150 is the new 100: Odin's Revenge 2013 Recap

Wow.  It's been a while.  I feel like I should write about 3 or 4 posts for some background before I put this one out, but in the interest of somewhat expedient reporting, I'll write this one now and worry about the other stuff later.

So June 29th was the second installment of Odin's Revenge, and after my DNF primarily due to the oppressive heat last year, I was determined to make another go of it this year, hopefully with more cooperative weather.  I sent my postcard in on Valentine's Day, and was added to the list of riders for year two. 

The postcard.

However, after increasing my riding each year since I started riding back in 2009, the miles I was riding dwindled fast last fall and over the winter, then stayed depressed well into April.  Since biking is 80-90% of the exercise I do, most of the pounds I lost in the biggest loser contest at work last spring found their way back on to my frame as well.  Oops.

I would have two big endurance tests to gauge my ability before this ride, Bonk Hard Racing's The Ogre in mid April and Dirty Kanza 200 the first of June.  The Ogre started off pretty well, but the Ozark hills kept wearing me down more and more until I got to the point that I barely made the last pit stop before the cut-off time and then was only an official finisher due to some generous timekeeping by the race officials.  Dirty Kanza didn't have The Ogre's hills, but it did have 20+ mph winds that were working against me for a good 40 - 50 miles between miles 50 and 123 where I decided I'd had enough and called it a day.  That sent me into a bit of a depression for a couple weeks where I contemplated not even bothering with going out to Nebraska.  Then as the 10 day forecast came into view, the week prior to the event was supposed to be in the mid to upper 90's and it was questionable whether or not it would cool off by the weekend.  I about pulled the plug when I saw 95° for race day at one point, but thankfully that was a one day blip and by Thursday when I headed out, upper 80's were being forecast.  At least I wouldn't be able to blame the weather for any woes.

Since my friend in Topeka is in the process of moving, I didn't want to intrude on her for a free room Thursday night, so I drove to my teammate Aaron's house in Jefferson City to shorten the drive on Friday at least a little bit.  The prerace meeting was scheduled for 7:00 that night, and I would be pushing it to get make the drive all the way out there in one day and still have a little time to relax before I went to bed.  Okay, if I took the interstate all the way to Gothenburg, it wouldn't be a problem, but when I'm driving solo, I like to take some of the back roads and do a little exploring in the process.  I think it helps me stay awake too.  Interstates can be extremely monotonous. 

However, after getting out of Aaron's house about a half hour later than intended, a stop in Kansas City to get a new hydration pack bladder (mine was starting to grow mold after DK - oops), then searching a few tiny towns in northeastern Kansas for a gas station after forgetting to fill up in Atchison (I was on the phone discussing the possibility of a whirlwind Denver trip after the race - oops again), it was 7:00 on the dot when I pulled into Gothenburg.  I didn't even have time to check into my room at the Comfort Suites before the meeting.  However, when I got to the KOA Campground, I was not the only one running late, and they waited until about 7:30 before getting started.  After some thank you's, introductions, and the presentation of a bottle of alcohol to Guitar Ted, who made the trek from eastern Iowa to partake in the festivities, they started drawing names to hand out lots of SWAG that was gifted for the riders.  My name was drawn fairly quickly, and I scored a Twin Six water bottle stuffed with a pair of socks and a $20 gift certificate.  Cool stuff!

After the meeting, I made my way over to the motel, then went downtown to the grocery store for some fuel for the next day.  At that point I wanted to get some dinner, so I got a pizza from the Pizza Hut next to the motel and took it back to my room while I made my final preparations.  As I do more of these endurance events, I'm getting more dialed into just what I need to bring with me, and I don't stress nearly as much before each one of them.

I was still up until at least 10 or 11 though, and my 4:30 alarm came pretty quickly the next morning.  I kitted up, double checked my gear, and went down to the lobby to see if they had anything for breakfast.  My memory is starting to fade, but it seems like they didn't have as much ready for us as they did last year when I got down there around 5:00.  No matter, I mostly just wanted some of the apple juice they had, and then I went back to get my bike to throw it on the car and head across the interstate to the campground.

When I got there, I did my last minute bike adjustments (mostly air in the tires and lube on the chain) and waited around for the start.  Right at 6:00, Chad hopped into his truck, and led us on a rollout to the south of town.

 I have a history of having things happen to me early on in these races or group rides that drops me to the back of the pack early - last year I had to stop to adjust my light or something right after we hit the gravel, I dropped my chain in the first mile at The Ogre, I had something come out of a pocket or bag early on at the Joe Dirt ride a couple years ago - so I was enjoying being in the front half of group on the roll out.  I knew I had no hope of keeping up with them once we headed into the hills, but it was fun to be up there for a mile or two at the start.  Sure enough, they were dropping me even before we got out of the Platte River flood plain.  As we started heading up Wiggins Canyon Road into the hills though, I started to get a little worried about my fitness levels.  This gradual 2-3% slope seemed to be tougher than I'd remembered from last year, and I was struggling to keep up with some people that I was definitely faster than last year as well.

