The Good Life Gravel Epicness

I don't think "adventure" sums it up, for the second year in a row it's more like "epic". First things first, I DNF'd this year at checkpoint 3/Mile 81. Or, about mile 87 for me for the day. I learned lots of lessons, did pretty good on applying ones from last year, met some awesome folks I was hoping to see again, and some awesome new ones. Summary: It was epic. Again.

Now, why the DNF? Cramps. Again. For the past 24 hours (give or take) I've been searching for a reason why they crept up again. Did I hydrate? Heck yes I did, thanks to the Kansas Guys I had my gigantic Gatorade bottles (seriously, thanks again, and it was good to see you again), plus my third bottle, PLUS two reserves. In the first 4 hours I went through 96 ounces of regular old water and 48 ounces of Smart Water. I started taking salt tabs two hours in, and took 3 per hour. Chewed 3 shot blocks every hour. But, at mile 30 when I was really startin to rock it, they reared their ugly head. Why?

Branched Oak Road. It's my nemesis.

I'm not entirely joking.

This year Corey put Branched Oak and the tough stuff right at the beginning/middle, which I thought was awesome. Looking at the layout of the route, I figured once I made it to Malcom it'd be a nice roll into Denton with a couple rollers, then a little bit of elevation to Cortland, and a nice roll up North from Cortland to Lincoln that I've taken most of before. So I had a very simple strategy from the beginning: the Tortise still finished the race. I was going to be the tortise, so once we hit Branched Oak I let the group split off ahead and I grannied up the hills. I'm not kidding, I put the front der in the little ring for the first time ever (aside from making sure I could after buying the bike), and I spun. On a couple of the biggies I swore grasshoppers passed me, I just dug in and listened to the tunes, and rode through it.

Then, well, something happened. I decided to push it harder so I geared up and did that. I forgot to drink for some time, probably a half hour, while I did my little attack, convinced I needed to close the distance to the rest of the group I was ridin' with. So I did that. Then I turned on to Northwest 30th street - closing in on Valpraiso - and saw it was pretty mild, so I hit it again. Then the hills started to come, and I didn't give 'em respect. I saw someone in the distance on the top of a particularly gnarly lookin' roller bent over by his bike, and was like yeah, I'd better hit it.

At the top of the hill a few minutes later I was too bent over by my bike, with full lockup leg cramps. At mile 32-ish. Or maybe it was 36. Whatever it was, I was fully in panic mode. So I took a break, ate, hydrated (slugged 24oz of smart water, and my reserve bottle), shot block..ed, and I might have yelled.

A lot.

Over an hour later I made it the last 10 or 11 miles into Valpraiso, where Guitar Ted and Oly were about to head out, and I arrived with leg cramps and a flat front tire. They were awesome and repaired the flat while I picked up some junk food and more water. After a little rest I felt awesome again, and was ready to rock it. I had been riding with Oly and Guitar Ted for quite a while until Branched Oak, where I turned into the Turtle, and they got some good distance on me. At one point during my ill-fated rally I'm sure I saw them a couple of rollers ahead of me, obviously that didn't hold up.. :).

Anyway, we rolled out of Valpraiso with the promise that soon that semi-gnarly wind out of the North would turn into a wonderful and glorious tailwind to push us the 60 miles South. That's some inspiration right there. I took it conservative, convinced that I'd catch back up to them after a little bit.

Then, some cramps.

Dale from Omaha, great guy who I met and rode with last year for a bit, met up with me just as I had turned on to Ashland Road, where I was in the grips of some cramps, and trying to (but thankfully not able to) post a rather dark Facebook status update. Told him to go on, I knew at that point I didn't have much of a choice, I had to get to civilization.

Not pride, but because the two cellphones I had with me were a AT&T and a Sprint phone. So you can be guaranteed when you absolutely need to use 'em, they won't be there.

Some time passed, probably almost two hours, and I made it to Malcom, NE where I saw Dale sitting in front of the store, and where I had my first clipless fall. Haha, looking back I still laugh as I was thinking of myself laying there with a skinned up arm (I do clipless falls GOOD, folks), laughing at the ridiculousness of my luck. At that point I knew finishing wasn't in the cards unless something seriously changed, I was getting to that point where every other hill was bringing cramps, even in the granniest of granny gears. In retrospect I should have just jumped on the highway and headed back to Lincoln, hung out at the trailhead to see the fast group finish (the fastest of which finished the thing in 8hrs 25 mins, I'm in awe, yo), but fueled with some really mediocre/bordering on terrible food from the Snack Stop (or whatever it is) I had a little rally again.

Climbing the little hill on gravel outside of Malcom, my chain snapped. I had to stop and just, you know, laugh. Hard.

Thankfully I had the foresight when replacing a chain this spring to put the old SRAM PowerLink from that chain into my flat repair kit, so 20 minutes later I was rolling again (I'm not exactly fast at the chain replacing thing, but big thanks to Jim and Matt W last year for showing me how to do it), and laughing. That waas it, at that point I knew it - the signals were loud and clear, this year a finish just wasn't in any cards. I was going for Cortland, a nice gravel century, and figured it was there.

Right about here I knew it wasn't. The cramps were back, and I just wasn't going to finish like last year, destroyed and in pain. I rode a bit further, then called my wife and told her to meet me in Denton.

In the end I know the reason for the cramps, it's really simple: Lots of tissue, not enough miles. I've learned all kinds of stuff, again, and it's time to apply it. And, again, I met a ton of simply awesome people there. I'm not kidding, it's a totally different group that rides these things, and I'm glad I was there.

Will I do it again next year?

Yup.

:)