transiowa v.5 pt.2

CHECKPOINT 1 TO CHECKPOINT 2

110 miles. this section would be the longest between checkpoints but would be the only stretch done entirely in the daylight. that combined with the time buffer we had given ourselves left me feeling pretty good about this section of the race. man was i wrong. we had all been pretty quick to pass off the weather as being a factor and although the wind seemed mild we literally rode into a headwind for all 110 miles. and it was a thorough beatdown. the lincoln crew, myself and michael meiser rolled out together and we were joined fairly soon by jim and warren again as well as their friend joe. it seems joe had some misfortune and was involved in a crash during which someone's handlebars went into his wheel and tore off his rear derailleur. he was able to find a magic gear and ride it as a single speed but he did not look comfortable on it. they had one or two other guys in tow so we rode as a larger group for a while but eventually joe's bike needed more attention so we wished them well and headed on. the four of us continued our fight against the wind and also began to get a real good taste of level b roads. over the course of the race these b roads would come in various shapes: near concrete-like hard pack, sand, mud, rock, grass, dirt. some required actual technical skill to ride, some were impassable, some difficult to walk. they certainly provided a mental break from what can become very monotonous gravel roads.

again, we took our time. stopped at a couple of gas stations along the way then hit a point where we could see a truck stop but it was slightly off course. i was short on water and could feel some hunger/pre-bonk coming on. i tried to downplay my desire to stop but i think it was written on my face. the others obliged and while i sat there eating a huge slice of 4-meat pizza with a double cheeseburger and pepsi for dessert we collectively decided that if we finished we would look back at this as time well spent. if i remember correctly this is also the first time i spoke with jeff about giving him some of my aleve. i had no idea how much that conversation would foreshadow what would happen in the dark of night. we left that gas station as jim and warren arrived without joe. unfortunately i wasn't surprised. i don't know how far he made it but he looked strong, it just didn't look like his bike situation was going to hold out for the duration.

so the four of us saddled back up refueled and content and headed back into the wind. conversations definitely began to fade as the miles and the wind began taking their toll. somewhere along the line i ran out of sunscreen. while this may not seem like a big deal to some, being the soul lacking ginger that i am this was a huge problem. sunburns make me sick. physically ill and ruin my body's ability to regulate my temperature. i end up feeling like i'm running a terrible fever, over heating but freezing with goosebumps at the same time. so i ended up wearing my arm warmers more than i wanted simply to protect the skin. couldn't do much for the scalp but hope i'd let the hair grow enough to give it some shade. somewhere along the line here i put my first ipod on and kind of cut myself off from the social side of things for a bit. i was starting to hurt and i needed to get inside myself and get my head straight.

so roll along we did and finally we entered whatever town cp2 was in. upon entering this wonderful town a group of locals (some might say rednecks) were sitting in their lawn looking incredulous and presumably working on their second 30 pack of busch light. "hey...come over here! we need to talk to you!" i'm not sure any of us even considered obliging such a polite request but we equally politely declined the invitation and rolled into cp2. my elation in getting there was quickly cut short by the sight of too many big names standing or sitting, obviously having pulled the plug for various reasons. dennis lost out to pushing too hard and not taking care of his nutrition. one of the lincoln crew that was riding ahead of us lost it to an achilles. john gorilla (v.4 winner) lost it due to a rear derailleur torn off. we also heard charly tri had to bow out with a derailleur issue. honestly, i've never hear of so many massive derailleur failures in one mountain bike race and couldn't wrap my head around so many in a gravel race. we had made it to cp2 still with time to spare so we again took our time. gersib was able to procure a new rear tire from a rider who had to pull the plug. had he not been so fortunate his choice to run a 4 year old balding tire may have proven to be his downfall. things did work out though and as we prepared to roll out for cp3 another guy pokes his head up "hey, you guys taking off soon?" "yep...wanna join us?" "yep." that quickly our 4 became 5 and it was like finding a piece of a puzzle you didn't know you were missing. andy stockman from marin county joined our group and would prove to be a perfect compliment to our crew. in a few hours he would all but save my race for me.

wills

gersib

somewhere between cp1 and cp2

cp2 volunteers

dennis

gorilla

happy to be at cp2

transiowa v.5 pt.1

FRIDAY NIGHT AND THE FIRST 40

we're actually gonna back this thing up to thursday real quick for anyone that believes in omens. larsson's training wheels have been off his bike since late last fall. we had just enough time for him to get comfortable riding if he had a push off and no more than 15 yards of concrete before heading into grass where he could comfortably lay it down. thursday he got it. and he was off. learned how to get started on his own and was riding laps around the building, through the grass, sidewalk, driveway and had the hugest smile on his face. that's where its at man. whether it was the reminder of why we ride bikes, the inspiration provided by watching him overcome his fears or just a gentle cosmic nudge that this was going to be a good weekend i'm not really sure. but it sure was an awesome way to kick off the weekend.

