Week #16 - 484 miles
Iowa Wind and Rock
is hands down the hardest gravel race in the US. With elevation of over 27,000 feet and being completely self-supported makes for a great adventure. I want to thank Sarah
and Steve
along with all the volunteers for doing an amazing job!!The race started out at 4am with a little drizzle and cool temps. Luckily we only had a couple muddy roads to deal with early on but they did some real damage for a lot of folks. I spent almost 20 minutes trying to get my chain to stay on since it was caked in mud. Once everything dried out the day was going great. Somewhere around mile 140 my stomach started to bother me. I thought I had been eating and drinking well throughout the day. Once I got into the second checkpoint at mile 190, I was struggling, I mean really struggling. I tried to eat and drink, but nothing was working. After taking a little extra time, I figured I better try to continue, but I really wanted to just pull the plug. I was hoping that was I got back on the bike I would start to feel a little better. My goal was to get to mile 250ish where there was the next town and I could stop at a C-store. When I made it there my stomach was feeling a little better but I still hadn't had much fuel in me. Ginger ale and hot chocolate somehow made me feel better. The strangest thing was I probably felt the best in the last 75 miles of the race. Pretty sure that I have ate and drank more in a 100 miles ride than I did for the 340 miles, so why I didn't bonk is beyond me.
I finished 5th overall but the biggest accomplishment was to finish. Just over 50 people started the race and 12 finished, which was the most finishers ever! I have two more ultra races this year with Unbound XL (350 miles) and Gravel Worlds - The Long Voyage (300 miles). The midwest ultra gravel trifecta!
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