Dirty Kanza 2016

Around 3am on the morning of the 11^th running of the Dirty Kanza, I heard a different noise than the buzzing of the air conditioning cooling our dorm room at Emporia State University.  I took a look outside the window to realize we were getting hammered by rain and wind.  That’s going to change things. 

 

We had a perfect course waiting for the 1000 races for 200 miles of the Flint Hills in Kansas.  It rained about 30 minutes or so, dumping around an inch of rain on Emporia.  An hour later it’s a distant memory, as we joined others for breakfast in the university dining hall.  Will Shore and I rode down to the start around 5:30 to line up with others, wondering how the day will unfold.  At 6am, we headed south on Commercial Street anticipating our transition to gravel, which will keep us company for the rest of the day.  After rolling over the Cottonwood River, we take our right turn onto Rd 155.  Within 50 yards it looked as we were getting ready to cross Lake Mattamuskeet at low tide.  Standing water as much as a foot deep greeted us.  As fast as we got through the standing water, we were into some peanut butter mud, quickly thinking about the epic event last year.  A dozen folks were on the side of the road looking at their mangled mess, broken derailleur hanger and all.  Then, I heard a “go get’em Jimmy”.  My riding bud Will Shore broke his hanger.  He asked me if a single is possible.  Within a couple miles we were out of the mud.  What bad luck.  This place can be relentless on equipment.  Will said around two dozen were in the same shape as he was.  After a trip to the bike shop in the back of truck, he managed to get back on the road nearly four hours later.  He headed due south on 99 which takes you to Madison, for our first 50 mile control.  He rode the route from there on, so he ended up with a solid 180 miles. 

I managed getting to Eureka around 12:30.  I was pleased with a 6 ½ hour century, with my nutrition, bike, and body working all right.  I knew of one problem a coming though.  The wind had been building, out of the north, and we were getting ready to head back to barn, right into it.  The forecast was for 10 to 20 mph out of the north.  That doesn’t sound too bad.  Unfortunately, we had gust around 30, with steady winds over 20.  The afternoon heat was building too. 

By that point, my nutrition of choice, Perpetuem, was getting tough to choke down, as it warmed up.  I was craving something solid, something salty.  This was the toughest section.  Some 58 miles getting back to Madison from Eureka.  I felt as my race the sun goal was quickly disappearing as my average speed continued to tick down.  Upon arriving back in Madison, I figured I needed to shift gears, eat some real food, and just plan to enjoy the sunset on the bike instead of downtown Emporia.  I found a chair for my first sit down, and with great volunteers, was putting down a hot dog, with extra mustard, a pickle or two, and some small spicy Subway sandwiches.  I spent the same amount of time at this stop as I did at the first two combined.  Oh well.  I departed at 5:45, with only 3 hours before sunset.  I had 46 miles to go.  The wind was starting to slow, but I still felt beat up by the wind and heat on that third section.  Within about 10 miles from Madison I had my first mechanical.  Flat rear tire.  I found a piece of flint stone lodged right in the middle of the tread.  After a slow repair, I’m back on the road.  I even got the phone out close to sunset, and took a couple pictures.  Soon thereafter, I was coming up to the train crossing about 10 miles out of Emporia, which had a train stopped on the tracks.  There were a couple cyclist that just passed me waiting as well. 

 

We spoke with a fellow on the other side of the tracks, and he said it’d been there for about 30 minutes.  We could see the front of the locomotives to the east, and had plenty of room to ride down the side of the tracks.  As we were making our way toward the front of the train, another one came by.  So, after he passed, we hopped the tracks to find the other side wasn’t in nearly as good shape.  I walked about half of that before getting back on, and riding back to the road.  In about 10 more miles, we were heading down the tunnel of festival goers cheering us on.  Really good to be back in Emporia.

There were 944 starters for the 200 miles, with 553 successfully completing.  58%.  I finished in 15 hours 33 minutes, which was good for 128th overall and 21^st of 105 in my age bracket.  The volunteers at the rest stops were great.  Thanks Emporia.  Congrats to my buddies Herb Mantel and Chris Scorsone for completing with an hour to spare.  The longest ride they’ve ever done before this beast was the Bootlegger 100 miler back in May.  Great job.  I think we all found our limits that day.

Thanks for reading.

Jimmy Williams

Dirty Kanza 2015

My weekend in the Flint Hills.

We are on the starting line, 10 minutes from the start, and they do a roll call of some of the big names in the gravel cycling world, including the likes of Dan Hughes, Rebecca Rusch, Yuri Hauswald, and Barry Wicks, to name a few.  Chris Carmichael is right behind me.  Sort of intimidating be in the middle of such riders. 

