24 Hours of DINO has come and gone. I had signed up for the 6 hour race on a whim in an effort to fill in the gap left following the end of the DINO XC series. DINO 24 (along with the 12 and 6 hour races) is an endurance race and I have not been training for endurance is several months. Most of my riding and training rides have been in the typical XC race length, less than 15 miles. My longest ride this summer was a 23 mile affair on my single speed at Town Run and a 33 mile pavement ride the week before the race. I had done the 67 mile Gravel Grovel in November and the roughly 52 mile Death March in March, so I knew I could handle the distances. However, for both those rides I spent time training. Plus those two races were primarily on gravel. Versailles is all singletrack.
The night before the race a massive storm front raged throughout Indiana. My home in Indianapolis got roughly two to three inches of rain and there were widespread reports of wind damage. There was no way the storm was going to miss Versailles, but the weatherman was saying the storms would clear the state by midnight. This would give the trails roughly 12 hours to dry. However, when I checked the radar in the morning, there were still showers over Versailles.
I arrived at Versailles State Park with about 40 minutes before the start. The scene at the start/finish line was impressive. Since the race spans two days, people had very extensive camps and pit areas set up all over.
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| Part of the sprawling campground set up near the start/finish line. |
I wedged in between two 12 hour pits who were equipped to the teeth, including some Christmas lights attached to a car battery. In contrast, here is my “pit” area:
Impressive eh? How much do you really need for 6 hours? I had several bottles of water, Gatorade, a few Balance bars, and a flat bagel with nutella. This snack had served me well at the Gravel Grovel and I was hoping it would work its magic again.
The course covers thirteen miles and uses almost all of the available trail at Versailles, save a bit of the Center Loop. Looking at past results, the most anyone had done in the 6 hour category was five laps. But since this was an open race, those 5 lappers were by elite riders. 4 laps looked doable, and based on my past experience at Versailles, and some past lap times, I thought laps times around 1:10 to 1:15 would be possible. At this rate four laps would put me close to the 6 hour mark. The plan seemed good. Unfortunately, the execution would not be.
We started with a Leman style running start to our bike while carrying either a wheel or seat post. Lacking a quick release seat post clamp, I went with my front wheel and took off at a easy trot to my bike. Initially the race hops onto a short portion of the relatively easy Turtle Loop trail. The only problem was the mud. The rain from the night before had left the course very muddy. However, following Turtle is Creekside, what I would consider the most technical of the trails at Versailles. Think rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. And a few roots. And short but steep gravelish climb. Rocks are fine, but not when the rocks are wet and covered in mud. It was like riding on ice. I was skidding and bouncing around. My Maxxis Ignitors were packed full of mud from Turtle and had no traction. Less than 2 miles in and already I was having a hard time maintaining more than 8 miles an hour. Other riders were also sliding and some lost their momentum on some of the short rocky rises, resulting in a few back ups.. One guy about twenty feet in front of me was going over a rocky hump and all of the sudden let loose with a string of profanity He reached down into his drive train and extracted his no shattered chain. He swore again and commented that he had no chain tool. That reminded me, I left my chain tool at home…..I tired to think about something else besides my own chain deciding to fail.
Creekside kind of peters out into more traditional dirt based single track with a creek crossing following by the aforementioned gravel climb. I got up this no problem and moved onto the Grandview Loop. However, this section was still very muddy and I caught into what turned into a long slow train. The best I could tell was that the train had over twenty riders and I was near the back, although people were hooking onto the back all the time. The problem was the yo yo effect. On any short hills, rooty sections, or tight turns, there was a drastic slowing which rippled throughout the train. By the time it got back to me, there were times where I was barely moving. Passing was difficult. The muddiness of the trails and the constant sliding made passing treacherous, and honestly, where the hell was passing going to get me? Moving from 18th to 17th in the train? We kept this up throughout Grandview. I was getting rather pissed because I knew I could keep a higher speed than we were going. My frustration continued as I was forced to actually stop and hike a few small hills because of the line in front of me. However, the coup de grat was yet to come.
