Picking cherries at Cadwallader Mountain Farms in High Rolls
A few cherries left up in the trees
Rick could reach higher than me
A brake overhaul during a blazing hot ride on James Ridge
James Ridge trails
Top of "walker hill"
View from the water tank area at the highest point of our subdivision during a MTB ride around the neighborhood on Sunday morning before heading back to Texas
JD, Jill, Amy & Vince joined us in mid-June for very warm trip to the cabin. Temps reached about 90 in town on Saturday and were 106 in Alamogordo when Rick and I made a trip to buy a weed-eater at Lowe's. JD, Jill, Rick and I picked cherries at Cadwallader's on Friday afternoon on their last day of picking for the year. We made the required trips to Mad Jack's and The Western and weren't disappointed. Rick and I rode MTBs in the James Ridge on Saturday morning but didn't get an early start and it was 90 degrees by the time we finished, which was almost unbearable on those tough mountain climbs. It cooled off well at night, though, and the cabin temps were comfortable.
We left Thursday morning, June 2, for Emporia, Kansas. It was raining when we left and pretty much rained the entire way through Texas and Oklahoma, but the sun came out about the time we hit the Kansas state line.
We took a detour through Stillwater to visit the District bicycle shop and to see if we might someday want to do the Landrun 100. Stillwater was really impressive. It's a really cool, small town. The people were super nice at the bike shop, and it definitely looked like a place we would want to go in the future. Rather than driving 30 miles back to the west to get back on the interstate, we decided to take the back roads through the country straight up to El Dorado. The scenery was outstanding. Lots of trees, green rolling hills, lakes, rivers, and red dirt roads.
Nice bike set-up at District bicycle shop in Stillwater
closer view
We arrived in El Dorado around 5 or 6pm and checked into the Best Western. We were next door to Bobby & Donna. Everyone else was staying in Emporia. By the time we got settled it was too late to drive to Emporia, so we just found a restaurant in El Dorado. We decided to just get an early start for Emporia the next morning.
Emporia is almost an hour from El Dorado on the turnpike. We had hoped to do a short gravel ride on Friday to get a feel for the roads, loosen up the legs, check out the bikes, and familiarize ourselves with a little of the course. It didn't work out. We had a mandatory rider's meeting, packet pickup, a gravel expo, met up with our Lubbock friends, looked around in downtown shops, visited the local bike shop, and ate lunch. We just ran out of time.
Shop cat at High Gear Cyclery bike shop in Emporia
The rider's meeting lasted close to an hour. The ride promoter went over a lot of instructions and rules. They said the course was like concrete and predicted record race times the next day. This sounded fine to us. We had been fearing the road and weather conditions for several weeks, and I began to relax about things after hearing how perfect the conditions would be on race day.
Rider's meeting
After the meeting, all eight of us hustled to beat the crowd over to Radius Brewing Company (a local brew pub/restaurant) for a Dirty Kanza Kolsch and wood-fired pizza for a late lunch. The food and beer were great.
Dirty Kanza Kolsch
Since we didn't get to ride, we wanted to check out the course in a few places, so we headed south toward Madison and drove several miles out on the course in the Camry in a couple of places where the course crossed the highway. The roads were rough and dusty. We also scoped out the roads into the checkpoint in Madison. From Madison we continued south down to Eureka where the DK200 would have their 100 mile checkpoint for the first time. From Eureka we drove straight west to get back to El Dorado.
Scenery between Eureka and El Dorado
Typical scenery for the Flint Hills: grass, cows, hills
I had been having some major rear brake problems lately and despite Rick's and a local bike shop's best efforts, we had scrapped my rear hydraulic disk brake at the last minute and gone back to the very poor mechanical disk brake which had come with my bike. It worked minimally but was still better than the other brake. I rode the bike for a while in the parking lot and decided to go through all the gears one last time. My bike has always shifted perfectly. When I tried to shift into the big chainring, the chain fell off and locked up. I tried several times with the same result. Just freaking perfect!! We had taken my always-perfect-shifting bike into the shop to see about the brakes and told them to clean up everything and now on the night before my biggest ride ever, it's all screwed up. Rick worked on it for a while, adjusted stuff, rode it around the parking lot and finally got it shifting acceptably well. Oh, and did I mention that just prior to the shifting issue, my rear tubeless tire went flat in a short period of time for the first time since we went tubeless many months ago. It would be safe to say that things were tense!
