SCOLETRAIN

High Winds = Tough TIv4 = DNF Again

Guitar Ted Quote:

So, imagine if you will five men beaten and battered by 12-13 hours of 25mph winds at temperatures hovering around 40 degrees for most of that time. Throw in wind gusts of over 40mph throughout that time. Winds that knocked some of these five riders off their rigs! Now throw at that roads that are frost heaved to the point that vehicles could no longer navigate them and made bicycle riding treacherous in daylight, much less at night. Finally, throw in downed trees across our path, and washed out roads that were so badly rutted on the downhills that our SUV chase vehicle was often skidding and skittering around out of control at 20mph. Roads that would have caused dangerous cycling conditions with fresh riders. We ran into a downhill after about 250 miles that was so dangerous that we were left shaking our heads thinking of what the riders might experience after that many miles in their legs and in the dark of night. The nail in the coffin came when at the bottom we found the approach to the low water crossing washed out with nothing left to traverse the 20 foot wide section but slimy wet boulders and rip-rap. With no other feasible re-route options open to us and after scrambling with previous re-routes for hours, we decided to bag it in the previous town rather than subject the final five riders to dangerous conditions and possibly confusing re-routes in the pitch black of night. In the end both d.p, and myself were able to walk away from it with clear consciouses. The riders seemed to be fine with it, and we have moved on

We arrived in Decorah around 3:30pm on Friday. I make what I thought was my final choices with race clothing, packs and other supplies. At 5pm we head for T-Bocks in downtown Decorah for the pasta feed and shared a table with the amazing Team EXPO clan before Guitar Ted introduced each rider and prepped us about the event. I made a few small changes after dinner as the weather forecast had changed once again. Lights out by 9:30pm as I tried to get my mind off my 2:30am wake-up time. Of course I wake up many times from the rowdy soccer players and parents in the hallway and tried not to worry too much with the growing intensity of the wind gusts that were hitting the hotel throughout the night. The alarm goes off at 2:30am and I fuel with bagels, peanut butter, an Ensure and a cup of coffee. The Weather Channel forecast causes the warmer layers to go on and some early stress as the weather is about to drive me crazy with flood warnings and a chance of rain throughout the daylight hours and sleet and snow possible for the Saturday evening. With 36 degrees temps and 30 to 40 mph wind gusts at the start time, this looked to be a disaster waiting to happen. We arrive at start and I wait until just before 4am to line up. G-Ted talks to us one last time about the weather and other dangers with 57 starters set to roll off into the darkness of northeast Iowa. After the start and a good warm-up climb out of Decorah, I settled into the second group that was moving at a comfortable pace as the leaders blinky lights were still visible up ahead and I tried to concentrate on warm fuzzy thoughts as the wind sliced through me like a knife. Thank God I packed my lobster mitts and my Craft thermal jacket just before leaving on Friday morning. It would have been a cold start without those key pieces of clothing. Thankfully no rain came during the day, just light snow flurries with the winds in the early morning hours. With 10 hours to make the first checkpoint at 110 miles, who would have guessed that Gus and I would have only 25 minutes to spare before the official cut-off time. It didn't help that we missed the flagged detour and came face to face with a very deep flooded road that G-Ted had warned us about at our meeting that resulted in five extra miles we had to backtrack to find the turn we missed. Later on it was quite a relief to see the Team EXPO vehicle as Gus and I were finally within a mile or more of checkpoint number one around 1:30pm. Props to Gus's brother Aris for giving Trans Iowa a shot as a 16 yr old with an awesome effort before pulling out. He rode like a veteran and has lots of good miles in those legs for many more epic endurance races in the future. I think that only 23 racers made it to the 1st checkpoint, and only 17 continued on towards checkpoint number two. Gus called it a day even after I pleaded with him to get back on his bike. As I left the checkpoint I hooked up with Cornbread Corey(5th finisher) and Ironman Charles(4th finisher) as we battled very severe winds over the next 40 miles that took about 4 hours to ride. We rarely got over 10 mph during what I called the DEATH MARCH that included a mudslide and all of us hitting different stages of the bonk with low fuel and water supplies as we hoped for the next town to come soon. Again I was experiencing a right Achilles issue like last year as I tried to baby it along as I concentrated on changing up my pedal stroke by keeping my heel down though the complete pedal stroke. This seemed to work for all but the last few hours of my 14 hour adventure when I started having a right sore knee that was getting worse with every pedal rotation. It wasn't easy trying to stay focused at speeds so low that occasionally you were getting blown across the roadway if you didn't fight with every available ounce of energy to keep moving forward in the high winds. The last 13 miles before Winthrop was physically and mentally the end for me as the three of rolled into town with a total of 162 miles behind us. That mileage included the bonus miles from our poor navigation skills that led to off course excursions a handful of times during the day. Once into the small town of Winthrop we stopped at a local market and I made the tough decision to pull the plug on my 2nd Trans Iowa attempt. Knowing that I gave it my best shot without putting myself into a dangerous situation or at risk of being sidelined this summer, I got picked up by Scott(my veteran race support guru) within a few minutes and found out that only 6-8 riders had made it to this point by the time the three of us arrived and only five would continue on to the end. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with not finishing this monster off an event, but I am happy with how far I got considering the unbelievable weather conditions. Call me crazy if you want, but I'm already thinking about next year and how I can prepare better with training, nutrition and my bike set-up. A big THUMBS UP to Mr Farrow for his excellent ride along with Corey and Charles for conquering this version of Trans Iowa. Thanks to Guitar Ted and all the volunteers that make this event so desirable and for making the decisions this weekend to keep the racers safe after finding the roads to be in a state of disaster from the unpredictable weather. Thanks also to Scott Christopherson for the great support this weekend and to Specialized and Ergon for giving me the products that enabled me to be on my bike for 14 hours without any worries. Next up, the WORS series with the first race at Iola if I'm recovered. Pedal on...