Peach Podcast
Two guys and an occasional guest breaking open topics on: Purpose, Energy, Attitude, Commitment and Health through shared experiences.
Peach Podcast
S3EP14: Beyond the Six Passes: What Makes Death Ride Legendary with Course Coordinator John Erickson and Guests!
When the roads close and a thousand cyclists gather in the Eastern Sierra at dawn, something magical happens. Death Ride isn't just another cycling event – it's a transformative journey that tests your limits across 103 miles and just over 14,000 feet of elevation gain through some of California's most breathtaking mountain terrain.
This special episode takes you behind the scenes of "the Tour of the California Alps" with exclusive insights from course coordinator John Erickson. You'll discover how this iconic challenge has evolved since its 1978 inception while maintaining its core appeal – the rare opportunity to ride completely car-free on majestic mountain highways. "I won't ride Ebbets Pass without the road closed, period," Erickson confesses, highlighting what makes this event truly special.
The heart of our episode features multiple perspectives that capture the Death Ride experience from every angle. First-timer Emily shares how she conquered all six climbs with just eight weeks of training, revealing the mental strategies that carried her through moments of doubt on the infamous Pacific Grade. Team Peach veterans offer contrasting journeys – from Daryl's surprisingly strong performance despite minimal bike training to teammates who faced difficult decisions when their bodies couldn't match their determination. Their stories illuminate the profound psychological dimension that separates finishing from falling short.
What emerges through these conversations is a portrait of an event that's equally about community as challenge. You'll hear about the mysterious "bagpipe guy" who greets cyclists at Monitors summit, the volunteer who became the unofficial "Cup of Noodles guru" providing crucial hot nutrition, and countless small moments of encouragement between strangers that become lifelines during the toughest stretches. With approximately 300 volunteers supporting riders throughout the course, Death Ride creates an atmosphere where attempting something extraordinarily difficult feels surprisingly safe.
Whether you're contemplating your first Death Ride, reliving memories of conquests past, or simply fascinated by what drives people to voluntarily subject themselves to such demanding challenges, this episode offers a window into why, despite unanimous declarations of "never again" at the finish line, cyclists find themselves irresistibly drawn back to these mountains year after year.
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the Peach Podcast. Just a couple of dudes and an occasional guest breaking open topics from everyday life on purpose, energy, attitude, commitment and health. So, if you're ready, listen in as we live to learn from our losses, gain from our gratitude and laugh as we level up. To learn from our losses, gain from our gratitude and laugh as we level up. Always remember, if you ever feel stuck, all you got to do is just start. Come on, let's go. Welcome back to Peach Podcast. With Doug and Daryl man.
Speaker 1:This week is going to be all things Death Ride, death Ride, death Ride. So if you are a past participant of a Death Ride experience, you're going to want to listen up. If you were someone who participated last weekend, july 12th, on Death Ride, you want to listen up. If you are someone who's considering doing Death Ride and you don't even know what Death Ride is, you're going to want to listen up, lean in and listen up. We got four segments on this episode. We have an interview with John Erickson, who is the course coordinator, and then we're gonna dive into a first timer experience with our girl, our new friend, emily, and then you're gonna hear from Team Peach, team Peach. And then you'll also hear from myself and Daryl as we kind of wrap up the episode. So lots of fun stuff to listen, to Turn up the volume, share this episode, listen to it with friends and let's get going.
Speaker 1:And to kick us off, here's our interview with John Erickson. So, daryl, I am excited because you are making connection. You are rubbing elbows with the big wigs out there, daryl, I love to hear it, man. And so I'm excited about this new guest, since you're the one that met him and you know a little bit of information about him. Why don't you go ahead and introduce this new guest and let's get down to business? Let's have a chat.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Absolutely. I could not be more thrilled. We were out at gold country, which is a great, great ride. Uh, I think we were doing the 70 miles, 7,500. There's no better tune up, uh, for death ride. Really. Really nice Actually at the a hundred miler. But, Doug, you and I always take the left and do the 70.
Speaker 1:We've never done a hundred.
Speaker 2:So I know I come up and, of course, whenever you see someone with a Death Ride jersey, you want to say hi to them, you want to say something to them. So I met John Erickson and I thought great, and I, oh, you did Death Ride. And he kind of gave me this look yes, right, I didn't realize he's one of the leaders in charge of Death Ride and so I was like no, he didn't just do death ride, he runs death ride. And so it was wonderful, real quick. And then when we got through with the ride, the death ride you guys actually had a sponsorship, so you had a little event out there and you're promoting it.
