Ecstatic Exhaustion

Well Rapture in Misery 2010 is in the books. This was the race I had been prepping for all year. Unfortunately, the heat did me in pretty well during the afternoon, I rebounded a little, then cramps finally did me in. Big ups to Doug "Pappy" Long and the heartland crew, another fantastic event fellas.

Lemans start, I walked. I told my self from the get go, you're doing 12 hours solo on a 32-20 single speed 29r, take it easy. Passed a lot of people on the double track then a ton of people in the boneyard where everyone was falling from the slippey death roots and wet rocks. I was riding along fine until trying to spin up a root, slipped and then dismounted, shouldered my bike, started to run and proceeded to pass about 30 people who were still trying to ride the nastiness. good call by me. got in a nice groove with a couple other folks on the singletrack until the first dam crossing before the first large hill. got maybe 50 feet up (the easy part) and jumped off...people on geared bikes started passing me left and right then I caught probably 3/4 of them at the top cause they were gassed and hike-a-biking now as well. There are 5 climbs at on the loop that absolutely kick some assage and I walked every single one of them in my 6 laps (30 hill climb hike-a-bikes, not fun). Did I mention every lap was 9.2 miles with ~750 ft. of climbing a lap?

finished my first lap feeling alright, but could feel the day's heat settling in. I would guess we ended up hitting somewhere around 94-95* with absolutely no air movement and good old heartland humidity (had to be 100+ heat index easily) Finished my second lap feeling alright. Stopped to change my kit and fuel back up with a spoonful of peanut butter (note...get it down before you take off on the bike again, PB is sticky-icky). i was also changing my socks and gloves after every lap I was doing. i knew staying dry would serve me better later. Here's a shout out to baby powder.

third lap I really started suffering. Took a long water/cool down break at the aid station by the dam and finished my third. Decided to skip the heat for an hour and give the body time to cool down and process the water that was sitting in my stomach. I did manage to throw up twice but did cool down finally and start to feel better. By then Adam K. had pulled from his 6 hour solo effort because of cramps and Ty and his partner were still hammering away in the 6 hour duo. After a literally hour long break, I got back on the bike around 5 and took off on my fourth lap. Still hot but it was feeling better. Also decided to stop at the aid station every time I hit it to dump water on my to try and combat the core from overheating...this seemed to help a lot, but did take up considerable time, oh well I was in survival mode. Came in from my fourth lap and found Garet Seacat had dropped from the race so I was on the podium no matter what. Also by then I was 2.5 hours down from the leader because of my break. oh well, press on and have fun :) i did puke again after my fourth lap, but then I caught a good second wind and started to be able to keep a steady pace for awhile.

Lap 5 started and I went out probably 15 minutes before lights were required. i wanted to squeeze in another before having to mount up. lap 5 was considerably better, but then the cramps started. i know exactly why now too, I had bought new shoes (not the problem) and had forgot to think that I should have had 1 insert in my left shoe and 2 in my right to line me up correctly. Wearing those shoes for my 3rd lap set a little muscle fatigue in my right leg that came back to haunt me this 5th lap. Got back in and still didn't feel too bad, so I lighted up and went out again.

The night air felt so good after riding in the nasty august heat all day (I concur with Mr. Locke...can we move RIM back to September?) Sixth lap was one of my better ones, body feeling wise, not necessarily time wise, until I tried to dismount at the end of my lap. unclipped my right leg and tried to toss it over and bam, lock up, still clipped in with my left leg, fall down, scream in pain, make a scene, pull from the race. All in all a great time. thanks midwest mountain bike patrol for rushing over when I fell haha. I'm sure it looked/sounded cool.

final thoughts...Heat killed me. I thought I was prepared and acclimated, nope, although I was a lot better off than a lot of folks (after 3 pm a lot of people were pulling themselves). I need to ride Crowder more. It's like Arkansas and I love riding Arkansas. huge climbs, awesome ridge riding, ripping descents. good job green hills trail crew :)

I have really so much more to say about this race, but words can't do it justice. One of those things you had to be there for. I'm gonna try to wrangle up some pictures of me somehow from someone. Until then, MTB Tour of Kansas City is this week, Spiderfest Saturday, then Cruise the Blues next week with the freshly married brother (congrats my sister).

peace and riding!!!