of the north.  We were getting ready to turn north.  This next sector was going to be 60 miles of strong headwind.

The only shade was near running water.

I eventually left the check point and headed out with a small group.  Luckily, we meandered mostly east out of CP3 and were not immediately bombarded with headwinds.  But about 10 miles outside of Eureka, we turned north.  My average speed dropped from about 15 mph down to 8 mph.  This sector was literally the hardest miles I have ever done on a bike.  I like to think that I have done some pretty stupid and hard rides, but this absolutely knocked the wind out of my sails.  There were times that I was riding DOWN a 7% grade, pedaling as hard as I could, only managing to increase my speed to 11 mph.  It was demoralizing.

I was incredibly happy that I had done so well in the first two sectors because my average speed was well below the 10 mph that the race director gives you to finish the race.  The wind was unrelenting.  I saw a lot of folks on the side of the road waiting for their support crew to pick them up.  I even saw one guy sitting with an EMS truck getting a nice IV hooked up.  The wind was so bad that I could not even eat on the bike.  I ended up stopping in the one shady spot to rest for a minute and have a snack.

No smiles on this section of the course...  Only wind.  So much wind.

The miles were ticking off so slowly that I thought my GPS might have lost signal.  At some point during this sector (I honestly had no sense of time or distance at this point), my phone died.  I thought I had plugged it in at CP2, but apparently in my procrastination I forgot.  With that, my music died, too.  I stopped to plug the phone in and turn the speaker off to save battery.  I figured it would take about 10 minutes for my phone to get enough charge to turn back on, so I forged ahead (at about 7 mph...).  After riding for about 10 minutes, I found another shady spot, so I stopped and turned my phone back on.  I reached for the speaker...  There was only an empty pouch on my feed bag.  Apparently, on one of the chunkier sections, the speaker must have fallen out.  Since it was off, I did not notice it.

This meant that not only did I have about 15 more miles of headwind, I had to tackle it without musical motivation.  I sighed and got back on the bike, knowing that once I DID finally reach CP3, I was going to have a hard time continuing on.

At some point (this may be out of order, I was pretty delirious at this point), we got a bit of a reprieve from the wind as we had to ford a creek.  The water was bit over knee high and fast flowing.  The coolness felt amazing on my feet, which had started to ache a bit (but a different ache from the crushing forefoot pain, so YAY!).  Getting off and walking felt pretty good too.  So I deployed that tactic on the next few miles before the check point.  People saw what I was doing (resting, but still making forward momentum), so they started doing the same.  I guess sometimes I DO have good ideas.

Oh the beautiful, but not plentiful shade.

About five miles from the checkpoint, I ran out of water.  It was taking a LOT longer than I expected to get through this section and it was still pretty warm, even at this late point in the day.  Bonus, though...  A family had set up a stand and was giving out some Gatorade to all the racers that were passing by.  THANK GOODNESS!  It was Gatorade, but at least it was diluted a bit.  With this little bit of liquid in my bottle, I carried on and made it to CP3.  Unlike last year, it was still light out as I rolled in with a race time of 13:29.

Dane met me and practically caught me as I fell off my bike.  I was DONE.  The wind had literally taken everything out of me.  I was about an hour and a half behind where I needed to be to make my goal.  I knew there was no way I was going to make a 16 hour finish and probably not even an 18 hour finish if the wind kept up.  I was not in a good place and was so ready to just never ride a bike again.  This was such a different feeling than I had last year.  Last year, even though it was almost two hours later in the race day, I was still ready to get on and finish.

Sitting down on the job felt pretty damned good.
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

Dane got me off the bike, I took my shoes off and opened a beer.  I took a sip or two of the beer and was almost immediately nauseated.  I ate a ginger chew, ate some cheese and salty chips and just rested for a bit.  Dane talked me up, telling me how proud he was of me.  He said the folks rolling through the checkpoint looked like they had been through war, but at least I was sort of smiling.  Heck, Dane even had a spare speaker for me to take with me on the last sector.  Seriously, he thought of everything.

At this point, the only thing that kept me going was knowing that the Salsa Chaise was somewhere down the road.  I changed from head to toe and felt a little refreshed.  Dane refilled my water and got my lights set up.  Sunset was coming fast.

I look thrilled, right?  45 miles to go... I can do this!
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

Leaving CP3 was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  It was a mental struggle to just get back on the bike.  But back on the bike I got and out of Madison I headed.  The sun was starting to set and thankfully the winds were calming a bit.  And by calming, I mean 18-20 mph headwinds instead of 25-30.

I felt okay for about five miles after leaving the checkpoint.  All of a sudden I became severely nauseated and light headed.  I kept pushing forward even though I had to stop several times because I was too dizzy.  I was finding it harder and harder to concentrate on the road and stopped every time the dizziness got too bad for me to ride safely.  It was slow going.  But I was going to get my photo with that velvet couch.  About 20 miles after leaving CP3, I saw the Salsa signs.  I was too far gone to read what they said, but I knew the Chaise was ahead.  I MADE IT!

