Dirty Kanza 200 Prep

No posts lately due to spending almost all of my spare time the last month and a half preparing the body and the bike for the Dirty Kanza 200. 12 - 18 hour weeks on the bike have been the norm. It has been tiring, and it has been tough balancing work, home and riding, but I think I have things in a reasonable state, and the date is almost here. Have had a lot of 200 and nearly 300 mile weeks in my legs, with a good mix of short and long rides, plus intervals, gravel rides, and some mountain biking.

I've had some friends along on various training rides, but there's been a lot of riding alone, which is good as it gives me time to focus on my goal, which is to finish this beast of a race in 15 hours - an average speed of 13.6 MPH for 205 miles. This means minimal time off the bike, a flawlessly executed plan at the checkpoints, no hydration or nutrition mistakes, and some luck.

With 2 weeks of training left before a bit of taper before the race, time is running out. My weight is close to where I want it, and I have almost everything dialed in on the bike, other than some lighting decisions. JJ Bailey at Zoom Performance has been instrumental in getting me to where I'm at now. With a few tweaks these final three weeks, I'm going to be in the best shape I've ever been in for this event.

For now, I leave you with this. This beautiful, but isolated scenery is what keeps drawing me back to this race time and time again. You can lose and find yourself out here all at once. Click for a better view.

Highlights (for children)

I'm behind on a lot of things right now, including race reports. They're coming. Brief summary:

• TransIowa V6 - Made 1st checkpoint @ mile 44 by 2 minutes. Out at mile 59
• Almanzo 100 - Finished in 6:51. Good enough for 57 out of 267.
• Chequemegon 100 - Got lost at mile 45. Saw black bear cubs. Enjoyed every minute.
• Dirty Kanza 200 - 4:15 to 1st checkpoint @ mile 58. Out at mile 85 with chills and goosebumps in 95 deg heat.

Damn. That was quick

Registration for the Dirty Kanza 200 opened last night at 11:01 PM CST. The field of 150 riders (expanded to 160) was filled in right around 12 hours. I was fortunate enough to get in for the third year in a row. Looking over the confirmed rider list, I see a lot of strong riders. I expect that the eventual winner will have been run through the wringer by the time he or she crosses the finish line. Since the race is a week later, I'm expecting it to be even hotter than last year. Then again, we could just as easily be treated to rain and softball sized hail too. Regardless of the conditions, I'm looking forward to making the trip to Emporia again in early June.

Dirty Kanza 200

Cliff's Notes version:

• 20 hours in the saddle.
• 10th place overall.
• 17% finish rate.
• Epic.

WARNING: Long race. Long report. You've been warned.

Finish. One simple word with many meanings. 85 people started the 2009 Dirty Kanza 200. The Flint Hills topography, the 90+ degree heat, and the headwinds all combined to finish off 70 of the starters at various points along the route. In the end, only 15 people were able to cross the finish line.

Leg 1 - 61 miles

After a few final words, and a warning or two from this year's host, Jim Cummins, 85 riders rolled out of Emporia, KS at 6 AM towards the town of Cottonwood Falls. We had a neutral start through town, with a lot of filming and photography being done by the folks at IM Design Group. The jeep pulled off at the edge of town and soon we took a right turn onto gravel. My legs and bike were both feeling pretty good, so I sat in with the lead group of 30 or so, including Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey, Endurosnob, and Dennis Grelk, to gauge how the day was going to go. The group motored along at a solid 20+ MPH or so until the first climb. After the climb a group of around 10 riders including Godfrey and Snob were headed off in the distance, leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces and reassess the day's goals. My legs settled into a comfortable rhythm while my mind entertained itself by taking in the scenery and playing musical snippets from days leading up to the race. Occasionally, the comfort of "the zone" was punctured by the appearance of the video crew passing by to set up for the next shot. After a few miles of flying through some open range area, I turned south and heard air coming out of my rear tire. My highly puncture resistant Schwalbe Marathon Extreme had been taken out by a cut in the left sidewall. It didn't look too bad, so I quickly swapped out tubes got back on the bike. A few minutes later, I met up with Dennis Grelk. He and I took turns pulling into the head wind, and navigating a number of water crossings from mile 30 - 35. By mile 40 or so my back was starting to ache from the climbs and fighting the headwind, so I let Dennis ride off while I once again settled into "the zone". The rest of this first leg was uneventful, other than the constant throbbing from my lower back. I was going to have to dull the pain if I had a chance of finishing the race. As I rolled into the first checkpoint, I was greeted by Dennis patching a tube and a volunteer telling me that I had arrived in 23rd place. That explained why my back was sore and I was feeling a bit spent. Too much effort expended too soon. I'm never been a top 25 rider at these events. After the shock wore off, I looked at my tire and saw the tube starting to jut out of the sidewall. I booted the tire with a dollar bill, and made stop at Casey's for some Aleve, Gatorade and to refill my Camelback. It was now 10:30 and the heat was really starting to build.