The one thing I did have this year that I didn't have last year is my Garmin Edge 500, so this year I have the benefit of being able to go back and look at my ride data, and I was holding a 15 mph average through the first 10 miles, despite climbing nearly 300 feet during that time.  Of course, that's only 30 feet/mile, and that kind of climbing is a cakewalk compared to what I normally have to climb around my house when I go out for a ride.  The chill in the air was the other thing I remember from this early stretch.  When we got into the canyon valleys out of the flood plain, the temperature was only in the low 50's and the perspiration from the climb was making me really chilly on a couple of the early downhills.

Just as I was getting into a groove on Wiggins Canyon, we came up to the first real turn we had to be watching for, and after 6 miles of mindless riding, a lot of riders missed the turn.  Fortunately, someone nearby me called it out and I was able to make the quick turn onto Medicine Rd, which greeted me with a nice little climb from a near stop since I had to slow down so much to make the turn.  That close call woke me up a bit and I started staying more in tune with my cue sheet to be aware of the turns.  It helped that the next 10 miles were a nice series of left and rights as we followed the edge of a grid pattern of farm roads as the flatter arable land butted up against the more rugged canyonlands we would be spending much of the day descending into and climbing out of.

Just a cool looking abandon house early in the ride

Coming up towards mile 20, the course descended into the canyons and what is probably my favorite part of the south leg, probably for no other reason than there is a railroad track paralleling the route for the 2-3 miles, and there's a couple cool wooden trestles along said railroad.  Now if there were actually a train along the tracks while I was riding through, I'm not sure I would've been able to control myself.  Unfortunately, the coolest parts never last long enough, and a couple miles after the railroad turned south, our route did too, and we were again forced to climb up to the farmland for a mile or two before we got to descend back into the canyons.

The wall

 At mile 33, I encountered the first minimal maintenance road of the day, and this one doesn't even look like it's used enough to qualify as a driveway.  But then you cross a small field and BAM! you are greeted with this dirt wall you have to ride up strap on your climbing gear and ascend.  Then, once I climbed that, it was right back down and up 3 more hills before the course flattened out again for a few miles.  At this point, though the ups and downs of the MMR was a grind, I was actually feeling pretty good.  I wasn't setting any speed records or anything like that, but I was enjoying myself and clicking off the miles, one by one, then at mile 40, I made the right onto Fox Creek, and knowing where the first checkpoint was after riding last year, I looked across a couple valleys and could see the cars stationed at the checkpoint.  While I knew that the last hill before the checkpoint was going to suck, knowing that a break was right there after I crested the hill would make all the difference in the world going up it.

Almost to Checkpoint 1

It was about 9:15 when I pulled into the checkpoint, an hour or so ahead of where I needed to be to make the cutoff for the south leg.  As with the previous year, the race organizers had provided plenty of water and some yummy snacks to refuel our bodies.  I put the pipe cleaner on my handlebars, and after chilling out for a few minutes, headed out onto the next leg.

I'd remembered the stretch leaving the checkpoint being a grind last year, and while an 8 mile stretch on one road is nice because you don't have to worry about missing any turns for a while, it can also be one of those stretches where if you aren't careful, your mind will start playing games with you because there's not much to keep it occupied for a while.  Sure enough, those 8 miles were just as painful as the year before because not only are you climbing 200 feet during those 8 miles, the wind was blowing out of the north giving us a nice little headwind to fight.  Even though the turn off of Cut Creek Road meant a quick descent and immediate climb back up to the next ridge, I was glad to be off of that road.  Plus, after I turned onto Effenbeck, it was a nice easy 4 or 5 miles to the infamous Government Pocket, or Government Contract, as I kept mistakenly calling it before and after the ride.

During this point, I had the honor of riding with Guitar Ted, who had caught up with me on Cut Creek after leaving the checkpoint, and I then was using him to pace myself and make sure I didn't fall back too much on the grind of that road.  We didn't chat a lot, as I'm not always the greatest conversationalist, and as it turns out, he was starting to fall into his own pain cave during this stretch.  He pulled off to take a break when we turned onto Government Pocket, and that was the last I saw of him until we got to the next checkpoint. 

Last year, I remembered Government Pocket as this loose, sandy, chalky, mess of a road that I had to walk a large portion of because I couldn't get any traction on it.  Thankfully, this year it was packed down, and while it was bumpy, at least it was rideable, and I only had to hop off the bike for one gnarly climb.  Unfortunately, we didn't get the surprise water stop after the descent we got last year, but with temperatures in the 70's or 80's rather than the 90's, it definitely would've been unnecessary this time, as Checkpoint 2 was only 10 miles away.  Still in good spirits, I pulled into the checkpoint about noon.  The volunteers manning the checkpoint commented about how much better I (and everyone else) looked this year than last, and that they were still seeing smiles on most people's faces.  I didn't have a drop bag, having opted to carry everything in a backpack, but I grabbed a bite to eat and relaxed for a few minutes.  To be honest, even though I was still feeling good at this point, I was not looking forward to the next 10 miles or so.  There was going to be the monotony of having 8 or 9 miles with no turns, and I seemed to remember a couple hills that were not fun from the previous year.

