Are you ready for a wild ride? Join Rob and Chad as they share their exhilarating journey of training for and competing in the Unbound XL Gravel Race. This 350-mile endurance test pushed them to their limits, and we're here to spill all the gritty details on how they prepared, the challenges they faced, and what they learned from this unforgettable adventure.
We kick off with an in-depth look at our intense training plans, which began in February and involved up to 20 hours of training per week for Rob, and 15-18 hours for Chad. Discover the unique challenges of night gravel riding and how sticking to a solid training plan was crucial to their success. We also discuss the critical equipment choices made, including the bikes and the importance appropriate gear.
As we progress through the race, we reveal the strategies, the incredible community support, and the exciting start line experience. Learn about their tactical decisions that helped stay ahead of the pack and the difficulties faced, such as mud, rain, and bike chain issues. Listen in as they share the ups and downs of this epic race and the invaluable lessons they took away from it. Trust us, you don't want to miss this thrilling ride!
Instagram @chaddna @robbelllife
Are you ready for a wild ride? Join Rob and Chad as they share their exhilarating journey of training for and competing in the Unbound XL Gravel Race. This 350-mile endurance test pushed them to their limits, and we're here to spill all the gritty details on how they prepared, the challenges they faced, and what they learned from this unforgettable adventure.
We kick off with an in-depth look at our intense training plans, which began in February and involved up to 20 hours of training per week for Rob, and 15-18 hours for Chad. Discover the unique challenges of night gravel riding and how sticking to a solid training plan was crucial to their success. We also discuss the critical equipment choices made, including the bikes and the importance appropriate gear.
As we progress through the race, we reveal the strategies, the incredible community support, and the exciting start line experience. Learn about their tactical decisions that helped stay ahead of the pack and the difficulties faced, such as mud, rain, and bike chain issues. Listen in as they share the ups and downs of this epic race and the invaluable lessons they took away from it. Trust us, you don't want to miss this thrilling ride!
Instagram @chaddna @robbelllife
Yeah, that's. That's the thing is. Whenever it's Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Yeah, all right, fellas, we're not gonna. I'm not gonna do like a pre-intro for this one, because I feel like This intro is gonna be enough for this episode. So we're here with Rob, we're here with Chad talking to Excel and bound Excel and all the stupidity that went into this. So, Chad, i'm gonna let you lead this off, right now.
Speaker 1:We kind of have an outline of what we want to cover, but since this is coming out on the 15th, there'll be some things, which is tomorrow. So there's gonna be a fast turnaround and there'll be some things coming in the future. I think you mentioned maybe a blog post or so. So if there's something we leave out, you guys can fill it in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, okay, cool. I think first off is This is stupid Idea, like I don't have any interest in doing the 200. Have you both done the 200? I have a Rob Rob. has Rob's done the 200? how many times you down the 200?
Speaker 3:I did the 200 in 2018 and 2019. Okay, finish both times finish both times with problems, both times sounds like pretty typical of everybody that does it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so whose idea? where did this idea even come from? How did it even start?
Speaker 2:I, i probably I'm gonna blame it on Rob And this, like during the winter, like when you could turn in your application for the lottery, we were all writing quite a bit and I'm sure this popped up and it sounded like a really great idea. And with the being a lottery, you really don't know who's getting in, so you sort of apply, hoping you you don't make it.
Speaker 1:It's shocking that you both applied and both got in.
Speaker 3:So actually funny story We both applied and I do think it was my idea, but Chad actually got in and I didn't, so I had to pull some strings. Thankfully, alan white knew somebody with the race and was able to to get me in. I don't know, maybe like five weeks before the event. Oh, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i knew Alan would be useful Interesting. All right, go, alan. Good job, bud. And Alan's gonna actually co-host a race episode with me. I think we're gonna record it next week covering all the races. So I need info about Wheeler No from this previous season so. So you guys got, even though you weren't in. You just kept training.
Speaker 3:You know. You know you were in your own kind of okay, Like I had it in the back of my mind that I might try to pull some strings to get in, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure that I'd be able to. So Chad and I were still riding together on the weekends. We're still putting in some training, but probably not like the ideal amount of training that you'd have to bite off for something like 350 miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So like, because you Pretty detail oriented guy and pretty on top of your fitness and your training and all that stuff. So having five weeks to really like Find tune it, did you really change much? We're gonna kind of skip around what we talked about before and since we're already talking about training, let's just jump in on that piece of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so so we didn't change too too much at all. There were a couple weekends where we just decided, no matter what the weather was, we were going to get in long rides. So we both hitched a ride with Romero up to Bixby for one of the Centier crates and rode home. That was a pretty cool experience and then we actually didn't do the crit. We just got a ride to the crit and then found gravel roads that pretty much led us all the way back to Oklahoma County.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty amazing round ride was that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i think it was like a hundred and forty five, so still like way under half the distance of of what the XL was going to be. But that was like a ride where we can dial in nutrition, figure out some pacing strategies And just see how our bodies were going to handle it.
Speaker 1:How far, how long ago did you guys do that ride? like how far before the event?
Speaker 2:Maybe like four weeks Okay gotcha.
Speaker 1:So coming up through the winter time, you guys had this on the radar of like this is a possibility. When did you kind of start I mean, this is a selfish question, because we just talked about me ramping up my training When did you guys really start like pan, like okay, we got to start ramping miles up.
Speaker 2:Um, maybe February or so, okay, cuz I I would say I probably had four to six weeks before My youngest daughter got hurt. But I had it like four to six weeks there where I was about 15 to 18 hours a week, okay, and then she got hurt and I had after that and I never got back that high again. Mm-hmm, but my intent was about February. Through XL was Try to go from 12 to 20 ish hours.
Speaker 1:Okay, so thinking 20 might be your biggest week. Yeah, and that roughly.
Speaker 2:I. I don't think I ever hit it.
Speaker 1:I think, I was maybe 17 or so, was it topped out at and then Rob What was your schedule looking like during that situation?
Speaker 3:So pretty much every season I try to hit the Rafa Festa 500 challenge pretty hard. So this year I think I think it was around a thousand miles. I did the week between Christmas and New Year's.
Speaker 1:You know a thousand that week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i think, i think that's. Yeah, i think I think so. So that's kind of like my big training block to get ready for, like, the February March races. Texas chain ring massacre Is always a big one for us, the Oklahoma gravel growlers a big one I'm mid-south is a big one, so that training kind of starts in December And then I just tried to race through, you know, most of the spring to continue building fitness and try to get long rides in when I kind of just rolled your normal training, just kind of rolled it through.
Speaker 1:Then inside your normal training, did you add like a few more, like longer days than you normally would, or would you just kind of say this is what my normal Training is, i'm just gonna keep going with that.
Speaker 3:So I would try to do like some back-to-back big days. So the day before we did that 140 something mile from Bixby, i wrote a hundred just to get like a 250 mile weekend in. And then I think I did that one other weekend, did like a 250 mile weekend just to try to simulate as much stress as possible without Doing like any damage to my knees or the rest of you a training peaks guy. I'm not a training peaks guy.
Speaker 1:Do you so? how do you calculate your?
Speaker 3:So I used to be a training peaks guy, so you know typically like I'll try to keep my CTL around a hundred and four mid-season racing.
Speaker 1:I haven't looked at the chart in a long time but, I can kind of feel it out or understand how my body feel what you? What's going on? Yeah, so how many hours a week was that at your peak?
Speaker 3:Um, i mean that festive 500 week was a ton of hours to get in a thousand miles, but most of the weeks are probably 12 to 14 hour weeks.
Speaker 1:Okay, and inside of doing the big back-to-back days, like I know you guys do, wheeler on Tuesdays most of the time, was there any other days that you did intensity or was it just kind of how? How were your workouts structured?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Wheeler was the big intense day. On Tuesdays, chad and I would both do the shop ride from capital co-op. On Sundays We had some hot zones there. Saturdays were typically just kind of more of a long ride day Where we'd hit up you know a gravel route in McLean County or we would go out east somewhere of Shawnee To try to, you know, get some, get our equipment dialed in on the gravel and see how we feel.
Speaker 1:What was the 145 year longest day? Yeah, it was my longest day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did that. And then we did Another ride like a Chickashe ride. That was like 130 ish. That was also a really great, great route, but those were for sure my longest.
Speaker 1:And then you start back-to-back days as well.
Speaker 2:I only was able to do it one weekend, but still even like the 140, and then you'd still have like the capital ride, which if I, if I leave my house, that's like 70 ish Okay, so they're still kind of okay. You're still getting over 200 miles for it's a long weekend, but I didn't have like back-to-back right hundreds really.
Speaker 3:So what? one of the questions that somebody asked me was like how much night gravel riding we did before the 350? and I would say the last night gravel ride I did before this was Mid-south 2021, when it was canceled. I went out to Stillwater and rode at midnight, but that was it. You know, like we'll start especially in the winter time where it gets light later We'll start in the dark, but that's on the road, and gravel was kind of a different animal at night.