#chaisethechase #adventurebybike #salsacycles
(Photo courtesy of Salsa Cycles)

I was super stoked to find the Salsa folks and their silly red couch.  It was the most ridiculous and exciting moment of my cycling career, if I am honest with myself.  I LOVED it.  The Salsa guys even gave me a hard time saying my smile was too big for someone about to upchuck at any moment.  Heck, they even commented on my Rage Against the Machine playing out of my borrowed speaker.

I left the Chaise with slightly more pep in my pedal stroke, but not much.  In fact, about two miles after leaving their setup, I lost every ounce of water (and the small amount of food I had at the CP) that I had drank in probably the last four hours.  I was at a loss of what to do.  I have never had gut issues on the bike before and generally my nutrition and hydration plans have always worked really well for me.  I was unable to keep anything down.  I was unable to ride for more than about a mile at a time before feeling too unsafe.

At this point, Maggie passed me as I was bent over my bike.  She stopped and asked if I was okay.  I told her what was happening and she laughed.  She apparently does ultra marathons and said that this happened to her at almost every race near the last few miles.  She gave me some great advice (tiny, tiny sips of water, boot and rally). Before she headed off to finish her race.  I am not sure if I would have been able to keep going had she not been kind enough to stop and offer advice.  (Thanks!)

At this point, I am sure Dane was looking at my tracker and getting worried about my constant stopping and extremely slow progress.  I wanted to get my phone out and text him to let him know what was going on.  However, I knew that if I dug my phone out, I was going to tell Dane to come get me.  I had made it this far (I had 24 miles to go), I could make it the rest of the way.

Those 24 miles were extremely slow going.  I was constantly having to stop and sit down.  At one point, I actually was glad that I was having to stop so much because I got to hear a family of coyotes singing to each other.  The pups sounded so cute.  I almost wish they had gotten closer to investigate this dusty, smelly gal on the side of their roads.  At another stop, I got to enjoy the stars for a minute before my head started spinning.  I got to see an amazing moonrise and watch the prairie fireflies come to life.  Kansas really is an amazing place if it could make me see beauty through my absolute misery.

The rest of the miles crawled by in an oscillation of dizzy riding and nauseated rest.  I walked a lot, I vomited more, but I persisted in my forward progress.  When I finally saw the light in the sky from Emporia, I knew I was close.  Ten more miles.  I could make ten more miles.  I fell in with a group of guys with about five miles to go and vowed to stick with them to the finish.  I succeeded until the last hill of the day.  We were about 3/4th of a mile from the finish and their legs had a little more juice left in them.  Since I had been able to take in zero calories in the past few hours, I had no energy.  I am actually surprised I made it up that hill without walking.  But I made it.

I turned my helmet light off and my bar light on low as I crossed the street onto the finishing stretch.  I was DONE.  I made it.  I did not die.  I did not crash.  I might be a little worse for the wear, but I made it.

HOLY COW!  I finished!
(Photo courtesy of Dane Paris)

I crossed the finish line at 19:03 race time.  Three hours after my goal.  I was disappointed (more than I would like to admit), but I was actually really surprised that I was able to finish.  There were a lot of moments on the fourth sector that I was ready to throw in the towel.  In fact, it was probably unsafe for me to finish after reaching the Chaise.  But I did not give up.  I pushed through the pain.  I was as safe as I could possibly be under the circumstances and teetered on my limits.

It was a little bittersweet to cross that finish line alone.  I missed Laura, Maureen, and Paula like mad at that moment.  But I was also beyond thrilled to have Dane there waiting for me with a huge smile on his face.  THAT was worth all of the pain, the wind, and even the vomit.  I really wish I had thought to get a picture of the two of us at the finish, but I was pretty out of it and weak.  Dammit, one of these days I am going to have a beer at the end of DK200!

People keep having to remind me that I finished when a lot of folks did not.  Out of approximately 1200 starters in the 200 mile race, only 744 finished.  That is a pretty significant DNF rate for a day that was mostly dry and not excessively hot.  The wind was brutal and punishing.  Hell, even Sven Nys DNF'ed (I finished a race that Sven Nys did not!!!! *sorry, not sorry?*).

Remember what I said after last year's race?  I take it ALL back.  This race is hard.  It is brutal.  It can crush your soul.  But when you cross that finish line, even if it IS three hours past your goal, it warms your heart and you remember all the wonderful things about the Flint Hills that you loved.