Rick was riding my bike around in the parking lot. He's almost 6' tall, and I'm 5'2". He looks like a circus monkey riding this bike. He's riding in circles and doing a lot of adjustments. An old man smoking a cigarette, who looks like a 75 year old version of the chain smoking neighbor (Dale Gribble) on King of the Hill, motions him over by nodding his head and says, with cigarette hanging out of his mouth, "Let me tell you a little secret about bikes. You need to raise the seat". Rick calmly says "It's not my bike". "Dale" says "You see that thing under the seat. You turn it and you raise the seat up". Rick says again "It's not my bike. I'm working on it". I'm leaning against the car a short distance away with arms crossed, watching with a lot of amusement but acting unamused. I say "It's my bike. He's fixing it for me". "Dale" stutters and stammers and makes a quick exit. Surely we don't look like such amateurs that a 75 year old chain smoker needs to give us cycling advice on the night before our big ride!
Interesting vehicle in the motel parking lot
Bobby and Donna wanted to eat dinner at Freddy's Burgers, about a mile down the street, so we rode our bikes. It was fairly late, and I rarely eat burgers or fries but decided to go along for the ride. I later just ate a protein bar for dinner.
When we got back to the motel, we had to finish getting everything ready for the race. The most pressing was sag items for the 50 mile checkpoint rest stop to give to Donna: extra water, extra change of bike clothes just in case, extra nutrition, and some various items that we might need but didn't necessarily want to carry for 100 miles. Then we had to get the Camelbaks packed and make sure everything was ready: mud scrapers, tubes, CO2 cartridges, extra sunscreen, extra Chamois Butter, Advil & Tylenol, various nutrition (gels, Perpetuem tablets, bars, etc.), bike computers/Garmins/cell phones/front and rear lights/2 extra battery chargers (and all associated cords so we could recharge phones/etc out on the course as needed)--all fully charged, laminated maps and cue sheets of the course, race course loaded into Strava and Gaia apps so we could determine if we were on the course, bike tools, extra gloves/extra socks/rain jackets, etc. We had been planning this part for a while and had frequently carried these items during training rides in preparation for this ride. We both used 100oz Camelbaks, so this was a heavy load.
Since we were about an hour away, we had to get up at 4am. We had hoped to get to sleep by 9:30 or 10:00, but it was almost 11:00 by the time we got everything packed and ready. 4:00am came very early! I checked the internet and saw a post on Facebook from the Dirty Kanza promoters that said Mother Nature had provided some dust control overnight. What??!! There was essentially zero chance of rain. I quickly loaded a radar app and saw that a large thunderstorm, with lots of red, had passed over the top half of the course including Emporia but was now moving away from northwest to southeast. This was disturbing, but we had a lot of other worries at that time including getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting bikes loaded, filling Camelbaks and water bottles with water/ice/electrolytes, applying sunscreen, double checking Camelbaks/nutrition for the ride, staying on schedule, etc.
We were thrown off schedule a bit when I opened the door at 4:30am to go to the ice machine, and a very large black man was standing a short distance away by the car staring at me! I don't know what he was doing, but I closed and locked the door quickly and declined to go back out until Rick went with me. We had planned to leave between 4:30 and 4:45, but it was almost 5:00 when we pulled out of the parking lot. We hauled ass on the turnpike and parked on the Emporia State University campus around 5:45am.