Leg 2 - 42 miles.

The route out of Cottonwood Falls was 5 miles of chipseal consisting of a long steady climb out of town, followed by a screaming fast descent and some river flats into the town of Elmdale. The Aleve was kicking in and I settled back into "the zone". Nothing really notable in this section. We followed the twists, turns and rolling hills northwest along Diamond Creek Road for about 15 miles until we turned back northeast for the final push into the town of Council Grove, KS at mile 103 or so. I started standing on anything but the most shallow climbs and it made a huge difference in my speed and how my back felt for the rest of the race. I did have a (illegal) support vehicle sitting in front of me for a bit until I asked him to move on. He had paced someone for a while a bit earlier and I wasn't terribly happy about it. I never did get the rider's number. He'll have to live with the fact that he cheated to get to wherever he finished. Other than that, this section was pretty tame. No flat tires, just a lot of steady pace making. I pulled into the checkpoint a little after 2 PM and immediately took a peek at my rear tire. The dollar bill had worn through and more of the tube was pushing through the hole in the sidewall. While I went to work on boot #2 (this time of the dual Gu packet variety) fellow competitor Chad Meinert offered me the spare tire out of his drop bag. I initially declined his offer, but quickly changed my mind. I wanted to finish the race on my tire if possible, but I wanted to be able to finish if it failed. I snagged two slices of pizza and two bottles of gatorade to refuel and three bottles of water to refill my camelback. I was down to fumes in both my 100 oz camelback and one of my double strength bottles of Accelerade in this 38 mile section. I was also seeing goosebumps on my arms at various points, which wasn't a good sign. After sitting in the shade for a while, taking in three more Aleve, I took off around what I think was 3:15PM.

Leg 3 - 39 miles

We had a short pavement climb out of town for a couple of miles and then we were back on the gravel again. The temps were continuing to rise and the heat was starting to take its toll on the riders. Around mile 111 I came up on a rider laying on the gravel in the shade. As I stopped and started reaching for my phone, he said he was fine and was just taking a break. I went ahead and rode on. A few miles up the road I came up behind Dennis Grelk again. My legs were feeling good at this point, but I wanted to ride with someone so I wasn't suffering by myself. We traded pulls for a while until we came upon another rider laying in a shaded section of dirt road around mile 119. He had been overcome by the heat and had thrown up further down the road. He'd managed to make his way back to the shade where he was trying to recover. As we talked, my bike rolled forward and I heard the hiss of air escaping from my front tire (flat #2). At least it was in the shade... As Dennis and I were leaving, two more riders pulled up took a short break. Less than 2 miles up the road Dennis pulled over, suffering from a double flat. We walked to the shade of a cattle loading gate and each went to work on one of his tires. I put a new tube in the back one while Dennis patched the front one. While I was inflating the front one, I heard the air hissing out of it. Dennis' patch had not held. Rather than wait, I offered him one of my tubes so we could keep moving. I'm now down to one tube (and 4 glueless patches). Mile 121 - 125 was Lil Egypt Road. Easily the most gnarly section of "road" I've ridden on. Steep downhills with lots of loose flint and ruts, paired with steep uphills made of the same stuff. Dennis and I were moving along through here better than I expected when I heard a bang out of the back end and the familiar hiss of escaping air (flat #3). At this point, I decided it was time to change the tire along with the tube so I could at least make it to the third checkpoint and assess my options. Between Dennis' two flats and my rear flat, I counted 10 bikes that had passed us. I was really unhappy at this point. After changing my tube and tire and packing up the broken pieces, we took off again. I was running on a bit of anger at this point and charged up the hill. I hit the flat section at the top, looked back and saw Dennis walking his bike up the final grade. Knowing that he wasn't likely going beyond the third checkpoint, I rode ahead by myself. Miles 125 - 135 pounded at us with more rollers, but my legs were still feeling pretty good. A downhill mile of chipseal took us within striking distance of Checkpoint 3, before turning up and away across a few more gravel rollers before dropping us into the town of Alma, KS. I (foolishly?) let my anger dictate my pace and I passed 8 - 10 people in the last 15 miles. However, I had been staying on top of my nutrition and hydration needs and my legs still felt strong. At the checkpoint, a number of people sitting around, most of them having decided to call it a day. I walked into the convenience store and made a bee line for the coolers. I returned to the checkpoint area, sat in a chair, pulled out a Budweiser tallboy, a quart of gatorade, and a turkey sandwich and proceeded to refuel. A volunteer asked me if I was going on or calling it quits. I told him I hadn't made it this far to pull the plug. The temps were starting to drop as the sun sank in the west, and if I could get through part of the last leg with some sunlight, I knew I'd be able to finish. Based on the looks I got, they don't see many people drinking beer in the middle of a race. It satisfied whatever craving I was having at the time and by the time I left I was still feeling good. I called home to let my wife know I was going on and ask if she wanted me to call when I finished. Dennis pulled in with a bunch of other riders and decided to find a ride into town. I asked him if I could take the tube from his front wheel back since I was down to none. I bought a second tube from another racer, and would have bought a third one if it had been available. I cleaned the excess stuff from my camelback, threw away my now useless Marathon Extreme and set out on the final leg.