After entering the Cliffside trail, there was a rooty technical section which should have been an easy over. However, a rider a few places in front of me bobbled the roots which resulted everyone behind him coming to a stop. I hopped over the roots, but due to a small gap I had on the riders behind me, they came up on the roots with no traffic and plenty of speed. I tried to get back on the bike before they came through but the hiking had clogged my cleats with mud and my first attempt to get started faltered when both my cleats popped loose causing me to tip over from the lack of momentum. I caught myself on the back slope of the trail, but there was no way for me to get started again before the riders behind caught me and I stepped aside so as to not block the trail. Several folks asked if I was alright and I assured them I was fine. I finally got started and hooked on to the back of these riders. However, Cliffside, seemed more difficult than I remember. Parts of the singeltrack seemed somewhat off camber and mixed in with numerous small wet rocks, I seemed to bouncing all round on the edge of being out of control.
The center piece of Cliffside, besides being built into the side of a very steep slope with a long way down to the creek below, is the waterfall crossing. Unfortunately, no one was taking photos on the actual trail, so all I have are some photos from a ride at Versailles two years ago. Below is a section of Cliffside that somewhat resembles waterfall but isn't. Still, this photo gives an idea of how narrow Cliffside is. Now imagine it covered in mud.
To some the crossing is disconcerting, although I have never had problems corssing it. However, just before this feature, we came to race traffic control. Because of the large trains of riders and the conditions, race workers were stopping riders and letting smaller groups ride the falls. In retrospect this was a good plan. I was in a group with two guys ahead of me and two women, one of whom was the same rider who passed me at the Town Run night race. We made it through the waterfall and moved along to the Shadow Run trail. This trail starts out with one of the longer climbs at Versailles. Like the other climbs, we were in long lines, but I made it to the top and managed to get up some speed.
I will say, I hate Shadow Run. It is about four miles long and it is a very twisty trial which keeps lopping in on itself over and over again, before coming to a fun desecent to the trail head/finish line. Problem is, the trial seems to go on forever. I was in a good line of riders, but just before the desecent, I must have hit a root wrong, and the resulting bounce knocked me up off the saddle and then I hit another root which caused the saddle to pop up and hit me in a rather sensitive area. I felt like I was going to puke and went cross eyed for a few minutes but kept riding. I hit the descent with the same group and immediately we got into a slow motion train. Several faster riders caught up behind us and started making comments that some passes were needed. This was not appreciated and frankly I was pissed. We were again in a long train on muddy and slick singletrack with the star/finish line less than five minutes away. Forcing a pass at this point would have been fool hardy and would have gained nothing. I thought it better to hold tight, focus on descending safely and make any passes on the rapidly approaching exchange area.
I made it to the exchange area and immediately started on my second lap. My plan had been to do the first two laps nonstop and eat on the bike. I still had plenty of water in my Camelback and still had some Gatorade in my one bottle. I had a peanut butter flavored Balance Bar in my back pocket for my lap snack and as I rode through the exchange area and a grassy stretch which followed I tore it open and took a bite. It was terrible. I’ve had this flavor before, but for some reason it seemed dry and hard to chew. I could barely choke it down and shoved it back in my jersey pocket in disgust, just before I reentered single track.
Conditions were much better during this lap. The mud seemed to have dried considerably and it was much easier riding. There was still a few muddy spots but overall the trails had shed the water and dried very well. Additionally, I was riding either alone or with one or two other riders. Everything had spread out nicely and I was enjoying this lap as opposed to the torturous and frustrating first lap. I kept up a steady pace, although still not fast enough due to random slick spots. I caught a few people and was caught by a few. I passed the aid station and its various treats, instead relying on my Gatorade. I got caught by one of women who I had been riding behind on Shadow earlier. I’m guessing she had stopped for a break and caught me just after the aid station. However, soon after she passed, she bobbled on the same roots where I had bobbled in the first lap, resulting in several riders, including her, passing me. She pulled off to the side and offered the pass, which I declined since she was the faster rider. She took point and while I had sight of her for the rest of the lap, I never did get close.
The lap was going well until the climb up to Shadow. This is not a tough climb, but for the 10 minutes preceding the climb I had begun to feel….weird. Like a mixture of general fatigue and hunger. On the climb, this feeling came to a head and I began cramping terribly in my right quad, which spread up my leg. This combined with the rapidly increasing fatigue took my speed down terribly. I had drained my Gatorade and suspect that this was the start of a grand bonk. I fought through the remainder of Shadow and made a beeline for my pit area.
