The is not for the faint of heart. Mountain bikers pedal unsupported for 470 miles and gain about 65,000' of elevation. The route is in Colorado's Rocky Mountains and takes racers from Denver to Durango. If you sign on for this be prepared to HTFU. It's no joke.
rackleaders, Scott Morris's genius software program, tracked the riders. I'll confess I became a blue-dot junkie, watching the dots march along in the most horrendous weather, all the while staring at my screen from a warm, dry place. Congrats to all the riders. I was lucky enough to chat with , 2009's 24 hrs of Moab Solo Champion, about her record breaking ride this year. Wow.
Did you have dry kits everyday? Or was it wet chamios?
I had two pairs of chamois and a single jersey with me, so I had a dry chamois for approximately the first 12 hours. From there, I'd say Ihad wet shorts on more often than dry. I was washing the dirty pairevery day and leaving them on my pack to dry, but we rarely got astretch of sun long enough to actually dry them.
How much heavier does your equipment get with all the rain?
My sleeping bag was constantly damp and my tarp never got dry. I'm not sure how much weight it added on but it definitely made itpsychologically hard knowing that all I had was a wet sleeping bag tocrawl into at the end of the day.
Was it a season goal to set a CTR course record?
No. I'm pretty sure that if I'd been planning it all season, I wouldhave freaked myself out about it. I'd made some noise about wantingto do it early on, but I didn't actually start ordering andovernighting gear until a week out. I had know idea how close I couldget to the record, but it seemed like a good goal to shoot for whenlining up.
I know you almost decided not to go, what was your turning point?
There was a showing of Ride the Divide the Wednesday before the race.I was feeling pretty unmotivated about doing the race but then I sawthe scene where the film crew had caught up to Matthew Lee in themiddle of Wyoming and told him that the leader was waiting in a hotelfor him, lonely. He had this wild look in his eye, looked over to abuilding storm, and said 'Looks like I'm going to get wet tonight' andpedaled off. I'm not sure why that affected me like it did, it wasthat half-crazed look, but after that, it was game on.
Were you riding alone for most of the time after people settled in. You and Dave Harris seemed fairly close for quite awhile. Were you?
The last racer I saw was in a gas station in Leadville. I knew Ethanwas about 6 hours ahead of me and afraid I was going to catch him viathe bike shop in Leadville we both stopped at and that Jeff was rightbehind him. Other than that, I had no clue where anyone was for thefirst half of the race.
How did you keep your mental focus? Counting? Humming? Did you bring any electronics ( music ) or ditch due to the weather?
Thirty years of Bon Jovi. All in a mental library. I don't have themental focus to listen to music and ride trails, I tend to crash alot, so I sing to myself.
Any scary wildlife moments?
Cows. There's a giant herd of cows up on Sargent's Mesa and they juststare at you. They all have babies and they're huge. It's creepy.Other than that, saw a bear, a bunch of elk, but no close encounters.
How much night riding did you do?
I'd try to be moving by 4 everyday with mild success, I slept throughmy alarm every single day, so that was two hours pre-dawn. I neverrode later than 10:30, which was an hour and a half in the dark. Iactually spent a lot of time in my sleeping bag, so if I wanted to cuttime off, I could definitely do it on less sleep.
On average how much did you sleep each day?
I'd always get 2 hours of solid sleep. Then I'd spend an additional3-5 hours in my sleeping bag shivering, drifting in and out of sleep.In hindsight, there would have been more efficient ways of breaking upsleep cycles.
Longest ride was? Day 2. I knew I had to get over the 10 Mile Range into Copper, andSearle and Kokomo pass into Leadville before the storms so I startedhiking at 4. I really wanted to sleep in Buena Vista that night so Irode til 10 before I decided that I didn't want to have to ride Hwy 24in the dark so it was better to bed down and get moving again in themorning
Did you have support along the way? If so what kind?
The rules of the game are that the ride has to be self-supported,meaning that you can buy stuff from any commercial source. Other thanthat, I was on my own.
Did the universe show up for you, meaning random acts of kindness?
Trail Angel Apple was set up at the end of Sargents Mesa. When Irolled out, he asked me if I wanted a cold drink but I refused becauseI didn't want to accept outside support but then I realized he was aTrail Angel so I stayed awhile, ate his food, talked about the BP oilspill, and how to keep chipmunks away from his truck.
The big electrical storms also hit when I was below tree line and Ihad the one clear day to get across the high section of trail that wasabove treeline for 9 hours. That was pure luck.
How heavy was you equip including bike?
