So, with two training rides of about 50 miles under my belt I headed to Grafton IL to give this a shot. I had no doubt I could sit in the saddle for 100 miles but any number of things could have happened to stop me from crossing the finish line. Fortunately, this story does have a happy ending!

I gave myself an hour and 45 minutes to reach Grafton before the start of the race, and to my shock it took exactly that amount of time. I started to unload my bike just as the main group of 100 mile riders left. So much for taking pictures beforehand! I moved as fast as I could to get all my gear together and started after them, probably 10 or so minutes later. As it turned out, that would be the last time in a hundred miles that I would see that group.

The first few miles from Grafton to Pierre Marquette were along a rolling bike path which was really nice. I suspect the lead group probably stayed on the highway because they were following a police car – which meant they rolled through this section much faster than I did. I was following where the arrows told me to go, and they said to go on the wild path…which ended in a few miles at the first rest stop (the Gold’s Gym rest stop). I didn’t really need to stop, but did for about 2 minutes to refresh my water and start dumping in some Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem, which would be my primary fuel for the day. Off I went…

My first goal was to find a group of riders in a pace line so that I could tag along, and for the next 10 or so miles I bounced around a few groups trying to find a speed I could live with. By far the fastest section of my day, I cruised along fairly quickly on this stretch as it was cool and shady (the sun stayed in the clouds almost the whole ride) and I was fresh. Because the main field was up ahead though, there weren’t many organized groups trailing behind like me. This meant that most of the day was spent riding alone or in small disorganized clusters.

The next rest stop was at a small building of some sort and like all the rest stops in this race was well stocked with loads of food and beverages. I stopped here for another few minutes to get water, ice, and refill my bottle with some Perpeteum (which I did at every rest stop). As I took off I still felt really good and was able to keep a fairly brisk pace for the next 10 miles to the Kampsville rest stop. I ran into one nice chap who was riding a recumbent bike, and was telling me how he had done 11,000 miles in the past 3 years on it! We rode for a few miles and eventually he dropped in with a faster group and was gone…

The Kampsville ferry was the highlight of the small town of Kampsville, IL and the 5 minute crossing gave me just enough time to snap a photo on my iPhone and upload it to Facebook. The rest stop was on the far side, and I stopped again before heading out onto the somewhat busy section of highway running between Kampsville and Hardin, IL. This was a tough 10 mile stretch, as we were now about 30 miles into the ride.

We crossed the bridge at Hardin and made our way to the next rest stop. I was only here for a couple minutes when my cousin came riding up. He also got a late start and was in a hurry to get back on the road. We chatted for a minute or so and then he was off and gone.

The next section had the only big climb of the day, which took us onto the bluffs above the rivers in the area. Not a difficult climb but after 40 miles of flats it was a change of pace. The scenery then changed to back roads through corn fields, rather than larger dual lane highways. I can’t say I was disappointed to be off the fast traffic roads for a while…

I stopped at the next rest stop and actually spent a few minutes sitting and eating some cookies. My plan was to depend on my Perpeteum the whole day, but I was sorely tempted by all the goodies I was passing up at the stops – and eventually I just had to have a rice crispy treat! I tempered it with a banana I think… I was off again on a fast highway for a short distance before getting back into the cornfields. The next section was one of the toughest of the day for some reason. Miles 50-65 seemed like a barren wasteland where the straight roads seemed to go on and on forever through the corn. The rest stop in Kane IL was the first one I was REALLY glad to see as I also ran out of water on this stretch…

Lunch was served in Kane, but a sandwich didn’t really appeal to me so I ended up eating a bag of chips and a banana just to give myself a little variety. After a few minutes of rest and a refill of water, I was back out on the blacktop. This next section I was feeling better, because I remember thinking so, but I can’t really recall much of this section of the ride until the end when we were skirting the edge of Jerseyville, IL and there were houses and such rather than cornfields. The next rest stop was at the City Park and was well stocked with nice volunteers (all of the rest stops were, it just seemed like this one had the most!). A quick rest and then off again!