Speaker 1:So you guys didn't do any like Big, like this is what it's gonna feel like uber early in the morning or super late at night. You didn't try to simulate any of those kind of no.
Speaker 2:We had one one weekend where maybe we started at 5 am, okay On a Saturday, and that that's pretty much all of our early morning night training.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, before we get into the other stuff, would you change anything in your training? looking back now, or if somebody came to you said, hey, i want to do this event next year, what would you recommend for their training to look like?
Speaker 2:for me, i, if I were going to do it again, i Would probably stick to my original plan And just cross my fingers like there's nothing that takes away from that, because I, i And granted I did not finish. But I don't feel like at any time other than when we started we went out really, really hot, that I, my body, never really felt like it can't do it. I never was like not confident my, my body could go through it. I Would have liked to have went in with like actually stuck to the plan and known like I did everything I possibly could to be as fit as I could for it, mm-hmm, but I still don't think my I would never try to have like a 30 hour week or I wouldn't try to work in more intensity. We, we had our, we knew the intensity we could ride for 24 hours like we had all that stuff pretty well dialed, i think how did you figure that out?
Speaker 1:sort of just Because you're 140 ride. How long did that take?
Speaker 2:Well, like eight hours, something like seven hours, eight hours. Like.
Speaker 1:I sort of. I mean, you guys have done massive rides on the road in the past, so you kind of a clue what's this world about right.
Speaker 2:I sort of like Just kind of like, when I'm not, if I'm not really trying to hit like any intensity there's, i ride in like a certain zone all the time.
Speaker 2:That, long time ago, had a coach that was like this is where you need to ride Mm-hmm, and I'm just pretty good at riding in that zone And so, going into it, i was pretty confident if I can just stay in the zone at this heart rate range, this intensity factor, I'll be okay, and when we did the big speed ride, our zones were like exactly where in, where I thought they needed to be, and so after 140 miles of that I was like I feel like I could keep going at this level as long as we fuel right and For unbound, like once we, once we let the lead group go, we, we slid like naturally right back into to that zone. So now all I would probably do is just try to put more miles in my legs. Rob, would you change?
Speaker 1:anything.
Speaker 3:No, i really don't think there is any amount of preparation that we could have done for the day that we had out there With the weather conditions and the course conditions. Yeah, i don't. I don't know that I would change anything from training. You know, we we didn't have the greatest weather the few weeks leading into unbound either, so we had, like, i think, higher ambitions for the amount of mileage that we were going to be doing six weeks before the race than what we actually put in. But I hate riding the trainer. So even if I can go back in time, i wouldn't have just jumped on the trainer to get myself crazy.
Speaker 1:You know what? okay, let's talk about the fun stuff, the equipment choices. So what bike do you ride? so I ride a 3t Explorer from 2018 so you've had it, for that bike's been through a lot of races, a lot of miles. It has been yeah and then, what Equipment, what tires did you run?
Speaker 3:So we both ran continental tariff speeds, which We were originally planning to go with specialized pathfinders, because that seems to be like the tire that most of the pros out there run, whether they're sponsored by specialized or not, but one. There is an availability issue with the 42s and two. Chad and I have been racing on tariff speeds for a couple of years now and they've done so well for us. Like we hardly ever flat with them. They grip really well through corners. We're used to how they handle and feel. So we went with what was familiar to us rather than just using what everybody else uses 42s, they come in a 40.
Speaker 1:Okay, is that what you normally ride in the gravel races? Yeah, okay, so you didn't change your width of your tire at all.
Speaker 3:No, and then?
Speaker 1:run inserts.
Speaker 3:We both did run inserts. Do you normally run inserts? I'm usually anti inserts, especially on a course like that where, like the rocks are so sharp If you slice like the sidewall of your tire and you have an insert in, it's gonna be a huge hassle to try to get the tire back off of the rim to put a tube in and then you have to Look like a fool the rest of the day with the insert like tied around your chest because you can't just like litter and throw it on the side of the course.
Speaker 3:So it's like With like a high probability of sidewall tears and unbound like I'm kind of anti insert And we'll probably get into it more later, but I'd say it saved my day 30 times over. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I had a lot of rim strikes Okay. So yeah, stoked that I was running inserts that day.
Speaker 1:They were the vatoria airliners. That's the insert she ran. Okay, as far as Shoes, ran, the normal shoes.
Speaker 3:We both ran road shoes, road pedals. I rode like not my nice ones, because because you know you're probably gonna be walking.
Speaker 3:Well, so the So we were paying like really close attention to the weather beforehand, and there's even like a few other podcasts where they had meteorologists on to talk about the weather and everybody was predicting that There'd be rain in the area, but it would be like pop-up showers that don't really last. Everybody's been saying how dry it's been out there, so they're like even like worst-case scenario if it rains on the course. There's only a few minimum maintenance roads and you're probably only going to be walking a little bit. So I chose, like, the riding comfort over the walking comfort for my road shoes.
Speaker 1:Um, all right, let's Well, let's talk bikes for your bike setup, and then we'll get into all the other fun little add-on equipment. What bike do you?
Speaker 2:run for this race. I ran a 3t race, max.
Speaker 1:Which is now available at capital co-op now it's available. Capital cop It was which I have one as well. Love the bike. I. I think we may be like the only three wall. I know there's one other or two other three T's in Oklahoma City that I know of, so I've really enjoyed it so far.
Speaker 2:But yeah, i would have like easily doubled the miles on it, because you've only had it a short time. Yeah, maybe three weeks, maybe. Otherwise I, like Rob said, i ran the same, the same tires. I ran inserts and you normally run inserts?
Speaker 1:No, okay, how do you feel about inserts at this point?
Speaker 2:Oh, i 100%, I think, like For sure they they paid off here. OK, i think like rule of three run inserts on bound Excel run inserts, so you would take them in and out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i've already taken them out OK As far as same tires for you. Ok, yeah, gotcha On your on this bike setup going into the race. Did you guys change anything in your actual bike setup as far as making it more comfy, besides adding arrowbars?
Speaker 2:No, we. The only thing I did was I added arrowbars. Rob added arrowbars.
Speaker 1:Everything else pretty much stayed the same.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:After listening to your podcast a few weeks ago I ordered a steady co top tube bag because I need a little bit more storage for food than what I had on the bike Currently his bags are awesome, his bags are awesome Super high quality, comfortable. The zipper works great. I was.
Speaker 1:I was really happy with it And you kind of made some like custom pieces to that bag, correct?
Speaker 3:So I did the color study and let him pick the color to match the kit. But it's it's otherwise like a stock top tube bag. Ok, but it was sick Like I fit so many gels in there, so much drink powder in there. I had a battery pack in there so that I can keep my Wahoo charged cables to, you know, charge the lights. And he's got like a cool little hole in the front of the bag so you can run a cable from your bike computer into the bag to keep your batteries charged. That's cool, yeah, super sick.
Speaker 1:What other? what other bags and or add ons did you have?
Speaker 3:So I was just running like a standard a Rundle seat bag. I had a regular tube in there, i had glue for like glue on patches. I had tire lever, i had multi tool, i had a tuba lead as a second tube. So I was pretty much ready for anything that might happen to my tires.
Speaker 1:Hydration packs, hydration How much of that did you carry?
Speaker 3:So we both carried the Oosway Oosway. We all sway for Eastway Packs. We did the Outlander Pro, which has a two liter bottle, no additional pockets, but you can still squeeze some stuff in there with the water bladder. So one of the requirements for the XL is you have to have a satellite tracker. So I went ahead and bought one of the Garmin in rate in reach messengers beforehand and Chad rented one at the event. But we just both stuff to men our bag. We had like maybe three plug tools each, So I had a couple of those plug tools stuffed in my pack.
Speaker 1:Did you run like the different size plugs or did you kind of just say I'm going to carry the fat ones and help with the best?
Speaker 3:So I carried three different size plugs. I carry so many plugs. He had dyna plugs, i had or maybe we both had stands, the stands, darts, bacon strips.
Speaker 2:The muck off one Yeah.
Speaker 1:Basically every plug that was made.
Speaker 2:Way too many plugs, just in case.
Speaker 1:And OK, we'll get into that in a minute.
Speaker 3:But OK, so plugs everywhere, plugs everywhere, hydration you carry two liter on your back, two liter on the back, and we both had two one liter bottles on our bikes, so four liters total.
Speaker 1:Nutrition what nutrition should you carry?
Speaker 3:So we went with kind of an interesting different nutrition strategy. So I found this guy online, dr Alex Harrison, and he has this app called Saturday morning And he's like super pro sugar, just like table sugar, and then sodium citrate. So I did a mix of guroctane and table sugar to get it to like a two to one glucose fructose ratio. So I was basically doing 600 calories per bottle And then each bottle would take two hours to drink. So I was doing about 300 calories an hour all carbs. And then Chad went with similar strategy but a little bit different as far as brands go. Yeah, i just I use never.