I never actually weighed it. I'm sure it wasn't the lightest setup,it surely wasn't the heaviest.
What bike did you ride? and how much did it weigh?
I rode my Waltworks () custom 29er hardtail.
Again, I've never placed it on a scale, but I get the impression it'spretty light. I have it built up to be more durable than ultra-lightbecause with the amount I ride it, I'd be broke pretty quick trying tokeep it built up as an ultra-light race bike.
Was it hard to ride away from your husband?
Riding away from my husband wasn't hard, simply because I was surehe'd catch me once we got back on the trail. He was riding theBuffalo Creek sections a lot faster than I was and waiting for meoften, so I figured that if I just kept chugging along, he'd comeblowing by me, hooting and hollering once we got to Georgia Pass.When it started storming and it started to dawn on me that he probablywasn't going to catch me, at least that night, I got pretty sad.
How did you cut weight? broken tooth brushes? single servings?
I did a couple of weight saving things, but I definitely didn't gooverboard. I had to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste en route, so Iended up squeezing 3/4th of the toothpaste into a trashcan to saveweight. Conversely, I carried around an entire salt shaker of saltfrom Buena Vista on after I realized that it was a lack of salt thatwas causing some stomach distress.I carried mostly all dry, instant food and was filling up on waterfrequently rather than carry a large amount on my back.
Hard Girl points are off the charts for this ride. How did you keep yourmental edge with all the rain?
I took the sage advice fromChrisPlesko that he gave me at the start.He was lamenting on the weather of the Divide ride last year (maybeyear before) and said that he kept telling himself that 'Tomorrow'sweather will be better.' It never was, but I ended up not gettingreally angry with the weather until the last full day when I justwanted to get home. I also have a terrible short-term memory, so if it was beautiful andsunny in the morning, I'd completely forget about the suffering andmisery of the rain the night before.
What were your darkest thoughts? When and Why?
It started raining really hard right after I crossed Hwy 50 andstarted climbing Fooses Creek. Hwy 50 shoots straight back intoGunnison and I figured that if I hung a thumb, I could be home inunder 2 hours. I sat under a tree, huddled from thunder and lightningwatching the hail pelt my bike and I had a serious 'Why am I doingthis?' moment. Then the rain let up, I got back on my bike, andstarted pedaling. That was the closest I got to really quitting.
What were your most glorious moments?
Watching the sunset on the San Juans before descending into Silvertonon Day 5 and then watching the sunrise on the last day from IndianCreek at 12,000 feet. The entire valley was under a huge cloud and itwas like a view from an airplane. I also knew that all I had leftwas 27 miles of mostly downhill before I could change out of mychamois, dry my feet off, and eat a burger with french fries.
Did you cry?
I actually got a little choked up the last morning on Indian Creek atsunrise. It was probably a combination of knowing I was close todone, low-blood sugar, and simply intense beauty. I had to sit downand soak it all in for a few minutes. I felt like a bit of a dork,but it was a really intense moment.
How did you dry out your shoes if at all?
I didn't. There was one day when it only rained on me a little bitand I think my feet may have been dry for a few hours, but that wasit. I think the wet was the downfall for a lot of racers.
Which day and which night was the hardest for you?
Sargents Mesa, which was Day 3 for me was really hard. My feet wereverging on trench foot and after several hours of hiking on Sargents,they were so beat up I couldn't stand on my pedals anymore. I had tostop halfway down a descent, sit down, pull my shoes and socks off andjust let them dry for 20 minutes. I've never had such intense footpain before.
But then I hit Trail Angel Apple's camp, sat and ate for a bit, andfelt immediately better. I also had a good section of road ahead ofme that didn't require hiking, which in the end, I think was thesaving grace of the whole trip. It gave me feet a little chance toregroup and recover.
Did quitting ever cross your mind?
Not super seriously. Whenever the thought crossed my mind, I revertedback to my old swim coach's mantra of 'If you quit now, it'll be thatmuch easier to quit next time.' It seems to have gotten me throughsome rough times.
I also knew I had a lot of people watching my little blue SPOT dot athome and cheering for me. Maybe it sounds hokey, but I could feeltheir energy and encouragement the whole time.
What was in your equipment list?
They central part of course was the Waltworks bike. I had on myAmerican Classic () lightweightrace wheels which definitely raised a few eyebrows. Light wheels arejust so important on a 29er, and for being as light as they are, theAmerican Classics are bomber. I threw on some Ergon GX2's
() so that I could have bar endsfor the long road sections which may have been the best decision Imade setup-wise for the whole thing.
