Death March 2014 is now firmly in
the rear view mirror, and I think the only thing that can sum up that adventure
is “wow.”
First, I have to toss out thanks
and kudos to my teammate, Aaron Lifford. He and I spent time putting together a
plan of attack which was successfully executed and we rode well together.
Now down to the nitty gritty. It
would take me too long to type out an explanation myself, so here is how the
race director described it on Facebook:
"Teams of
two race to historical cemetery check points in any order using any route while
taking a digital picture in front of the sign as proof of reaching the check
point. Time bonuses earned for reaching more than just the five mandatories.
So
yeah, there are five mandatory cemeteries/checkpoints, three of which were announced
before the race, and the last two the day of. The remaining cemeteries, and one
fire tower, were worth time bonuses which would subtract from the overall time.
Lowest adjusted time wins.
And
here is a link to the Google map with checkpoints for those who want to follow along.
So
Aaron and I had a council of war the weekend before to discuss the plan of
attack. Knowing the three mandatories, we planned a clockwise route which had
us going up state highway 446 (aka Knightrideg Road) from the start line at the
Midwest Trail Riders Camp (“MTR”) to hit the first mandatory and then heading
east into the forest to hit Todd Cemetery, Hickory Fire Tower, Robertson, and
Fleetwood, before heading north to Elkinsville, and then south to Lutes,
Houston, and back west to Hickory Grove and the finish. The only tripping point
was if some of the more outlying cemeteries would be called the morning of.
Gorbitts is located to the southeast of the race area, and all access routes
involved nasty climbs. Additionally, in the south east of the course was Gil
Gal and Hawkins, which required some climbing, but whose time bonuses were not
high enough to justify a detour, unless they were called as mandatories.
A final cemetery is Callahan. The
only cemetery not accessible by a road, it is located in the middle of a patch
of forest, with only trails to gain entry. Our in-depth analysis (and my
experience on that trail two years ago) indicated skipping that.
So, our plan was set,
contingencies were in place. Now for a weather watch. Conditions were slowly
warming leading up to race day, although there were early reports of ice and
snow covered roads. These reports led me to make two panic purchases: A pair of
Lake MX303 boots and a new beefier front tire to blast my way through the snow,
a Continental Mountain King 2.2.
On race day, forecast called for clouds
with possible precipitation later in the day and with temps starting near
freezing and moving into the 40s by race end. The boots would be kept for another day but the tire got the nod.
 |
| View from the middle of starting pack. |
We arrived at the MTR nice and
early and get situated. The drawing of the remaining two cemeteries, and the
moment of truth as to which route we would utilize, was done and Mitchell and
Hickory Grove were both called. This worked perfectly with our plan since
Mitchell was less than a 5 minute ride from the start, and already on our list
of stops, and Hickory was already on our route of cemeteries to hit.
We were off and riding and
immediately hit Mitchell, along with about 1/3 of the race.
 |
| Mitchell Cemetery Selfie |
Escaping from that
mess we turned north and took 446 up to a side road to the second mandatory
Hillenbrand-Stephenson Cemetery. We bypassed another Hillenburg Cemetery (the
wrong one), although I called out to two teams who had stopped that they were
in error, nabbed the right cemetery, and headed towards Tower Ridge Road.
 |
| The correct Hillenburg. Our last selfie since I began to get nervous about cutting one of us out of the photo and then missing the error until the end. |
I
hate this stretch of road based on my first Gravel Grovel experience. This time
it wasn’t as bad, thanks to having a teammate, although we found the mud to be
quite bad. Aaron and I got Todd Cemetery (our first time bonus of 20 minutes)
at 29 minutes in, and proceed to the Hickory Ride Fire Tower.
The deal with the Tower is that
you climb the thing, take your photo at the top, and you get 35 minutes bonus.
Easy enough, but that tower is unnerving. I’m not afraid of heights (usually)
but feeling it sway the higher you go, and the 15 other people doing the same
thing, makes one hope 1930s construction was up to the task. I told myself that
the tower had stood for over 80 years through the worst Indiana weather
possible, and that a group of bike riders were not going to be the thing to
bring it down.
We survived, took the descent
down Tower Ridge Road to Robertson (25 minute bonus) and then to Fleetwood (15
min. bonus). At this point, we were 1:15 into the race, and had collected 1:35
minutes in bonus time. We were in the black! But it was not to last, as there
would be no time bonuses for quite some time. Our next stop was another
mandatory, Elkinsville Cemetery. On the map above, it is the checkpoint all by
itself at the top of the map. To get there, we had to take Combs Road, a now
closed and unmaintained county road which is at best a single-track trail, and
at worst, a creek bed. For the Gravel Grovel, this route has been mostly solid
and I have been able to climb the formidable hill at the midpoint of the road.
Not this time. Lots of water, mud, and all around nastiness. I got a third of
the way up the climb and lost all traction. Walked a bit, remounted and climbed
the rest. The descent on the other side was sketchy, although Aaron rocked it
like a pro, while I was my normal conservative self on the downhill.
We exited Combs and hit the Elkinsville Cemetery,
and took a short break. All told from Fleetwood to Elkinsville, took 50
minutes. We were back in the red, and that red was only going to get darker. Our
route took us back up Combs, but at the “summit” of the climb, we took a
connector trail east to the Nebo Ridge Trail, which itself went east and
connected with the Barry Ridge Road, which was our exit.
Nebo was Nebo, an old school
trail, with heavy leaf cover (makes the rocks and roots more fun) and lots of mud.