Checkpoint 2

 After relaxing for 20 minutes or so, I proceeded on to the final stretch of the south leg of the course.  Miraculously, Callahan Road did not beat me down like it had the previous year, maybe due to having the wind out of the north rather than the south, and before too long, I was making the turn back to the north and heading towards Gothenburg, well almost.  I had one moderate hill to climb, and then that was the last of my climbing on the south leg, the only obstacle I would have to face was the stiff wind coming out of the north.  Thankfully, it wasn't too bad in the canyons, and coming out of the canyon into the Platte River valley, we headed southeast for a few miles before crossing the floodplain to the river and the campground that was Checkpoint 3.  Last year, the stretch along the irrigation canal was grueling with a bit of a headwind, but this year with the wind out of the north, I was able to cruise along this stretch.  Of course, when I had to turn back to the north, it wasn't as much fun.  Weirdly, though, my speed didn't suffer too much until the last half mile on Highway 47.  That last little bit felt like trying to push through a wind tunnel.  But nonetheless, about 2:20 I pulled into Checkpoint 3 with over an hour and a half to spare before the 4:00 cutoff.  When I pulled in to get my cue sheet for the north leg, it was again commented about how much better I looked than the previous year.  While some of it was knowing I only had 55 miles to go rather than 85 like I would've last year, the cooler weather helped a lot as well.  Even though I knew I had at least 10-15 miles due north into the stiff headwind right off the bat when I left, I was taking solace in the fact that I would be turning around and have that same wind at my back pushing me into Gothenburg for the final 10-15 miles.

Just before 3:00, I headed out to tackle the north leg.  I had been riding with a fellow from the KC area for most of the stretch after the second checkpoint, and I was planning on riding back out with him, but I didn't see him around race HQ and I thought that I had missed him, so I went out solo.  I got through town just fine, but as soon as the houses gave way to farm fields and the pavement went to gravel, my speed started going south, and there was 8 or 9 miles due north right into the wind as we left town.  On this stretch, I did get to see the race leaders come by me on their way back into town, but I was stopping to take a break every half mile for a while here.  Finally, after one last mile with a kick you while your down climb, the route turned to the east and I got a too-short break from the wind before the route headed north again.  After a couple more miles into the wind, I just stopped and chilled out under a tree for probably 5 or 10 minutes until I saw someone coming towards me.  It turned out to be the guy I'd been riding with earlier, so we teamed up again to work against the wind.  Thankfully, just a few miles down the road, we came to one of the water stops they had set up for us on the north leg.  My supply was actually okay at this point, but the almost park-like yard they had set up was super inviting, and the two of us chilled out for probably 20 minutes or so here.

Hills on the north leg.

Finally, we decided that we should continue on, and continued towards Checkpoint 4, about 8 miles away now.  Unfortunately, there was still about 3 miles into the wind, but after those 3 miles, we made a turn to the west, and then the south, and we were able to really pick up some speed.  About 6:15 or 6:30, we pulled into the final Checkpoint and took another break.  We didn't stick around here too much, with our water just having been topped off, but we did get a couple snacks and headed out for the final stretch.  Of course, there would be two more short northbound stretches, but for the most part, this last segment was going to be all downhill with the wind at our back.

Once we headed out, I noticed those northbound stretches weren't as tough as before.  Unlike at Dirty Kanza, where the wind seemed to blow all evening, now that we were going to have a tailwind, it was calming down.  GRRR!  Oh well, at least it didn't shift direction on us or something heinous like that.  Once we turned south, we started making pretty good time until we came to this one MMR that was like a giant sandbox.  Not the greatest bike handler, this brought me to a dead stop, and the guy I was riding with pulled ahead of me.  I figured that would be the last I saw of him.  Eventually though, the dirt firmed up a bit and I was able to ride again as the road dipped into what I thought was the most scenic part of the north loop, another road through a small canyon.

Of course, what goes down must come up, and climbing back out of that canyon was pretty tough, but once I was out, I was pretty much back into the Platte River flats floodplain again.  As it turns out, floodplain is kind of relative because looking at my Garmin, there was about 300' of vertical descent between the end of the canyon and the finish line.  Even the bottom of the canyon was about 200' above the Platte River.  The only thing that was going to slow me down now was some looser gravel on some of the roads leading back to town.