friday morning i finished packing and had done all i could with getting the fisticuff dialed and by mid afternoon i was headed for williamsburg. i had woken up friday morning swallowing razor blades so i stopped at a gas station for a gallon of water. i think this decision would help far more than my throat despite slowing my trip by adding about 4 bathroom stops on the way down. got to williamsburg and checked out the outlet mall (my lodging for the night) and just sort of got oriented. headed from there to the williamsburg rec center where i was about an hour early for the festivities. roll up to find the brothers braun. i actually rode/walked quite a bit with these guys last year and they are a top notch pair from the madison area. they killed it this year taking 4th and 5th overall and 1st and 2nd single speed. we chatted for a while before others showed up and we headed inside. once inside i ran into dave nice and we talked for a bit about fisticuffs and his upcoming attempt at the divide (damn...that's an adventure...good luck dave). got to chat briefly with midwest endurance cult heroes dave pramann and charlie farrow. pramann spent a fair amount of our chat trying to convince me to do arrowhead...someday when i have the coin to drop on a fat bike and all the gear i'll probably get up there. but that might be a while. saw a bunch of other people i've met/seen/ridden with before. cale, mg, joe, steve, paul, dennis, gorilla, ari, and got to chat some with organizers guitar ted and dave pals. optimism was high as weather and past experiences were discussed. all went well and we had somewhere around 52 strong looking forward to a 4 a.m. rollout.

as things winded down i took my leave and headed for mcdonald's for some final calories then headed to the parking lot i would call home for the night. final details on the bike and a few conversations with a slightly overzealous but well intentioned mall maintenance guy as well as a random meet-up with mg and matt wills as they were headed for an atm and myself for the bathroom. funny how life works sometimes. once i was happy with the bike/cue sheets/lights i drove to the starting line just so i knew exactly where i would be going at 3:30 in the morning. leaving the cemetary i was treated to an amazing sunset. got back to the mall, parked the van, threw in a movie and tried to sleep. i think i slept from roughly 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. alarm was set for 2:45 a.m. guess i wouldn't be needing that.

get up, get dressed, eat plain mcdonalds hamburgers purchased the night before, listen to some slipknot, make sure dennis didn't freeze to death overnight, roll over to the start line. always cool to see so many blinking lights in the dark of night. lots of optimistic banter and more conversations about the promise of wonderful weather. guitar ted drove a controlled rollout before pulling off and allowing the mob to start their adventure. as expected a big group popped off the front. i laughed to myself a bit. last year i would have chased them and forced myself to ride as hard as i could to keep up as long as i could. i've learned a lot in a year. the first hour and a half of this ride was spent in total darkness with a lot of positions shifting as people sorted out their speeds and riding partners. for a short time i fell in with jim and warren. fabulous guys. jim, i believe, is the mastermind behind dirty kanza and both were great to talk with for a few minutes. soon i ended up with these two guys and something felt right. as we rode they began discussing their friend who obviously hadn't "stuck to the plan". right in the middle of this conversation we roll up on a guy just standing there. apparently their friend realized his failure to stick to the plan and stopped to wait for his friends. these three guys turned out to be matt wills, matt gersib (mg), and jeff bonsall from lincoln, nebraska. the best piece of advice i've ever received regarding transiowa was from a v.3 finisher ward budweg. he told me that if you want to finish you have to analyze every person you meet and within 90 seconds make a decision about that person. if you don't think they share your mindset, if you aren't absolutely confident that their in it for the long haul then you need to move on. these guys' collective experiences with previous transiowas as well as their personalities told me i had found the perfect fit as long as i could hold on. these three guys would prove to be instrumental in my ability to finish the ride. it was evident early on that our personalities were going to work well together so i set my mind to riding with these guys as long as i could. soon the sun came up. funny thing was at the time it didn't hit me that i would see two sunrises before this thing would be done. the sun brought with it a general rise in attitude and shortly after that we all rolled into cp1 together just over 40 miles in and well over an hour ahead of the cutoff time. other than that, the first 40 was fairly uneventful with a couple exceptions. gersib's hilarious attempts at documenting our journey (a video i'm not sure will see the light of day) and the only moment in the next two days that i would forget i was riding fixed. i'm pretty sure it was wills (it was dark) somehow swerved in front of me and i instantly locked up both feet entering a brief fixie/gravel power slide. no harm done. at the first checkpoint we were all smiles, especially after the coffee shop allowed me to use the facilities next door. breakfast wasn't sitting well and i needed some office time. so we took our time, ate a lot and got saddled up to head for cp2. we had roughly 110 miles to go and with the buffer we created by getting to cp1 early we had about 12 hours to get there. we had no idea how difficult that next stretch was about to be.