Less than a 1/2 mile in, they stop us for a train.

 

The weather is cool, with a misting rain.  At 6am we are off on a fast start.  The north winds push us out of town, with an occasional turn to the west and a reminder that we are going to pay for that wind later in the day.  Then, at mile 8 my day takes a quick change.  I’m on the ground with 2 others.  I didn’t even see it coming, as I got hit off my left tail.  The first thing we had to do, along with a couple choice words, was to depart my bike with the guy that hit me.  After that, I moved off to the side and took a quick look over.  Disaster averted.  The next couple miles I’m just looking over the bike and seeing how I faired.  I have a couple deep cuts on my left hand, but all and all no problems.  The big problem came at mile 12.  We rounded the corner after our first decent to see everyone dismounting and running.  Oh, this is gonna be fun.  After joining the madness, I quickly heard this is about a 3 mile section!  After a short while our shoes look as they have a pile of IHOP hotcakes attached to the bottom, and if you dare put your bike in this peanut butter mud and roll it, you quickly pick up pounds of it on the tires, forks, and stays.  One fellow looked at me and said “does this shit just fall off”!  I’ve never been in this kind of stuff before, and that was a valid question.  The other concern was how much more peanut butter mud is out there waiting for us.  We soon saw the unlucky ones that tried to push their luck with equipment, only to rip off their derailleur hanger.  This is going to be one tough day.  Things seem to be quickly from racing to surviving.  I was also getting behind on calories.  It takes more energy carrying 30 pounds on greasy mud that riding, that’s for sure.  Things quieted down after departing this part, and after using rocks to get the majority of mud from my cleats, I was able to get clipped in and riding again.  The first rest stop was at mile 70.  It was nice getting cheer’s from all the other support crews around Madison.  So, after reloading all my water, nutrition, and lubing the chain up, I’m off and feeling a bit better, thinking I might survive this yet.  Within 10 or so miles after leaving that stop, we are back in the peanut butter.  It was much shorter, at maybe a mile.  After departing, it took a while to get down to see my cleats, and to get them to engage once again.  I local out supporting us at this intersection said there is a lot of gravel in front of you.  That was absolutely the best thing I could have heard at the moment.  I just hope it’s accurate.  We are just 85 miles into our 200 mile epic.  At the riders meeting the previous day, one thing I kept thinking about that Rebecca Rusch told us, was this is an eating contest across the countryside.  You have to maintain your calories.  I was behind most of the morning, but after the rest stop at 70, that started turning around for me.  I was around mile 130, and feeling great. 

 

I was passing folks and really starting to have some fun now.  I took this energy into the Cottonwood rest stop at mile 155.  The crowd cheering us on was great!  I was feeling great, and didn’t want to change anything, so I reloaded my camelback, nutrition, lubed my chain, mounted my headlight, and was back on the road.  Within a mile I passed Chris Carmichael, who I’d ridden off and on with all day.  The last time I saw him was 20 miles back when I got some wind in my sails.  He got back in front at the rest stop.  I nodded to him and said hello.  He was quickly on my side, and said I’m not going to let you get away this time.  I told him I’m still feeling good, but that could all change quickly.

Chris Carmichael and I ticking them over as dusk approaches.

The evening was really nice.  The hills were not quite as sharp, and the setting sun was relaxing.  Around mile 185 things will change once again.  Lady luck would run out.  Flat front tire.  It was holding air, so I told Chris I’ll just top it off and we’ll see if I can limp it in.  No luck, so another mile I’m digging my tube out and fixing my flat.  I told Chris he should go on, but he said no, that’s part of the deal.  It was nice to have company, but being so close to the finish I might have rushed more than I should have.  I didn’t do much of an inspection on the inside of the tire, which would cause another flat some 7 or 8 miles down the road.  I took my time, got it fixed right, and headed toward Emporia.  The Commercial Street finish line is like no other.  You ride into a huge festival, coming down a gated section of maybe 100 yards, with folks cheering you on, high fives and all.  It’s good to back in Emporia. 

So, the final numbers are 427 finished the DK200 out of 882 starters.  That's 48% finish this epic.  The winning time this was right at 13 hours, some 2 hours and 15 minutes slower than last year.  I was a little less than 2 hours slower from my last years running, finishing at 16 hours 20 minutes.  That’s good for 131^st overall, and 20^th of 68 finishers in my age bracket.  Include the DNF and that puts us in the top 15%.  I’m happy with that.  Last year DK looked like a road race compared to this year.  It was dry and dusty.  No dust problems this year.  Just peanut butter, mud, problems. 

Thanks for reading. 

Jimmy Williams