I still have some unfinished business out in the Flint Hills of Kansas.  And one day, in the not too distant future, I will come back and take care of it.  I have vowed to take 2019 off of endurance cycling and enjoy a year of riding my bike for fun.  I am sure I will still do some fun races here and there (Croatan was too awesome to skip out on), but I just want to focus on getting back to the basics of why I ride my bike.

But...  2020 has the promise of some epic adventures.

And now...  The all important THANK YOU list:
Dane - Thank you for supporting me in more ways than one.  You allowed me to go out on long rides even when I had responsibilities at home.  Your presence and support at the race this year was unparalleled.  You had everything I could have ever needed and was there at all the right times.  I am incredibly lucky to have you in my life.  I am not sure I could have asked for a better partner in life and in adventure.  I love you.

Next day beer at Boulevard!

Bikenetic Full Service Bicycle Shop - I am not sure I even need to write out the words, but you guys and gals are seriously the best.  Everything I needed you were able to get.  Every issue I had with the bike, you were able to fix.  Even when it was something silly (hey guys, my bottom bracket is making noise again; hey guys, I bent my derailleur hanger again; hey guys, my tire has a hole in it again), you took it seriously and got me rolling again quickly.  I am not sure how to repay you for everything you have done for me, but thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Jan, Helen, Pete, Stearman, Jacob, Ken, Brian, Jamie, etc.)

Keep Cross Weird...
(Photo courtesy of someone...?)

Team Bikenetic - This goes along with the shop, you guys are the best!  The level of support that I get from everyone on the team is just amazing.  To hear that you guys were following along the whole day (even while some of you were doing a pretty epic race yourselves) made my face light up.  I am honoured to be a part of this team and call you not only teammates, but friends.

This team is AWESOME.
(Photo courtesy of Bruce Buckley)

VeloPigs (and the rest of the NOVA gravel community) - As always, you guys were there to ride a ton of ridiculous gravel miles in not exactly the most ideal conditions with me.  (Special shout out to McChesney for helping me out with my last training ride, even if it was on pavement...)

Doing what we do...
(Photo stolen from Carlo...)

Lastly, I know she will never see this, but a HUGE thank you to my mother for her amazing dog sitting skills and her support over the past two years.   

I do not have a photo handy of my mother, so here is Nola at her house with a big stick.

Oh! A few equipment shout outs, too:
Salsa Cycles - My Warbird is awesome. (Not to mention the #chasethechaise campaign!)
Ridge Supply - My sock game was on point! (Plus, thanks for Croatan, it was a great precursor to Kanza.)
Handup Gloves - My hands never bothered me at all.  Plus, those new summer weight gloves were spot on for the heat of the day!
Source Hydration - Just like last year, my hipster pack served me well.

Stay tuned for the next big adventure - SM100!

Kanza Report - Part One (Pre-Race)

I am going to start this off by saying that I have amazing and wonderful friends.  There has been so much love and support for this adventure and I am not sure I would have believed in myself without you all behind me 100%.  So thank you.

I even convinced a few lovely folks to go for a chill mountain bike with me the weekend before!

Thanks guys!  (PS - I suck at selfies)

Unfortunately, the evening that the above photo was taken, I slipped in the mud and banged up my right knee pretty badly.  I may have also been carrying a plate with a giant burrito on it that met a muddy fateful end also.  Whoops.  Here is the knee a couple of days later...  Still pretty swollen, with some bruising starting to show.

Ouch...  (And sorry this is sideways, my computer is being silly.)

After dropping off the dogs with my lovely and wonderful mother, I headed home to finalize the packing and get things squared away at work to take a few days off.  Fast forward a couple of days, and...

Welcome to Kansas!

The flight was a little turbulent, but otherwise uneventful.  We met up with Ellen and Ken at DCA and chatted with them for a few minutes before taking off (totally forgot to snap a photo!).  We ended up catching them at MCI as well and rode the shuttle with them to the rental car area.  Spoiler alert, they both had an amazing day at Kanza and finished well before sunset.  Congrats!

After picking up the rental car, we decided to recreate last year's arrival day and had lunch at the same brewery where I waited for Matt, Granite City Brewing.  Amazingly enough, the same bartender was there AND the spelling bee was on!  We had a quick lunch and a beer then headed southwest towards Emporia.

Cheers!

Once we arrived in Emporia, we checked into the dorms and drove to the admin building to pick up my bike, which had been shipped earlier in the week.  This is where the smiles stopped for a few minutes...

When we walked in, the woman in the admin office told us that the box was opened when they received it.  Uh oh.  I had a momentary freakout thinking that all my supplies that I had packed with the bike had been lost.  Hydration pack, tools, CO2 cartridges, tubes, bottles, ALL the things!  Luckily, everything that was supposed to be in the box was still there, but it was apparent that the bike was damaged.  We took the box back to the dorm room and I had to take a quick moment to calm down before assessing the damage.