Speaker 2:Second, There's C 90 and then sugar, and everything was basically the same, just different. What solids? any solid foods?
Speaker 3:I didn't do any solid foods except when I got to the rest station, i know, but like my stomach was pretty good all day, really Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Ok, man, that's shocking actually. Ok, well then we'll get. Let's get into the race. Ok, because now we got it. I think was there any other equipment that we haven't covered that you guys carried or that you guys tested? What did you guys test that you're like this was good in theory. This is not going to work.
Speaker 2:We we both, so shortly before, like we both switched to one by SRAM, one by force, ok, shortly before. Why? Well, it was it was time for Rob to upgrade, update his, his car, great update his, his group said, and I sort of just followed suit. Really, it was a good opportunity to try one by. With the new Explorer set up. I figured I have way better luck with that than like the mullet build. I tried that before and didn't really like it. But so what year did you run? I have a 46 at front and then 1044 in the back. Ok, rob, same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gotcha Anything on the gearing or anything that you want to add on. Ok, all right, let's get into race day. Sweet, let's, let's go. What do you?
Speaker 2:want, can we tell you?
Speaker 1:Well, you tell me I don't know how this thing went down. I mean clearly the the mud started early on. From all the reports I saw, i would guess you guys, they hit you guys at night. Yeah, we hit it super late. Ok, so the first day was you start at, we started three, three.
Speaker 1:OK so rolling out of town. What was that? What was the? because I had no idea until I watched the vegan cyclists episode from like last year or whatever. I always assumed that the XL like it was just like a big cool ride. I didn't realize like they like race, race, like with attacks and like the whole. It's like the whole thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think this year may have been like the first year that it was like that. I've heard from other people that it goes out pretty hot, but not with attacks.
Speaker 1:It's wild that anyone would attack early in a 350 mile race.
Speaker 3:Oh, 100, 100 percent. Rewinding a little bit like starting at three o'clock was kind of weird, because Chad and I, like through all our training, we're usually starting five, six am, so to like wake up in the morning. We were staying at an Airbnb with some friends. Hosselberg drove us up, which was super awesome to have his have him there and him able to drive us was incredibly helpful.
Speaker 1:Because you guys kind of got to have a team, right, you got to have somebody.
Speaker 3:No, there's actually no support allowed, you got to have.
Speaker 1:You have to have someone. You have to have somebody local to like pick you up. Yeah, there's no like sweeper.
Speaker 3:on course that's going to drive you back, okay. So yeah, we stayed at like an Airbnb. There was another like the family actually lived in the Airbnb with you.
Speaker 2:That was the first time that I've experienced that, but it was super cool Like it was. It was an awesome family.
Speaker 3:Like she rode, she was, i think, doing the 50 mile or that day with her sister, or her sister was supposed to, but they didn't. So it was a super cool experience. We also had like so much support from the community going into it, like the fun Friday crew put together little gift baskets for us with some of our favorite snacks.
Speaker 1:I think I saw that online Yeah.
Speaker 3:And like some really affirming cards that honestly, i thought about a lot that day, like just all the people that were back here following us, checking in on us. So that was that was pretty special, that like we have friends in the community that care about enough, care enough about us to do something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you had all the good vibes going into the start. Was it hot on when you guys started, or let's? let's start with this. What did you guys do that morning? Like leading up to a huge breakfast and stay off your feet, or did you guys just like?
Speaker 2:I mean we had we probably had a little bit more oatmeal than normal, but it wasn't really was just kind of like he said it was super weird.
Speaker 2:Like it's just a long day of like what do we do? What time is it now? Drink lots of water, like I? I would have much rather started early, like you don't know what to do, right, because it's it's so much time. Right, and it makes sense. Once you start, like because eventually you'll roll into like the cooler part of the the evening and stuff. But like during the day you're just like and you're in somebody else's house. So like the downstairs they only had, like there wasn't really a TV that you had that you could watch. It was just kind of like if you're home you'd be like oh, i can do laundry, or I can do this or I can find some way to waste time.
Speaker 2:This was kind of like odd. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you go to the start line. how many people raced in that? and?
Speaker 2:I think there were around 200 total There's like 160 men or something maybe.
Speaker 1:And out of that, how many are there like to race and how many are there just to like? I mean, i would say at the.
Speaker 2:We hung with the leaders for probably the first 25 or 30 miles, and there were probably 30 of us 25. That's way more than I thought There were way more than than I would have expected to be there at that pace and like and like, really racing like it was like full on, your like maxed out heart rate and you're just like flying through these little like creek crossings and was it like that from the gun?
Speaker 2:like they said go It was kind of a weird start for us, because they line everybody up, they say go, and Rob and I we we got there a little bit late so we had to stage towards the back. But then you roll up and we're like trying to like be line to the front and you go like a quarter mile and we hit a train. So then it like totally regroups. You wait till the train and then it's like a start all over again, but I forget I don't remember how long the lead out or the like, the new, the police officer.
Speaker 2:Oh dude, it was super cool. So there's this police officer like clearing the road for us and he's like on a bike, flat out, like riding straight into like oncoming traffic, like he's they're either going to hit him Or they're going to get off the road and like he's like flying down the other lane and he's like waving people to get off. But he is like He's like fearless.
Speaker 1:It was on a bicycle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's on a bicycle.
Speaker 2:It was like the most amazing thing. I was like look at the police officer like an upright mountain bike. Yeah, oh my God, and like he's like going right up to to the cars, like they had no choice. It was pretty, that's pretty.
Speaker 1:Very entertaining and super cool. Yeah, oh my gosh. So you guys kind of get out of town, get rolling, and then when does it kind of start picking up and it's like OK, races on man as soon as, like the neutral start vehicle, like pulled ahead, it was like full gas.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. It was, yeah, it was pretty solid. Did you expect that?
Speaker 3:No, and we had planned to not play those games from the start like we were just going to do our own thing. We would stay with the lead group as long as we could, but like we weren't going to over, extend ourselves and try to like risk for the goal.
Speaker 1:For you guys, was it like to have a? I mean, did you have a goal of like I want to achieve, like a top 10? or is it like let's just go and ride hard and see what happens?
Speaker 3:I mean, i thought we had a chance at a podium. OK.
Speaker 2:We had like sort of like a rough time goal.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:But this was that, like we, this was outside of the right. It went outside.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was. I was hoping to have like a normalized power of around 200 at the end of the day. Ok, that was. That was kind of the other other part of the goal. So yeah, i would say like 10 miles in. I was like we have these guys exactly where we want them, because we were sitting, you know, maybe 20, 30 people back doing nothing and I'd look up and see like all the favorites drilling it on the front for I don't know what reason, because we were all just like sitting back well, under 200 watts, i mean like my normalized for those first, i mean until we went up over the highway, i think was in like the low 180s.
Speaker 3:So, really not too bad at all. And then we moved up kind of right before we went up over the highway onto D Street where all the mayhem happened for the 200 mile people That was all still dry for us. And then it didn't take long for my normalized to come up to 240, so it jumped by like 60 watts pretty quick.
Speaker 1:Was that because people were blowing out the back, or was that because it just kept ramping up?
Speaker 3:It just kept ramping up and we kept hitting these like really thick, rough gravel patches where there was like no fast line through it. So you were just doing like 400 watts to try to sit on the back And then front must have just been.
Speaker 3:Oh, they were absolutely drilling, rushing, yeah, and and I'm like I don't understand how there's this many people left And then you'd hit. You know some of the little Cree Crossings Chad talked about and everybody would like screech to a halt and like you'd look up and you're doing zero miles an hour. Now the person on the front is doing like 30 again. So you were constantly sprinting back up to speed And I remember telling Chad like man, i just don't want to do this all day.
Speaker 3:No And he was like, yeah, let's not So. so we, we sat up and kind of did our own thing.
Speaker 1:Because your bikes at this point, because you're not carrying any extra, true extra gear like as far as camping, any of that stuff. So your bike and stuff aren't weighing or handling significantly different than normal.
Speaker 3:No, everything was fairly normal on the bikes.
Speaker 3:And then there was there was a section where there's a cattle guard on the ground and then barbed wire over it. Like nobody took the barbed wire down as we were going through, so the group of you know, 20, 25 people in front of us all had to stop and go over one at a time. So we caught the group again and it was kind of like this mixed bag because I was like yeah, we're back in the lead group, but also like this Now we have to deal with all these shenanigans again, of like them attacking, so we just let them.
Speaker 3:Let them roll off.
Speaker 1:So at this point, how far in to the race are you? That was maybe like 30 miles, yeah, 30 ish miles, so 30 miles of like hammering essentially, and attacking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, i mean I would say the first, like eight to 10 weren't that bad.
Speaker 2:Okay, neutral roll out Okay.