Speaker 2:It was about four or five weeks away. So I got a chance to meet John and get his information. I talked to him about the podcast and I couldn't be more thrilled to have him on. So first of all, john Erickson I'll let you kind of give your history and everything else, but is the course? Coordinator has been involved with Death Ride since 2021. So big, huge congratulations on the event and welcome John.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. It's kind of funny because meeting you, daryl, it was actually up at the top, up by the far end of the of the ride at gold country. We were on the side of the road and you asked that question. It was the one gal that was with me and she says no, he runs death. Right, that's kind of an exaggeration because there's a whole crew of people and I'm just one of a small team that kind of leads it. How's that sound? Yeah, yeah, so and tell us a little bit about yourself, and I'm just one of a small team that kind of leads it. How's that sound?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you get involved with Death Ride and how are you involved with the organization?
Speaker 3:Okay, quick about me. I'm a retired military guy. I spent 20 years in special ops and then I switched over and I went to school and I became a teacher and I taught special ed in high school for 15 years, so I didn't actually start riding regularly until 2019. And then I heard about Death Ride. The people that I was training with talked about Death Ride. Just like you. Everybody talks about Death Ride If you're from San Francisco or Sacramento. Everybody talks about Death Ride if they're on a bike. So I decided to head up that way and my first year was 2021, the year of the fire, so I'd missed COVID.
Speaker 3:But I got tromped down by the fire and got run out of there before I could actually start volunteering, because I was supposed to volunteer after to clean things up. So move on to the next year 2022 and 2023, I was actually able to go up there and volunteer and do the ride. You know, if your first year doing death right isn't the hardest year, I don't know what's wrong with you, because because it wasn't for me, it was just the backside of it.
Speaker 3:Even the pacific grade wasn't that bad, but going eastbound on ebbets after doing all the other climbs, yeah that's. It is so hot in the afternoon, it was just grueling. But anyway, the last couple years they asked me to come back to put me on staff and I'm doing what I can to help make things better and hopefully, uh, it'll continue to get better and, like daryl said last, this year was, it seemed well-rounded, it seemed bigger and it seemed like there were more people. But, to be honest with you, the numbers were almost exactly the same as last year interesting oh wow, but that's me, that's who I yeah, great.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us a little bit about the history, where it is now and everything else. I know, you know, you know the one of the cool parts is not only the epic elevation in the mileage, but it it's got such a great history. So tell us about that.
Speaker 3:It started in 1978. So we're coming up on 50 years. Not a spoiler alert, but you might see a change at some point soon.
Speaker 6:Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:But but that the course has changed many times throughout the years and it's included multiple different passes, whether it's monitor, ebbets, pacific grade, luther pass, kingsbury grade. It's included all these different passes at different times throughout its throughout its history. And then the most recent one before this one was the one that included Carson pass. So you did monitor both ways Ebbets, both ways and then you went recent one before this one was the one that included Carson Pass, so you did Monitor both ways, evitz, both ways. And then you went up and you climbed to the top of Carson and back down into Markleyville and you did 129 miles. We've tailored it back to 103. It's about the same amount of climbing and it depends on who you are.
Speaker 3:If you're one of the old, hardcore Carson Pass guys, you're going to say it's not the same anymore. But every one of these rides, if you've ridden the Sequoia, if you've ridden Grass Valley, the Gold Country, even Grizzly Pete, just all these different rides, they all have their different perspective or aspect that makes them tough or aspect that makes them tough. And the Carson Pass was tough, but I think it was more dangerous than tough because you were battling cars the whole way Right Of Carson. So this new path, this new route with the Pacific grade actually seems like a lot better route to me.
Speaker 3:But I didn't get to do the other routes, so some of those people probably are right and some of them are probably wrong. Yeah well, you get to close the other routes, so some of those people probably are right.
Speaker 1:Some of them are probably wrong. Yeah Well, you get to close the road. You guys close the entire road until 4 pm and I think that's why this particular route makes it so much easier to manage, because you can't close Carson Pass. It's too much of a thruway for heavy traffic and so I love this route and I hope whatever the future brings that's one of the considerations is that you know road closure Cause that that's what makes this ride so epic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is the road closures. I won't ride of its past without the road closed period. I can ride monitor because there's plenty of shoulder right, but I won't ride. A lot of people will. I'm just one of those people I won't. I ride in a lot of places that are probably pretty sketch, but I'm not going to do habits with the road open. Personally.