Now, with the sun getting lower in the sky, the temperatures cooling down, and Gothenburg starting to appear on the horizon, my adrenaline was kicking up,  and I started to just put my head down and pedal as much as I could to get back to town.  My main goal was to beat darkness now.  I had a light on me, but I didn't really want to fiddle with it and put it on.

Gothenburg!!

Eventually, the gravel gave way to concrete, and aside from stopping for traffic at one intersection, I was able to run the afterburners through town, and at 8:40, I crossed the finish line at the KOA Kampground and was able to bask in the glow of being an official finisher.  Chad Quigley, the race organizer, congratulated me, and his wife asked if I was planning on returning the next year.  At the time I was hesitant and non-committal (all I wanted at that point was to get off of my bike and sit down on a real chair!), but now, almost 4 months later, the itch is returning, and I think I want to go back next June.  I just need to push one of my teammates to go out there with me, so I have company on the drive out.  Team DSG puts on a great event, and while giant events with hundreds of riders can be fun, I kind of like the smaller nature of Odin's Revenge.  Sure, you might go for an hour or more without seeing anyone (especially later in the race), and that can be nerve wracking if something happens to you or your bike, but sometimes the solitude of being out in the wilds all by yourself is pretty cool.  We won't mention that I had my iPod playing in my ear for most of the race.

The race is slated for June 28, 2014, and if they follow tradition, registration opens February 14th.  As of right now, I'm planning on sending my postcard in that day for next year.  Word is there might be a completely new course.  I'm excited to see what they come up with.

I came (to Nebraska), I saw (lots of gravel), I (didn't quite) conquer: Odin's Revenge Recap

While the St. Louis area was baking in 100°+ degree heat last weekend (and most of this week as well), I escaped for the cooler weather of western Nebraska for the inaugural running of Odin's Revenge.  The race was starting at 6 AM Saturday morning, but there was a pre-race meeting Friday night at 7:00.  Since Google shows it being a 10 hour drive from my house to Gothenburg and I didn't want to be in a rush the whole time, I took off work early on Thursday to head out and split the trip into two days.  Luke from Team Virtus graciously offered to loan me some bags for the race, so I had to pick those up in Jefferson City.  I had also arranged to meet a former co-worker of mine in Kansas City for dinner that night before spending the night at a childhood friend's house in Topeka.  I don't get to travel much these days, so on the rare occasions I do get out, I have to kill as many birds as I can with one stone.  If I left Friday morning, I'm not sure I would've had time to do any of that on the way out.

After waking up bright and early Friday morning, I finished my drive out to Gothenburg, arriving around 5:30.  I checked in at the campground and received my racer packet, then went over to the hotel I was staying at to check in there before going back to the campground for the racer's meeting.  After getting into my room, I had a little bit of time to kill, so I found the grocery store in town and bought me some bananas, crackers, and peanut butter, which I hoped would tide me over for food during the race.  I also had a few Clif Bars and Honey Stinger Waffles that I brought with me from home.

Milling around before the meeting.

I was expecting somewhere around 75 people attending the race, because that's what the cap was listed at on the web site, but turnout at the meeting seemed a lot sparser than that.  As it turns out, as it became apparent that it was going to be much warmer than the average high of 87° for this time of year in Gothenburg, racers started bailing out.  The organizers said that 30-some people cancelled in the week leading up to the race.  It's their loss, as there was lots of goodies being given away as they explained everything that was going to be going down the next day.  As they were throwing stuff out, I managed to snag a Backcountry Research TulBag, some Salus Muscle Relief Gel, and a second sample of Climb On Intensive Skin Repair creme (one came in our goodie bags) that they were throwing out to the riders, then when they drew names for a pile of goodies they had on a table, I got a pair of Q7 Sock Guy socks.  Not a bad haul for a free race!

Afterwards, I went back to my room and started getting my gear out for the race, deciding what I would bring with me and what would be left behind.

Lots of stuff to bring with me!

I decided to stick with the the Tangle Bag and Gas Tank from Revelate Designs for supplies and left the Mountain Feedbag behind.  With my map case holding the cue sheet, I felt that having the Gas Tank and Mountain Feedbag would be too much in the cockpit area of my bike.

As you can see, there's a lot of gear on the bike.

To help ensure that my water would stay cold, at least at the start, I filled up the bladder Luke let me borrow and one of my water bottles with water, then put those in the freezer in my room.  I was planning on filling my bladder and the other bottle up with Sierra Mist in the morning.  At that point, I felt ready and went to sleep, setting my alarm for 4:40.