Speaker 1:And so then, for 20 miles it was, which is going to be an hour ish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I remember when Rob said we should kind of chill, like my normalize at that time was 255. Oh my gosh, and like I was looked down and my heart rates like one 77.
Speaker 1:That's not what it was like.
Speaker 2:He's like how are you feeling? I'm like I can't do this. I'm not for a whole lot longer. If we want to like, actually Yeah, yeah, wow Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so day before the race on the drive up there, we decided we were going to stop at the 150 mile gas station.
Speaker 2:Is that the first gas station?
Speaker 3:That was the second gas station, yeah, and scope it out and just see if they have a hose outside or like a water stick.
Speaker 1:So the plan was skip the first and hit the second.
Speaker 3:No, so we also went to the 75 mile gas station That was just closer to Emporia so we went to that second. So the 150 mile one did have a hose outside. So we're like, sweet, we can make that stop super quick. The mile 75 one didn't. So we're like we're either going to have to go in the store with everybody else or we're going to have to figure a different plan out. So we found an RV park maybe a half mile before the gas station. So our plan was to be like just off the back of the main group, let everybody roll through. We would turn off into the RV park, fill up our bottles and go and pass all the riffraff at the first gas station, because we're like surely There's some race tactics there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, surely 75 miles in we'll still be with the leaders, but we were, like already off the back, out of sight by the time we hit there. But we stuck to our plan. we stopped at the RV park, filled everything up And I think it was only maybe like a minute to two minutes. before we got to the gas station was when the lead group rolled out.
Speaker 1:Okay, you caught him at the almost. Yeah, we caught some people there.
Speaker 3:We caught this other kid, max, super nice kid from Greenville, south Carolina. When we saw him he had just flagged down like an 18 wheeler, like tanker truck, tanker truck to ask for water, because he started with like 40 ounces of water, maybe 44 ounces of water. He had like a little bottle and he had like a normal size water bottle.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 3:That's that, was it. He's like yeah, i underestimated how much water I drink like the first stop isn't for 75 miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's on gravel like and it's 3pm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like it's hot outside.
Speaker 1:Oh my he's luck. Did he finish? he did finish. No way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, surprised and he had finished the year before too And he's like, yeah, done it before he did it before any one of 350 mile race earlier this year, so he's like he's got the experience. Mike just doesn't think very well sometimes and we asked him what he's what he what he had eaten so far and, like we were, you know, 60 miles in at this point, and he I mean he listed out like 5000 calories worth of stuff like like multiple cliff bars water, but he carried a buffet.
Speaker 2:He was like he had had three cliff bars, three full servings of scratch super fuel. and he had one more thing, but I forget what it was. but I was like, if he's talking real super fuel, like actual servings, that's like 400 calories per plus the bars, i was like holy cow, like his stomach has to be like oh, it has to be a wreck.
Speaker 1:Miserable. With no water on top of that Like he had, he had been a wreck. It was pretty crazy. I cannot believe that guy finished.
Speaker 3:So then, like the first gas station, so we weren't in there. I'm just retelling war stories from other people, and Max actually included, because he rolled off the front of our group so that he could go buy more food and drink.
Speaker 3:So he shows up with like a Coke bottle in one pocket and like a plastic water bottle in the other pocket And then he filled his two small bottles. But anyway he said like the people in the gas station, him included, were like grabbing like $10 worth of drinks, throwing a 20th the person, not letting them scan any of the food. So the gas station person was just freaking out, you'd be so pissed.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because like like they have to take inventory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she was going crazy, but like that's what every writer did, so the race is so disrespectful to the community and to like the employees Like they're just trying to do their job. Yeah. So the race is going to have to figure something out because, like, because that it's going to happen.
Speaker 3:Like, like people want to get in and out as quickly as they can. I know they overpaid for the stuff that they got, but it's like man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, man Cause I've heard those stories on other podcasts and over time people talk about the same thing. They just throw a 20 and walk out with whatever they have. And I'm like man, especially when you have groups coming in and doing that, it's got to be like they know it's coming, but man, that's freaking brutal. Yeah, yeah, they've got to figure something out with that. I mean, what would be a solution for that?
Speaker 3:I mean, the race could just start putting aid stations out there.
Speaker 1:They got to have to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or just like jugs of water or something, yeah.
Speaker 2:Or like the racers like cause you're not allowed to stage anything but or let let them stage, like kind of like, at your own risk. you drop a bag behind the gas station Right Or something. or you give a drop bag for the race and say this is my five drop bag.
Speaker 1:I'm like, like a special needs bag, to drop it two or three different locations, right, that would be simple That would be a simple fix, or just don't stop.
Speaker 2:I mean, before long people aren't going to be stopping.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's going to become a. It's going to be part of the race strategy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like some people did try that.
Speaker 1:Well, because I listened to one with Ted King and Leo Wilcox and she told him don't stop at the first. This is what's going to happen. Yeah, don't do it, carry, all you need to get to the second one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, So Ted carried, like I think, eight liters of water, which is so much water and then Tyler the vegan cyclist. He, i think he was like 10 liters or something like that. So they were carrying around all this extra weight, which is, then, like incredible, because Chad and I were like on the rivet with four liters and these guys were the ones that were actually inflicting the pain on us with like 10 liters.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. That's crazy. Uh well, who are there? What other cool cyclists did you guys get to meet and ride with? That's two pretty popular names. Who else was in that group?
Speaker 2:Well, Ian was there.
Speaker 1:That's a good one.
Speaker 2:He pulled out early ish. Did you beat him Yeah?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know. People are like. It's funny too, because people are like did you beat Ted? And I'm like.
Speaker 2:Well, it depends on if you look at time or distance. I did beat him Distance. He is a couple miles ahead of me. We tied. We exactly On the finish sheet.
Speaker 1:We tied I can't think of any other really big names that were in the XL.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not necessarily big names. For a while we got to ride with this guy named Dusty who was from Alaska and he did like bike expeditions up in Alaska, like like people pay him to take take them on expeditions, and he was in like baggies and a T-shirt and just chilling. But yeah, chilling at a very high speed. I mean he was he was fast, like he didn't look like he'd be super fast, but that dude, that dude was amazing.
Speaker 1:Like every time you think you're like I'm pretty decent. The amount of humbling that you can get in endurance world is quick. Oh, 100% Yeah.
Speaker 3:The guy that got second place last year, chris. he was out there again this year. I'm so cool to ride with somebody who's been doing it Through the first aid or through the first stop.
Speaker 1:it's your 75 miles in. How were you guys feeling at that point? Because it was still decent weather, Everything was still going to plan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I never felt great, at least the first couple hours, which was weird because legs or stomach legs, stomach was good But like you know, like I said, it was around 240 normalized, which that's like I mean compared to Wheeler, that's really not much. Like that's a high zone to low zone three ride for me And I was hurting way more than I should have for that. So I don't know if it was partially what we ate or just starting that late in the day. The heat, yeah, i mean it was warmer than what we're used to.
Speaker 2:It was like upper 80s probably when we started Humid.
Speaker 1:Not terrible.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was you wouldn't even really thought it was like anything to worry about, but I kind of I felt the same Like by the time we got there. I feel like our initial effort was so, seems so hard that it like by the time you got to the first aid station you're still kind of like recovering from the first two hours Gotcha, yeah, and then okay, so you take off from there and then.
Speaker 3:then what happens? Mud happens, okay. So it was probably I mean it was a little bit after sunset that we hit. I think it was F road was the name of the road.
Speaker 1:So you've been riding for like seven ish hours Yeah, about seven hours.
Speaker 3:And we were in, i think, pretty good position, you know, maybe like 12th place on the road, something like that. So we had caught.
Speaker 1:You guys had committed to kind of stand together as long as possible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so. So, before any of this started like that was the plan We were going to stay together as long as we possibly could, and then for the last 100 miles, if we thought one of us had a chance at the podium and the other one was slowing us down, then we would split up and let you know whoever was having a better day. Shoot for the podium.
Speaker 1:Okay. So when the rain starts, was it just massive thunderstorms or was it just like light rain that just wore you out?
Speaker 3:No, at first it was actually awesome because we were hot, so getting getting like a little bit of a sprinkle was was pretty nice. Oh, one other equipment related thing We both got glasses with photochromic lenses before the race so that we would just be able to wear our glasses night and day.
Speaker 1:Did they work the way they're supposed to? 100%, really, yeah, i mean like they were crystal clear at night and they were dark enough during the day. What brand did you?
Speaker 3:guys use I used Roka and Chad used Oakley.
Speaker 1:Okay, nice.
Speaker 3:So once the rain started, yeah, like it felt good and we were on great roads at that time, so there was like no mud at all. And then all of a sudden we made a turn and, man, i should know better, because I've done like I've done so many muddy gravel races in the past. So in just so many years in mid-south, where it's just terrible, like you're always supposed to be looking ahead and if you see somebody walking their bike, you just dismount before your bike gets all tore up.
Speaker 1:That's a good rule to live by.