Speaker 2:Well, you know one of the things that, above and beyond, like you said, above and beyond the just the beauty of it, you market it. You're in this epic tradition unbelievable ride with the roads closed tradition unbelievable ride with the roads closed. When you take off in the morning and there's no cars and you're climbing monitor and there's no sound and there's. It's weird, it's like it's such I mean I almost would pay the money just to be able to ride, to have no cars up there. It's like the most cool thing in the world, it's one of the biggest benefits. And every time we drive down Carson pass to go there, we all say we're glad we're not writing that we're like that just looks sketch as you know what.
Speaker 1:Especially the end of the day last climb. I mean, the backside of Edmonds is bad enough as your last climb at the end of the day, but can you imagine doing Carson as your last climb? Hell, no man. Come on, john, help us out, brother, don't make that happen again, whatever you do. Hey, john, I have a quick question. I have some curiosity. I noticed this time it seemed like there's a lot more young people coming out and a lot more first timers that I talked with and engaged. Do you guys keep any metrics on that? Or like on your signup sheet? I can't even remember if there's a spot that says is this your first time, or whatever if there's a spot that says is this your first time, or whatever there is.
Speaker 3:That is one of the questions, and I don't have that data in front of me. I should have printed out something like that, and maybe that means we'll have to do a follow-up someday. Who knows?
Speaker 2:Oh, we will, we will. It felt like it, john. It felt like it. In fact, doug noticed it, I noticed it.
Speaker 3:Eric noticed it, I noticed it, eric noticed it. It just felt like a little bit of a younger crowd and a little bit of first timers. That was our perspective. We are trying to reach out to colleges and universities and high schools even to get some of those younger riders a bigger exposure to the sport. You've seen me around I'm promoting, marketing cycling. I realize I'm a big part of Death Ride, but my real goal and ambition here is to promote cycling and try and bring a new era of people into it Because, quite frankly, we're aging out, yeah, and we need new blood.
Speaker 2:Well, so we just concluded last weekend. We've done this for three years. We are probably very standard. We bring five to seven people and about 60% of our people finish, 50% of our people don't. Now, the couple of people that haven't finished, they're one of those ones, john's. They ended up doing like 80 miles in, like 11,000 feet, right, so there's so close, but but just talk a little bit, it's not, it's? You don't have to finish, right it's? Those are epic rides If you do two passes, one pass, three passes, four passes.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, whether you do one pass. You know we have people that go out and leave and go up and do the west side of monitor and turn around and come back. We have people from most of them are locals that actually only go up to the top of Ebbets. They'll wait and leave at about nine o'clock in the morning and they go up to Ebbets and they do a picnic up there. They do it at the rest area and they turn around and drive and ride back down and that's the only part they do. I had a friend come in from Dallas I'm trying to coin a new phrase and that's rock the bowl. He rode partway up Monitor and then rode back down. He rode partway up Ebbets and rode back down. He rode a little bit higher up on monitor the next time and then down and then back up a little higher on Ebbets. And so I told him I said, dude, you just rocked the bowl. Dude, you got to get that hashtag.
Speaker 1:You got to hashtag that and get a t-shirt on that.
Speaker 3:John, come on, I love that. Rock the. Oh, that's cool, that's cool, that's pretty cool seeing him out there and I saw him multiple, multiple times because he was doing that. He was just going back and forth well, you just concluded it.
Speaker 2:So, overall, one of the the key people talked to us about the day, talked to us about the volunteers. What was the vibe? I loved it. I mean, that's one of my biggest thing. When I, when I, when I leave something, we talk, it's not just the writers but it's the staff. So tell me, how did last weekend go for you?
Speaker 3:Oh shoot, this thing starts a couple of weeks beforehand, but this weekend in particular it, just like you said, it had a little bit bigger vibe and it felt like there were more people there, even though I looked at the data and I know that there's almost no difference between the number of people that showed up last year and this year. But they had different energy. The ride ended differently than it did last year. We had that hail and rainstorm at the top of Ebbets and up onto the Pacific Grade last year that took almost 300 riders out of finishing. So we probably would have had close to a thousand people finish the whole ride last year instead of 700 and some because that weather took people out. So there was a different, and then the wind just tore Turtle Rock Park apart at the end of the ride last year as well. So it just it had a totally different end.