We quickly unloaded the bikes and gear and rode down Commercial Street to find a spot in the DK100 staging area about 5-10 minutes before the DK200 riders took off at 6am. We found some of the Lubbock bunch. After the 200 mile riders took off at 6am sharp, we moved up the street to the area in front of the Granada Theater, and for the next 20 minutes just stood around, took some pictures, and tried not to get too nervous. Our race was scheduled to start at 6:20, but it crosses a very heavily-used railroad track about a half-mile from the start with trains going through every 20 minutes on average. The race promoters are in close contact with the railroad on race day, and start times are adjusted if necessary. They announced about 5 minutes before the start that the railroad had cleared our start time. That final 5 minutes felt really long.
View down Commercial Street prior to start of DK200
Ready to go. Waiting for the DK200 riders to leave.
After we moved up the street to the Granada Theater area
Just prior to the start of the DK100
We started at 6:20 sharp. There were 664 riders registered for the DK100 (87 women, 577 men). It was a little tight but was mild compared to Hotter Than Hell or some other mass start road ride. It was amazing how many people showed up that early on a Saturday morning to line the streets of town with cow bells and signs and cheer for the riders. We rode straight out thru downtown, over the railroad tracks, and over a bridge. The right turn onto the gravel was just after the bridge, about a mile and a half from the start. We could see a long line of riders in front of us and riding down the gravel road to the right. Someone made a comment about how cool it looked. Something looked very odd, and I said "It looks really.......slow!" I couldn't really figure out what was going on until we reached the turn and realized that the entire road was under water. Welcome to Kansas gravel and the Dirty Kanza!
The first turn onto gravel just after the bridge (pic taken by Donna after the DK Lite riders had started)
Massive bottle neck turning onto the water-covered gravel road
Closer look and photographers
Pic from another angle of the lead riders of the DK200 entering the gravel & water. This pic was probably taken by the photographer on the bottom left of the previous picture.
The line of riders had backed up and stopped before entering the water area. Most riders were staying toward the center. The water wasn't more than a few inches deep, but you couldn't see what you were riding on. We hadn't even ridden on dry Kansas gravel roads yet, and here we were riding blindly through water and mud surrounded by lots of other riders. It was more than a little nerve-wracking. Riding in mud and water around Lubbock was completely different. The water turned to mud of varying depths, and we continued on.
This picture was probably taken at the same place. There were photographers all over the course. Some pics were free but most were available for a fee.
Several more miles in, there was another bottleneck at a right turn. The mud was deeper and thicker, and this section was this year's derailleurgeddon. The were probably several hundred riders on both sides of the road with flats and broken derailleurs. It was terrifying. I frantically asked Rick what we should do. He said to keep going and if anything bound up--don't force it. We somehow maneuvered our way through the mine field, and the roads were finally dry. We were coated in mud, along with our bikes, but everything seemed ok.
Once the roads were dry, the pace really picked up. The water and mud had slowed things down, and everyone really took off. We were riding quite a bit faster than we had trained, and I didn't feel comfortable riding too hard that early. Plus, my back was killing me!! I had loaded up on ibuprofen before the start, but the pain had gotten intense only a couple of miles into the ride. The back pain was a frequent problem but usually didn't get too bad until an hour or two into the ride. I had ridden 40+ miles on one training ride with pain and spasms, but the possibility of riding 100 miles with it was scary. I think it started so early because I had my 100oz Camelbak packed heavy and completely full of water/ice/Fizz tablets.
Map of first leg of the DK100
Gravel riding is all about being self-sufficient, and the Dirty Kanza epitomizes this idea. Riders are only allowed sag support (provided by you) every 50 miles (1 stop for 100 milers, 3 stops for 200 milers). You have to carry everything you will need on the ride between rest stops. The race does not provide anything..no water/food, no sag service if you break down, not even course markings. You are provided with access to maps and GPS data for your Garmin/cell phone/etc if you choose to use it. If your sag support is even seen out on the course (other than to pick up you if you have to abandon the race), you are disqualified. Our sag situation had been unknown until the last minute. You are required to have a sag. We had planned on Amy being our sag, but then Vince got hurt and they weren't going. We were going to just pay the $40 each and go with the sag service which you can purchase through the event. Unfortunately, it was full and not available when we tried to sign up. There had been no suggestion that there was even a possibility of this happening. They had simply stipulated that you had to sign up before May 8th. We really didn't know what to do, but Donna indicated the week before we were leaving that she would be willing to take our stuff to the 50 mile sag stop. I packed my Camelbak full and added 2 extra water bottles to my bike (I never carry water on my bike) with some uncertainty and knowing that if the faster riders had a problem out on the course, we would not have any sag at the 50 mile point.