Morning came really fast, as I was sleeping GOOD that night.  Having full control of the thermostat worked wonders for my sleeping as I cranked it down to about 70°.  When I woke up, I went downstairs for something, I forget what, and discovered that they had breakfast out (the hotel crew was awesome for having stuff out at that ungodly hour), so I grabbed a quick bite to eat.  Going back upstairs, I pulled the bladder out of the freezer and was a little shocked at how much it expanded.  Whoops, basic physics lesson that I forgot!  At this point I started panicking since it wouldn't fit in the Tangle Bag, but it would fit in my backpack, so I threw it in there and decided not to use my bladder, since it wouldn't fit in the Tangle bag empty (my bladder has a hard back, so it's not that flexible).  I still had that and both water bottles, so I thought I'd be okay.  At this point, I decided that I would start with 1/3 of my waffles and Clif Bars, send 1/3 of them to the second checkpoint, and the other 1/3 of them to the last checkpoint.  I figured I'd stop by the hotel when I got back into town and eat the crackers and peanut butter for energy at the half way point. 

Go time!

About 5:30 or 5:40, I drove back over to the campground, lubed my chain, aired my tires as they called the 10 minute warning, then it was time to get going.  After the incident with the frozen bladder, I was starting to get nervous that I was in for a bad day (I felt like I was constantly rushing after that), but as we rolled out and I reset my odometer, I slowly started to feel better.  The one thing that I was surprised about at this point was how humid and foggy it was outside.  My thermometer was showing a cool 69°, but it was sticky, and I started sweating almost immediately after we rolled out, even though I wasn't hot at all yet.

Rain?!?!

About an hour into the ride, the sun was brightening things up a bit, but there was still a thick cloud cover, and then it started looking pretty gray off to the south.  I also heard a couple claps of thunder and was starting to wonder if I would get rained on.  I wasn't really worried, as rain (to a point) would be preferable over sweltering heat.  Obviously, a downpour would probably render some of these roads impassable, but I wondered if a little bit might just firm up some of the gravel, which was very loose in places since it's been so dry out there.  Unlike Missouri dirt which is mostly clay, there's a lot of sand in the dirt out here.  But alas, while I got hit with a few sprinkles, it was fleeting, and before long, I started seeing patches of blue in the sky.

I have to say, the scenery along this part of the course was amazing.  The Platte River Valley is as flat as a pancake and reminds me of Central Illinois (right down to the corn in the fields, but they need a lot more irrigation to keep it going out here), but once you get out of the valley, it's amazing how rugged and remote it looks.  I was surprised to even see this railroad trestle along the route.

Before long, I came to the first Minimal Maintenance Road, and at first it looked like it was someone's driveway, or more likely, a path to someone's pasture, but this road was part of our route.  At the top of the photo, you can kind of see a giant cut in the hillside.  I think that was the start of one of the tougher climbs we had, and before long, I was hiking up the hill.  Reading various accounts of Dirty Kanza, I saw some people mention how walking the tough climbs helped save them for later in the race as walking uses different muscles than cycling.  I took that advice and had a good half dozen hike-a-bike segments along the ride.  If they were paved, some of them I probably could've geared down and gotten up, but with the loose dirt, I was spinning out a little bit and decided it was just easier to walk.

First MMR (Minimal Maintenance Road)

It was around this time I had my first experience with several cattle grates as well.  These made me nervous enough to walk my bike over them at first, as those cross bars seemed just far enough apart to make riding across them sketchy, but by the end, I was just slowing down and taking it easy as I crossed them.

There were cattle gates all over the course.

Climbing that hill on the first MMR though, I was rewarded with this pretty awesome view from the top.  Going back down that hill was fun too, once I was fairly certain I wasn't going to be hit with any cattle grates coming up on me all of a sudden.

See for miles.

 About 9:30, I finally made it to the first checkpoint.  This was just a water stop, but Chad (the race promoter) and his wife were there with some yummy M&M Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies and protein balls (some mixture of peanut butter and nuts from what I could tell) as well!

Checkpoint #1

At this point, the sun was definitely starting to come out, and my temperature gauge, which was indicating 75° or so when I pulled in to the checkpoint, was rising well into the 80's if not 90 when I left.  It's amazing how fast sitting in the sun will elevate the temperature on that!  There was a group of five that I left with here, but over the next 8-10 mile stretch we separated and with the exception of having a couple of them almost catch me on one killer climb that I walked, I didn't see any other racers for a long time.  It was almost 30 miles to the next checkpoint, but along about mile 57 or 58, I came down a hill and saw a couple volunteers hanging out with their dog and taking pictures.  They also had some water or Gatorade.  I took them up on their offer of cold Gatorade, and replaced the water in my hydration pack with it.  It was pretty strong, but that was just fine.

Right after leaving this surprise water stop, I saw some cows blocking the road and starting to stare me down.  But as I continued to pedal slowly towards them, all of a sudden they turned and ran away from me.  This was about as fast as I've ever seen any cows move!  I'm not sure if I knew they could run like that!  In the picture on the right, you can kind of see one of them running away from me. 