Everything else was pieced together. I had a 32 degree sleeping bag,an ϳԹ Medical Kits Emergency Bivy, GoLite's Poncho tarp, a 6liter dry bag, and then two of the Mountain Man feedbags
FB was all a flurry when Jeff's Kerkove's blue dot was heading towards Gunnison, did
you know he was dropping due to those awful blisters? He was leading and having a fabulous race. I know he'll back back in 2011.
I was following tire tracks the whole time. First there were six orseven in front of me, and then one by one, a specific set of tiretracks would disappear. I never knew who was associated with each setof tracks or whether I had passed them in the dark, the rain hadwashed their tracks out, or if they had dropped out. Apparently I wasin Silverton at the same time as Dave Harris, but I never knew.
What was a typical day of fueling?
Not enough. If there's one lesson I learned, it was that I need morefood than I think. I've always used Hammer products (Perpetuem, HEED,nd gels) for all my racing needs with a huge amount of sucess, so Ithought maybe I could run the whole CT on mostly liquid calories.Turns out, 6 days of racing is a lot different than say, 24 Hours ofMoab, in terms of fueling and I would have needed bars or other solidsto keep my stomach happy. I was so concerned about weight that Ididn't take enough solid food with me and that resulted in a majorslow down the last two days of racing.
I ate a lot of Snickers Bars, some trail mix, a breakfast burrito fromBongo Billies in Buena Vista. I think I was pretty much the exampleof what not to do, but you live and learn.
Any mechanicals?
I got a flat tire descending from the 10 Mile Range on Day 2, butother than that, the bike ran beautifully.
What did this journey teach you about yourself?
I think it reiterated the point that you regret the things you don'tdo more than the things you do. I was so close to not doing thisrace, even up until the night before but in the end I had such anamazing experience, I woudn't trade it for anything.I learned that I really can take care of myself out there and thatwhen the going to gets rough, I've just got to put my head down, get agood song going on repeat in the head and keep moving forward. Andthat tomorrow, the weather has got to get better.
How were the sunsets and sunrises?
Absolutely epic. I feel like have the reason I go on these adventuresis to see the world during the golden hours around sunrise and sunset.Everything becomes so vibrant and alive.
How did this 6 day ride wear on your body? Any damage?
My big toes are still a little tingly and my legs were anything butspry riding to work on Thursday, but I think that it held up prettywell considering what I put it through.
Any gory details you'd like to share. I'd imagine some rear-end issues?
The rear was bad on Day 3, which was unfortunately the same day thatthe feet were bad, it was pretty much impossible to get comfortable inany position. The big hike on Day 5 helped the rear-end issues and itwas pretty good after that.
My feet looked like they came off a corpse after being wet for 3 days.They were all white and wrinkled and then after I finished, theyballooned up to the point that I couldn't put on sandals let aloneregular shoes. I slept with them elevated for two days to try to helpthe swelling. I was a little worried about them then, but they seemto have gone back down to my normal shoe size.
What would you differently next time?
My sleeping situation on a variety of levels. I wanted to sleep enoughso that I could enjoy riding trails all day, but in the end, I'd sleepfor a few hours and shiver for many more, so I think they way to do itwould be how the top guys did it, 2-3 hour cat naps a couple times aday. The emergency bivy/sleeping bag combo also wasn't idea becausethe bivy, while warm, didn't breathe which led to a damp sleeping bag.I think I'll have to experiment with the set up some more before Itried something like the CTR again.
What were your biggest mistakes or closest calls?
Food. I think I was eating well under 2K of calories a day at whichpoint my stomach shut down and I just wasn't hungry anymore. Idefinitely finished the race in a major calorie deficit and I couldfeel it the last two days. I think I would have slept better andstayed warmer if I had more calories in me.
The first couple of nights I was good about putting all my food in mydry bag and shoving it in a tree, but by the second half, I was eatingwhat I could from my sleeping bag and passing out with food scatteredeverywhere. This could have ended badly but I think the weather wasso bad, even the critters didn't want to come out to eat.
What were your brightest ideas?
I always think I'll go on these adventures and come up with solutionsto save the world. Then I finish and I have no clue that I thoughtabout for six and a half days. I definitely thought about what food Iwas going to eat in Durango, and whether I'd be able to scrapetogether the money to go to 24-hour Solo World Championships inAustralia in October, and whether or not Dave Wiens was going to cookpancakes at the second aid station at the Vapor trail 125 this year.Deep thoughts, let me tell you.