Speaker 3:The last three years. I'll just say we've had between like 1350 and 1450 riders registered and then you usually lose about 20%. Every ride out there loses about 20% different between what register and who actually shows up, and so we have about 1100 showing up the last three years and then we have finishing the ride between 700 and 750. So it hasn't really changed much in the last three years. To go over some real strict hard data numbers that way, that's a comparison that's not going to really work for us because there wasn't really that much change.
Speaker 2:So we just did a recap of our team Right, and I don't know what it was, I think it was. It was hotter there. Man, Pacific grade seemed like they took the incline up a degree or two for all of us. We all were like, oh man, Pacific grade seemed like they took the incline up a degree or two for all of us.
Speaker 3:We all were like, oh man, uh you wouldn't, you wouldn't know that I just I just went through the pictures and, of course, I looked at yours and I'll tell you what Doug, this guy never stopped smiling, every single picture of him. Tell us about it it uphill or downhill, he is smiling from you know, grinning all the way across yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, but yeah, he never stopped spinning either, like daryl's a beast, he's a beast but, uh, we do we.
Speaker 2:I've literally, john john, been either the top of ebbets or writing up, and I could hear people almost talk themselves out of Pacific grade. They get nervous about it, they start talking about it. Right, the hairpin, that big hairpin where the biker was Right. I've never seen more people walk their bikes, but it was a. It was just an awesome day. It was just an awesome day.
Speaker 3:Look at the pictures of you. You'll see the ones right behind you?
Speaker 2:yeah, I do. I have a picture of a walker behind me.
Speaker 3:I like that one yeah, but it, but it happens right there, I mean every year. That's not new, that just yep. You get out there with the slightest bit of wrong gearing for you and you're gonna walk those two hairpins at least those two hairpins on that great yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Hey, john, I want to just say something about the, uh, the volunteers and the staff. You know from all of us, from from our whole team, peach, and, and the people we meet, I mean what a incredibly supported event. Um, just the and you guys have talked about it already just the energy, the attitudes, it's just so freaking awesome and I I'd love to you know so big shout out to the volunteers and all the stations that provide support, nourishment and encouragement and a whole lot of love. I'm going to just say it, man, it's a whole lot of love. But also I want to throw a big shout out to the bagpipe dude, like what's his name?
Speaker 1:And that guy's there every year and that's one of the, you know, iconic moments I look forward to. You know riding up and you can barely see, and then by the time you get to the top of the monitor, the sun's out a little bit. It's barely cresting over the mountains and you hear you know coming over and you're like this is freaking awesome, man. So who is he? And a big shout out to him, man.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I'm not going to satisfy that one here. We're going to have to come back on that one too, cause, honestly, I don't know his name.
Speaker 2:That's terrible to say.
Speaker 1:That's okay.
Speaker 2:That's all right. How long has he been doing it?
Speaker 3:I don't even know if I have the answer to that but I've been told forever.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, yeah so any first time.
Speaker 1:Anybody, so anybody listening that is considering death ride and they're hearing this podcast. The first part of your day you are met with this fricking awesome bagpiping dude. At the top of there's like this tombstone thing that marks the elevation of monitor pass and and it's just a great introduction and gateway into like hey, we're going to war right now, man, so gear up and let's go, because the bagpipes are playing people.
Speaker 3:You know, my first year I actually took off. We took off early, way early in the dark, and so when we got up there we couldn't even get a decent picture with him so got smarter the second year and waited and left till right before daylight so I could get a good picture with him nice and I want to go back on that thing about the just the community and the volunteers, yes, and sponsors we have.
Speaker 3:I was going to go into a long list of sponsors but then I started looking at the list and it was too long to me. But we have the highest level is platinum sponsors. We got 18 people that are platinum sponsors, 18 groups, whatever you want to call them. And then what was shocking to me was because I didn't pay attention before is there's another 42 sponsors behind them that aren't at the highest tier, but they're right behind. And you've been up there both of you. Markleyville is a little town in a big county and there's a couple of other little towns in that big county and there is not the infrastructure there to have enough people to fill volunteer seats. So we have groups from all over the Carson Valley, whether it's scout groups, riding groups, you name it. There's just the church ladies. Did you see the gypsies on the side of the road?
Speaker 1:Yes, over at the Red House, yeah.
Speaker 3:We used to have this crowd of girls that were the Cadillac callers. They were standing up usually by Cadillac curve. You know it's called Cadillac curve because there's a Cadillac at the bottom right.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:You heard that.