Speaker 3:Yes, 100%, and we should have lived by it 50 times over.
Speaker 2:We should have lived by it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, So you didn't learn your lesson? No, not at all.
Speaker 3:So you know, we see some people walking and I'm like, wow, we've got good clearance. We were running 40s instead of you know the 42s that we were going to run, and then our bikes just totally got clogged up. And the mud it's different than still water. Mud, like still water, is like pure peanut butter. This is more like concrete, because there's aggregate, there's like these little pebbles that sit on top and it mixes in with the mud and just creates like this nasty chocolate chip cookie dough, but like extremely sticky and abrasive.
Speaker 1:So just could destroy your frame.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean there's pictures of people that wore all the way through their seat tube.
Speaker 1:Like you could. Oh my gosh, it's freaking crazy, shut up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like there's additional storage in their bike now, because they could, like you know, put a Twix bar inside their seat tube.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, god, that would be hard. That would just like crush your soul because you'd be so bummed about the day.
Speaker 3:And then you get home and realize your frame's trash too 100% So so yeah, so our bikes both got pretty clogged up pretty quick.
Speaker 1:How many hours in when it like got real.
Speaker 3:So this was like seven hours.
Speaker 1:This was around. It happened pretty quick, yeah, around 10 o'clock.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like as soon as it was muddy it was terrible, okay. And then that's when chain gate happened.
Speaker 1:Uh oh.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, my chain like because it was so muddy, i guess what it was doing at first was like accumulating on your chain ring and then it would just throw your chain. Oh, uh, my, when it initially threw mine, i threw it to the inside And then it kind of just got jammed in between my chain ring and my frame And we didn't have a chain breaker tool or anything And so, like, our option was to just jerk it out of there.
Speaker 1:So much for that pretty new frame.
Speaker 2:Yeah, So it's. it's a little less pretty now.
Speaker 2:It still looks great. It's got a little character. But so we know that happened to like pry the chain out And then, from from then on, for me it was like a nightmare Anytime we would hit any amount of mud, like we could have totally cleaned my bike and then hit a mud section and my chain would just start throwing again. Uh and and then really the only solution we found to get it to work for any amount of time was line up a few of the uh, the the chain, like the chain with the chain ring, a few links, and then you would very gingerly like shifted into your 10 or 11. And then you'd get on it and you just have to mash it for the next 10 minutes maybe to get it to like finally, sort of like mate, back to the chain ring.
Speaker 2:But if you hit mud again during that time, you're you're screwed. If you went uphill during that time, you're doing it in your 11. Um and it. It was like it was super frustrating because it was like there was nothing we could do other than stop. Every time you hit mud You'd have to clean it all out or carry it, or we just never found a solution to it. Uh and it. It really messed with me.
Speaker 1:And there's no rhyme or reason why it was happening. So when?
Speaker 2:we got. We got back to the shop earlier this week. Uh, we, we cleaned it and we replaced all the things you need to replace Um. But even after it was clean, we were like spinning it. You could see one spot that was like twisted It was. It was jumping every like, every rotation, and we thought maybe it was the chain had a bent link. Uh, but the chain was fine, but what it was was one of the chain ring teeth, probably from when we pride it out, we had bent it out just enough where the chain didn't drop in. It would like sit on the tooth and, depending on where you're at, it would either kick it off, and it would do this in the, in the stand, um.
Speaker 2:So we in the shop, we're able to like bend it back and it seems like everything is working perfect now but like when it's pitch black out there and you're like I'm panicking because I don't know what's going on, like you don't know what it is And we didn't, i guess we could have found like a rock and tried to like beat it back. But yeah, one of the, i mean exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, okay. So this is now. now you're in all the concrete peanut butter, just nasty stuff, and you're at mile. what hundred just over a hundred?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably right around a hundred.
Speaker 1:Okay, i'm still like a long way, so do we?
Speaker 2:like we start going again and then you, we hit another month.
Speaker 1:Is it still raining this whole entire time, or has Storm had just rolled through?
Speaker 2:I think it had rolled through and there were a few times where we got like sprinkled on, but only kind of prior to that the mud bushes there. Yeah, It was. It was for sure, Like we didn't beat the the rain for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but not too long after that we hit another mud section and that one, i think, was a little bit longer and even more frustrating. And, like the you like, you had like a couple of choices. One, you're not going to be able to push your bike through it because now your feet weigh like 20 pounds a piece and your bike's like 50 pounds, so you're you like have to clean it off. Then you either shoulder it and run through the through the road or you like shoulder and try to get to the grass on the side, which is like waist high and it's all wet Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you don't know what like you don't know what you're walking in and you're tripping over rocks and you're just like but that's really the the only like way through it was to go to the grass. It was just. It was just freaking crazy.
Speaker 1:Like. So at this point, how far have you guys walked?
Speaker 2:Probably, i don't know, five miles, or an hour and a half or something.
Speaker 1:Like could you see other people around you, or are we kind of by yourself?
Speaker 2:At first we could see other. So, dude, this is like. this is what would happen. We would hit the muddy section. We would get stuck in the mud. Everybody would pass us. We would get out and you'd get like five miles of that you could ride. We would pass all of those people We would. now we don't have anybody in front of us. We'd hit the section of road that now is mud and we're the people up ahead that everybody's like oh, we should get off our bikes, and it because you, you didn't even get like 50 feet into it Like you had.
Speaker 1:once you hit it, it was like 10 feet later and your bike is like totally loaded down And they're passing you because you're off cleaning it and jacking with it And they're like getting off and walking through the grass. Okay.
Speaker 2:But no, i remember the next stop was like at 151. And I had already told, like I told Rob going into I was like I'm I'm done, like I can't do it Mentally, i don't want to do it. The time like to me the time isn't making sense. It wasn't like I was tired, my body wasn't jacked up, it was just like, uh, it wasn't fun anymore. It wasn't fun And and like in my head I'm like, okay, i was like committed to say 22 to 24 hours where this far and it's taken this long. So when you do the math now we're looking at this amount of time and like it, if I do a anything like any more ultra things, i don't need to go into it with thinking I'm going to finish or a time I need to like way exceed what I think it's going to take. Just so in my head I'm like, oh, we had planned on this taking 30 hours and we did it in 27.
Speaker 1:Right, Uh, stood to be in 22 and 27.
Speaker 2:Yeah, But I was like super thankful once we got to one, the 151 stop, because I sort of was like I'm done. But we get there and Rob was like I need to eat some solid food And Hussleberg was like, just go in, get a pizza, get a soda, sit here for a minute. And it was cool because when we got there everybody else was sitting there. They had to speak it outside so you could wash your bike and clean off a little bit.
Speaker 1:What time was this? at night, middle of the morning One or two, you think later.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it was about the time people go to the lake. Yeah, There were people that asked they asked.
Speaker 2:Did they ask you? you know how to get to lake and Rob's like I think you go down this road. Shut up.
Speaker 1:They're going fishing and you guys look like. I hate you guys, but uh.
Speaker 2:I ate the pizza and drank a Red Bull and by the time it was time to go again, i was like, sweet, let's like I'm ready, let's go. And but I'd also told Ryan. he's like how are you feeling? I'm like I'm good, unless we hit a bunch more mud.
Speaker 1:I was like I don't know. You know there was more mud coming. No, okay, you don't have a clue what's ahead.
Speaker 2:No, you have no idea what's ahead, and like so then we like get on our bikes and I was like super stoked because like I was feeling good, i felt like I was riding well, rob was riding well, we're like flying like in the dark. Everything seems fast.
Speaker 2:But we were actually like, right, the big gravel at night is pretty, it's pretty solid clip And then, like I don't know, mile 170 or 172 or something, we hit another stretch of mud that, like I remember hitting it And when we got there, being like it's okay, You just had a really great time getting to this point. Let's just make it through this thinking okay, maybe it's a quarter mile or half a mile, i don't know what it was, but I get we probably were in it for like two hours, oh, like or what seemed like two hours, and I it was to the point where, also, like I was pretty well pissed off enough, where, like I would stop and as your chain, still yeah, my chain is still totally jacked So like there would be sometimes where Rob would keep.
Speaker 2:He would keep walking ahead in the grass and I'm sitting here jacking with my chain and then I get catchback up And it was like there was nothing anybody could say to make you, to make me happy. Like Rob was like don't worry about it, We'll, we'll get it fixed. There's nothing we can't handle. We'll, we'll do it. And I'm like man, i like I'm past the point.
Speaker 1:Listen, Mr Sunshine, not handling it, No he is the most I know.
Speaker 2:I was like I wanted to be optimistic.
Speaker 2:But I was just like I can't keep doing it And and we got to one part where Rob was probably 100 feet ahead of me, i don't know, and I just remember pulling my phone out, switch it off airplane mode, messaging Ryan being like come get me. And he's like. He's like, are you serious? And I'm like yeah, so I drop a pen and I still don't know when Ryan's going to pick me up because, like the mud was so bad, i didn't want him driving his car in, and for he ended up getting me at 182, but probably that was five miles after I messaged him or something, gotcha.
