What a weekend. It’s really a blur of mud, wind dutch horse buggies and constant pedaling yeah that’s about it. Before I start about the weekend I would like to share something that a Theodore Roosevelt once said.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
On to the weekend recap. The linconites picked me up Friday morning and we rolled towards spam museum state. The day was cloudy and gloomy foreshadowing the next day. Once we got to MN the rain stopped , the spirits lifted.
Now let me tell you something about the packets and the organization of this event, Chris Skogen puts his heart and soul to this event, professional looking packages, water bottles warm welcome…. Awesome.
We had some issues with the hotels rooms and in no particular order the following happened at the hotel:
- one room for 7 people
- sleep in the game room
- sleep in the meeting room
- mild freakout by everyone
- call to Joshua
- miracle room found
- back to normal
Anyways back to the race. Around 2 am i heard wrapping on the window, no it wasn’t a crow, it was a rain pounding the hotel roof. Great it’s going to be wet. Little did I realized that it would rain for 4-5 hours straight. The morning was a bit rushed, get to the start line see the usual suspects at the line. See bunch of people I never seen in my life…. Let me put it this way… US the NE people were more or less under-dressed for the whole event. Only 6 hour difference can make huge climate/riding gear difference. I’m pretty sure most of us were thinking summer gear after all each of us had a race where it was 80 degrees plus… Well them sneaking northern Midwest guys had the rain gear in hand ready to roll.
Besides the first 90 minutes this would be the last time we would be seen together… Photo by Craig Linder
The start of the race was mellow one, I’ve been to couple of these races and sometimes the pace jumps pretty quickly, try to split the group and get rid of the weaker riders. Well this time it was mellow one. The first valley climb got rid of the the back of the group. I was still there I was there for the second one as well. Then the negative grade sections started. There were several guys being popped the trying to get latched on the lead group. That’s silly if you are on single speed. I won’t really go into hour by hour details. Early on I was strong on the climbs only to wait for people in my group to get shielded from the wind. Right at town of Harmony I declared to group of the riders I was in that I was getting coffee. The last “real stop” until the finish…. They all actually agreed. it was raining and there was talk about taking some rail to trail back to Spring Valley. Even the Amish agreed it was not good day to be outside… they would know.
Just riding around. Photo by Craig Linder
Some went back some went forward. The next 40 miles kind of sucked, if it wasn’t raining the wind was blowing and you were getting spray all over. For 3 hours almost no one talked, it was a quiet group. Just grinding way on the 1/2 inch of peanut butter. At one of the climbs I was just took off and didn’t wait for rest of the group. From about about that point I rode by myself. The only breakup from solitude was Joshua’s aid station. AH pizza and spiced wine good times. It was not the fastest ride i’ve ever done.. It was a grind … but I was finished got a handshake from Chris and high five from NE crew….
People asked to tell them about these rides, well it’s a sensory overload. The day after you feel detached from it all. It’s hard to describe i don’t know. It’s weird feeling i lack writing talent to express the feeling.
Things that worked
What didn’t work. I don’t think I had the right equipment of the event. Time to research the following
Photo by Joshua
I would like to thank Megan for letting me go on these long rides, Joshua for all the support Saturday, Chris Skogen for putting his life on hold of one weekend to share the beauty that is Southern MN. Kudos to all the people that finished especially the ones who completed their first century under such adverse conditions… .bravo to you.
DK is next… hopefully it will be warmer…
P.S. I had this Vaselines/nirvana song stuck in my head for about 3 hours.. So there you have it
P.P.S thanks to my traveling partners Corey/ Troy/Arron/Malcom great times guys thanks for awesome weekend…