As we were putting the bike back together, what had looked pretty bad, was actually just a broken derailleur hanger.  Luckily I had a spare.  Unluckily, I only had ONE spare.  There is a bike shop in town that sells Salsa bikes, so I just crossed my fingers that they were prepared for incidences just as this.  Dane was instrumental in getting the bike squared away.  He efficiently removed the old hanger, installed my spare, and made sure the bike would shift through all the gears.  SERIOUSLY glad he was there.

After the bike was back in working order, we decided to explore the town a bit.  I rode very slowly while Dane walked.  I did have to #keepthestreakalive, you know.  We stopped in at Gravel City Adventures and looked around before heading towards the back and asking about a spare derailleur hanger.  We ended up meeting the owner (I think his name was Adam) and he was over prepared and had about 30 hangers in stock.

All smiles again!

We stopped in at the other big bike shop in town to say hi to their shop kitty.  He was still there and loving the attention as always!  We also caught up with one of our local shop's old Kona reps while we were there and got to check out their new gravel bike.  (I failed to take pictures, but it is very pretty and very green!)

So fluffy and cuddly!

After that, we decided to head over to the local brewery and grab a beer or two and some dinner.  I was starving and after all the bike drama, ready for a beer.  On the way there, we found some... uh... ducks.

Fake News!  These are not real ducks!

Dane was pretty impressed with the brewery and with dinner.  He had some Scottish deviled eggs and seemed to be in heaven!

Cheers to a successful travel day.

The next morning, we got up relatively early and headed to breakfast at the dining hall.  Afterwards, Dane went exploring and I was headed out to find the "coffee" ride.  As I was getting ready to head into the elevator, another woman was coming out and asked if I was going to the ride.  I said yep, and offered to let her follow me down there since she had never been.  She introduced herself as Isabel and we chatted on the short ride over to the start.  While we were standing around, another woman asked if she could take a picture of our socks (Isabel and I were both wearing Ridge Supply socks).  She wanted to post them up and let Matt Hawkins (of Ridge Supply) know he was being well represented down in Kansas.  Turns out, it was Maggie Smith, whom had been at Croatan as well.

The GU sponsored riders before the Friday pre-ride. (Hi Rebecca!)

Isabel and I ended up being evenly paced for the pre-ride and rode together chatting about bikes and gravel riding.  She was from Chicago and knows some of the BFF gals that raced single speed last year.  It also turns out that she knows my friend Patricia!  I did not find this out until I was almost back home, though.  Small world!

After the pre-ride, I went back to the dorms to change and headed out to meet up with Dane.  I swung by CVS and grabbed two bottles of Gatorade (ick) to help rehydrate.  It was HOT outside.  Seriously, at 10:00 it was already 90 degrees, sunny, without a cloud in sight.  I drank half a bottle (ick) and then filled it back up with water to dilute it.  MUCH better.  Once I found Dane, we headed over to the Gravel Expo to check things out.

Earlier that morning, as I was changing, I got an email from Salsa Cycles about their new prototype Warbird frame.  I forwarded it to Dane with a smiley face and some exclamation marks.  I love my Warbird, but the frame is too small.  It is glaringly obvious now that I have a properly sized cyclocross bike.  But I did not want to do anything until after Kanza, since I was used to this bike and frame.  I had contemplated getting a Rodeo Labs Trail Donkey for its versatility, but I love Salsa and everything the company stands for...  So I was pretty excited to see the features of the new frame.  I was even MORE excited to find out if they happened to have the frame to debut it at the Gravel Expo.

SO MUCH DROOL!
(2019 Salsa Warbird Prototype)

Well...  Not only did they have the frame for public oogling...  They had several of the bikes and several of their employees were racing on them!  This is going to be an awesome bike.  So many mounting options...  The larger frames have three mountain points inside the frame (the smaller ones just have two...  sad face), mounts on the underside of the frame, the top tube, fender mounts, mounts on the fork, AND top of the sundae...  internal routing for a dynamo hub!  Plus...  the prototype paint job is to die for.  There is a lot more room for wider tires than the current frames, too.  I sent a message to Jan to go ahead and place a hold on a frame set for me!

While we were at the Salsa tent, I got a glimpse of the thing that had me most excited about DK200 this year...  The Chaise.  #chasethechaise

The only thing that kept me going after CP3...

We chatted with the Salsa reps for a bit about bikes and the chaise.  They are really cool and amazing folks.  No wonder I love their bikes so much.  Surprisingly, the chaise was not filthy.  One would think after hanging out at several gravel races over the spring that it would be a disgusting mess.  Apparently velvet sheds dirt and gravel dust pretty easily.