Speaker 1:And how did this go? So, after you've dropped the pen and said I'm done, when did you tell Rob? and how did that go?
Speaker 2:OK, so this is maybe the only time I felt bad about doing it. I really thought so. Rob was on his phone way more than I was. like I, for some reason I was way more concerned about not ever taking it off airplane mode than I think I should have been. like hindsight, I wish I would have done the things I enjoy about riding my bike, which is telling a story, versus it has to stay on airplane mode because I needed to last the whole time, Right, And I really figured because it between the time I had messaged Ryan and then Ryan picked me up. Rob probably at least twice was on his phone And I was like Frick man, Ryan ratting me out He's message.
Speaker 2:Rob Rob is going to talk me out of this.
Speaker 2:But that didn't happen. And so we're like we had just come out of the mud section, like 10 feet out of the mud section, in here comes Ryan coming down this the hill and Rob's like Oh, there's Ryan. And he's like happy. And I'm like because you hadn't told him yet, no, and I was like yeah, i'm actually getting in the car this time. And he's like what? And I'm like Ryan's coming to pick me up And he was still very nice. And he's like OK, i just want you to know I still love you. And Ryan stopped and we like I gave him the mud stick.
Speaker 1:And you know all the things that he might be able to like use.
Speaker 2:But no, rob didn't know one, or I don't think he knew, until I was like yeah, he's coming to get me out of here, Rob.
Speaker 1:what was your OK Your feeling whenever he told you that he was done?
Speaker 3:So I wasn't going to push him harder than he wanted to be pushed Right. When I saw Ryan's car, my immediate thought was we cannot stop. So I just kept riding like I knew Ryan's car was there. I didn't know that it was there to get Chad And I was like, if I can get Chad like 10 feet past Ryan's car, we're going to be good to go. But he stopped And I mean I totally understand like dealing with the chain is extremely frustrating, especially when it keeps happening over and over and over. And you don't understand why, because I was on the exact same setup, you know a slightly different frame with, you know, maybe a little bit more tire clearance, but my chain fell off four times the whole night And and it was like easy to get back on every time Chad's was just a nightmare.
Speaker 3:And you know, now we know it was that bent tooth and there was really nothing that we could have done about that At this point had you had any thoughts that you did want to keep going? No.
Speaker 1:Was there an option for you to stop?
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean like, I mean the option. Was there, Ryan, your head? No, no, 100 percent.
Speaker 2:There was one point, though, where he thought his rear to rail or hanger was bent. And and this was like I, this is probably after 150. I don't know where it was. No, it had to be before 150. And I was like, please let us rear to rail or hanger be, bent, Because if Rob has to quit then we, we can quit.
Speaker 2:And then there was another time he was having something was happening with his front wheel, I think, And I remember being like do you want to take my front wheel? And he's like, oh no, it'll be OK. I'm like, come on, man.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to be a good team player here and help the guy out. I had a spare rear to rail or any way.
Speaker 3:So that wasn't going to. That wasn't going to get us out of it.
Speaker 1:So now you're in the car going home and you're out there by yourself. Yeah, and you're at mile one, eighty five ish, yeah, so what transpired from there on by yourself.
Speaker 3:So, honestly, like I have very little memory of what happened between mile one hundred eighty and mile three hundred, Like it was pretty long.
Speaker 1:Was that because you just gotten head down and just took off and just it just is what it is partially. Or is it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, i think I was just out of it. I was, i was tired.
Speaker 1:You were walking after that.
Speaker 3:No, I don't think I stopped to walk after Chad got in the car.
Speaker 1:It was, so was all you?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, the roads just weren't weren't as bad after that.
Speaker 1:So we had hit a mile one eighty five. How much did you guys walk?
Speaker 3:I mean, some people were estimating like 10 miles. And we probably walked a little bit more than than most.
Speaker 3:Jeez looking at the Strava flyby is kind of interesting because, like you know, not not everybody's on there, but the guy who got third place, who's doing the tour divide right now, he was, I think, eleven minutes ahead of us when we hit the first mud section And we were stopped for over 30 minutes dealing with the chain the first time. So you know that just brought the gap out quite a bit. And then we were stopped quite a bit at the mile one, fifty gas station to refuel. But yeah, like mentally I was, i was in the game, like I had told people before, like I've never DNF to gravel race and I'm not about to DNF this, and I regretted that a few times like saying that out loud because there were some times late in the day where it was.
Speaker 1:It was pretty, pretty taxing mentally by yourself pretty much from then on.
Speaker 3:I was by myself a lot because the like physically I was feeling pretty good.
Speaker 1:So I would, i would come back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i would catch people and just kind of go right right by, so there really wasn't that much opportunity to ride with with other people. Plus, like earlier on in the day, when Chad and I would catch people, we'd be like, hey, yeah, come ride with us. Like more the merrier, this is going to be fun, and then they wouldn't take a single pull for like two hours.
Speaker 2:And then, like I was starting to get, frustrated And it's like.
Speaker 3:at first I was like oh yeah, you can just sit on as long as you want, and then I'm like man it'd be nice to just offer for like a minute to take a pull.
Speaker 2:The first person we were like you can ride with us, like they sat for like 30 miles and maybe they took a mile worth of?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yeah, not. if you're going to sit on, you got to at least try something. Yeah, even if it's slower, at least you're giving them a break up for a second.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So that was, you know, a little frustrating. And then, like Chad said, i would check my phone every once in a while and I'd have like a message from Sarah that's like, oh, you're in 12th place. Or I would check like track leaders and just see where people were. So I'm like I'm not, i'm not doing terrible. You know I'm not on the podium or anything, but you know it's fine. So I caught a guy. he was in a green kit I don't know what his name was, but he was sitting on the side of the road with a flat and he's like man, do you have any glue? It's like I actually do.
Speaker 3:So, I stopped, you know, and like let him glue some, some patches so that he can put them on his tube, and I thought he just needed one. He's like, i got like five or six weeks.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I'm like, well, I'm not just going to sit here.
Speaker 1:Give you all my stuff, yeah, yeah, and I'm also not going to leave the glue with you because, like I brought it for myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so help that guy out and left Caught another guy. I was like, do you need anything? So yeah, i need a pump. So I had two pumps on me actually, because my pump hasn't been working that great. So I took Chad's when he pulled out and then, like that guy, he had a tube Alito, but then I don't know if, like, the valve wasn't long enough, but he's like, oh, it's the wrong tube. And he's looking at me like, give me a tube. I'm like, bro, i'm not, i'm not neutral support.
Speaker 3:Like I got my own things, yeah, i stopped for like a minute to see if you needed like immediate help, like we're not.
Speaker 2:We're not besties, we're not going to hang out the rest of the day, so I can't leave him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Yeah, I just left him and he like looked all like offended, but like I mean should brought his on, should brought the right stuff, right Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so then How was it when the sun came up?
Speaker 3:Pretty good, like I would say. The night actually went by really fast. I think you know cause we were. We were walking for so long that you know, at certain points it's like these hours are just dragging along, but it also didn't seem like it was dark for that long. Our our like overly ambitious race plan we had going in was that we were going to skip one of the stores because it didn't open till 6am.
Speaker 2:We thought we would be if we averaged 18 or better. They wouldn't even be open and we're like, well, we got to skip that one, uh-huh Well well, we didn't average 18.
Speaker 3:So they were open. You got to shop, yeah, so I got to stop at that store. How?
Speaker 1:hard? is it Cause you're, since you're vegan, how hard is it for you at gas stations to get food?
Speaker 3:It wasn't too bad What did kind of.
Speaker 1:What kind of solid food did you get at the gas stations?
Speaker 3:So like lays, just plain potato chips, and then I would do some gate rates and stuff. We had planned on buying a bag of sugar to like put in our bottles, um, but we never. Never actually got there.
Speaker 1:Um, i did sweet tea from one of the gas stations because you need any other solid food besides lays potato chips, i think it was just just chips, like everything else was just liquid and gel, and your stomach was doing okay.
Speaker 3:Um, i mean it was, it was borderline a few times but, like I was still getting the calories in. Yeah, um, so overall that was okay.
Speaker 1:And then I would say at what point did you realize, like I'm, i'm going to make it home like well opposite of that light at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:A mile 50 or with 50 miles to go. So we're like I'm 302 in and like 50 miles all of a sudden just sounds like an eternity. So I'm like that's like a decent Sunday ride would be 50 miles and I still have to do 50 miles and I still have to do it by myself. Um, so that was. That was kind of painful. You couldn't see anybody in any of the direction.
Speaker 3:Not really. Um, i may have been with Dusty for part of that section that got from Alaska. Um, and then, yeah, i started getting kind of mentally low at that point. Um, there was a gas station with 40 miles to go, a KC's in Madison, um, so I got there and, like some people I knew were there So that was cool Dusty and another girl were were there riding and I'm like I could probably leave with them. Um, and then all of a sudden it just started to downpour.