transiowa v.5 (prologue)

my transiowa v.5 story actually begins a year and half ago with t.i.v.4. many have heard most/all of this story so i apologize for the redundancy but i feel its important to the overall picture. sometime in the fall of 2007 i was working at the shop, it was roughly 6 months before my 30th birthday, 8 months til t.i.v.4, i had just built my jabber at the same time we became a vassago dealer, and mentally/emotionally i was a mess. i have attempted to defend myself and explain the mental state i was in and most people blow me off...and honestly that's fine. but the truth is my impending 30th birthday was weighing on me terribly. best i can describe it i was in a pre-midlife crisis and was unable to handle it. after some months of soul searching i finally decided that i could hit 30 and start my downhill slide, or i could go the exact opposite way. decision...to be in the best shape of my life by the time i turn 30. plan...order, build and ride the shit out of a fixed cross bike and enter transiowa fixed. the idea being if i could get into shape enough to ride transiowa fixed then i would have to be in the best shape of my life. problem #1...i hadn't ever ridden more than 25 miles in my life. problem #2...i'd never really ridden a fixed gear. problem #3...i was at best a slightly above average sport class mtb racer. i had either set myself up for failure or the success of a lifetime. in the meantime i had developed an awesome relationship with kris at vassago. often a frame order would lead to a 30 minute conversations about bikes and rides and races and lives. after a couple of months he started to mention the possibility of them doing a steel cross bike and began asking my opinion on specific features. after talking about it for a while i told him that if they were to be available before transiowa that i would buy one as soon as possible because i was currently on an aluminum frame and really preferred steel as well as how the bike was going to be set up and how it was supposed to fit/ride. kris was excited about what i was attempting to do so offered to get in a prototype, custom paint it, add me as a supported rider and hook me up with the frame. i was floored. beyond floored. i was some daydreaming sport class hack with delusions of becoming the second person to ever finish transiowa and i had a company like vassago wanting to take care of me. damn. so i rode, and rode, and rode. had some successes at triple d and other xc races. had some failures at t.i.v.4 and 24 hours of boone. but my goal was accomplished. when i turned 30 i was as fit as i've ever been. and i was getting stronger and faster. so it was a no brainer that i would continue riding until i finished transiowa fixed. no backing out. no excuses. no freewheels or gears. i would do it every year until it was done. fall came again and i began conversations with misty from vassago regarding my place on the team. by the turn of the year i was racing the proto fisticuff in actual cross races, planning my '09 race season and had been offered a spot as a sponsored rider. things were going well and i had plenty of motivation to keep putting miles on through the winter. i had to finish this thing. for myself, to repay vassago, to justify all the personal sacrifices made during countless hours of training, for my mental health. winter came and went, early spring brought early success on the mtb and a taper toward t.i.v.5. mentally and physically i was in a good place headed into this years race. once we knew that the weather was not going to be the determining factor this year all that was left was to pedal. and pedal. and pedal.

transiowa v.5 (short version)

i did it. 314 miles (plus however many ridden while lost). i think 11th overall. second ever to finish fixed. plenty of stories. long version in segments soon. this might be the most i've ever hurt in my life not counting injuries. countless people to thank for helping/supporting/making it possible. hopefully i'll get around to naming all of you.

rollin...

van's packed. gonna grab some luch with friends and roll out. woke up this morning swallowing razor blades. wtf? oh well...pretty sure it'll run its course by the time this thing's done. 314ish miles of fixed gear gravel goodness. who wouldn't be excited?

transiowa prep and pics

-quick note...guitar ted will be doing audio again. at this point it sounds like it will be on his blog rather than the transiowa site. read his disclaimers if you want, but basically don't freak out if you don't hear someone's name. he's running a race and commenting when he can.

-weather looks good. suprisingly good. here's for not getting too optimistic.

-already not sleeping well.

-by most people's standards i probably take this "race" too serious. they can piss off.

-hoping to have new vassago team kit here today or tomorrow before i leave. it'll be cool to finally fly the colors.

-fisticuff is in as good of shape as i can get it. still love this bike but looking forward to tearing it apart and building 2 fistys instead of just one.

-huge thanks again to kris and misty at vassago for all the support. this race was basically the beginning of my relationship with them well over a year ago and they've been awesome ever since.

-i'll be in the garage tightening every bolt i can find if anyone needs me.

decorah tt pics

scotty and i relaxing at the start

moffitt...ummm..."helping" me

fuhrmann

kent

trevor

scotty

me

folkey

the sponsor

the king