I was a bit slow on this section, as I usually am when using a rigid fork on
singletrack, but Aaron rocked it. Our plan was to hit Berry Ridge, take it
northwest to Mount Nebo Road and onto Buffalo Pike which would drop down to the
next few checkpoints. As we hopped on to the road I spotted a group of riders
coming north on Nebo Ridge. I did a double take. The southern terminus of Nebo
was another 5 miles away. Considering the conditions on Combs, and the section
of Nebo we had just ridden, I couldn’t imagine riding it all the way north. My
hat off to you folks.
Anyway, we were cruising along
Berry Ridge à
Mount Nebo, saw some other riders, and climbed a few hills. We hit the descent
on Buffalo Pike, and I told Aaron that at the base of the hill there would be a
hard left, followed by a right turn to take us to Lutes. Well near the bottom
we came to what I would now call a gradual
left, followed by a right turn. I stopped, a bit confused, since the turn did
not look like what I was expecting. Aaron consulted the cue sheets he had made
for us, and we determined we were a little early for the turn and continued
onward.
Soon enough we did find the hard
left and then a right and got to Lutes Cemetery for a 35 minute bonus. For
those of you keeping score, we were now 3:10 into the race, and had collected
2:10 in time bonuses. Red was expected, and this wasn’t that shabby of a
position. Following Lutes we headed to Houston Cemetery and its 15 minutes of
time bonus. On the way there is a short climb, which I thought would be a good
chance to eat my mid race snack of a Payday bar. Unfortunately, I managed to
aspirate a peanut and spent the climb, and the rest of the ride to Houston,
hacking up a lung in an effort to dislodge it. Who knows, it could still be
there. At Houston I ran into a friend
who was on a co-ed team. She was running low on fuel and asked if we had any food.
Unfortunately, all I had was a gel, which she declined. I think she needed
something solid. We had yet to see a SAG and hadn’t had a chance to pick
anything up.
 |
| Getting thoughtful at Houston. |
After Houston was a stop at
Thompson Cemetery for 30 minutes and then the trek up the Buffalo Pike climb
the largest climb of the day for us. At the top
was the only SAG stop we found for the race. I asked them how long they would
be there, since I had a friend somewhere behind us who needed some food. They said they would be there for another 30
minutes at least so I hoped that would be enough time for her to get there. After
leaving the SAG we followed a quick descent to the second to last mandatory checkpoint
at Hanner Cemetery.
From here, we had a choice. We
could make for Callahan Cemetery which was only accessible by trail. Callahan was worth 50 minutes of
time bonus. We had wrestled with whether to tackle this checkpoint. 50 minutes
was the largest time bonus but my experience from two years ago was less than pleasant,
with mud, deep creek crossings, and steep climbs. Toss in the thawing ground we
expected a tough slog in, and were not convinced the trip would be worth the trouble.
Based on the earlier trail conditions that day, we stood by our plan to skip
it. Instead we cut south, hopped on
Highway 58, took it west to Norman, then north to the final mandatory
checkpoint at Hickory Church Cemetery where we took on some rather positive demeanors:
From here was the fast ride along
McPike Branch Rd. towards the finish. Unlike the Gravel Grovel, which follows
this road to the finish line, we planned to cut across on Trail 80, a horse
trail which fed into the back of the MTR property. On the map, this looked like
a decent short cut verses the road. Review of GPS tracks suggested the trail
was all downhill. Seemed like a good plan, although in speaking to some friends
pre-race we mentioned our use of the trial and they said that last year it was
terrible with mud. We still forged ahead, and ran into one of the worst stretches
of horsed out trail I have ridden. Deep, hooved cratered mud was everywhere. Numerous
branches of all sizes were down everywhere.
About half way through the trail,
I road over a series of downed branches and heard a grinding sound. At the same
time I attempted to shift to a higher gear and found nothing. I clicked the
trigger several more times with no result. I glanced down and saw the derailleur
was still there and attached to the frame, but was not moving. I assumed the
derailleur cage or spring was broken. The shifting problems and in saddle
analysis had cause me to drop back far enough that I had lost sight of Aaron
(he was consistently faster than me on the trail sections all day), and after
gaining some speed, I found him waiting. I told him I could still ride, and luckily,
the gear I was in was good for climbing. We pressed on and finally came out on
a gravel road downhill that led to the camp. We checked in at the finish line
(actually a woman sitting in a car with a clipboard) at 2:03, for time of 5:03
with 52 miles for the day.
We got our photos checked, and
washed down the bikes and changed clothes. By the looks of things, we were
easily in the top 30 teams back to the camp but the results would take a few
days to be finalized. We enjoyed some Yats, and then headed home since there
were no door prizes to be won. The results were posted on Tuesday and we had
taken 19th place in the men’s division (out of 85), and 23rd
overall. I was very pleased with the result. I felt good during the race, and our
pre-race goal had been top 20 in our division.
In terms of post-game analysis, I
liked our route, although Trail 80 was likely ill advised. The time ended up
being very similar to the time it would have taken us to ride back to MTR via
McPike. It also looks that Callahan was a key checkpoint for many of the top
twenty teams. Of that, 13 teams claimed Callahan. Even if it is not a mandatory
checkpoint, future strategy will likely dictate going to Callahan, although
this year I’m not sure our legs would have held as well on the trails as they
did on the road. Lastly, in looking at various GPS routes taken by some of the
top teams, I think next year we would take a counter clockwise route, by
leaving via Trail 90 at the back of MTR, and then making for Hickory and
Callahan first thing. Spoke to several riders who took this route and it seemed
the horse trails and the trail to Callahan was in slightly better shape early in
the race due to cold temperatures.
Nonetheless, I was very happy
with the performance at the Death March. Having a result that you can feel good about is a great way to start
the season and was a good warm up for the Barry Roubaix coming up this Saturday
in Hastings, MI.
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