Reflecting on my completion of this second annual event I am
left thinking about two things: Gratitudes
and Goals.
It takes a lot to plan a route through rugged Idaho
terrain. There are thousands of forest
service roads, area highlights and single track worth riding at least once when
passing through an area (although maybe not on a fully loaded bike J ).
My hat goes off to Norb DeKerchove and Tyson Fahrenbruck for
their efforts to create a local route of this nature, for this I am
grateful.
Gratitudes
To the friends, family, team sponsors and strangers who lent us GPS units, tracked us online, met us at restaurants, met us on Fisher Creek to take photos, waited hours for the last decent into town and at the finish, offered to rescue us on route whenever, to the local business sharing our excitement for the event and all of the racers on course – you truly made this event exciting while pushing our mental and physical limits, thank you.
I certainly had challenges – from exposed, hot, long,
asphalt climbs to moon dusted backraods full of large semis and locals cruising
somewhere leaving heavy, green snot to hack up in the evenings and mornings
from day one till days after the race.
But my body held on. For that – I
am grateful.
Goals
I set off on this event with very loose goals. Finish, and don’t waste too much time. I had lofty thoughts of where in the pack my ‘goals’
would land me, but I was ready to let the trip unfold and adjust
accordingly. This last point is
becoming very important to me and other racers out there that must adjust
goals. Several friends this year
were unable to finish and had to adjust their goals and/or forfeit them altogether. This is a very mature thing to do, by that I
mean; Difficult, Calculated and Smart. You
have to be true to yourself; your body, mind and ego. You see it all too often: The stubborn, the perpetually injured. And of course, the unlucky. But to be able to adjust and make the best call
is really what an event like this draws out of people. Gear and bodies fail, decisions forced and
injuries can occur. What you do with
these unplanned failings is a big mix of mental and physical monsters that can
leave you in despair.
A top racer this year sat in a Fairfield bar awaiting a ride
from Boise as his rear wheel and frame contact was to the point that the wrong
decision may leave him stranded in an isolated area with minimal gear. A calculated risk leading to a scratch. And he got to drink beer for near two hours
as the rest of us calculated what it would take to leave the bar at all…
An experience gal, passing faster riders at night, spent 3
hours icing, stretching, fueling and contemplating the decision to scratch over
a knee injury at Galena. She knew it
would be a bad decision to continue but still struggled over the forgone
conclusion as she chatted up all the racers catching up to her.
A 2014 S&F420 finisher scratched just out of Ketchum
with swollen knees, certainly a hard decision, but one that didn’t leave him
further injured.
Similarly, a strong teammate suffered some Achilles pain
that forced the decision to safely scratch just 50 miles shy of the finish.
These decisions did not come easy, nor were they ‘black and
white’. We all intended to finish. We all had things crop up. Some were manageable or fixable and we were
able to continue. Others had harder
decisions. Would continuing be safe? Would I do permanent damage? Will the pain subside? Will I be stranded? I’m grateful in all of these scenarios
everyone wound up safe and not further injured.
Well done.
Trackleaders & Stats
What a wonderful tool. Making an event like this even more exciting for family and friends. You could track us real time on a map, on an elevation profile and in table form, continually calculating our statistics.
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| Here you can see Josh Krattiger didn’t turn off his tracker post race – I heard he was a bit mentally taxed at the top of the last decent – maybe there’s a story here? (Josh crushed the last 20 miles – taking back two positions just before the finish – finishing strong) |
Lets compare our top finishers: 1st place,
calling himself “The Buffet” and 2nd place Rebecca Rush:
Both ride times were about the same, but Rebecca stopped just
under a hour longer than The Buffet, thus coming in second. In this case, the sleep deprived wins! (Different
level of racing). Let’s compare more
local teams: Eastside vs. Meridian
Cycles….
Here you have racer #1 who rode 1day, 16hrs, 49minutes and racer
#2 1day 21hrs and 25 minutes…did racer #1 beat racer #2 by 4 ½ hours? Well, how long did racer #1 stop? 1day, 1hour and 29 minutes! Wow, that seems like a long time…. Racer
#2? 19hours, 36minutes! (6 hours less stop time). So did racer #2 beat racer #1 by (6hrs-4½ hrs
= 1½ hours?) Only if they averaged the
same speed…. Racer #1 is faster. :-) But….came in just over an hour behind racer
#2. Nice Job Jeremy Whitman!
I personally like to view the Race Flow part of
trackleaders. You can really see how
sleeping/stopping effects your placements – or where and when people pass
eachother – sneaky night moves!
Here is the overview of the Male racers this year. You can see at the bottom of all the traces three pretty distinctive flat areas. People are sleeping (well, some of them anyway). The first long flat area at the bottom of the graph are, at that time, the last place racers (myself included) sleeping just below Dollarhyde Mountain.
Here is a close up:
I was 13 ½ hrs in at mile 143 with 3 other riders. Stopping so early (about 7:30pm) allowed 6
people to pass – only one of which I would later pass back.
Here is another good example of stopping too long, or
waiting for and or eating food at an establishment.
Rolling into Fairfield I was in 9th place
overall. By the time I left: 14th
place. Of course moving into 20th+ place by the time I woke up the
next morning… However, this allowed me ample rest for a big
climb and energy to make it to an 1hr 20min breakfast in Ketchum!
Things to consider if considering this race
I packed about 5 power/protein bars 444miles that I couldn’t
manage an appetite for. Know what you’d
want to eat. Many of us suggest ‘real’
food. This can be a challenge if you are
in a hurry (racing for a top spot and wanting to minimize stop time as ordering
and eating food averaged me about 1 ½ hours per stop – Fairfield, Ketchum,
Galena and Redfish ~ 6hrs to order and eat somewhere on route).
What to wear and when.
Warm clothes for camping or cycling?
Cycling at night? Enough battery
for lights and warm gloves and booties?
Staying in Stanley basin? Warm
bag/thermal layers?
Bringing your own food to avoid the 6+ hours of food
waiting/eating? Room for stove, food and
fuel? Are you going to have a night away
from a population center or push through a 112mile stretch?
These things demand some time to think about and pack
for. If you wing it or have to adjust
your plan, it hopefully will only cost you time. Adjust and get what you need before and
during the event.
I’d say training for this thing is only a mental comfort and
almost a mute point – a potential to set you up for a mental failure based on
training expectations.
My suggestion if interested?
Determine you minimum comfort gear and riding conditions and - Just Do
it. Keep a positive attitude and be realistically
smart. This will allow you to eat/drink
regularly and turn the cranks to complete the loop.
Cheers!
z