Leg 4 - 62 miles

The first road out of town was Clapboard Ravine Road. It's earned the name. I rode along the flood plain of a creek past some old houses for a short while and then started the long climb up through an area called Clapboard Canyon, alternating sitting and standing to give my back a rest when possible. One the way up, I looked down and see a small box turtle walking along the road. He looked up at me as I passed, and it put a bit of a smile on my face as I thought back to the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" that you read as a child. I hit the top of the canyon and began a hare-like descent down the backside when I heard a loud bang and hiss from the back of my bike (flat #4). I checked the tire for damage and swapped out the tube while a few riders passed. All of them asked if I had everything I needed, which was nice. I'm now down to one tube with over 50 miles to go. Time to get my tortoise on during the descents. I turned south and rode with Jeff Scott and his sweet Moots single speed for a while. We were riding the same pace and I was getting tired of riding by myself. I looked and saw a huge, pink tinged anvil cloud off to the southwest of us. It was beautiful to look at, but the last thing I wanted to deal with was a late evening thunderstorm on the open prairie. Near mile 155, Jeff and I were riding between two fenced pastures when we spotted a dozen cows running loose. The Kansas cattle did not appreciate the buzz of our Chris King hubs. We rode forward cautiously and watched the cows peel off two at a time as we rode by them. We were literally in the middle of nowhere and if the cows had decided to run at us, instead of away, we would have been in a lot of trouble. A bit later, I rode away from Jeff on a long climb, but it wouldn't be the last I'd see of him. A few miles up the road I came upon Keith and Kevin from the Oklahoma. We didn't exchange much more than a couple of pleasantries while we rode, but it was nice to have other riders around for a while. Since I was running with only my helmet mounted light, the extra illumination was nice to have on the downhill sections. They stopped to look at their maps for a bit to get their bearings, and I continued on ahead.

About mile 160, I came rode up behind Jim from Lincoln, NE and Chris from Leawood, KS. Jim was on a sweet Salsa MTB and Chris was riding a Canondale road bike with 28 mm road tires. I had talked with Jim briefly before he left Alma and he said I'd probably run into him sooner or later. We were all running about the same pace, so we settled in and started talking. After a brief discussion about directions, we followed the route into Eskridge. The convenience store closed at 8 PM, but the bar was still open as we rolled in about 10:15. I told Jim I wanted to stop for a Coke, and he and Chris were both game for a break. I took in a can of Coke and a can of Mt Dew (total cost $1!!) and bought a couple of bottles of water to top off my camelback. After about 20 minutes of rest and a restroom break, we were off for the last 40 miles. On our way out of town, we saw one rider getting picked up by his support crew. A few minutes later, we ran into Jeff again. Our group of three morphed into a group of four and we pressed onward.