Climbing near the cow pens area
I really don't remember a lot of details about the first 50 miles. There was a constant stream of riders who were all going to the same place, so you didn't have to consult with maps or GPS to figure out where to turn. The roads were relatively decent but rough with some long climbs, short steep climbs, short downhills with rocks and washouts where I had to be extra careful because I really didn't have a rear brake. The scenery was beautiful, but I really didn't get to enjoy it too much. There was a significant, general climb from around mile 9 or 10 to the cow pens at around mile 24. The cow pens are located near the turnpike and are at the highest point on the route. The DK Lite riders actually had a rest stop here provided by the promoters. Their route was an out-and-back of up to 50 miles. Sandra did this ride and really enjoyed it.
The only other parts of this first quarter section that stand out in my memory are some narrow, steep, and very rocky climbs (Rickey and I were sometimes the only ones riding and not walking/pushing). On the last and most difficult of these climbs, there were suddenly people coming down the hill toward us in the path we were using to pass the riders who were walking. It was quite precarious, and these riders weren't very polite. We finally figured out it was the first of the DK Lite riders who had turned around and were "racing" back. One guy riding near us sarcastically commented "Get out of my way, I'm the baddest 50 miler around". We all got a good laugh out of that.
There were some good descents after the cow pens, but there were also plenty of climbs and creek crossings. The scenery remained great. These were large cattle ranches with minimum maintenance roads which wound around all over the place. I was learning to hate downhills and creeks because they almost always led to steep uphill climbs.
Rick stopped and took these pictures on a climb after the cow pens. It was the only shots we took on the course.
Suffering at the top of the climb
The top of the hill
More scenery from the top of the hill. Note the winding road.
The roads gradually became more structured but the surfaces remained quite varied. We even rode through a section of double track buffalo grass. Luckily, we could still just follow the line of riders rather than having to consult the maps and GPS. Rick had a couple of minor mishaps in this part when one of the straps holding on his bike bag broke, so he had to put the bag into his already overloaded Camelbak. This eventually led to him getting a pressure sore area on his back where it was digging in for the next 7-8 hours. He also lost the nipple from his Camelbak but was able to backtrack and find it. He was a little frustrated with my pace over the first half of the course. I wasn't riding slow but wasn't hammering either. There was lots of testosterone out there with an 8:1 ratio of males to females. There was plenty of passing and being passed by lots of people riding near us. The one that particularly bothered him was an old man with a Kermit the frog on his helmet that passed us periodically.
Rickey at the top of a climb at approx 35 miles
We reached a serious river crossing at mile 40. It was about 50-60 feet wide, knee deep, running fast and had lots of large slippery rocks on the bottom. There was a professional photographer out in the middle taking pictures. Rick asked him if he was the lifeguard or photographer. He replied that he wasn't the lifeguard, but if we fell in the water, our picture price would increase. We had to carry the bikes, and it was tough. Every step was uncertain, the bike was heavy and that water was really moving. It felt pretty much like climbing Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica, except instead of holding onto people around you, you got to carry a heavy bike and not hold onto anything. Once you got through the water, you had to climb up a steep and muddy slope. There was a group of locals standing on the slope watching and cheering us on. One rider near us commented dryly on the way up the slope "You know...this would be a really good place for a bridge!" No kidding! Everyone started laughing, and we chuckled about that one for a while.
