Week #39 Cannonball 550 Completed!

 

Week #39 - 713 miles

I have been wanting to do Kansas Cannonball 550 for the last couple of years, so I finally made it happen this past weekend. The event is challenging to put it mildly. My main goal was to finish, since I have never rode that far before and I wanted to try to complete it without stopping to sleep. I have done quite a few events where I have rode throughout the night, but never gone two nights without sleep.

We started out on Friday morning and it was raining so I knew there was going to be mud sooner or later on the course. About 50 miles into the ride, Joe Kleidosty broke his crank arm on his bike and had to abandon. The next 500 miles I was solo. Around 80 miles at Alma, I stopped at the car wash to clean my bike off. The first evening I rolled into Marysville and Mark Hoffman was waiting at Backroads Bicycle where they had some food and my bike got another good washing. The first night was pretty chilly and foggy. I made it to Sabetha to get some food and warm up a bit. I was tired riding through the night, but for the most part everything went well. I may have dozed off for a second or two while I was riding. Once the sun came up and it began to warm up, I felt much better. After walking through the mud for a few more miles, I made it up the northeast section of the course where all of the big hills waited for me. By then the temperature was over 90 degrees, but the body was still cooperating. Early in the evening I got to Tonganoxie where Steve Weiser was waiting for me. It was great to sit and chat with him for a bit before I got back on the road. I knew the second night was going to be challenging and it was. Outside of Lawrence, I started to get tired so I stopped and sat on the side of the road for a bit. I knew I didn't dare lay down in the ditch or I would fall asleep. Things didn't get real weird until the middle of the night. I was somewhere near Pomona Lake on a really narrow road but I thought I was riding on the Flint Hills Nature Trail. After arguing with myself for a bit, I decided I better stop for five minutes and rest. A little farther down the road I realized that I was stopped, unclipped and standing over my bike along the road. Not sure how long I had been there, I figured that it was probably time to sit down and have a little more food and a bit of a rest before I went any further. After those fun times, I began to feel a little better and around 5am (Sunday morning) I actually felt overall in pretty good shape. Once the sun came up I knew I would make it to the finish. A few miles out of Emporia, Warren Brandon Nelson and his daughters were waiting along the road to cheer me on. It was great to see them and give me the final push into town. Once I rolled into town, Bobby Thompson and Trey Harrison were at the theater. Trey had brought me some breakfast, which was delicious! Matthew Slater just missed me rolling up, but he had the traveling trophy for me. I do really enjoying doing events like this. Each time I learn something new about myself and how I can improve for the next one. I luckily didn't have any mechanicals and my Lauf True Grit with Cantu Cycling Wheels handled the course great. This will probably be my last big adventure for 2022, but I have some things planned for 2023!