At the start of the day, Jim had been warned everyone about a creek crossing around mile 170. They had marked it with a sign and put up flashers, but they couldn't guarantee that they would be there. We took a turn onto the road and proceeded at a reasonable but cautious pace. As we got closer to the creek, our lights shined on an animal on the left hand side of the road. I looked down, expecting to see an opossum, but instead was at an angry beaver and one of her kits. Not what I expected to see in the middle of Kansas. We came upon the creek, and while it was ridable, we all decided to dismount and walk our bikes across to be safe. We proceeded west up and around Gunbarrel Hill and then were diverted off into what could only be described as an over grown driveway. Two tire tracks of dirt, with shin high grass down the middle and off to each side. As we turned south at mile 175, the dirt turned to rock, but the grass still remained. The next 5 miles were alternating dirt and railbed-like loose rock wheel tracks with grass down the middle. It was really weird to see this out in the middle of nowhere. Once we hit the gravel, I was still feeling good, so I picked up the pace for a while. Jim rode with me for a bit while Jeff and Chris cruised on with each other behind us. After a few miles I was by myself and getting anxious to see the finish, so I kept the pace up. The last 20 miles of road went straight south with a couple of jogs to the east and west to break things up. It was possibly the worst place for a straight section of road like this. At mile 195, I turned east and heard the familiar hiss of air coming out of my tire. Flat #5, ten miles from the finish. I quickly changed the tube and got moving again. My energy levels were starting to come down and I knew I needed to keep moving. About 200 feet up the road my light shines on another set of eyes in the road. This time it's an opossum. It can't decide which way to go, so it crosses back and forth over the road as I ride closer. I finally yell at it to make up it's mind scurried into the right hand ditch. The last 10 miles were more roads with lots of loose rock, and fighting off the pangs of hunger coming from my stomach. I downed a Clif Bar in 3 bites with less than 5 miles left to boost my sagging energy level. Finally, I hit the pavement at the edge of town, the road in front of the hotel and make the turn into the parking lot, crossing the line 20 hours and 10 minutes after I started. Good enough for 9th place in the open class and 10th overall.

There were a few weary souls waiting to congratulate the last of the finishers. They all had long days and weeks leading up to the event, but they were out there because we were still riding. Jim, Joel and his wife Michelle all congratulated me on the finish. David Pals, who had pulled the plug much earlier in the day and could have been asleep, was out there smiling and congratulating me as well. I can't begin to tell all of them how much it meant to have them there at the finish. Jim, Jeff and Chris pulled in together about 3 minutes behind me. I grabbed a drink and sat down for a bit to collect myself. After collecting my drop bag, my finisher's glass, and a prize from the swag table, I rolled through the Burger King drive-thru, get some food and then rode back to the hotel. I put the bike bike in the truck, ate and finally crashed about 3:30 AM.

That's the race report. I have some thoughts on the bike and other things that I'll post during the next few days.

Here we go...

Thanks to the timely prompting of Cornbread, I am now registered for the 2009 running of the Dirty Kanza 200. For some reason I recall 2008's registration opening on Monday, so I assumed the day was the same this year. I owe Cornbread a beer or two for the assist. :) I've been perusing the list of registrants today, and it looks like we're going to have a good number of Iowa riders in attendance. For some reason the Nebraska crew is still missing Matt Gersib. What's going on MG?

The Dirty Kanza 200

This was a long race. The report is long as well.

"The Dirty Kanza 200 is a 200 mile gravel road race in the Flint Hills area of eastern Kansas." After reading this sentence, most people would have found something else to do on the last day of May. After noting that a compass, front and rear lights, and two spare inner tubes are required equipment to start the event, any sane cyclist would have decided to attend the IORCA/Psycowpath race at Lake Manawa instead. Not being a member of either of these groups meant that I was one of 75 people signed up to take part in the 3rd running of the Dirty Kanza 200.

I left Des Moines at noon on Friday after a quick stop at Rasmussens to boost my spare tube count and nutritional choices. The drive to Emporia, KS was uneventful as all 5 hour solo trips on the freeway are. After unloading my stuff, I spent the next hour or so talking to the other riders and going over my bike, camelback, and mid-race drop back to make sure I hadn't missed anything important. A quick trip to the hardware store netted me some bungee cords to mount my the spare tire I brought, and everything was in order. Event registration was quick and efficient, a common theme for the race organizers the remainder of the weekend. A number of us took a short walk over to the Centinela Mexican restaurant for some pre-ride carb loading. After dinner we snagged our event shirt (brown is the new black) and hung around for the prize drawing. I was one of the lucky winners and received with a Blackburn X6 lighting system. Fellow endurance racer Dennis Grelk set the alarm for 5:15 AM and we crawled into our beds around 10 PM for a few precious hours of sleep.