My friend Jamie, who moved to San Francisco over the winter was coming into town for the race, so we decided to meet up for lunch.  She showed up with her wonderful parents in tow and we ate at the same Mexican place that we ate last year.  I had the same gigantic burrito and about 900 glasses of water.  We swung back by the expo and checked out a few other vendors as well.  We ended up chatting with the Industry Nine folks for a while since they had a mister under their tent.  It was heavenly AND battery powered.  I think we need to get one for the Dirty BikenetiCrit in August.

Afterwards, Dane and I hung out at the Historical Center for a bit to get out of the sun and heat while we waited for the DKXL start time to roll around.  Around 3:45, we emerged from our air conditioned spot and headed across the street for the start of the DKXL.

Thirty-four racers at the ready!

 Jim, the race director was pretty excited about this event and gave a moving speech before sending these 34 highly qualified racers out for 350 miles of Flint Hill gravel.  It was almost enough to make me want to go out there with them.  Almost...  At this point, it was about 95 degrees and swealtering.

Velvet hat and a moving speech...

Once the XL racers were on their way, we headed for the pre-race briefing so Dane could see the Grenada Theatre.  He was pretty impressed by the theater.  Afterwards, Dane and I made our way back to the dorms to get my bike and gear ready for take off in the morning.  On our way back, we found some not fake birds snuggling by the admin building.  It was kind of cute!

Duck...  Duck...  Duck... Goose!

Getting my gear together was uneventful and made easier by having Dane there with me.  He was good at making sure I did not forget to take air out of my tires and lube the chain.  After that, I took a nice cold shower and relaxed for a bit.  Dane was starting to get a little hungry, but I was still stuffed from my giant burrito.  So we compromised and headed out in search of some Frozen Yogurt.  After filling ourselves with cold sugary goodness, we decided to head in search of one last beer before turning in for the night.

Final beer before the race!

Mulready's also had some water for me to drink before heading back to the dorms...  They put it in an appropriate container.

Sounds and looks about right...  😉 

As we got back to the dorm, the wind was starting to pick up.  Folks had been avoiding talking about the forecast all weekend, but the temperature was supposed to drop significantly (Saturday was supposed to be about 10-15 degrees cooler than Friday's high of 97) and the wind was supposed to pick UP significantly.  By the time we got back to the dorm and getting the final preparations done, I could see the trees whipping in the wind.

This was going to be interesting...

DK200 - Pre-Race Report

I have been horrible about updating my riding progress and training this year, but things have been extremely busy.  Which means, this is going to be a super long update!

After Croatan, I pretty much was unable to do any long rides (greater than 65 miles) until the end of April.  My partner and I have merged residences!  Packing and moving and then UN-packing has taken a toll on both of our free time schedules.  The good thing is that we are getting there and the house is almost a home!

Moving Day - We are so cute!
Photo Courtesy of Jamie

We moved to a "neutral" location since my neighbourhood was too close in for Dane and his neighbourhood was way too far out for me.  Our new neighbourhood is close to our awesome bike shop (Bikenetic!!!) and close to some really great friends and teammates.  We are also in a much more suburban area than I am used to.  We have wildlife.  Lots of wildlife!  Deer frequently make their way into our (fenced) backyard to graze on our clover and ground ivy.  We also have a family of foxes!  Their kit got stuck inside the fence and could not find its way out.  So, I had to rescue it.  He was SO cute.  He was quickly reunited with his parents who were on the outside of the fence freaking out a bit and trying to dig him out.

This guy was SO adorable.
Photo courtesy of Dane

 A week after we moved into our new house, we competed in a local 13-hour mountain bike race (Leesburg Baker's Dozen).  I had a great time, ended up getting some PR's on the course, and my relay team (3-person female with teammates Tania and Christine) came in second!

Having a great time and reminding everyone that "Flat Pedals Win Medals".
Photo Courtesy of the talented Bruce Buckley

I always forget how much I miss mountain biking when I am doing endurance gravel training.  I guess I need to remind myself that in a few months when I am lining up for the 20th anniversary SM100 race!  (Eek!)

Anyway, back to training.  Since Croatan, I have actually only done three (EEK!) rides greater than 100 miles.  I finished up April with a solo 104 mile mixed surface road where everything that could have gone wrong DID go wrong.

Well, at least it was an absolutely stunning day!

My phone battery unexpectedly died and I had failed to pack a charging cable for it because I was only planning on being gone for about 8 hours or so.  I was in a very rural part of Loudoun County when it happened, and just decided to press on.  I knew where I was and felt pretty confident that the rest of the ride would go smoothly.

*insert foreboding music here*

Well, things were fine for about 10 more miles or so.  I stopped at a store in Round Hill to grab some junk food (salt and vinegar Pringles and powdered sugar doughnuts made slightly less bad by some orange juice!).  I was sitting on the steps in the sun next to my bike shoving food in my mouth when all of a sudden I see something shoot straight up in the air and hear a hissing noise.  This was followed quickly by a very wet SPLAT.  I look over and my front tire is complete flat and there is a puddle of tire sealant on the ground next to it.  WTF?!