From here, it was a pretty easy ride to Checkpoint #2, where I would be able to replenish my food stocks.  The volunteers manning this checkpoint also had a bike stand, so I was able to get some of the dust and dirt out of my drivetrain.  However, at nearly 70 miles into the ride, I was starting to feel it a little.  The heat, which had to be in the low 90's now (I think my bike computer was showing 113° when I left, but it "cooled" to 105° or so pretty quickly once I got moving), was taking a toll as well.  There was one guy leaving this checkpoint as I pulled in, but while I was there, none of the riders behind me came in.  I figured that I would be riding solo the rest of the way back to Gothenburg.

However, a couple miles out of the checkpoint, I briefly caught up with the guy ahead of me.  He was hurting a little worse than me, but as we ascended a couple hills, I had to slow down and walk one of them and he started to leave me behind.  Once we crested the hills though, I caught back up with him and we started to draft off of each other for the next few miles.  This stretch between miles 72-80 starting messing with my head though.  Up until now, the thought of not finishing hadn't really crossed my mind, but this 8 mile stretch on one road just seemed to drag on forever.  Looking at the map now, there was an early peak with a long gradual downhill to the next intersection, but there was a not-insignificant headwind along a lot of this road which made it tougher than it might have otherwise been.

(You can tell I'm getting tired now because there are no pictures from this section of the ride)

Finally, at mile 80, I turned back north and with an immediate hill, I decided to hoof it once again to the summit.  I was getting hungry now, and the Clif Bars and Honey Stinger Waffles weren't cutting it.  I felt like I was having a carbohydrate revolt and needed some protein in my system, preferably in the form of a cheeseburger or something like that.  The golden arches in Gothenburg were calling my name.  Nevertheless, once I crested this last hill, the course was downhill back into town.  What I wasn't quite counting on was a stiff headwind once I came out of the hills and entered the Platte River Valley.  Here, the course followed an access road to the Tri-County Supply Canal (as labeled on the USGS Topo), an irrigation ditch for the farms in the river valley.  This was good and bad.  The close water kept the temperature down a degree or two, but it was still hot, and with the headwind, I felt like throwing myself and my bike into that canal more than once.  A couple miles into this 5 mile stretch, I again caught up with the guy from a little earlier.  He said he was really hurting at this point (to where he wasn't planning on continuing), and again we blocked the wind for each other until we could finally turn north and cross the valley back to Gothenburg.


Getting out of the headwind was a huge relief to me.  At this point, the checkpoint was only about 4.5 miles away, and I just gave it everything I had to get back.  I wasn't sure if I was going to continue at this point, but I knew I wanted to sit down on something more comfortable than my saddle for a while.  However, as soon as I turned north, I could feel the temperature rise a couple degrees, which gave me that much more reason to get to the campground as fast as I could.

I made it back to the campground without further incident a little before 3:00.  There was a 4 PM cutoff where you would have to call it quits after that, so I had at least cleared that hurdle.  At this point though, I wasn't really feeling another 80 miles of riding.  While I rested for a bit, I grabbed a cookie or two and went in the general store at the campground to get a bottle of soda.  I was hungry, but none of the food in there looked really appealing.  I was also disappointed that the route was not using Highway 47 to get to the north side of town, so going back to my hotel room to get my supplies would add another mile or two that I didn't feel like riding.  Going to McDonald's would tack on yet another mile.  Ick.  So I waited to see what the riders coming in behind me were going to do.  If people coming in after me were still going out, that might push me a bit into continuing, but the only one who really wanted to finish had to fix a flat tire, and by the time he got that finished it was 4:15 or 4:30.  Going back out then was liable to make me finish around midnight, which I was hoping to avoid.  Even though I was carrying a 12 mph or so average to this point, I didn't want to count on anything over 10 for the last half.  So as 4:00 passed, I didn't hop back on the bike, and decided to call it a day.

Once I officially DNF'ed, I packed up and went back to the hotel and got cleaned up, then I went out to get dinner.  After driving around town to make sure there wasn't anything that looked interesting other than Runza, Pizza Hut, or McDonald's, I pulled into the Pizza Hut parking lot and ordered my dinner.  After a long day riding, it sure hit the spot.  Once I finished, I went back to the campground to hang out while the other finishers came in.  I missed the winner, who came in just before 7:00, but was around for the other 6 guys who came in, 5 solo and one part of a relay team.

I also immediately started regretting my decision to pull the plug (even more so when I saw as I started writing this that the high that day was 95° and not 98° or 100° like was predicted - it was hot, but it wasn't quite the sweltering heat we've had in St. Louis since I've been back), and when I saw the last 3 guys come in at 10:37, I started wondering if I could've caught them had I left the checkpoint right around 3:00.  I'm probably a little delusional for thinking that, but all I would've needed to do would be maintain an 11.5 mph pace with a 30 minute rest stop at the 40 mile point.  If a full hydration pack plus my 2 water bottles were enough water, and I didn't run into too many nasty hills or headwinds, 11.5 mph seems doable, but I also need to keep in mind I was struggling to do 10 along the flat canal where I only had a headwind.  Instead of hoping someone behind me was going to go back out, I probably should've asked how long it had been since someone had gone out in front of me when I got into the checkpoint.  That would've given me an idea as to whether or not catching someone was in the cards.