Saturday morning greeted us with gray skies, comfortable temps and some extra humidity in the air. I rode to the parking lot, put my drop bag in the pile. I spend the next few minutes chatting with other riders, watching the lightning in the southern sky, and waiting for the race meeting to start. The meeting started off with the announcement that the storms to the south contained tennis ball sized hail and the race start could be delayed until 8 AM. A few minutes later, with the storm tracking away from our route, we were off. The first couple of miles were a comfortable 16 MPH cruise through town with a police escort leading the way. Though, with morning traffic levels being what they were, it was a symbolic gesture at best. A half mile or so south of Emporia, we turned west onto the first section of gravel and dirt, which ran along a low lying field. As we kicked up a large cloud of dust, the starting group of 70 riders quickly split into distinct sections as people settled in on a pace. The first group of 25 or so riders was moving along around 18 - 19 MPH. The second group of 20 or so, which I moved up into which was running around 16 MPH. The third group was moving around 14 or 15 MPH, with a few riders strung out of the back. As I was talking with another rider, I heard a noise coming from my back wheel. Barely 5 miles into the race and I had gotten my first flat. I pulled over, inspected the tire for debris and replaced the tube as the last two riders asked if I had everything I needed and then rode on. The infamous flint of eastern Kansas had claimed it's first victim of the day.

After completing the tire change, I got back on the bike, and missed the next turn by misinterpreting my location on the map. This mistake cost me about 30 minutes and added about 8 miles to my route. One back on course, I proceeded to pick up the pace and dig in for the remainder of the section. My mistake had eaten into my time cushion and I wanted to get some of that back in case I ran into issues later on. I settled into a quick but maintainable pace for the remainder of the first 50 miles. There were a number of shorter, punchy climbs in the early part of the course due to the topography and how the water drains off the limestone and flint hills. The flint hills do not bend to your will, your will bends to them. After three crossings of the Kansas turnpike, the course entered the first of many sections of open range area. I crossed the first cattle grate carefully, not knowing what to expect. For the remainder of the day, they weren't a factor. I rode onto the streets of Madison with a couple of other riders and arrived at the first checkpoint shortly after 10 AM. A floor pump at this checkpoint allowed me to vent all CO2 out of my back tire and pump it back up to proper pressure. I had a quick chat with Thad Hoffman and some of the other Lincoln riders as we took a break. Thad had put a good wobble in his front rim going through a water crossing, and was forced to use his bike as a shield against a charging bull in one of the open range areas soon after. I snagged some PowerAde from the Casey's, and rolled out just behind Thad and the rest of his group around 10:45 for the start of the second leg.

About 2 miles outside of Madison, we turned south onto what the county road crews had optimistically labeled a "minimum maintenance road". At the bottom of a somewhat rough hill was a 4' deep drainage area with a steep water chiseled rock hill on the other side. After walking the bikes across and up the hill, we got continued our ride. We had been informed that the reroute on this section and might not be marked that well. Some misreading of the map detoured us off course for a couple of miles, but the decision was driven by the group so we had no one to blame but ourselves. After getting back on course we found the reason for the redirect. 5 feet of water rushing across one of the many concrete high water crossings that dot the landscape in this part of country. Soon we entered another open range area and started a long multi-mile climb to the top of what the locals call Texaco Hill. With the single speeders needing to stay on top of their pedal strokes, the pace was a bit higher than I wanted to maintain so I sit back and find a comfortable pace for the long climb, passing one lone rider about 1/3 of the way up. With 75% of the climb beneath me, I felt something striking my right ankle. I looked down to see that my seat tube water bottle cage had fatigued and snap off. I removed the cage, stowed the water bottle in my camelback and finished off the climb. Turning a corner at the top of the hill, I noticed a dead cow laying next to the road. About 40 feet further along was where the stench and the route intersected. I picked up the pace to minimize my misery, and then stopped to snap some souvenir photos along the ridge. I was told this was a stage coach route in years past. With a view like this, I can understand why. Leaving the reroute, my energy was waning slightly, so I ate a package of Clif Shot Blocks. I'm not sure what they put into them, but it didn't take long for my energy levels to return to normal. Another rider and I passed Thad's group not too soon afterwards. One of them had rolled a tire going around a corner. With everything under control, we rolled on. Not too far up the road my riding companion appeared to have a broken spoke. It turned out to be a piece of fence sticking out of his rear tire. He pulled out his cell to call for help and told me to keep rolling on as he was stopping at mile 100 anyway. The rest of this section was uneventful, other than a short standoff with some cows, and another flat tire courtesy of the Kansas flint. Thankfully, I was able to change it standing under a nice shade tree. The Lincoln crew rolled by as I was finishing up, and we rolled into checkpoint 2 around 2:30 PM.