Quick back story...  A couple of months before, I had been riding out on the C&O canal with a teammate when I had somehow sliced my front tire.  It apparently was a slow leak because I did not notice it until after I had left my teammate in DC and was on my way back across the river.  I ended up dumping two full CO2 canisters in the front tire over an eight mile ride home to keep going (I had a tube, I am just lazy).  When I got home, I unscrewed the valve core, dumped a small bottle of sealant in the tire, pumped it up, and it was fine.  It sealed up and was fine.  It even made it through Croatan with ZERO issues.

So now...  The only thing I can guess is the heat somehow dislodged the sealant plug and the excess pressure spewed out a bunch of sealant.  Hmm.  Okay.  I had three CO2 cartridges with me and a tube.  Since my phone was dead, I did not want to use the tube in case something else went horribly wrong.  I emptied a cartridge in the tire, it sealed and held air, so I finished my snack and got back on the bike.  Literally a half mile down the road, sealant starts spewing out and I hear the tell tale "hiss...hiss...hiss...".  I stopped, put my gloved finger over the hole (which, I may have forgotten to mention is TINY, by the way, less than a 2 mm slice on the center tread of the tire).  It seals, so I keep going.

Unfortunately, the seal breaks over and over and over again.  I am on the shortest gravel route back to Leesburg and luckily the tire holds most of the air, but sealant keeps spewing out.  I ended up emptying two more CO2 cartridges before I made it back to Leesburg.  On one of the last times I had to stop to place my finger over it to help it seal, I left one foot clipped in, lost my balance and fell over.  Right smack in the middle of a gravel road.  So glad no one was around to witness that.

At this point, I was just kind of done with my ride.  I knew I was probably going to need to swing by a local bike shop and get another tube and more CO2 to finish the ride.  I also wanted to try and get my phone charged so I could let Dane know what was going on.  I decided to deal with the phone first and stopped by Loudoun Brewing Company to borrow a charging cable and have a beverage or two to help ease the pain of the day.  Luckily, they came through!  I spent an hour there charging my phone and enjoying two quite delicious beers.

As always, LoCo Brewing is there to save the day!

When I got off the bike, I had placed the tire with the hole facing downward in the shade.  It did not lose any additional air (or sealant), so I decided to press my luck and ride the 28 miles home without stopping for flat supplies.  Apparently the beer did the trick, because I made it home safe and sound without any additional issues.  Thanks BEER! *winky face*  Needless to say, that tire got replaced before my next ride on it!

The next Friday, I was finally able to take a day off work and go out with Pete on one of his Friday Hooky Rides.  This was slated to be a 130 mile ride with some of the coolest folks around.  The ride started out in Falls Church where I met up with Pete and a couple of other teammates (and Tim!).  We rode out to Leesburg to meet the rest of the group. It was a bit humid in the morning and there was a LOT of pollen in the air.  Even though the ride to Leesburg was all on pavement, my legs were covered in grit.  Yellow grit.

Not sure this photo does it justice, but my legs were bright yellow.

We met up with a few other folks, and since I always suck at remembering to take photos on rides, here is a picture of some random bike dudes in a parking lot:

Hi Pete!  Hi Trey!  Hi Chris! (I think?)

We rode some amazingly beautiful gravel roads and I am terribly sorry that I always forget to take pictures.  We did encounter a sprayer truck that was attempting to spray the fresh gravel (oh yeah, there was fresh gravel EVERYWHERE).  What we thought was water, was definitely not.  My guess is that it was some sort of oil mixture.  It was messy.

We stopped at Bluemont General Store and had junk food (homemade ice cream sandwiches!).  We climbed a lot of fresh gravel.  We stopped at my favourite winery (Zephaniah) and had some refreshments.  It was there that I got the first glimpse of what my face looked like.  I had walked into the restroom with the intention of washing the salt and grit off my face.  This is what I saw:

It was worse in person, I looked like I had been working in the mines.

I literally burst out laughing and decided to just leave it be.  It was pretty dry and dusty out there with all that fresh gravel.

After snacks, we headed back towards Falls Church and ended an amazing ride with amazing people.  Thanks, Pete!

Dane was waiting for me on the patio when I got home and had to take pictures of my dusty, dirty self.

Yeah...  It was totally worth it, though!
Photo courtesy of Dane

"Mud on your face, you big disgrace!"
Photo courtesy of Dane

The next weekend, we had planned to do a six hour mountain bike race as kind of a fun break from long rides.  The week prior had been relatively cool until Friday.  Friday it got pretty warm.  Saturday (race day) was looking to be the hottest day of the year, by quite a lot.  High of 92F.  Yikes.  About six of us from the team were racing and we were all doing six hours solo.  The course was not technical, so I was going to take my rigid Niner out for some fun.