Now that I have two of these endurance races under my belt, I think I have a better idea of what I need to do to prepare.  At Cedar Cross, I never got around to preparing a drop bag, but since that one listed a gallon Zip-Lock in the rules, that's what I figured I was allowed to use here.  As it turns out, I could've filled up a small cooler, and maybe if I knew that was waiting for me at the last checkpoint, I would've been more inclined to push myself.  Or maybe I just needed to have that cooler in my car at the halfway point instead of my hotel room.  The one thing both races had in common was unseasonably warm temperatures, and with the way hot weather annoys me, that had as much to do as anything with me throwing in the towel.  It's just at Cedar Cross it was a blessing in disguise since my flat was due to a blown tire rather than a blown tube.  Today's high in Gothenburg was 89°.  I wonder what would've been different if the race were this weekend.  They probably would've had more than 25 starters, for one thing.

In closing, I have to say that I was impressed with the way this race was put on.  I'm sure there were some kinks to be worked out, but they got us started, they had the water stops that we were promised (along with some surprise treats!), the course was definitely a challenge (everyone who had ridden Dirty Kanza said this one was harder), and I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of goodies that were given away at the start of the race.  I can't say for sure that I'll be back next year to avenge my DNF, but if I can convince another person or two to go with me and split the travel costs, it's going to be very tempting.

The Cedar Cross Training Century

I'm a little torn about which report I should write first - the training century with Team Virtus from a week and a half two weeks ago, or the Cedar Cross that happened yesterday five days ago?  In order to keep this somewhat chronological, I'll write the training century report first.  Plus, I have the pictures from that on my computer already, and I'd have to go get my phone to do the Cedar Cross report.

Anyway, about a week into April, Team Virtus posted that Luke & Bob were going to do a training century the Wednesday after the CAC.  Since I had vacation to burn, I put in for the day off and made plans to join them.  At the time, I didn't think doing the race 4 days after the CAC would be a big deal, but when I could barely walk for two days after finishing the (non) race, I started wondering what I'd signed up for.  Luckily, by Tuesday my knee felt fine, so before I went to bed that night, I packed up my car, filled & froze my water bottles, then set the alarm for 4:45 AM to be in Jefferson City for the 7:30 start.  With the 2 hours of travel, I wanted to be able to roll out of bed, put my bike on my car rack, then leave.

When the alarm went off, I was able to get up and go like I planned.  The drive out to Jefferson City was pretty uneventful, and I was able to make good time on US 50 getting over there.  Heading against traffic after I got off I-44 was nice as I could see the line of cars heading east towards St. Louis, but there was hardly anyone going west.  I had plenty of time when I was getting close, so I pulled off to grab a quick breakfast when I got to the town of Linn.   Shortly after that I was in JC.

50/63 Heading into Jefferson City

We were setting off from the North Jefferson trailhead of the KATY Trail, so I made my way downtown and then crossed the bridge over to the north side of the Missouri River.  The forecast was for near record high temperatures of about 90° but when I arrived it was overcast and in the mid 60's - very pleasant for a long day in the saddle if it were to hold.

Rain in the area?

There were going to be five of us on the ride, myself, Luke, Bob, a friend of theirs, Aaron, and fellow CAC racer Justin, who had made the trek from St. Louis as well.  Unlike me, he stayed with his brother in Columbia the night before, so he got to sleep in a bit more than I did.  Around 8:00, we set off towards Boonville.  

The Missouri River from the trail.

We ran pretty well at first with the cool temperatures.  Luke mentioned in the original post that he wanted to do a 12 mph pace, but we started off around 13-15 since everyone was feeling pretty good.  Plus, it's flat.  Not long into the ride, Aaron, Luke, and I were riding 3 abreast when a squirrel with a death wish ran out in front of us from the right.  It stopped in the middle of the trail, turned around, then turned around again and ran right into my leg.  At that point I'm not real sure what happened, but Luke said I ran over it with my back tire.  I don't remember feeling any huge bump, so I think it may have just brushed up against my tire before darting off into the woods.  We'll assume it survived.

Another shot of the Missouri.

As we got close to the turnoff for Columbia, we left the KATY for a bit and rode along some gravel farm roads.  At first we were curious why the route we were following did this, but just before we got back to the trail, we saw this tree right off the road.  At first it didn't really look like anything special, but as you got closer to it, the tree just got larger and larger.  It was one big tree!  There was some sort of monument next to the tree, but unfortunately, some less than stellar citizenry had decided to spray graffiti all over it.  I guess it's probably some sort of champion tree for it's species (oak, I think).

Luke showing his love for the tree, along with his bad-ass singlespeed bike.

