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