Checkpoints 2 and 3 were at the same location, the city park in the town of Cottonwood Falls. The race organizers had erected a tent underneath some excellent shade trees. I took some extra time here to get gear out of my drop bag, clean the accumulated salt and dust off of my face and neck, and just generally relax for a bit before starting the 3rd leg. Ten minutes after I arrived, eventual record setting winner (and national 24 hour mountain bike champion) Cameron Chambers rolled back in to start his final leg. He was in the checkpoint about 10 minutes before he took off. A sobering look at the performance gap between national caliber athletes like Cameron and normal guys like me. My legs were feeling very good at this point, with no real aches or pains. My lower back, on the other hand, was making it's distaste for the day's activity known so I took some extra time before leaving to stretch. The RD's warned us that someone might be altering the course markers on this section, and that we should pay extra attention to the map. I left around 3:30, riding by myself, again. I had not even made it to the edge of town when I saw three riders coming back towards me. Afraid I had made a wrong turn, I asked them what was going on. They had turned around and decided to call it a day. I soldiered on, wondering what might lay ahead on the route.

The first 10 miles or so alternated between west and south, allowing the southwest wind to make its presence known. About mile 112, I ran into Thad's group along with David Pals discussing if they were on the right road. I offered my opinion that they were, and we moved ahead. The road quickly changed from gravel to parallel dirt paths in grass. To the right, a crow and a buzzard hungrily stared down at us from the top of a ranch gate, A few yards further down a hill would see us riding through the worst section of road of the ride. We went from dirt to mud and rock. Then the hill became steeper and the surface became water ruts filled a combination of dirt and hunks of 2" - 3" fill rock. At the bottom we were greeted some well water worn ground rock and a water crossing with more water worn rock on the other side. Two more water crossings later, and we were out of the worst of it. A couple of long climbs were next and Thad's group would be off again. About mile 126 I stopped and talked with Steve (also from Lincoln), whom I had briefly chatted with just as the race started. I was feeling pretty down at this point and let him go on his way even though he was encouraging me to get on the bike and pedal. I was standing next to a highway, staring at another long climb and finally snapped. I called home to get a bit of encouragement from my wife only to find that she neither home nor answering her cell phone. I left a very haggard sounding message on the answering machine, ate three more Shot blocks and soldiered on. I had no one to come and get me, and if I had to ride back to Emporia, I figured I might as well follow the route. Again, I don't know what is in those Clif Shot blocks, but it works. After the climb up the hill, I got into a good rhythm and I could see Steve up ahead. At mile 138, the road turned back east towards Emporia and the surface turned into well smoothed chipseal. After almost 140 miles of gravel, it was a welcome sight. After catching up to Steve, we chatted for a bit, and he told me not to slow down on his account. While I appreciated the gesture, I was definitely tired of riding with and talking to myself. We soldiered on at a reasonable pace, cruising the river valley and asking ourselves if we were going to make the time cut off, and would we continue on if we did. At the end of the valley we came to another big stair stepped climb with some radio towers on top. I rode about a third of the way up before my back and butt had both said enough, and I climbed out of the saddle and proceeded to walk the next half mile of the climb. Steve joined me in the "walk of shame". However you want to look at it, it provided me a much needed mental and physical break. Steve and I rolled back into Cottonwood Falls with no further incidents, reaching the checkpoint at 8:30 PM, 30 minutes before close.

At this time, I seriously considered calling it quits. I was tired, my butt hurt, and I just didn't see how I could carry on to the finish. I pulled my phone out to call my wife and let her know that I had made it in OK and to apologize for the message I left. I had no cell signal in Cottonwood Falls thanks to AT&T's fabulous "5 bars of coverage", but I happened to notice my text message count had increased dramatically since I had left Cottonwood Falls 5 hours earlier. I was fortunate enough to have had some fellow Iowa riders send me some words of encouragement while I was out suffering. Paul, Squirrel, and Tom, I cannot thank you guys enough for taking the time to send those. They were a huge factor in my decision to finish the race. Having made the decision to continue, I went to Casey's, grabbed some PowerAde, two bottles of water for my camelback, and a slice of pizza. In retrospect, I should have had two slices because their pizza is also a wonder fuel for long rides. However, I wasn't sure how my stomach was going to handle pizza, so I took the cautious approach. A liberal application of chamois butter, a quick purge of everything unnecessary from my camelback and I was out final checkpoint (by myself) at 9:05 PM. I caught up with a group of three riders at about mile 160 and quickly decided that I was riding with them the rest of the way in. I'm not sure if it was the food, the companionship, or the cool night air, but my legs started getting their snap back and I found myself quickly ticking off the miles and feeling better the longer we went on. For the rest of this segment we were treated to a wonderful light show from the storms southeast of Emporia, as well as some beautiful star filled skies I have viewed in a long time. We crossed a dam at the end of a small lake, proceeded to finish off the one last long climb on the route and turned east. We passed through Americus and soldiered on through one last challenging road section about a mile or so in length. Think of a wet mud road torn up by off-roaders and tractors and you'll have a good idea of what we rode through.