River crossing for the DK200 pros
River crossing at mile 40
We reached the Madison checkpoint at 4hrs 20min. I had hoped for 4 to 4 1/2 hrs. You had to reach it by 5 hrs to be able to continue. We found Donna and the van, and Randy was still there. We reorganized packs, replenished water/ice/electrolytes/nutrition, reapplied sunscreen (arms and face only--the legs were much too mud-coated) and Chamois butter. My back was terrible. I had taken all of the ibuprofen I could safely handle in a 12 hour period, so I started on acetaminophen. We had not used much water on the first 50 miles, so I decided to leave one of the water bottles from my bike to lighten up the bike and to not completely fill my Camelbak to lighten up my back. What a dumb move! It had been cool in the morning, and it was now really starting to get hot. Plus, it was obvious that we had a strong wind from the north (and Emporia was very far to the north), so we weren't going to be able to make good time.
Reloading and reorganizing
Getting ready to head back out
We spent about 30 minutes total at the checkpoint. Randy headed back out with us. It was really difficulty to get going again. I was plenty tired at the rest stop, and the thought of just riding back to Emporia in the car with Donna had crossed my mind very briefly. After all, we hadn't done too many rides of over 50 miles and 4:20. Back to reality--we had a ride to finish, and this was going to get ugly. Randy left us within a few miles after the stop. The back pain had eased up some now. Maybe because of the Tylenol + Advil, and maybe because the wind was so bad it was hard to focus on anything else. Rick is a lot stronger than me, so I decided to just draft off him when I could and that would help. There was one small problem with this plan. I was soon leaving him behind. I found out he was feeling very sick--most likely from eating the burger and fries too late the night before.
Things were definitely not looking good, but we just kept going. There was no complaining, no bickering, no conversation or even thoughts of not making it to the finish, nothing negative--we just kept riding. I put into practice my coworkers', Ke'Ren & Cassiey's, saying of "don't speak it" and included "don't think it." We had learned from training to break long segments like this into smaller segments and just worry about one part at a time. In training these were 20 or 25 mile segments. Out here in the wind, heat and hills we decided on 10 mile segments. The first was maybe 10 miles, but they quickly got progressively smaller. Our short rest breaks usually went something like this for each of us: stop, lean over bike muttering a certain four-letter over and over for about 30 secs to a minute, eat a gel or Perpetuem tablet, drink some water, say "you ready?", continue on.
Map of the second leg of the DK100
We were basically familiar with the layout of the course but hadn't studied the map in-depth and never really looked at it out on the course even though the roads were unmarked and sometimes a little obscure. We just looked for riders ahead of us. It had thinned out a lot since Madison after the DK200 riders split from our route and continued south to Eureka. One of our most frustrating points was about 5 miles into the second leg. We had just finished a 1.6 mile segment (apparently according to the map, but it felt a lot longer) into the headwind and some tough hills. We were pleased to have at least that much headwind behind us, the route turned right for a mile and then went back south for 2 1/2 miles (I would have sworn it was 5 miles). We were losing ground! There were a lot of really steep hills in this area too. We decided at one point that the promoters would just look around for the highest and steepest hill in the area and take the route that way.
We both got our first leg cramp on mile 67 on a particularly long and steep hill while headed toward the east. It was the right VMO (vastus medialis oblique) for both of us. It was rideable but concerning. I've had some muscle cramps after rides and during the night but have never really had much problems with cramping up during a ride and neither had Rick. I tried to drink a little more water and shook it off. A couple of miles later, my left sartorius muscle and Rick's right sartorius muscle locked up on the same climb. The muscles started cramping up with increasing intensity and frequency, sometimes both legs at the same time. We both had to walk our first hill while headed back to the west somewhere just before mile 74. It was extremely steep and rough, and falling looked likely if we cramped up (and we would have). Most everyone else was walking hills at this point anyway.