The next section weaved in and out of the town of Jerseyville and I only remember snippets of this section — I think everything runs together when everywhere you look is a cornfield — including my only negative run in with a vehicle the whole day. A young kid in a red pick up yelled at me to get off the road. Apparently having 10s of miles between himself and the next vehicle plus me was just too much traffic. In fact on this section I can’t recall seeing hardly anyone else on a bike. Miles were thinning out the riders to the point of extreme.

The desolation ended at the next rest stop, which had all the usual goodies and nice folks. They said we were getting close to the end! Only 15 short miles to go!

The next section was along another fast section of highway and I pushed pretty hard here so I wouldn’t have to be on it any longer than necessary. I think I passed one rider over the 4 or so miles until the next turn off. Once back onto the country roads I didn’t see anyone until very near the next rest stop. At one point I was on a straight piece of farm road and I could see in back of me and in front of me as far as I could and didn’t see any other bikers. I rolled into the last rest stop of the day to one of the most vocal stops, with a nice group of volunteers giving a rousing cheer to each new biker. It was a nice gesture given that we were well behind the main field and coming in by ourselves. This rest stop was the main event of the day, though I missed the bands, probably by a couple of hours.

The end of ride was almost just around the corner, and the only big hill of the day was a fast descent off the bluff into the town of Elsah, which is just a couple miles from the finish line. The last mile or so is along the Mississippi River and is quite nice.

The finish was a bit anti-climatic. There was a tent with some nice volunteers cheering for all the late arrivals and a few riders were still hanging around the area having chow. Otherwise, you’d hardly know you were finishing a 100 mile bike ride. Not sure what I was expecting. I was done – that is all that mattered I guess.

The thing that surprised me the most about the day was how much pedaling was involved. I know it sounds terribly obvious, but I figured there would be sections of up followed by sections where you could coast for a bit and catch your breath. It turns out that except for the very last hill (which lasted about 60 seconds), almost the entire course was flat enough that pedaling was required even on the gentle down slopes. I never doubted that I could finish the 100 miles, but I was surprised that it took me a full 8 hours of pedaling to do it! This put me at about 12.5 miles per hour, which seems rather slow for a road bike – but with 9 rest stops I guess it adds up. Next time I ride 100 miles I’m sure I can do better. It gives me something to aim for.

My nutrition plan was mostly intact. My Hammer Perpeteum worked the usual wonders, and I paired with with Endurolyte caps by Hammer, which prevented any leg cramping. When I finished the race I was definitely fatigued, but not exhausted. A couple recovery drinks and I was good to go for the drive home. The next day my legs felt tired, but weren’t in any pain. I credit this to good nutrition!

Thanks to all who donated to the ADA in my name so I could ride this race. I’m proud to have helped in some small way to fight diabetes and I’m looking forward to doing it again next year.

Thanks for reading!

More pictures.

From 05-08-2010 Greensfelder Race

This was my first race since moving back to Missouri (2007), and my second race lifetime (my previous race was the 2005, 75 mile Laramie Enduro in WY).  I went in to this race not really knowing what to expect from a local race on a short loop (8.5 miles) of semi-technical trail.  I had been training at the gym most of the winter so that my casual riding would be stronger this year, and my previous bike outings this spring left me feeling I was in pretty good shape for a 39 year old.  Probably riding stronger than ever before.  For some reason this particular race at Greensfelder appealed to me, so I figured what the hell. But having no experience in racing made for an interesting ride…

One of my bad assumptions was that I could take it easy at the start since the group would probably be bunched up for a while and that fighting for position early on didn’t make much difference.  I figured that I could catch people one some of the technical portions (I pre-rode the course so knew what to expect).  This assumption was instantly shattered when I realized that since I was in the beginner class, there was a large disparity in skill level between the guy who got to the first big downhill first, and those who got there later.  It turns out that since I arrived bunched up in the group, I was at the mercy of the slowest rider on the downhill – and was unable to safely pass.  This slowed me down so much that the next age group caught up with us before we reached the bottom of the first hill – and they started a full minute behind us!  I would say I easily lost a minute or more within the first mile.

My next assumption was that I would be able to catch people on some of the technical sections, and this was true to an extent.  There were a lot of guys walking sections, and I was able to ride past them, but this wasn’t as big an advantage as I figured because the main field of my age group was so far ahead.

