JOSEPHWEISSERT
Zen MBB Master
This year's event had perfect weather, even through the night. The forecast was for rain and thunderstorms, but the weather cleared up and even the nighttime temperature was great. I rode my Vendetta, and that bike is just fun to ride, even after riding for 24 hours. I met up with Kevin Gambill (Larry's friend) in the morning of the event. His wife was gracious enough to crew for me, since I didn't have a crew. If not for her, I would have been passed out in a ditch somewhere, left for dead. I have never done more than centuries, and this event goes way beyond 100 miles - that's just the warmup. The first loop is 121.9 miles. Kevin ended up getting first place in the recumbent class at well over 400 miles (EDIT: 462.3 miles). We both paid the price - I was feeling pretty bad afterwards, and he felt even worse than I did. The event ended at 8 AM this morning. When I got home, after drinking a lot and then weighing myself in the afternoon, I was still 6 pounds lighter than when I weighed in on Saturday morning. That's how dehydrated I was. Kevin pushed it harder than I did and he did it for the entire race - he's an animal. He has a red Vendetta, but he hasn't trained on it enough to do this type of event yet, so he was on his Bacchetta.
Here's what happened from my perspective. I missed a turn and ended up going through checkpoint 2 twice (deja vu). It was well documented, so they ended up crediting me for the extra 10 miles I rode for no reason. They didn't have to do that for me, so that alone shows the calibre of the people running this event. It's a top notch event. I know what it takes to pull off an annual event because my racing team hosted a very popular time trial on an annual basis for many years. It is a big pile of work, any way you look at it.
Later on, my stomach started to dislike drinking sugar water. And I could no longer even think about Cliff Bars without gagging. Surprisingly, here's what got me through the night, stuff I never thought I would use in a long distance event: potato chips, Starbucks Frappacino, Coke with sugar, Sprite with sugar, Ginger Ale with sugar, 5-hour Energy, and turkey and cheese sandwiches with mustard. And then there are the less surprising things: ibuprofen, Tylenol, straight water in the hydration system. Speaking of water, the water at checkpoint 3 tasted like pool water - it was simply extremely horrible. It made me gag, but I had to drink it. That didn't help at all. And previously, the first time through checkpoint 2, one woman was trying to help me fill my bottles from a big water container (my bottles have liners and are more tricky to fill). Another woman took a hose, lost control, blew all the drink mix out of one of my bottles and proceeded to spray my storage bag on the boom, my bike, my helmet lens (leaving water spots), and couldn't turn it off until the damage was done.
Kevin and I stayed with the front pack all the way to checkpoint 1, where I got separated. Then I was on my own for the rest of the event. At one point, before checkpoint 1, a guy in an old, beaten up pickup truck separated me from the pack by driving at me head on in my lane and partially on the shoulder forcing me to go in the oncoming lane to avoid getting hit head on. What a jerk! But I was able to chase down the lead pack still at that point.
Then my cog-set shifter kept going out of tune over and over. I would stop and get it right, then later it would shift poorly again. I asked a mechanic and he said the other bike shop gave me the wrong barrel adjuster for the derailleur. He tuned it up and it was perfect for quite a while, then it went out of tune again.
Once my stomach started acting up, I went between feeling okay and feeling queazy. This was probably at least half of the event. I found a simple indicator of what will work is to think about any type of food and see how I would react. If I wanted to puke, it was bad. If I craved it, it was good. I really wanted white cheddar cheese crackers but the closest thing was potato chips, which really hit the spot. I ended up laying on the grass to let my stomach settle, thereby losing miles.
Around 1:45 AM, I started falling asleep on my bike. I laid down in the grass and zoned out for a while. I got up, drank some Starbucks Frapp, and was never sleepy again afterwards. It has some fat in it and it hit my stomach just right. Who would have guessed? Fat and salt have their place in the endurance event diet.
In the end, I was officially at 371.1 miles. This is by far the longest I have ever ridden. I enjoyed the event thoroughly, and no matter how bad I felt at certain points in the event, my bike felt amazing. After the event, I drove home, laid down on the couch, and passed out. I got up, tried to eat a chocolate chip cookie and almost puked. I craved McDonald quarter pounders with cheese (that I usually never eat) and a large McDonald's Mocha Frapp. I sucked down two burgers and the large Frapp like nobody's business. They really hit the spot.
Bottom line: I am exhausted - but I'm happy.
EDIT: Kevin did 462.3 miles.
Here's what happened from my perspective. I missed a turn and ended up going through checkpoint 2 twice (deja vu). It was well documented, so they ended up crediting me for the extra 10 miles I rode for no reason. They didn't have to do that for me, so that alone shows the calibre of the people running this event. It's a top notch event. I know what it takes to pull off an annual event because my racing team hosted a very popular time trial on an annual basis for many years. It is a big pile of work, any way you look at it.
Later on, my stomach started to dislike drinking sugar water. And I could no longer even think about Cliff Bars without gagging. Surprisingly, here's what got me through the night, stuff I never thought I would use in a long distance event: potato chips, Starbucks Frappacino, Coke with sugar, Sprite with sugar, Ginger Ale with sugar, 5-hour Energy, and turkey and cheese sandwiches with mustard. And then there are the less surprising things: ibuprofen, Tylenol, straight water in the hydration system. Speaking of water, the water at checkpoint 3 tasted like pool water - it was simply extremely horrible. It made me gag, but I had to drink it. That didn't help at all. And previously, the first time through checkpoint 2, one woman was trying to help me fill my bottles from a big water container (my bottles have liners and are more tricky to fill). Another woman took a hose, lost control, blew all the drink mix out of one of my bottles and proceeded to spray my storage bag on the boom, my bike, my helmet lens (leaving water spots), and couldn't turn it off until the damage was done.
Kevin and I stayed with the front pack all the way to checkpoint 1, where I got separated. Then I was on my own for the rest of the event. At one point, before checkpoint 1, a guy in an old, beaten up pickup truck separated me from the pack by driving at me head on in my lane and partially on the shoulder forcing me to go in the oncoming lane to avoid getting hit head on. What a jerk! But I was able to chase down the lead pack still at that point.
Then my cog-set shifter kept going out of tune over and over. I would stop and get it right, then later it would shift poorly again. I asked a mechanic and he said the other bike shop gave me the wrong barrel adjuster for the derailleur. He tuned it up and it was perfect for quite a while, then it went out of tune again.
Once my stomach started acting up, I went between feeling okay and feeling queazy. This was probably at least half of the event. I found a simple indicator of what will work is to think about any type of food and see how I would react. If I wanted to puke, it was bad. If I craved it, it was good. I really wanted white cheddar cheese crackers but the closest thing was potato chips, which really hit the spot. I ended up laying on the grass to let my stomach settle, thereby losing miles.
Around 1:45 AM, I started falling asleep on my bike. I laid down in the grass and zoned out for a while. I got up, drank some Starbucks Frapp, and was never sleepy again afterwards. It has some fat in it and it hit my stomach just right. Who would have guessed? Fat and salt have their place in the endurance event diet.
In the end, I was officially at 371.1 miles. This is by far the longest I have ever ridden. I enjoyed the event thoroughly, and no matter how bad I felt at certain points in the event, my bike felt amazing. After the event, I drove home, laid down on the couch, and passed out. I got up, tried to eat a chocolate chip cookie and almost puked. I craved McDonald quarter pounders with cheese (that I usually never eat) and a large McDonald's Mocha Frapp. I sucked down two burgers and the large Frapp like nobody's business. They really hit the spot.
Bottom line: I am exhausted - but I'm happy.
EDIT: Kevin did 462.3 miles.
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