Looking up at the tree.

By now, the cloud cover had dissipated and the mercury was rising fast.  It appeared that the weatherman was going to be right after all.  We decided to get back on the trail since it had more tree cover than the farm roads. 

If you notice the picture of Luke's singlespeed, there is an empty white water bottle holder behind his seat.  That originally had 2 bottles in it, but not very far into the ride, we hit a rough patch and they rattled off and hit the ground.  It was not long after we got back on the trail that we pulled up on a DNR pickup truck and out hopped a lady holding two bottles.  It was his lucky day!  They were warm by now, but at least he had his sports drink.

In addition to the crazed squirrel, there was also other wildlife on the trail.  This is the first of about 3 turtles I saw.  When we first came upon this little guy, he curled up in his shell, but after the other guys left, I was able to get a picture of him sticking his head back out.

Poking its little head out.

After going through the town of Rocheport, we were able to cool off briefly in the one tunnel along the whole trail.  Up until this point, most of the trail was surprisingly scenic compared to what the KATY Trail is like through St. Charles County.  While parts of the trail between Highway 40 and Defiance are pretty neat, there is a lot that is just next to open fields.  A lot of the trail along between Jefferson City and Rocheport was right up against the edge of the river bluffs.  It definitely made for some pleasant riding.

East entrance to the tunnel.

 Unfortunately, once we passed through this tunnel, everything seemed to change.  All of a sudden, the trail seemed to cut right through the middle of the flood plain, with the river a mile away on the left and the bluffs a mile away on the right.  In some of these areas, farmers had also plowed their fields almost right up to the trail and shade trees became scarce.  The trail was like this almost all the way to Boonville, 13.5 miles away. 

When we arrived at Boonville, we crossed the Missouri right into downtown.  We immediately saw a place to eat called the Riverside Diner, so we stopped in for lunch.  I'm sure the five of us in our bike gear were quite the site to the locals.  But my lunch of popcorn shrimp and fries with Sweet Tea to drink sure hit the spot.  Next time I'm headed west on I-70, it would be worth the trip into Boonville to stop.

When we left Boonville, to mix the trip up a bit, we got off the trail after we crossed over the river into Franklin and hit some gravel for a bit.  After all, this ride was a prep ride for Cedar Cross and Dirty Kanza, and the gravel on those rides was surely not going to be as smooth as the KATY Trail.  However, with my bike computer showing temperatures in the 98°-101° range in the sun (it was really only about 90°, but the sun was influencing the readout), we were baking out there on the gravel, so after about 5 or 6 miles, we got back on the trail.  At this point, I was starting to run low on fluids, so the tunnel and trailhead at Rocheport were looking very inviting.  I shifted into high gear and pedaled towards the tunnel just about as fast as I could. 

West Entrance to the Tunnel.  Darkness has never looked so inviting!

When I arrived at the tunnel, I just found the coolest part of the tunnel and hopped off the bike and stood there until everyone else showed up.  Thankfully, I was able to chill for 5 or 10 minutes.  After everyone regrouped, we headed over to the trailhead to take another rest and I refilled my water bottles.  The one thing I was pleasantly surprised about along here was that the more popular trailheads had full-blown bathrooms with running water and real toilets, not just composting ones.  I'm not even sure the trailheads around St. Louis have that.

After we left Rocheport, we realized that if we kept running at the pace we were going, we were going to be an hour later back to Jefferson City than we originally planned.  Aaron needed to be back close to 5:00, so he and Justin stepped it up a bit and took off.  I thought about going with them, but decided to hang back with Luke and Bob.  This was probably a good move on my part, because as we got towards McBaine and the turnoff to Columbia, my knee that was killing me after the CAC started acting up again.  With 25 miles still left, this wasn't going to be fun.  The weird part was, it seemed to hurt the most when after I'd coast for a bit and try to get going again.  The initial pressure on the pedal seemed to be what was irritating it.  By now though, I'd learned what milepost Jefferson City was at, so I immediately started counting down the miles as I'd pass the markers.  Of course, they never go by fast enough when you do that.  I also tried pedaling just with my right foot, but I got razzed for being a show-off.  That didn't help things much though.

It's really hard to see, but that's Jeff. City along the horizon.

Finally, after another rest stop in Hartsburg, we did the last 10 miles to Jefferson City.  I was getting pretty wiped at this point, mostly because of my knee, but after I came out of some trees and saw this view of the capitol, I did have enough left to for a 17-18mph sprint finish back to the car.  Except for the knee pain, it was a really good ride with this group of guys, and I'm glad I took the day off work to make the trip.  It was also nice getting to ride a section of the KATY that I'd never been on before.  Now I need to bust out the segment between Augusta and Jefferson City.  That part is only 80 miles, I should be able to do that without too much trouble.  Unfortunately, I hear it's more like the Rocheport-Boonville segment rather than the JC-Rocheport one.