Speaker 3:Oh, no, and it got really cold really fast, so I'm exhausted, um so can wet. There's not a single like chair or anything inside the gas station and their condition is blasting, so I don't want to be in there anyway. There's really not a dry spot outside.
Speaker 2:Um so like I locked myself in the single stall bathroom in KC's and I sat on the toilet and called Sarah which is funny because there was a group of us that were outside and we were waiting on Rob to come out and I saw him go into the bathroom and he was in there for a minute and I was like he must be sick, Like he's been in there for like a minute and.
Speaker 2:I really was like I bet he's having stomach problems or something. I until now I didn't know he is just hanging there.
Speaker 2:But no, it was like the like. The storm that rolled through there then was like, probably, if I hadn't quit when I did, that would have been the next for sure I would have considered even being like, even being whatever 40 miles away, because it, like it probably dropped 20 degrees and it was not like sprinkling, it was like sheets of rain, the wind was blowing super hard, so it's all sideways rain. Uh it, it didn't look fun at all.
Speaker 1:And the course stayed together from that point on. We'll get there, yeah.
Speaker 3:So like I've I've seen my wife do some really hard things in the past and like I've been there with her when she's done a hundred mile ultra marathon runs you know 24 hours straight of running and I've seen her get through some really hard times and like in that moment I'm just like what would I tell her if she was me right now? Just like suffering And I was like I don't even have to cause, i could just call her and.
Speaker 3:I know that she's going to give me, you know, the best possible advice, So she was, you know, super positive and talk me into like a much better much better headspace And again I start reflecting on, like the different cards with affirmations and stuff that the community wrote Um, so I walk outside, sat on like a milk crate in the rain for a little while and filled my bottles and was asked somebody to like what the radar showed.
Speaker 3:And they're like, you don't want to know, you should just leave now. Um, so I pulled out of the parking lot by myself, got back on course and you know it's hard cause. Like you don't know what those next 40 miles are going to be. They could be all tailwind, which they actually happen to be, mostly tailwind, um, or it could be hike a bike for 40 miles and like, i just didn't know And I didn't want to go there in my head of like, if, if I need to walk 40 miles this is going to take me another, you know, 12 hours or whatever.
Speaker 3:Um, so I just started riding and the rain was hard enough that, like it was rinsing all the mud off your tires as soon as they got muddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which was actually like a super great thing.
Speaker 3:And then, uh, we turned into or I was about to turn into a headwind and at this point the 200 mile course and the 100 mile course were all merged into the 350 course. Um, so I got behind some guys that I think we're doing the 200 and they were motoring into the headwind. So I sat like fifth wheel, was like Hey guys, I'm doing the XL, I'm just going to sit on, and they were like all about it.
Speaker 1:Like they were loved it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were stoked to be able to, like, pull me in the headwind, so we're doing like 20 miles an hour into a headwind.
Speaker 3:Uh, when we finally had crosswind, they left me, um, but, like, while I was with that group, we caught Dusty and that other girl and I was like yelling at them to get on cause I felt bad like passing them. You know, while I'm drafting on these other people, it's, yeah, it's, it's part of the deal, yeah, um, but I sat on them as long as I could and then, you know, maybe had 25 miles to do by myself after that and road conditions stayed um, stayed pretty good the rest of the time. They were like just these giant puddles as we were getting in temporary, like almost as deep as like the um through axle on my bike.
Speaker 3:I mean like yeah, it was just so flooded from all the rain that we were seeing, but, yeah, the roads were were surprisingly good, uh, and then I didn't know how much asphalt we'd have at the end, but like every mile I'm like we have to be getting close to the end of the gravel. We have to be getting close. but the thing with Emporia is like there's not much asphalt around there. So I think it was only maybe gravel until town. Yeah, maybe like three miles or so worth of asphalt at the end.
Speaker 3:Um, but it was, it was welcome. So that's when, uh, i think maybe like the pro women who were just outside the top five caught me, and that was cool to see, cause it was, it was a battle, like they caught me one at a time, but they were all just like full throttle, um, so that was cool to see and re-energizing. And then the quote unquote sprint finish is like you can see the finish line from like a mile away, um which you're like, oh, i could just coast in from here.
Speaker 2:And you're like no no stop to pedal some more.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, and saw, saw some friends at the finish line and how was it? coming down that shoot. Um, i mean I was so happy to be done. Um, yeah, just I mean thankful for the opportunity to get to do it Again. I didn't even know that I was going to get to do it until a few weeks before the race. But yeah, just mostly thankful that I was done and didn't have to come back and do it again.
Speaker 1:Before we wrap up with thank yous and get you out of here, do you? how was the body Like, as far as like saddle sores, lower back hands, neck toes. How were the contact points?
Speaker 2:My lower back and my shoulder was a little bit sore And I think probably that's really just from carrying my bike. Everything else for me was was pretty good My, my left foot. For a while I thought I was going to have problems because it through one of the mud sections I everything got clogged and I probably went 25 miles without being able to clip in before I was able to like clean it out. But it ended up being okay brutal.
Speaker 1:Do you regret the shoe choice? either one of you? I thought I did until I asked Rob if he did and he said no.
Speaker 2:And now I'm like maybe I don't regret One. I think had I been able, had I done the whole thing eventually, i would have really appreciated my road shoes. Like I knew I didn't run a ride. We both took our mountain bike pedals and shoes, but I knew like I haven't written in them much, so I didn't want to ride 350 miles in a shoe that I haven't written a lot lately. So at the moment no.
Speaker 3:How was your? how was your beehull?
Speaker 2:I mean he's opening the. he's opening the door for this story Literally opened the door.
Speaker 2:So there's a there's a time that we're stopped because of me. We're fixing my, i'm fixing my bike, i get a fix and I like start rolling, not rolling. Walking up to Rob and I just see Rob like unzipping his jersey and just going to town And I'm like, are you okay? And he's like, yeah, my butthole just really hurts. And I was like man, that's crazy, because so does mine and I don't know why. And I think we just settled on it's from all the walking.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's from anything else.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you boys clearly need to get out and walk more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's walking into wet chamois.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, i think it's just rubbed your off, yeah, i?
Speaker 3:had some, some chamois cream with me, so that made it significantly better. And, and we were both wearing full finger gloves, which I think was a good, a good choice. You took yours off pretty early, though, so your hands ended up getting dirty, but it was nice to have clean applicators for the for the chamois cream.
Speaker 1:It's one of the that's you know, in every big long race or hard event there's always something that pops up that you're like man. I would have never thought about that, or that has never happened to me ever in my life or ever in training. I guess this would be the thing.
Speaker 3:That'd be it.
Speaker 1:How was your body outside of your butt Dude?
Speaker 3:honestly, like the next day, i felt great. Like physically awesome, mentally completely brain dead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long did that take for the brain fog to go away?
Speaker 3:A couple of days ago, Yeah, So it was like a week of you know, almost like I don't know if you've had COVID or not, but like that same style of brain fog that you get from COVID, Like I could not multitask for anything, remembering names, even just like I'd be in a meeting at work trying to like string together a sentence and I'm like this is not coming out. Yeah, My brain was shot, but it was, like you know, 13,300 kilojoules burned throughout the day.
Speaker 1:How many hours? What did it take you? I don't know, 27 hours or something like that, and how long did you go?
Speaker 2:I went for like 15 and a half 15, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, So ended up 10th overall, ninth male, which you know I was happy enough with. It wasn't podium, but it was fine. It was awesome to be caught by the, the, the lead group of the 200 riders, like those pro men were absolutely flying and had a huge pack.
Speaker 1:I saw Keegan's power file and they went through it and his profile. his power file was so off the charts, stupid, And the fact that he was still on a seven up sprint like his makes no sense to me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like some random part in the course during the daylight, some farmer rolled up on a side by side with, like, some guy with Oakley's in the passenger seat.
Speaker 3:It's kind of weird thing to see out the middle of nowhere but he's like Hey, i got a hose up ahead for you to fill your bottles And I had already, like recently, filled my bottles at a gas station. But I used it to spray my bike off And, like, while I was on the side of the road cleaning my bike, that lead group of men came flying by and I would say it was at least an hour later that the next person passed me Like they had such a huge gap and that second group had like hitters in it, like Alexi Vermeulen was in it, I think Carrie Warner was in that group, like a really strong group of guys but like they were nowhere wild?
Speaker 1:Yeah, i would. I guess the final question is would you do it again?
Speaker 3:Right now. No, oh, one other not so funny story.
Speaker 1:So related to the brain fog.
Speaker 3:So next day, Ryan brings us back to Capitol co-op where my car was parked and I throw my bike up on the roof rack and drive home and I'm feeling fine, i'm talking with Sarah and I pull in the garage with my bike on the roof rack and smashed the bike into my house, which, you know, not not a fun experience.
