awnser is no

First of the promoters of dirty kanza joel and Jim are top notch dudes who know how to put on a great event. 3 of us, EB, JP and I left Omaha Friday midday to venture to flint hills of Kansas. The spirits were high so was the wind and the temperature a little bit of foreshadowing of events that would unfold the next day. The Nebraska crew was pretty strong this year with 6 people from Omaha and about 10 from Lincoln. That’s accounts for about ten percent of the field sweet. The talk was about the weather and many people from GLGA were present. Sean was sweet mountain feed bag which I immediately borrowed. We  called it a early night  and got ready for the grind.

The alarm went of at 4:10 in the morning and we were all started getting ready  for day ahead.  Around 5:15 am we rolled out with the Lincoln crew to the start race. The race kicked off to with police escort  out of town. First gravel road and the pace picked up and I found myself in lead group of about 40 people. Sitting on the back of the group spinning it up.   Eventually the pace was picked up and I  settled into nice state of mind.   I really didn’t know many people I rode with for long time I road wit 3 guys from colorado, including  mike beck. Super awesome dudes.  At some point around mile 20 I so EB changing a tire and about 5 minutes later I saw troy krause fixing his bike. I thought he only had a flat  I didn’t know he crashed.   I had to pullover soon after to fix my  water cage as it rattled itself loose.  Eventually Scott Bigelow  pulled up next to me and rode together until checkpoint one. Scott is super fun to ride with we rode together last year.   Checkpoint one was pretty fast stop. Fill out bottles and we rolled out . We road together for super long time after that, until enemy of all single speeds attacks slightly downhill flats. I just couldn’t spin out  and after i looked down and saw 25 mph I decided to let Scott go. Lesson number one ride your own race. Indeed, that’s true. I didn’t manage water to well this time and I ran out with 5 miles to go before checkpoint 2.  I’ve made one attempt  to get water from the farmers house. It would be my luck  to find a house with no one in it.  Luckily some guy from Kc. offered me some water couple miles down. At that point things were looking good. I was motoring averaging 16 mph, stomach was good legs were good.

I pulled to second checkpoint, to see troy krause  smiling  and drinking cola  red bull, that bastard has been holding out.  At the checkpoint I was informed that I was second single speed to check in. I knew there was  gap between rest of the single speeds. I took good 30 minutes  to recover. Talked to MG and Fob took my shoes of and let my feet relax.   Eventually I rolled out from the second checkpoint and headed  toward Alma and epic lil Egypt road.  Weirdly enough I saw the number one single speed guy  and we pulled each other for quite sometime. Eventually he took off and i settled into grind again.

Watching road racing you see people crack all the time. On tv it happens  in couple of minutes and you see them  just slowdown a bit. The real life and endurance racing is bit different, it happens slowly and it’s obvious when it happens somewhat slows down noticably and swerving does occur.  Eventually you pass them  and you know that there is nothing to for them.  I noticed a lot of people just slowing down and stopping.  While the temp hovered around 87 degrees and nice cloud cover was  welcome sign.  I passed leading single speed guy and was in first.   At that point I was feeling great and just motoring.   At mile 120 I entered  lil egypt road, yes it takes just as long as  walk as it does to ride. Scott the guy who won single speed actually managed to ride up the hill but then stopped to recover.   Yes at that point him and Adam passed me I was in 3rd.  Then just like that  sun came out and temp jumped to 95-96 degrees  that was about mile 129. With ten miles to go and 2 water bottles I though I was set. Well I  my body decided otherwise and I wasn’t the only one.   This is the only race I’ve been to where I’ve seen  people on side of the roads resting.  Crazy….

My body was getting pretty worked from the high heat and humidity.  The speed slowed way down. At some point along some hill there was about 5 people standing at the shade looking at each other, I was one of them, so was scott and jason from salsa.  I knew it was damage control  time. The plan was to drag myself int to alma, recover and proceed.  During one of the downhill I was starting  to see double and my hearing was getting somewhat bad. I think I knew at that point there would be not miles after 140.   My core temp was super high and after 4 24 oz bevs some ice cream I knew it would be straight up dangerous to continue on, as I sweated all the liquid right out meaning my body was too hot.   I told Adam and Scott good luck.  They looked strong and I knew at that point that both of them finished.   Rest of time at Alma I spend getting stuff for people who wanted to continue, Aaron Gammel looked great, so did everyone  who went on.  Lesson number 2 it’s hard to say no more.

I was pretty disappointed in calling it but I knew I gave it my best calling it  quits while being in top 3 was pretty hard. Now to things that did work. Kenda Kommando tires, slime tubes and 65 psi gave no flats awesome.  Nutrition was solid  i had no stomach issue. Perpetum and Sustained energy worked great.  I still don’t know how much water is enough I don’t know if that was just combination of  things  that lead to  my spectacular shelling.  96 oz should of been enough.  I don’t know for sure.  I’ve met some cool people and rode some  sweet country side.  This was probably the hardest day on bike I ever had it also made me determined to comeback next year to finish this sucker, and to challenge Scott  and Adam for some singles speeds.

I would like to thank Gammel family for bringing  me back to Emporia.  Sean for letting me borrow  his bag ( I will be getting one those bags ).  Big props to Corey for winning (Corey you inspire me to ride harder),  and for Troy to continue on and rallying into 8th place, you might be okay even if you do hold out on nd red bull cola  The biggest props go to Scott and Aaron for finishing. I’m  very happy for those two guys.