The trail itself was stellar.  Lately refurbished by GORC (Gateway Off-Road Cyclists), the initial 6 miles or so are all flowing single track, reminiscent of some of the best (flatter) trails in Colorado.  Never too steep on the ups or downs, it generally flows in and out of the hills and at times opens up into bullet train fast sections of nearly linear trail.  If you aren’t smiling on this trail, even in a race, you aren’t alive!  The last 1/3 of the loop is a fire road with a nasty climb out of the valley.  It isn’t overly difficult, but does require grinding pretty seriously for about a mile.  The loop ends with a wide section of double track that is pretty smooth and easy…making it very fast.

I placed 11th in my class (out of 17 riders) which I feel was about what I deserved.  I rode strong, felt pretty good throughout, and can’t complain too much about anything since this was my first race.  I was just happy to learn how things work, get a feel for where I rank generally in my age group, and I’m looking forward to the next race to see how I can improve my time.  The winner of my age group finished about 10 minutes ahead of me…I don’t think I could shave off 10 minutes without some serious training.  But, the 5th place guy was only 4:30 ahead of me, which means that 7 of us finished within just a few minutes of each other.  This gives me hope that with a little smarter start I might have been able to get a few positions up the list and if nothing else it tells me that I’m in the right neighborhood for hanging with my fellow category 3 racers LOL.  It was a really fun experience and I look forward to more this summer. The next race is on my “home trail system” of Castlewood, June 12.

If the race bug continues I can see that my 34lb All Mountain rig probably isn’t the best choice for such things…at the same time I have no desire to take my lunch to the gym every day to train for racing like my awe-inspiring cousin. Is there such a thing as recreational racer?

So, where to go?

I’m trying Google’s Picasa to see how that works for me. The first Gig is free, which I could fill up in my sleep, but it is 5 bucks for an extra 5GB of space… Once I reach a Gig, I’ll see how I feel about it and take it from there. For now, here is where I’ll be moving my biking photos. Family photos will be elsewhere.

Biking!

Facebook Like Button for Vbulletin

But what makes them my favorite online store for this type of gear is their customer service.  I’m not sure how long I’ve been a customer there, but its been at least 7 years with my current account.  In all that time, with maybe 30 orders, I’ve never been disappointed in the shipping, customer service, or the product when it arrived.  In fact, my latest “problem” with them illustrates just how much I’m a fan.

Over the summer I pre-ordered a couple copies of Windows 7, which released last week.  My credit card was billed promptly, I received an email saying my order was shipping and I sat back happily expecting it to arrive.  Yesterday it struck me that it hadn’t arrived yet, which was very unusual delay for NewEgg*.  So, I popped onto their online chat system, talked to a service rep and they confirmed a problem on their end which they immediately fixed, and then offered me a $25 credit on my next order because of the delay on this one.  It took less than a couple of minutes and a potential negative quickly turned into a major positive.

This is outstanding customer service worth sharing with the world!

*As a postscript to this story, I chatted with customer service yesterday in the morning.  I can see on their order tracking system that my order went out yesterday from TN and is already on the truck for delivery to my house today in MO.  This speed is not unusual, and I only mention it for the new people!

They should trash the entire bill as it is and start over. It should have 3 pages.

Page 1. Allow health insurance to be sold across state lines, and for the companies to pay taxes based on where they have insurees, not where their businesses are located.  Apparently there is concern that opening state lines will force companies to move to states with lower tax rates…

Page 2. Commit public money to health and physical fitness in schools again. Instill a healthy lifestyle at a young age to short circuit obesity, smoking, sedentary lifestyles, etc.  I’m not talking about throwing dodge balls or inflating parachutes as a group activity (I did this in public grade school for gym class).  I’m talking about getting kids on bikes, skates, skateboards, pogo sticks, doing orienteering, camping, running, etc.  Anything that gets them moving and participating.   Gym class needs to be totally revamped, given more time in the school year, and made an integral part of child development.

Page 3. Tax credit for not using health insurance each year except for wellness checkups. We should incentivize healthy choices and reward those who make the effort to stay healthy and not drag on the system.