Speaker 1:So is the bike okay, Yeah so the house okay.
Speaker 3:The house is good. I have like a woe saddle on my bike. I don't know if you've seen them, but they're kind of in the triathlon industry. They're made in Florida, um designed in Colorado. So the saddle was what caught the house. It ripped all four suction cups, the sea sucker off my car and didn't like. I don't see a single scratch on the saddle. Yeah, the rails didn't break on the saddle. The frame doesn't have any breaks in it. I have no idea how any of that happened.
Speaker 3:Um but it ripped the sunroof like up and out of my car. So I have to get new sunroof rails installed, which my mechanic actually called me today because the parts are in So fairly expensive bill. Still, yeah, um, but thankful that my beloved 3T from 2018 is still in one piece, as far as I know.
Speaker 1:Would you do an event like this again?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If it wouldn't have rained would have been a completely different experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it'd be completely different. Um, i will say like uh, reed Foster already hit me up and was like man, we should do this again with a team of three, we can win it. And I'm like I'm never doing this again. And then afterwards I'm like, well, was it that bad? I mean you don't even you don't even remember a hundred miles of it.
Speaker 1:So I think that tells you how bad it was If you blocked out a hundred miles.
Speaker 3:I think it tells you But right now, like I mean I'm really glad I did it. Um, this was my favorite unbound that I've done of the three. Um, i mean it, it pushed us incredibly hard.
Speaker 1:Like it. Do you think you'll do another like an ultra bike packing kind of situation again?
Speaker 3:Maybe, uh, like I don't know. I mean, riding the 350 with friends over the course of two days would have been sweet, or even three days. Um, racing it just wasn't. wasn't that much fun? And I mean we weren't even really like having the mentality of racing it. We wanted to do it fast. But it is beautiful out there, the roads are awesome Like I'd love to go back and ride more. But the thought of like trying to be competitive at this distance, it just doesn't. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just so hard. Chad, would you do it again?
Speaker 2:Uh, i, i would do it, like Rob said, like I think it'd be great. I, i, i wasn't sure what I would think about the whole unbound experience And I really think, as an event, they, it was a great event. We had a great time. It would have been awesome to go and like have a good time on Friday and said to like chilling out in our house, but be like go to the expo, meet some people, be like, no, drink a beer, have a soda, eat some pizza, you know whatever. Um, and then and then do it to have a good time. Uh, i would a hundred percent do that.
Speaker 2:If I knew it was going to be dry, i, i wouldn't do it with anyone again. If it's going to be wet, like it, it totally is was not worth it. I feel like I got my money's worth out of the event, but I wouldn't willingly go like I'm going to go walk 10 miles in the mud again. How much did you have to replace on the bike? So on, on my bike, we knew the the hub bearings were getting. They were probably 60%. Still good, uh, but we ended up having to replace all those, replace the bottom bracket, replace my pedals, get new cleats Um, everything else was okay.
Speaker 1:I mean not a whole lot left on the bottom. I mean the only thing I guess the head set was only bearing.
Speaker 2:I guess I didn't have to my pulley wheels. I ordered new ones, but we think we're going to stick with the old. I mean that that group is like three weeks old, right? So we're going to roll the dice on these pulley wheels. The one of them's pretty well worn, but I didn't want to throw these on yet. I want to see if I can make it a little longer. Rob, what all did you replace?
Speaker 3:Absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1:Shut up Really. Yeah, it's all good, holy cow Good thing, cause you just got a brand new dryer. I know, i know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, even the chain seems good. Like we, we, we both wax our chains, which it's like the number one upgrade.
Speaker 2:Right Waxing your chain.
Speaker 3:Um, so on that uh F road, or whenever Chad dropped his chain the first time and we couldn't get it to like measure the chain rings again. Um, we use the silica synergetic lube at that point just try to like loosen it up to get get it to shed some mud. Um, see how we use some wet lube after that. but like, yeah, the drive train was pretty good on my bike, like the bottom right.
Speaker 1:No, i don't think so.
Speaker 3:Um, so I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that I had a flat tire, but I kind of did. So my, my rear tire had like a slow leak and I still haven't been able to find it. Um, and that's why, like those airliners saved me so many times, because I would say I was probably running 10 PSI for hours at a time Oh my gosh, um, which was like super comfortable. Um, until you hit just like the smallest rock and you hear like the thud of your airliner hitting, hitting the rock. Um, so I've got, you know, some a little bit of damage to my rear wheel, but it's, it's, it's fine. But yeah, like I was happy with the tires. If it was going to be dry, running something slightly bigger at a lower pressure, it would be, would be good. I was happy with the one by the gearing choice, like that was, that was great all day.
Speaker 3:Um, air bars like lifesaver at a distance like this, like just to get the pressure off of your hands for a while and off your shoulders, That was great. We both did skin suits. I think that was a good, a good option.
Speaker 1:Um any final thank yous to your support crews and all your and all your people.
Speaker 2:Um for sure. Thank you to to Hussleberg for dropping everything he was doing for four days to drive us out there and then be like as supportive as he possibly could Has been a rock star for dude, he is freaking, crushing it And he documented our whole thing.
Speaker 2:We have tons of badass pictures. Our like, i like somebody like is into social media. I think he blew hours out of the water Like the capital feed was freaking great. He gave us content for all of our personal stuff. He did a phenomenal job And he was always like, uh, i'll go get it for you, i'll do this, i'll do this.
Speaker 1:Um good dude He was freaking great.
Speaker 2:And then we had all the fun Friday people there, uh, which made it that's cool. They all came up, yeah, so uh like uh.
Speaker 2:Tiffany and Trey um they, they rode um in the in Unbound, and then Haley and Josh were there also, and so we all stayed at the same Airbnb. But it was like super nice to have your extended family there also, right, uh, they made it a lot of fun. And, uh, when, right after I pulled out, i got cleaned up and then we would go to the gas stations to to cheer on Rob, and so, uh, everybody would go along with us, so it was really cool to have everybody there.
Speaker 2:Uh but then, outside of that like, to me, this whole experience was super cool because I feel like so many people in the Oklahoma city cycling community were very supportive. Everybody wanted to know what's going on, how's your training? Tons of people asking questions, uh, and then just other people shooting you DMs to like, uh, check on you.
Speaker 2:I mean like for me, if something, if in like hindsight, if I were to do this all over again, i, when I switched okay, so I switched my phone off airplane mode message Ryan, send that. I still am not looking at anything. Switch it back. Ryan comes, i get in the car and I'm like, okay, i'm going to send the make the post saying I quit. I flip it off airplane mode.
Speaker 2:Dude, i probably had 50 messages from people who had started messaging from the time we stopped until I quit And they were like you're doing great, keep going, mile 120. Keep going, like all of these things. And I'm like sitting here replying to all these people Hey, thank you, i just quit. Thank you, i just quit, dude, my no joke. My mom messaged me at like 825. I think it was 825 in the morning. I had just got in the car and she's like mile 282. So that's exactly where Ryan picked me up Mile 282, you're doing good, keep going. And I or not 281, 82. And I was like thank you. But I just got in the car Like I wish I would have looked at those And also I think it would have been beneficial to like I never looked at the tracker Like the whole time we're out there, you're like we're so alone.
Speaker 2:We're the only people going through this, we're the only people walking through the middle of the road, we're the only people digging mud out. And then you, you get in the car and you look and you're like for a Ted Ted King's two miles away and he just quit This guy's right here Like we were, like we were there, but in your head you're just like man.
Speaker 1:We're so far in the middle of nowhere. So far in the middle of nowhere, like it was just a weird, weird feeling, but anyway I would.
Speaker 2:I would say thank you to all those people Like in. Like uh, sarah, when I got in the car had a super nice. Not hey, you left my husband on the side of the road, but like a very like. I've done my share of ultras, and I know what you're going through, um, so I guess those are my thank yous.
Speaker 3:Ditto.
Speaker 2:And my wife and kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you probably mentioned him. I mean, she knows.
Speaker 2:But she for sure knows like they're, very like they.
Speaker 1:Let me go on silly crazy things like this Yeah, you got us a great supportive crew. I have a wonderful group of girls, yeah, and the fact that Sarah gets it all and she understands all the craziness, so yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was awesome having the community cheering for us at home, like I was getting those messages out. On course, um probably should have shared him with Chad a little bit more, um, but yeah, i'm, i'm thankful Chad was there with me, um, because I mean, like life's been challenging, like his daughter got hurt and that's a lot of stress and business stress and other things, um, and he could have easily said I'm going to defer to next year or just not go and do it, and then I wouldn't have done it. Um, so thankful for your friendship, chad, and just like glad that we got to do it together.
Speaker 1:I love it. All right, guys. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it, rob. Sorry we ran. Remember we said no one's going to listen to this for an hour, while we've done like an hour 20 soon. Yeah, nobody's listening, all right. Thanks guys, i appreciate it You friend.