We turned back to the north for a 5 mile segment straight into the wind. We were still hours from the finish, hot as hell, cramping up like crazy, and running low on water. We passed a few farm houses with people standing outside offering us a variety of things: WD40 for squeaky bike chains, a water hose to wash off your bike or your body, some had water or fruit. I was somewhat unclear about the race rules regarding receiving help out on the course. I knew it couldn't come from your sag but wasn't sure if this was legal or not. I only had a little water left in my Camelbak, and it was hot. We were using Fizz tablets for electrolytes in the water. They usually work well, and make the water easier to drink. By this point, I was getting pretty sick too. The water was hot and seemed to be exploding in my stomach. We were forcing ourselves to drink, but it wasn't nearly enough. We stopped in one guy's front yard with 5-10 other cyclists and discovered that my Camelbak was almost empty. The guy had a water hose out, so he filled my Camelbak about half-way. Rick mentioned about whether the water was ok to drink or not, but at that point it didn't really matter. If it wasn't ok, I just hoped it would kill me quickly. I didn't add any more Fizz because I didn't think my stomach could handle it. Rick beached himself out on the ground in the guys front yard for a while, but I stayed standing. I was concerned about chiggers and about being able to get back up. Rick didn't realize it at the time, but he was almost out of water too. When he ran out, I gave him the bottle from my bike frame (the water was hot by now but it would keep him from dying) and made him eat a hammer gel. He perked up a bit for a while. When someone had a bottle of cold water a little farther down the road, Rick took it.
We continued riding. The rest stops were now at the occasional shade tree located on the side of the road or when a muscle cramp forced you off the bike. Something in your head was always trying to calculate how long it would take to get back to Emporia, but this was a dangerous game because we weren't riding very fast, and even at 80 miles the answer was still 2-3 hours. Somewhere shortly after 80 miles, the thought of finishing seemed possible for a moment, and I started crying and almost sobbing. This was crazy and took way too much energy, so I quickly shifted my focus back to just riding. I have no pictures taken by us on the second half of the route. It was just too intense to even think about pulling the cell phone out. There weren't any photographers out on this part either. I did find some pictures of this part on some websites.
good shot of typical hills and roads
Sign near the Rocky Ford bridge
Rocky Ford bridge over the Cottonwood River. Site of a 1983 murder and subject of a 1987 TV movie. The bridge is supposedly haunted.
We kept chipping away at it. The muscle cramps were getting worse, but luckily there weren't as many steep hills. I think that almost every skeletal muscle in my body cramped up at one time or another. I was having bicep and tricep cramps in my arms, all sorts of combinations of leg and feet cramps, and my abdominal muscles were even cramping up at times.
At 90 miles, we were still more than an hour out. We started crossing railroad tracks and weaving around in our approach back to town. We finally reached the tunnel going under the highway and coming out at Emporia State University. We were only a mile or two away now, and the rest was all paved. But, there was one more big hill to climb. I wanted to be able to climb it very badly. Unfortunately, both legs cramped up after only a short distance, and there was no way to pedal through it. There were some people on the hill cheering us on, and I HATED to have to walk it. After walking a little ways I got concerned that I wouldn't even be able to walk it because the leg cramps were coming back. Rick waited at the top. We took a couple of turns through campus and came out on Commercial Street. I started crying again, and I think Rickey did too.
The entire street was blocked off with rows of cones. The traffic light was flashing red. We stopped, but people and cars were waving us through so we kept going. We started out down the side of Commercial Street and quickly realized that we were supposed to be in the middle of all those cones. Hundreds of people were lined up on both sides of the street ringing cowbells, cheering and giving high-fives. It was absolute bedlam. I can't come close to describing it. There was a large finish line area with the announcer (who also happened to be the mayor) calling out your names and hometown over the PA system as you came down the street toward the finish line. We crossed the finish line at 5:32pm--11 hours 12 minutes after starting that morning. The race promoters met us (and every other finisher) at the finish line with a handshake.
Approaching the finish line
The finish line!!
Our bike club friends were all there, except Steve was still out on the course. We would have received our finishers glasses then, but they had run out--we were told they knew who hadn't received them, and they would be mailed to us. We moved over to sign the finishers banner--I signed a low area, so I wouldn't have to climb the ladder. We took a couple of pictures, then I suddenly got very dizzy and had to go to the ground. I spent a considerable amount of time on the ground in the shade. My brain and body weren't working very well for a while.