Speaker 3:We used to have the Cadillac curve callers and they were out there screaming and yelling to let you know to slow down. Speaking of slow down, did you see any slow down signs? I?
Speaker 2:did Two big ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Big big, big ones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, big, big, big one. Yeah, on Ebbets, on the downhill of Ebbets and on the Pacific grade, in both directions. They're in different places and they're just there because we love our riders and we don't want to see anybody get hurt and those are places. People have been hurt, yes, so that's why those are there. But, like I said, the community. It's amazing, the workers that are out there for the two weeks prior. We actually come in that Monday before the ride and we're there 14, 16 hours a day. It takes a lot to set that thing up between the course and the expo and just getting things packaged and ready to go for the rest stops and literally we're talking about 300 volunteers over a week. Wow, yeah, so there's a lot of people up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and that's why I wanted to give a huge shout out, because one of the things you guys eliminate and you eliminate it very well is anxiety about what if this happens or what if that happens or like it's. It's one of the rides that you can cause. You know that's a mentally challenging ride anyways, and so to remove that aspect of if I get a flat or if I need to be picked up or if I don't have enough nutrition or I mean you take away all. I mean you seamlessly and really in an awesome way, just take away any kind of anxiety and worry about that. You are going to get supported and loved on, no matter where you're at on that course, and you got motorcycles passing back and forth checking the course all day long. It's just. You know it's a well-tuned, well-oiled machine. You guys do an excellent job and thank you to everyone who makes that happen.
Speaker 3:I'd like to just I mean I know this is going to go out to a lot of people. So, like you said, the road, the course, is closed to vehicles. We've got CHP at every angle to stop anybody from moving around. There are some campgrounds and there's campers up there and there are horses, there's ranchers up there. So occasionally somehow somebody does get on the road Right, but 90% of the time if it's, if it's a course vehicle and it's, it's going to be off the course, other than those motos. So when people see a van or an emergency vehicle, they're on that road for a reason and they're headed somewhere.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Otherwise we try to stay off the course, Totally off the course.
Speaker 2:And, above and beyond all the things we talked about, I don't know too many more beautiful places in the world up there. Oh man, I don't know too many more beautiful places in the world up there. Right, you know, when I come back, go by the bagpipe guy and I'm on that nice slow downhill it feels like butter. And then you make that turn and you look over that valley in the desert. I can close my eyes and see that all the time. I mean it's and I am northern California, sacramento. I had never been to that area'd never been to Markleyville in there, until we started going up there. It's one of our favorite spots. I think Doug's been up there three, four times in the last six weeks, right, just amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, darrell, you talk about that one spot and I, you know I made sure there was a cameraman there to capture that, but you've got good pictures of that to choose from.
Speaker 3:But that's a three quarters of a mile into Mono County, outside of Alpine County, and it's one of the most beautiful views and you're at, you know you're at a good speed for going down the hill and that curve is just gentle enough that you don't have to be staring at the road or worried about what's going to happen. So you get to look out and you see that Topaz Valley and it's just gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. I have another spot that's a favorite and that's on the far west end of the pacific grade. It's actually the highest point on the pacific grade and there's a giant rock there on the left side of the road and it overlooks the sacramento valley. Oh yeah, if you stop there and go up on top of that rock, there's a picnic bench and stuff there too, but from there, looking out over the valley the other direction to the west, absolutely gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous okay, so you got to climb up the rock a little bit.
Speaker 3:That's on the side of the hill there, yeah yeah, get off your bike and go climb that rock. It's okay all right
Speaker 1:there's a little nugget here, people.
Speaker 3:This you're hearing it right here you'll get a cell signal right there too.
Speaker 2:So if you want to send something off to somebody, okay, uh, john is making us all jealous with this beautiful death ride, and doug does too. Water bottle, right, and uh, on the way up there, we talked about we've got all these water bottles that aren't very good from rides, right, yeah, and we're we just, oh, we were complaining about them and then at the end of the ride, when you finished, literally you would have thought those were gold. I, that's my most prized possession these beautifully new, uh larger, uh, unbelievable death right, uh, water bottles that are just legit and um so great job on that. Bigger and better. Everybody loved them, they were thrilled with them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good, that was the goal.
Speaker 1:All right. So, john, you know we really wanted to get some basic information from you, but I have one quick question. If we have some first-time listeners or people that haven't done Death Ride and considering, what would you say to encourage them to at least give it a try?