The first two laps were great and I was passing a lot of folks on the one LONG climb out of the river valley.  The temperature kept steadily increasing and more than half the course was in open fields.  It was sunny with no break from clouds either.  After my second lap, a gentleman had slid out and dislocated his ankle.  I stopped to help out there and ended up taking about a 20 minute break until we were able to get him loaded on a medic unit and on his way to the hospital.

During my third lap, I started to lose momentum and seemed to struggle.  I figured I needed more electrolytes and started eating the last pack of Shot Bloks I had on the bike at the start of my fourth lap.  I was getting low on water and was planning to stop at the "almost" top of the climb at the water station to refill.  Unfortunately, there was only Gatorade, and I did not realize it until my pack was almost halfway refilled.  It was full strength, ick.  While I was stopped, two teammates passed me and they were both looking pretty beat up as well.

After I finished complaining about Gatorade, I got back on the bike and kept climbing.  By the time I reached the top, I had completely stopped sweating.  I was getting stupid on the bike, too and making silly mistakes.  I actually ended up having to get off and walk one of the steeper kickers because I hit a completely avoidable rock and came to a complete stand still.  My head was throbbing and I could feel my blood pressure starting to rise.  I knew this was going to be my last lap, even though we were only a little more than three hours into the race (oh, did I also forget to mention they started the race at 11:30, so it was a little before 15:00 at this point).

When I got back to the start finish, I almost passed out.  I laid down in the shade and finally felt the massive amount of heat rash on my legs flair up.  It felt like they were on fire.  Luckily teammates Tania and Jason were at the team tent and helped with some cool water.  It took about a half hour, but my body temperature came back down and I was able to function again.  Dane came in shortly after that and said he was done, too.  So we snacked on some salty chips and guzzled water until we decided that the river was too tempting to ignore.  We both waded in and it felt amazing!  I did end up placing first...  Out of one.

Beer cheers for my win by default...
Photo Courtesy of Dane

I had a "Team-Not-Team" gravel ride scheduled for the next day.  It started raining around 9:00 that night.  After chatting with a few folks, it looked like the rain would stop relatively early the next morning and the ride could go as scheduled.  Luckily, I felt pretty decent when I woke up and was ready to get a few more miles in to redeem myself from my failed race.  On the way, I stopped and picked up a new gravel rider, Hannah (who is super awesome, by the way!).  It was barely sprinkling when I picked her up at the metro station and it remained that way until we were almost in Leesburg.  Then it started to rain.  And then, it started to pour!

There were several of us in the parking lot at the library using Facebook Messenger to chat, since it was raining too hard to get out of the cars or even roll the windows down!  We decided to wait it out, and I am so glad that we did.  The rain passed through around 10:20, so we only got delayed about a half hour.  We had a great group of ladies and had an awesome group ride.

I actually remembered to take a picture!

We had a great lunch at Monk's BBQ in Purcellville and waved goodbye to Sarah, who had Mother's Day plans that evening.  We climbed some pretty steep hills and even went through Beaverdam Ford.  The creek was pretty swollen after all the rain, and unfortunately was a bit higher than expected.

I did warn that our feet would get wet!
Photo Courtesy of Anna

My apologies to our shorter riders who got a little more than just their feet wet...  Oops!  Luckily, everyone had smiles on their faces and we took a quick snack break at Philomont Store to lift everyone's spirits.  We climbed a few more hills and stopped to say hi to the goats on Woodburn!

Hi Goats!  They were overly friendly and tried to eat my fingers!

After promising that Woodburn was the last "real" hill, we made it back to Leesburg in one piece with big smiles on our faces.  It was an awesome ride and I can not wait to go out and do it again with these lovely ladies!

42 miles, 3,800 feet of elevation, 1 creek ford, 7 awesome women!
(Not pictured is Sarah, who had to bail early for a family commitment)

I love leading these adventurous women to certain death by bicycle on dirt!

I had grand plans for my last training ride before Dirty Kanza.  I was planning on doing a 150 mile ride on some of my favourite Loudoun gravel roads.  However, after that blazing hot Saturday, it has done absolutely nothing but rain.  And rain, and rain, and rain some more.  Over the past week, the region has received over 12 inches of rain.  The rivers and creeks have overflowed their banks and there has been a lot of flooding, sink holes, and washouts.  Pete and I were pretty optimistic and changed the route to avoid a lot of the low lying roads.  We both knew to temper our expectations and expect some additional reroutes.  We both went to bed Friday evening with the expectation that we would ride and see what happened.