The only downside is that this doesn’t provide any entitlements or cash cows for politicians or the health industry. Therefore, these things won’t ever be discussed as reforms. That is why I want this process to fail. It is overly complicated and has little to do with the health of our citizens.  It is one thing to say you want health care reform, which we all agree needs to be done, but there is no rationale for throwing in with a convoluted, opaque, mysterious bill like we are seeing in Congress today and accepting it simply because the cover of the 1000 page tome says “The Fix for Healthcare.”  There are 999 more pages of political insanity behind it.  Insanity that is even beyond the understanding of those who write it!

The correct answer to the question in the video should have been “you know, you have a point, we should all be able to openly and freely read each bill that is signed into law, giving you the American public time to see what it is we in Congress are doing on your behalf.”  Instead, like this clown says, the bills aren’t even read.  What is worse, the Democrats have fought to stop us from even having a chance to read the final bill before it is signed…saying it would take too much time to write so a lay person can read it.  Clearly, they are hoping to pass this before we can digest what is in it.

Do you want this bill to be passed as is, simply based on your trust of these politicians?  I sure as hell don’t (and to be clear this goes for both parties).

Here is what I’ve sent just now;

***

Thank you governor for releasing the funds to bring the Tour of Missouri to our state in 2009.  However, now is the time to show support for the tour and publicly state your commitment to bring the tour back in 2010.  Not to state the obvious, but the economic impact by all accounts is a net positive, and this will only improve as the tour gets stronger.  The strength comes in knowing funding won’t suddenly be cut – which is where you come in.  As it is, everyone thinks you will leave the tour for dead after this year, which kills the enthusiasm of future potential sponsors, race teams and organizers, international tourists, etc. This is a self-fulfilling negative prophecy.

Please consider making a statement in support of the tour as it is happening this year if you haven’t already.

Best regards,

Brian King

***

Email Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri.

If you prefer to call directly, 573-751-3222.

Please ask him to support the tour in 2010.

Missouri is on the cusp of losing one of the most positive PR sporting events in the history of the state because they can’t get their act together.  I figure investing 1.5M dollars in return for 30M+ in revenues which are generated from having this seven day INTERNATIONAL sporting event would be a no-brainer. Is it politics?  Democratic Governor of Missouri wants it dead.  Republican Lt. Governor fought like hell to save it this year with an 11th hour rescue.  Can it really be that inane?

There are three big bike races in the United States, though the Tour de Georgia apparently took this year off as they seek sponsors to foot the bill for 2010.  This leaves the Tour of Missouri and the Tour of California with 2009 races.  And here we are in prime time in the world’s eyes, and the state of Missouri looks like a bunch of chumps as we bumble around not knowing if the race will be back next year.  This hurts potential future sponsorships, this hurts television coverage (why bother if it is going to be canceled next year?), and it hurts Missouri tourism which is the primary sponsor of this race.

And, in what seems like a continuing series of complaints about the City of St. Louis and race planners, someone got the bright idea to place the start/finish line directly next to a median full of flowers on Market Street.  Then the announcers had the gall to berate anyone who was standing in the flower beds!  Congratulations – once again St. Louis looks like they can’t get their act together.  As you can see from this photo, the flowers are literally next to the start/finish – not somewhere people were standing just to be mean or bad citizens (as was implied by the announcers).

Don't stand in the flower beds!

I just can’t fathom why it is so important to have the race start and end in such a confined space, with literally 10 feet on either side of the race chute available for spectators.  If you aren’t standing on the guardrails for the entire race to protect your spot, you can forget about seeing the finish in real time.  I found this out the previous 2 years I’ve been to this race.  What this does is force people to hold their spots the whole four hours, rather than mosey around the tents to see what else is there.  Is it really that difficult to find some grand stands for people?  Why not have some high schools provide stands, and in return let them march their bands in between laps for some entertainment for the crowd?  The only entertainment we got was one motorcyclist doing stunts (interestingly enough, he is the only piece of entertainment for three years running).  Come on St. Louis, this is the best we can do?  One act?

This year there were no large screen TV’s showing the race at the finish line like previous years – which meant that once the peloton rounded the corner we had almost no idea what was going on.  This was bad.