I drank some water and Gatorade and refilled my Camel back half way. I had planned on dumping this in order to lighten the load, but decided I would need the easily accessible water. I took a load off and ate my flat bagel and Nuttela, and started to feel better. I discarded the sad remains of the first balance bar and replaced it with a flavor I have eaten many times while riding. I rested about 8 – 10 minutes and decided to get going. I had finished my first lap at 1:25 pm, while the second was completed at 2:44 p.m., still on track to get four laps. I took off and felt better. The cramps in my leg had passed and the real food had given me a nice burst of energy. I made it through the early trail just fine, but just after getting onto the Grandview trail, I started to get the fatigued feeling again along with some twinges in the leg. Grandview has a series of short climbs which began to sap my energy. On some of them I was barely going 5 miles an hour and was feeling pretty crappy. I limped into the aid station and had an oat meal cookie and an apple. I stayed away from the gels since I rarely use them and didn’t want to have to see the remains of the gel farther along the trail. After a short break, I took off again and continued trekking. However, the cramps came back as did the fatigue, only worse this time. The Shadow climb was agony and I puttered through Shadow proper.
I rolled into the start/finish at around 4:20, plenty of time to complete one more lap. However, the mind was willing, but the body was not. I felt completely destroyed and weak and decided to pull the plug. I had some food and sat in my pit for a few minutes before changing and heading to the Versailles McDonald's for a traditional post race cheeseburger and diet coke. Apparently my request for two cheeseburgers and a diet Coke with NO fries threw the good folks at McDonald's for a loop as I had to wait 15 minutes and explain three times that I did not want fires. Geez. As I drove home eating the burgers, I began to regret ending the race. I had begun to feel better while resting in my pit and eating some food. I had finishedthe third lap with enough time that I could have taken a short break and still likely been OK time wise. Plus I
I learned several things at this race:
1. Traditional cross country races do not prepare one for endurance events. I need to train like I did for the Gravel Grovel and Death March, i.e. long miles. Next year, I will hit up Fort Ben for a series of increasing mile rides on singletrack, combined with some of the hilly roads in the park. Figure 20, 35, 45, and 55 mile efforts would be sufficient to get me into more of an endurance frame of mind.
2. Food. I needed to fuel better. I had a shitty breakfast, and my peanut butter Balance Bar fiasco cost me. The Gatorade alone was not sufficient to provide the calories and energy i needed. My Nutella sandwiches were perfect. I need to eat those more often and figure out a pouch or small bag to carry those on my handlebars where I can easily grab and eat one mid ride. Unfortunately, I think the sandwiches I had after lap two were too late. My body was already heading towards a big fail. Also, I need to try a different drink than Gatorade. I like the stuff but there has to be something better out there.
3. Make use of aide stations: The aide station was well stocked. If I had not been so focused on getting the second lap done, I could have stopped for three minutes, had a snack, and continued. I think this would have helped me avoid the bonk that hit later that lap.
4. Learn to like bananas and don’t forget the Tums: In other long rides I have taken Tums along as I read they help prevent cramps. I took one an hour and was fine during those rides. I probably should have brought a few of these along to Versailles. Alternatively, the aide stations had bananas, whose potassium prevents cramps as well. I need to get over my dislike of this fruit and learn to use it to prevent cramping.
So there you have it. My 6 Hours of DINO race. I finished 21 out of 26. The splits are here. My second lap wasn't that bad time wise, Not as fast as I originally wanted, but the realities of the course kind of killed the whole 1:10-1:15 lap times. The positive thing was that my bike performed perfectly. I had taken my singlespeed as my B bike in case anything happened to the Access. Luckily the Monocog never got the call.
I had a good time and will do the race next year. However, I will begin a specific training plan a month or so before versus just winging it. Not much in the way of events this time as most of the mountain bike racing is over. Cyclocross season is heating up but I’ve never been terribly excited about that. There has been some informal short track racing at Town Run lately which is very fun, but I’ll save that for another post. Otherwise, the next big event to prepare for is the Gravel Grovel in late November.
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