The first year I almost quit. Second year came back and finished feeling good. This would be my third year. The route changes every year so always something a bit different. Was there anything to really be afraid of? My only concern was mud. What would it be like to ride in the mud? Not a question I'm sure I wanted answered. The night before the FHDR we got lots of rain.
July 27th, 2010.
The morning of my third Flint Hills Death Ride, FHDR, in Madison, KS. The ride organizers warned us of dangerous low water crossings. They were considering closing a portion of the course if it was too muddy. Part of me didn't mind if they cut the course short. Part of me thought that I paid good money to torture myself for 80 miles.
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| The Streets of Downtown Madison |
Kevin ready to tear it up. I might finish before him if he has a couple of flats.
Dan, Larry, & Larry’s brothers Gary, & Daryl. Kevin and I have ridden some gravel with Dan & Larry not too long ago. They liked it J. Hope they continue to like it after today.
The day turned out to be overcast. The roads turned out to be soft and sluggish for most of the first part of the course. One rider I was with noted that you couldn't even coast downhill. Luckily we had reasonable temperatures. When the road wasn't a bit soft it was rough. More rough than I remember in the past. My no suspension mountain bike was giving me a beating.
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| (c) netpup |
The day was going okay. Pushed myself some but was trying not to use up all my energy. Got stopped by a small herd of cows. The started to cross the road just as I reached them. That took several minutes and a number of riders caught up to me.
Rest stop 3 was at about 33 miles. The ride started at 7:30. We were supposed to make rest stop 3 by 10:30. I panicked at rest stop 2 when it was 10:09 and I had to be 5 miles in 21 minutes. I made rest stop 3 at 10:34. The didn‘t turn me away thankfully. The did say "full course open". Gee, thanks, we have (get) to ride the whole course. I think they extended the time because the ride started about 15 minutes late.
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Photo by Mary, near rest stop 1 |
The next rest stop was at about mile 38. This was also a cutoff spot. Supposed to be there by 11:00. Which wouldn't have been a problem; however, I had flat at about mile 37! I tried to ignore my flat. I can make it I told myself. I realized I was fooling myself. Lots of people passed me while I was changing my tire. It was nice to say "hi" to my fellow riders. I made it to rest stop 4 at 11:12. And they let me go, yay! The next 16 miles were the part of the course they thought they might have to close. It was passable but very rough. Since I made the cutoff all was good. Now I just had to finish.
Between rest stop 4 & 5 (actually the same location) I passed one of my friends. After his second flat and some saddle sores he was calling it quits. Almost impossible to climb a gravel hill if you can't sit down :-s. That was a bummer. I did start passing some of the people that passed me while I was changing my flat. It feels good to pass :-). I think I passed a few more than passed me.
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| A nasty little hill with a 15% max grade. I didn’t walk it, yay! |
Things were good for a while. Just riding and enjoying the flint hills. After rest stop 6, I started riding with a guy & girl. Nice to have somebody to talk to. We were having a good time. Well, as good as torture gets. That is, until I had another flat tire and said goodbye to my new friends. That was at mile 73.5. I know that because I put my wheel on backwards and the odometer didn't work after that. Luckily I had my Garmin data. The second flat was a bit more annoying because I didn't have another spare tube. This one would be a patch. And I only had one more CO2 cartridge. If this didn't work I would be pumping. Had a small issue with CO2 but I got enough in the tire to get me to the end. Whew.
Of course a bunch more people passed me while changing the tire. L. I don’t count those as real passes. :-)
I was ahead of two guys when I got to a turn. The indicator was wrong compared to the map and cue sheet. I waited for the other guys to catch up to make sure we all agreed.
We turned to follow the map. This was only 3 miles from the finish. A guy in a truck pulled up and told us that we did NOT want to take the next road. He said it was too muddy and we would regret it. We weren’t sure if he was with the ride or just a concerned local.
Well, he obviously doesn’t know why we are out here riding. We are paying good money to be here and regret it. The few of us riding together decided to give it a try. Probably should have turned around when I went through the low water crossing that was about 18” deep.
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| At the end of the mud road |
We carried, pushed, and pulled our bikes for a fair bit of half a mile. It doesn’t get any better than this! My bike is 36 pounds without water bottles and without mud caked all over it.
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| I'm done! Who's going to clean this mess? |
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| Kevin had no flats and beat me easy! |
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| Still able to smile at the end |
I drank out of this thing? Flint Hills dirt is good for you.
note: some of these pictures were borrowed from friends & others. Thanks to Dan, Mary, Larry. I hope they don't mind too much.