Is it really so difficult to start and end the race somewhere like Forest Park, ideally along a hillside so that spectators could relax, bring blankets, enjoy the park, and see a good race without standing along hot guardrails for 4 hours?  Have the circuit go downtown to get your precious face time for the city, but don’t make the fans suffer for it.  Better still, have St. Louis be an end point of a stage race, rather than a circuit race.  Do a shot downtown, then a few laps through Forest Park for the big ending.  I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but the St. Louis circuit race is almost a carbon copy each year.  Time to mix it up.

Finally, I can say one good thing about this year in St. Louis – the photographers were asked to move back up the road far enough that they didn’t block all the spectators who were trying to see the big finish.  In year 1 they were right up at the finish line, making it impossible to see the winning sprint if you were behind them.  Not sure where they were in year 2 because I couldn’t see the finish.  Definitely an improvement.

And not to be totally negative, here are some ideas for improvement;

1. Improve the start/finish area.  Totally unacceptable to pack everyone in on a few small sidewalks, or worse in a half-mile of flower beds, and expect that to be OK.  Think this through a bit more next time.

2. There must be TV’s for spectators at the start/finish.

3. Bring in entertainment between laps if there is a circuit race.  You are trying to promote tourism.  Why not have Fred Bird there?  St. Louis Rams cheerleaders.  High school marching bands.  Allow regular bikers the ability to ride en masse through the start gate to get a taste of the race first hand and get on TV and get their bikes signed by riders later? Surely there are other ideas for entertainment which showcase Missouri that would do it for the positive exposure alone?

4. Have a camera on a roof top so as to capture the look of the peloton as it goes through the gate and as the big sprint happens at the end (since we can’t have helicopters this might be a poor man’s substitute).

5. If you are having money trouble, why not chip in with some other states to help?  The Tour de France isn’t solely a French affair, and it regularly travels in a half dozen other countries over the years.  Nobody wants to lose the exclusivity of only running through Missouri, but would it kill us to have a route spend time in neighboring states in return for help funding the Tour?  Off the top of my head, I could see a route going into Alton, doing a small loop in Illinois, and then heading back over the bridge.  A quick jaunt by the slaughter houses of the Kansas side of Kansas City might add some flavor to the race…

6. Politicians need to figure out a way to work together on this.  The tourism dollars alone make the decision to support the tour a NO BRAINER!  If we throw this away because of politics it will be a black stain on Missouri.

7. Get real time TV coverage.  How can an event this big, in our home state, not rate some kind of full length TV coverage?  I suspect it is because no one can sell advertising for this event.  Well congratulations – that is exactly what wishy washy support from the State of Missouri will do for you.  No one is going to pay for advertising on an event that no one knows is going to be around almost up until the time it happens!

8. Talk to Lance Armstrong.  If you can get him interested in having his Livestrong foundation have some role in the race, even making his group a prominent co-sponsor at no cost, the publicity alone will bring in tons more spectators.  Lance could single handed-ly save the Tour if the Missouri folks could play it smart.

I love the fact that Missouri has this incredible opportunity, and I fully expected the race would be canned this year.  I’m impressed that even at the late hour the race was saved, we were able to get seven professional racing teams to show up (we had 3 last year apparently).  Kudos to race organizers for doing the best they could with the time they were given. The race has lots of potential, even as other races fall from grace (Georgia).  But if Missouri blows this because of petty politics I’m going to be very disappointed in our elected representatives.  Not surprised mind you, just disappointed.

I’m not sure what the answer is here.  I’m just a guy who loves watching bike racing and I hate to watch this slow motion train wreck happen.  But what can we do to force the issue here, and fast?  I don’t know…

Then, I took about a 5 year break from driving it.  I can’t really believe it has been that long, but there it is.  FIVE YEARS it has pretty much sat in one garage or another.  I was tempted to sell it, and even posted it on Craigslist a few times with a few nibbles here and there.  But my heart was never really into the sale.  But it wasn’t really into keeping it either… which left me in a quandary.

This summer however, I’ve gotten the bug once again and I’m trying to FINALLY get this pig registered and plated in MO so I can legally drive on the roads.  My assumption being that if I can get myself back into Jeeping and I have fun like I did in the past, I’ll keep her for a little while longer.  I spent the past week working on the rear brakes – and I haven’t gone nuts, so maybe I have a chance!

1985 Jeep Scrambler Coming Soon!