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!