At mile 195 we turned onto the last section of gravel. At this point, the fact we were in a race took over, even though I had well over 200 miles on my legs. I picked the pace up from 14 to 18 mph to see if anyone else had anything left in their legs. Our group went from 4 to 3 fairly quickly. I upped it a bit more to around 20 and that whittled the group down to me and Oliver from Lincoln. We slowed briefly to see the remainder of Thad's group changing a last mile flat. After learning they were on top of it, we went back to the task at hand. The last small rise to climb over I-35 broke me. I was unable to keep my speed up over the crest and Oliver opened got a gap on me that I just wasn't able to close in the final 3 blocks. I yelled "great sprint" to him and eased up, rolling across the finish line just behind Oliver. Just over 19 hours after my first pedal stroke Saturday morning, I had finished the Dirty Kanza 200, and beat my private time goal of 20 hours.

UPDATE: Results have been posted. I was 36th out of 42 finishers with a total time of 19:06:48. There were 24 DNF's this year.

I put my bike down, grabbed a cold drink from the cooler and waited for other riders to come in. A Burger King run on the bike for some hard earned greasy food, some additional chatting with Matt Gersib and the race promoters, and a shower put me into bed around 2:30 AM.

Since this was my first shot at an event like this, I had counted on this being a learning experience.


Things that worked:
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My bike fit by Donny Quixote at Rasmussen Bike Shop. I had no hamstring or quad tightness issues for the entire ride. The bike fit is really spot on right now. I have no one to thank for this other than Donny. Anyone riding events like this that hasn't had a fit done is really missing something important.

Dinotte LED lights. I used a 200L on my handle bars and a second 200L on my helmet as a spot, both powered by Lithium ion batteries. Lightweight, excellent battery life (4+ hours on high for both head lamps with no signs of fading), and a kick ass tail light. These worked every bit as well as I had hoped they would. Someone on the last leg commented that it was like having a car behind him.

WTB Nanoraptor tires. For a MTB, I think this was one of the best tire choices for this race and these conditions. There was enough bite to feel comfortable in the sand, and on the rocks, and the center ridge line really helped with the speed on the packed sections.

Clif Shot Blocks. Whatever is in them, they worked magic for me multiple times during the race.

Things that didn't:
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Nutrition. I ate and drank, but I know that I need to improve in this area if I do more of these events. My lack of
discipline really caused me issues on the 3rd leg of the race.

Storage. You can eat better if your food is easy to get to. Jersey pockets under a camelback are not easy to get to. A frame bag is. One will be on the way shortly.


I have to give a hearty congratulations and thank you to the people from the Heartland Race Series that put this event on. The course was well marked, the event ran smoothly, and even though this was a self supported event, their concern for everyone's safety and well being was very apparent.

A big thank you to the rest of the racers I competed against and the people that I have trained with leading up to this event. You are what make the long hours in the saddle and events like this enjoyable.


Other DK Race reports
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Cameron Chambers (1st place overall)
Joshua Stamper (1st Place SS)
Matt Gersib (5th overall)
Steve Goetzelman
Mike Beck (4th Place SS)
Endurosnob
Michelle
Micah

More to come...

K-Day has arrived

I leave in a few hours for Emporia, Kansas to take part in the Dirty Kanza 200. With temps in the mid 80s and the humidity ranging anywhere from 50 - 80%, it's going to be a challenging race. I signed up early in the year, well before I had any idea what gravel road riding, let alone racing, was really about. I am sure I will learn some lessons during the course of the event. Tomorrow's race is going to be the cumulation of the last 6 months of training. I am in much better shape physically and mentally than I had imagined I would be by now. The physical readiness was the easy part. The road to mental readiness has been much longer and harder to travel. I've ridden a lot of miles and had a number of conversations with people over the last 6 months. I wouldn't be where I am without the encouragement (and heckling) they've given me from a bicycle seat, via email, or in person. Paul, Tom, Pete, Squirrel, Dennis, and Scott: Thanks for good times over the last 6 months. A big thank you to all the guys as Rasmussen Bike Shop for their support this year. Donny, Sterling, Greg and the rest of the guys are great people to deal with. They've kept me equipped, kept my bike in tip top shape, and fit me to it like a glove.