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter how many passes you do them to at least give it a try. It doesn't matter how many passes you do that experience up there and what daryl's talking about, about how big it was we're not. We're not going anywhere. We're trying to do it better, a little bit better every year. It's an amazing place to go, even just if you don't get out of the valley outside of markleyville carson rivers. That's an amazing, gorgeous ride right there just going along the carson river. So it is, it's just any part of it. There's so much history in that area and the town's small they I think they actually look forward to seeing us now riders that is yeah, and, and we gave a big shout out to the volunteers and the staff and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Is there anything you want to say to all the riders who showed up and attempted it this year?
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you for coming out, thank you for giving it a shot, thank you for finishing, thank you for going back and looking at the pictures so that you have this thing, something to remember that event by, for the rest of your life. Besides, you know that mental picture. I just want you to be able to look back and I pray that that was a really good experience for you and that you remember it for a lifetime.
Speaker 1:Amen, brother, I love that, Perfect, great. Thank you, john. We appreciate you joining us on this episode and we can't wait to share it with all the Death Ride listeners.
Speaker 3:Thank you, can't wait to see it.
Speaker 1:What an awesome interview with the course coordinator, john Erickson. Thank you again, john, and thank you for your service. Brother, thank you for your service. 20 years special ops, that's badass. Now we're going to move into a first-timers experience. This is Emily. Emily is somebody we met a week before on a training ride up in the Death Ride area covering. Week before on a training ride up in the Death Ride area covering some of the course, we all hit it off and connected and, lo and behold, she met up with us. But you'll hear about it in the interview. So lean in and listen up for Emily on her first attempt at Death Ride and see what happens. As usual, we met incredible people out there and, man, we are so blessed and so lucky because, daryl, you remember, we went out the week before and, by the way, daryl, daryl, we're going out to go ride, to do a training ride. Me and Eric and, uh, jr three spoke and Daryl's on this camping trip. He can't go, he can't go. His wife is my sister and I'm like come on, josephine, just let him go. And she's like he can go. And but it was. It was a lot of packing and unpacking, so I didn't expect him to go.
Speaker 1:Next thing? You know that Sunday morning, one week before death ride, I'm expecting Eric, eric to pull up in my driveway, cause he said he wanted to pick me up on the way. And lo and behold, here comes a big country, or high country, the Chevy high country, with Daryl in it driving. I'm like what the hell? So we get up, fast forward. We get up there. I was, I was pumped because my boy, daryl, was able to join us, so four out of the five original team members were going up for a last minute training ride. We get up there, we're riding, and we make the turn on the monitor and we see these two people on the side of the road at the base of monitor. One of them is the guest we're going to have on right now and the other one is Thomas. We should have had Thomas jump on here with that, with Emily too. That would have been cool. We'll get him next time, though, and we all just, you know said hey, you know, you need anything. They were all good and whatnot.
Speaker 1:And we start riding up the pass monitor and, you know, we're all grinding it out, grinding it out. And next thing, you know, here comes this girl with the frickin, this tiny little, join us on the uh, this episode. She is a first time death ride person, so was was? Was this Emily? Was this Thomas's first time as well? It was, yeah, okay, good, good, good. So, um, it was great to to ride with Emily, I think, daryl, um, I think on our training ride, daryl and Emily, I had like this boost of energy and just crushed monitor and got up there. That day was a good day, but on the death ride day it's 4, 4.30 in the morning. We're hitting the turn on monitor. That was Saturday morning, july 12th, dark out. Everybody's got their headlights on their bikes. There's, like there's, you know, at least a hundred bikers out there. It was really it was. It's a cool site to be seen when you start.
Speaker 2:A thousand bikers left that morning about four o'clock it was it was a Congo line.
Speaker 1:It was crazy, but, uh, all of it. So I was, um, let me see, daryl had taken off. Daryl, with Daryl, was on a mission, ladies and gentlemen, daryl was on a mission and him and I will get to that a little later but, um, he was halfway up the hill and we were just starting to climb that damn thing and then, um, eric and Daryl, uh, or Eric and David and JR were still. They were coming up the mountain. I don't know where Emily actually saw them, but they recognize, she recognized their voice, or vice versa, something like that. And and I think JR said, uh, is that, uh, what? What he's called you little sprocket, or something like that.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Then did you recognize the group at that point, Emily.
Speaker 5:Definitely yeah. When I came up on him, I'm like man, there's more people that are going to talk the whole way up the pass. This is insane, and he's telling a dream, so I'm like I'll just sit with them for a little bit. This is kind of interesting. And then they looked over and saw my little camelback on and they're like what are you doing with a backpack? And then they're like wait a second, that's a little sprocket.