My alarm went off around 4:00 Saturday morning.  Lying in bed I could hear the heavy, steady rain falling.  I grabbed my phone and got up leaving Dane to continue sleeping.  I looked online and saw tons of reports of flooding, closed roads, and major detours.  I made some breakfast and sat down to eat.  Very rarely do I ever get a feeling of dread before a big bike ride (races, sure, but never just rides).  That morning, I was not looking forward to getting on the bike.  Luckily, Pete sent me a message at that very moment and very bluntly stated that he thought we should pull the plug.  I told him that was the right decision.  I am not 100% sure I would have come to that same conclusion on my own (I tend to be stubborn), so I am very thankful that Pete knows our limits and the limits of the roads out in Loudoun.  It was just not safe to go out exploring gravel after storms like these.  So, again, Thanks, Pete!

I ended up just staying home with Dane getting some projects done around the house that needed to be done.  Luckily, a friend had a pavement ride planned the next day that would get me most of the miles that I wanted to do.  So I made plans to head out early, meet him out in Loudoun and get about 120 miles in (on pavement... ugh).  After a fun evening hanging out with friends at our local distillery (Falls Church Distillery, they are awesome), I got up early, pumped up my gravel tires to an unheard of pressure of 45psi, and headed out.

I met up with Chris and then teammate Mike, and a couple of other friends along the W&OD in Stirling/Ashburn.  We then started a loop made up of all the hills, every last one of them.  Everyone except Chris and I turned back about a quarter through the loop since they had other obligations.  So Chris and I hung out and headed north on some rather lovely paved roads.

Things went along quite smoothly (ha... see what I did there?) until we turned onto Taylorstown Road.  Taylorstown, from what I understand, is normally a very quiet road.  However, when we turned, we noticed a LOT of traffic coming southbound that was backed up at the 4-way intersection.  Hmm, we noted, that was odd.  Well, turns out, Route 15 was closed at Point of Rocks and they were diverting traffic onto Taylorstown.  Riding up the mountain with a steady stream of cars coming southbound and a back up of cars behind you northbound is INTENSE.  Luckily, Chris is super polite and we both were able to pull off multiple times to let some cars go by.  Most drivers were relatively nice and gave us plenty of room.  However, there were a couple of token jerks that not only put our lives at risk, but their own and other drivers' as well.  There are always a couple.

Once we got off Taylorstown, traffic calmed down for the most part.  The rest of the route was pretty great as we climbed even more hills.  It got pretty warm, so when we made our way back to Leesburg, I took Chris to LoCo Brewing for a couple of cold beverages.  He had never been there before.  We had good beer and headed back.  It was a pretty good route for all pavement and I am super thankful that I did not have to do that alone (I probably would have just thrown myself over a bridge had I had to ride that much pavement solo!).  So thanks, Chris!

Also, I completely failed to take any photos on that ride.  So, consolation photo to give you an idea of the amount of rain we had:

That is a duck...  In a flooded field.

So...  There are now officially 10 full days before DK200.  People keep asking me if I am ready.  I honestly have no idea how to answer that.  Am I mentally prepared? I guess so.  Am I physically prepared? As much as I am going to get at this point.  Is your bike ready? Ha. No, I am planning on getting everything together tonight to drop it off at the shop tomorrow for packing and shipping.

I am excited to see what happens this year.  I am nervous about doing this by myself.  Last year I had three amazing women with me the whole time.  That comradeship is what helped all of us get through what is lauded as the hardest one day race in the US.  I have goals that I would like to meet (and maybe even exceed).  I have trained hard in the early part of the year to be stronger and faster.  Life derailed things a bit, but overall, I do not feel like I have lost much fitness.  I am ever thankful that Dane is coming down with me and running support.  I feel like having him there is the biggest unfinished business I have out there.  Of course, meeting my time goal is a pretty close second.

No more big rides for me until June 2nd.  Next weekend will be spent mountain biking, relaxing in the woods, and hanging out with friends.  I am looking forward to that more than I can put into words.

Lastly, before I head off to the sunflower state...  A big BIG thanks to everyone who has been supportive of this endeavour for the second year in a row.  Bikenetic gets the most love since without them, I would never even have considered that I could do something like this once, much less twice.  So thank you Jan, Helen, Pete, Stearman, Jacob, Ken, Brian, Jamie, and whoever I am missing.  You guys are the epitome of what a bike shop should be.

Team Bikenetic is a close second because no matter what craziness I do, someone is almost always willing to come along with me.  And if not, they are always quick to check in and see how things went.  You guys are the BEST! 

Dane gets his own shout out for being my support, not grumbling too much when I get up stupid early on the weekends to do long rides, and for ensuring my dogs are getting lots of love when I am out on the bike.  Seriously, how did I get so lucky?

Team-Not-Team gets a thanks for being supportive, inclusive, and letting me lead them to certain death on gravel and mountain bike rides.  I can not wait to get back out there with you ladies and ride!

Lastly, my mother...  Thanks for being the best puppy sitter EVER!