Last, but not least, I also have to thank my wife for her support and understanding about my need for the long weekend hours in the saddle, and the growing herd of bikes and parts that has taken over our lives in the past two years.

I'm as ready as I'm gonna get.

I emailed most of this out to some people already. If you're one of them, you can likely skip reading this. :)

Fancy GUI summary of today's Winterset metric century is here

Got up at 5:30, loaded my stuff up and was on the road by 6:00 AM. 30 minutes later I'm at one of the West Des Moines Hy-Vee's drinking a coffee and eatin' some 'cakes. With the event season in full swing, as well as graduations and other things, no one else showed up for today's adventure. The fact that I was riding with a tailwind for the first half of the ride probably did it' part to dissuade people too.

90-ish miles total today, including the ride to/from Hy-Vee. For the gravel portion of the ride, 2:47 going down, and 3:01 coming back into the north wind. Somehow, I managed to find yet more hills between here and Winterset than the last time we used this similar loop. My Edge 605 showed a total of 7850 feet of climb between leaving Hy-Vee and the time I came home. At this point, I have no doubt that a standard century with 10K+ feet of climbing is possible if you map the route out properly. For those that were on the January Hundy, that big hill by the cemetery was wavering between 12-13% grade when I was looking down the GPS display. It's pretty easy to spot on the elevation graph. By far the most difficult hill on the ride IMHO, mainly due to the flat approach in the river valley. The hill on the other side is longer, but stairsteps a bit coming up, giving yoi a chance for a break.

I was using this ride as a final test/tune for Dirty Kanza at the end of the month. I hadn't put a long ride on the bike since Donny did the fit just before TransIowa, so a quick 100k seemed like the thing to give it a good shake down, but not really beat the hell out of my body. I rode with most of the items that I am going to use on the ride, and I was concentrating on maintaining food and liquid intakes at regular intervals (1 GU per hour roughly, and a good sized sip of water every 15 minutes). I have started using the Elete electrolyte concentrate in a couple of my water bottles and it appears to be working ok. It's not upsetting my stomach and it adds zero taste to the water according to my taste buds. My helmet mounted Dinotte was almost unnoticeable, except for the battery cable not staying in place. One zip tie will fix that issue. A 4 cell LiIon battery fits in the ipod pocket on my camelback and provides a perfect spot for the battery so I don't have any extra weight on my head. With one of the 200L's on the bike and another on my helmet, Illumination should not be an issue. I did forget both my sunglasses and a camera for todays ride. I missed the sunglasses more as my eyeglasses didn't really help keep the dust out of my eyes. Coming back north into the wind was a lot of work, but the trees really helped to dampen the effects quite a bit. However, it was still there and definitely wore me down at the end of the rode.

Other random thoughts:

I was generally happy with how the Edge 605 worked out. I wish I could use it for navigation during raceses, but I understand why they don't allow them as they are definitely an advantage. If you don't start your course and timer at the right time (say before you start the course), the unit is VERY adamant about wanting you to turn around and go back to the start, which is a bit of a pain.

Small thorns suck. A 1/4" thorn gave me a flat about 6 miles into my return loop. I had plenty of spare tubes and CO2 inflators. However, I forgot to bring the inflator nozzle. Thankfully I also packed a pump this morning.

I saw a baby deer run through a housing development on Walnut Avenue in WDM. This was the only deer I saw all day.

Eating breakfast and riding by yourself sucks. It would have been nice to have someone else along today, but being by myself was a good mental challenge, and it allowed me to ride the pace I wanted, which was important for me on this particular ride.

At this point, there is nothing else I can do to get ready for Dirty Kanza, other than minor things like drop bag prep and figuring out clothing for what I am sure is going to be a weather pattern with a lot of changes. I think arm and at least knee warmers are a must at this point. This morning's temps were a bit cold for me in shorts and jersey. The windbreaker I brought at the last minute was most welcome. The other thing I am going to work on this week is a checklist so that I don't forget anything