Speaker 2:So every year we've done training rides, emily, and we've met so many awesome people, haven't we On our training rides? Yes, and some of them we're like super good friends with now Like there's, you know a guy, steve Aguilar, that we've done some. So we always talk about the people you meet along the way, but you got that feeling I'm never going to see them again in the dark in the morning. But we always end up doing so. Welcome, emily, and tell us a little bit about yourself and what the heck made you decide to do Death Ride.
Speaker 5:I moved out to California probably two years ago now which is kind of weird to think and I took a snowboarding job at Kirkwood and as I was doing that, I started working at a restaurant called Capel's and I met the. Doing that, I started working at a restaurant called Capels and I met the owner there. We're talking about things in the summertime around Lake Tahoe and Markleyville area and he was just telling me about this race called the Death Ride. That was incredibly hard and it was a biking race and I've always been into endurance sports. I grew up doing distance running so I was like okay, have you done it before? He said yes, and that was Mike Nicolai, the owner of Cables, and I'm like so I joked.
Speaker 5:The first winter I was there. I was like, okay, so we're all going to do it later on and he like laughed it off. He's like no, I'm never doing that. And then the next winter, this past winter, I was like no, we seriously should do it. I might stick around for the summer. We got a whole team together. None of us really trained properly. It ended up being a team of six at first and then dropping down to a team of two. That's what got us into it, me being the one instigating everyone and saying we should do.
Speaker 5:It is part of the reason why I was like okay, I have to do this. Good on you. Good on you. Good on you Because my friends were like my friends and family were like dude, you're only going to go to train for eight weeks. That's not enough training. What are you doing? What are you thinking? And I'm like, well, I kind of started this. I got to at least try.
Speaker 2:When we were riding up on the training ride. I mentioned Emily. She asked I said I think there's, like you know, six, seven of us depending on there. I said how about you? Is it you and Thomas or other people? She said I've got a team and then she slowly walked. We had a team of six and five and four and three and two and she goes. I'm hoping we stick with two, but her and Thomas stuck it out.
Speaker 1:So yeah yeah, yeah, hey, I'm seeing a little threat, a little. Uh there's, there's a hint here or some kind of wisdom, because daryl is big time into distance running. I don't know if he shared that with you while you guys were riding together, but yeah, so, and daryl, he barely emily, I'm telling you, I think I can count on one hand how many times he went out and, and actually less than one hand how many times he did serious training for this. But he, he probably got on his bike maybe five times before this ride, but prior to this, you know, he did a 50-mile run, he did a 50K run and he's been. I mean, darrell was, he was locked in, he was locked in.
Speaker 1:And so I think there's a link between endurance athlete, especially long distance running athletes, and just being badasses like, ok, what's in front of me, let's go. Because, let's face it, I think, yes, death ride is physically hard, but it's far more mentally hard than it is physically hard. Not that I'm not taking anything away from the physical part, because that shit is hard, but I think it's far more mentally hard, man, because I can't tell you how many times I said I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. You know, probably 2000 times over the course of the ride, especially when I'm hitting them, damn porta potties all the way.
Speaker 5:I'm done. I was worried about you there for a minute.
Speaker 1:You were worried, Damn I thought I was going to end up in the damn sinkhole. Yeah, you were worried, Damn I thought.
Speaker 2:I was going to end up in the damn sinkhole. So you guys, I was at the bottom of Topaz, at the rest area and we did a really good job, doug, of really doing exactly what you said. We minimized the longer stop, so we did so all of a sudden you came down and all of a sudden you said, hey, emily was here and all this and we kind of connected. So that's how we kind of like started the ride. You guys met her up there, so we met you pretty quick. Pretty shocking that just for everybody, all the listeners it is pitch dark, right. And all of a sudden you get down about I don't know an hour, hour and a half and gets light and you're like, oh, I know you, I know you.
Speaker 5:I so anyway. So that's when we started. But, emily, tell us how the day went, tell us how the ride went. Well, I think I was really excited when I saw the group of you guys.