The finishers banner
Just hanging out on the ground for a while with really nice hair!
My bike had a rough day too!
Another very lovely picture to illustrate the depths of suffering
The promoter's predictions of perfect course conditions and record times were not even close. The water and mud on the first section and hellacious headwinds on the last section made for slow times across the board. The first DK200 riders made it in at about 6:00pm rather than the predicted 4:00pm. I had hoped to finish in about 9 hours, and we were off by about 2 hours as well. Our final ride numbers: 101.3 miles, finish time 11:12, actual ride time 10:06, just under 4000 feet of climbing, average riding speed approx 10 mph, and for you FitBit people--over 66,000 steps for the day. The slogan for the ride was "find your limit", and that we did! Our immediate reaction after the ride was relief and satisfaction to have persevered and finished with no desire to ever do it again! By the next day, little ideas were creeping into my mind of things we should have done differently, and after a couple of days we were starting to make plans to ride it again next year.
Mistakes and things to improve:
1. Lack of heat training--not much we could do about this one. I work indoors every day, and it was rainy and cool for about 2 weeks prior to the ride. Just bad luck and bad timing. Bet we don't have another cold May like this one any time soon.
2. Back pain--more abdominal and core strengthening/decrease weight load on back. This continues to be an issue with riding. I have a list of about 6 or 8 abdominal and core exercises that we need to start doing regularly. We also need to carry less water and weight in our Camelbaks and more on the bike.
3. Muscle cramps/electrolytes--Fizz and/or Nuun tablets work great for rides shorter than say 7 hours, but get nauseating on super long rides and when your Camelbak water gets hot. Maybe start out with these but switch to or alternate with electrolyte caplets on super long rides to stay better hydrated and keep muscles from cramping. Plus, drink more water.
4. Training distance--more long rides. We had only done 2 rides of 67 miles or longer prior to the DK100. It would have been better to have a few more long rides.
5. Stay in Emporia--not really a choice this year but we missed out on a lot of the DK experience by not being around for the evening block parties or being around to see most of the 200 mile finishers come in, not being able to eat in the Emporia restaurants. Emporia supports this ride and supports cycling better than any I've ever experienced.
6. Music--it's not good to wear earphones when riding on the road and I wouldn't want to block both ears on gravel, but 11 hours on the bike is a long time. A lot of songs go through your head during that time, and a lot of them just aren't good. They will drive you crazy. I'd like to try this out sometime (right ear only so you can hear cars and fellow riders).
7. Brakes--got to get my damned brakes fixed!
Things that went well:
1. Tires--we had started using the Terravail Cannonball tires several months before with the tubeless setup (38 cm tires). These tires were developed for the DK and held up perfectly. They're expensive but worth it.
2. Nutrition--I have had some low blood sugar issues in the past and only use Hammer products. They have long-chain carbohydrates and work well for me. In training and on the DK100 I used Hammer Gels for the first 3 hours and then use Perpetuem tablets and gels. Rick can use or eat just about anything (usually) but used Perpetuem tablets some in training and on the DK with good results. Solid food doesn't work for me. I don't drink caffeine at all and tried one caffeinated Espresso Hammer gel on the second part of the course and got a good boost from it for a while, but it coincided with one of Rick's spells when he was feeling sick so we didn't get a lot of benefit. I'd like to try 5 Hour Energy or one of the other energy drinks that aren't based on caffeine sometime on a long ride and see how they work.
The following were the cue sheets for the ride. The old quotes on the tops are great!
Add caption
This first video was made by Salsa Cycles last year and perfectly sums up the Dirty Kanza experience! If you made it all the way through my recap, you have to watch this video.
This blog entry titled "Ice Sock Fever" is about this year's DK200. "Ted" is Ted King, winner of the men's DK200, and "The Queen" is apparently Rebecca Rusch, winner of the DK100 (men and women). It's a must-read! I've also added some other great blog entries on the race.
