36 Days until GAWR - Loess Hills

My friend Steve Morin had been asking me all week to join him at the Loess Hills Gravel 100K race, I kept telling him that I was not in racing shape. The only training that I have done during the last 9 months following my hip replacement surgery was long slow rides. All my training was geared towards training me for doing long slow rides, not for racing. The only race on my mind was "The Great American Wheel Race across America" - and I was not planning to really race. I just want to finish the GAWR and have a good time. If I feel good in August, maybe I will compete in the Gravel Worlds Long Voyage race - 300 miles of gravel racing.

During the week prior to Loess Hill it rained everyday. I kept telling Steve, you better get ready to carry your bike and do some hike-a-bike. The Loess Hills race is well known for being a very challenging course with non-stop rolling hills. Racing was going to be brutal on muddy road. I wanted nothing to do with this race - sounded like a long day of playing in the mud.

All week I had been listening to the audiobook "Endure" by Cameron Hanes. Cameron is a bow hunter that has a unique way of training for his extreme bow hunting adventures. In addition to shooting his bow, Cameron does ultra endurance training and has competed in ultra endurance races. Cameron has competed in running races as long as 200 miles in length. Cameron says "everything is training".

Friday afternoon I started thinking about "everything is training" and realized that even though I have been doing long rides over 100 miles in length - I needed a real challenge to see if I could endure in a tough situation. I started thinking, maybe I should enter the Loess Hills race. The weather forecast was for heavy rain all night. I thought about it, but decided I didn't want to play in the mud, and went to bed.

I woke up at 4:30 AM and could hear the rain coming down outside and was unable to go back to sleep. I kept thinking - just do it - let's see how tough you are. Next thing I knew I was out of bed getting my bike ready for the race. I didn't want to ride my gravel bike like everyone else. I wanted to take a new approach to this race in the mud - on my modified MTB. I have modified my Trek Procaliber MTB by taking off the front fork that had shocks and replacing it with a carbon fork that has massive tire clearance. My plan was to ride a little slower but to be able to ride through mud while other riders would have to hike-a-bike. The problem was that the MTB had been set up for touring with Aero Spider Racks and a front cradle on the handlebars. I decided to keep the Aero Spider Rack on the bike - but removed the cradles from the rack and from the handlebars. I would probably be the only person racing with a bike rack, but I didn't care - this would not be a race, but rather an adventure to test myself.

I loaded up my bike and all my racing gear and went to tell Lori that I was going to a bike race. It was about 6:00 AM, dark and raining outside - Lori looked at me like I was crazy. I texted Steve that I would be at the race and turned on my "Endure" audiobook as I drove to Iowa. I needed to get my mind in a good place to take on this challenge.

I arrived in Iowa, surprised that the rain had stopped - but there were lots of water puddles and I knew there would be mud out there somewhere. This was a small race for modern gravel races. Not many people wanted to take part in what they knew would be a tough race, but the weather would not stop the top riders from participating. With Unbound gravel just weeks away, many riders were going to use this race to prepare for the muddy conditions common at Unbound gravel.

I lined up next to Scott Kiddo and told him my plan was not to race, but rather ride hard and hopefully have negative splits (riding faster at the end than the start). The race started on a paved road with a hill about 200 meters into the race. I tried to stay in the middle of the pack. I was not in shape to try to start with the big dogs, but wanted to stay close to good riders so I could draft off them. I was riding with a small group for about 3 miles but decided to let them go as I was not in race shape - and was soon riding solo. I watched the group of riders slowly pulling away from me, but I had a different plan then they did.

About an hour into the race I was riding solo, with a couple riders within eyesite and kept thinking where is the mud. I choose to ride a slower bike so I could ride through the mud. Maybe I should have ridden my faster Lauf gravel bike. Then I saw it - a couple hundred yards up the road I saw that the road was a darker brown mud and could see cyclist carrying their bikes through the tall grass on the side of the road. Here we go, I would find out if my MTB could handle the mud. I downshifted into a easy gear and started spinning through the mud. I was going slowly but started passing riders as they watched me in envy as they carried their bikes. The muddy road became a little steeper and I had to stay calm as I had to weave through riders and try to find the part of the road that looked the driest. Mud was flying off my tires and going everywhere - this is what I came to Loess Hills for. I passed about 5 riders through this mud section. The road conditions improved as then I started racing with other riders. Loess Hill should be called Lot's of Hills - it was not stop hills. About every 10 miles there would be another mud section and each time I would ride past other riders who were carrying their bikes through the mud. By about mile 45 I caught a rider who was stronger than me on the good roads. I struggled to keep up with him into the strong head winds. He would lead for about 3 minutes and I would then give him about a 45 second pull. I told him that I was sorry that I could not pull longer, but he understood and was happy that I was giving him some recovery. We worked together until we hit a long hill that was over a mile in length - it must have been the longest steepest hill in Iowa. The other rider pulled away from me as I could not keep up with him up the hill. I was riding solo again with just a couple miles to go. Then I saw the mud section, I passed a couple more riders including the guy that had helped me for many miles as a I rode through the mud.

Soon I could see the finish line it was just a quarter mile up the road, and I could hear the sound of someone working hard behind me. I looked back and it was the guy that had helped me through the windy section. We were set to race to the finish line, I could sense it could be a very close battle that either one of us could win. With just a couple hundred yard to the finish I decided, I didn't want to battle with him to the finish. He had helped me for many miles and was the stronger rider. I slowed down a little and told him thanks for the help as he passed me seconds from the finish line.

My finish time and speed was very slow. But I was very proud of myself - I had taken on a challenging race in tough conditions and finished strong. I had endured. This was good preparation for GAWR as I'm sure I will find mud out there somewhere.