Speaker 5:When I first started going on the monitor, I was like there's no way out of all these people, I'm meeting you instantly. And then I rode up with Doug, which was really fun, and we talked most of the way. And then going down and seeing you at Topaz, I was like the way, I'm gonna have a repeat of the training ride. So, because you were going pretty fast and I'm like, oh, daryl's gonna dust me, like there's no way I'm keeping with him or he's gonna want to ride. And then when you're like, yeah, we can just talk the whole way up, I was like, okay, sweet, like this long climb is gonna be a lot better than I thought it was gonna be. It was cool having that as almost like a distraction and trying to take everything in smaller steps, because at times my mind would slip and I'd be like I think of the enormity of what I'm about to do.
Speaker 4:My legs aren't ready for that.
Speaker 5:Like what am I thinking? Being able to take everything in little baby chunks was really cool and having people around me that knew what they were doing and were excited and positive and willing to talk the whole way made it really a lot easier than I anticipated it to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember, um, first of all that climb up Topaz, dude. You need every last bit of help, that, don't you think that is insane and brutal? That is like I always feel, like if I could just get back up topaz, I can make it. So that's, that's relentless and you did a great job. And then we, we stopped at the lunch stop, right, which was good. And, man Doug, isn't it great getting through, we, we actually none of us ever stopped at the top of monitor, we just got our stamp and went. So that was great.
Speaker 1:First time we did that both ways I know it was awesome.
Speaker 2:So we went down and got lunch and then we saw you and there's a mental. You get to lunch and you're like, oh, I'm doing really good. Then you're like I got Ebbets, yep, so what was the thought of Ebbets? And then we'll talk about Pacific Grade, because Pacific Grade, we had a discussion with the boys. That is just mind-numbing.
Speaker 5:Ebbets went well. I think Ebbets is my favorite climb out there so far.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 5:And then in my mind I was like also it's shaded, you know like you gotta think that you're not baking in the sun the whole time.
Speaker 5:So that was kind of fun. And so that was kind of fun. And I climbed Ebbets the most in my training. So I had all those like little mental checkpoints of like, okay, now we've got to this point, Okay, now I have this point to get to. So that made it a little bit easier to climb than some of the other ones that I wasn't looking forward to, which was definitely Pacific Valley Grader. I was like I'm not looking forward to that little one.
Speaker 1:It went a lot smoother than I thought it was going to go. Good on you. How many times did you do Ebbetson training?
Speaker 5:I want to say I probably did it like four or five times, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You were dialed in for that. That's a great. That is a fun mountain to climb because it is the shadiest of them all and those little checkpoints help because it does have. Uh, there are reliefs and it's 13,. It's 13 miles to the top from the base of monitor, but that first I think seven miles is kind of rollers, you know. So it's really 6.2 miles of okay now, now let's get our ass to work, kind of shit. Yeah, so it's a it's all good, but good, good on you for just getting those mental checkpoints in place before the before the ride.
Speaker 2:And Doug. Uh, you know we've done this three times, but we're I'm very you've been writing for I don't know 20 plus years. I'm pretty new still to writing, right, we've done this a couple of times, so it's not like we got this great experience. But, man, we went up Ebbets and all of a sudden I went man, she's got this. I mean, there was like zero debate, right, and like we talk about a very similar Emily, like when we ride together. We ride together sometimes, sometimes one's a little in front Climbing is individual, right, but we ended up always kind of sinking back up here and there. There was one time I mentioned to her I said something about some board game called Go Deep and she thought I meant we were going to go deep and start climbing hard. She goes, you can go deep all you want.
Speaker 1:I'm staying right here I was like oh no, I'm not talking, she set her boundaries.
Speaker 6:with your ass, there You're like.
Speaker 2:I'm doing whatever you want.
Speaker 1:I'm staying right here, right, hey, we say the same thing to him, Emily we're like go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like and then one of the things um, when we got down to Alpine, we were very excited. Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:Daryl, hold on, I'm going to cut you off because this is an important part and this is something that first timers and people who are considering the ride need to hear about, because this is like magic potion. But, emily, did you have the cup of noodles at the top of Ebbets?
Speaker 5:I did man, I mean and I mean isn't that amazing Like it's like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, isn't that amazing Like it?
Speaker 5:was nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's something about the cup of noodles man.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I felt kind of weird at first because I'm like it's in the 80s and I'm eating a cup of noodles and it's burning my mouth, but I'm like it's going to be helpful later.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure I met the person in charge of cup of noodles. Yeah, this older guy came over to us and he was like how is it? Did you like it? And we said yes. He says I bought more this year and gave us a five minute story about how much cup of noodles he bought this year. He brought up a second heater for the water and all this, I think his official title is, you know, cup of noodles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the cup of noodles guru. Hey, thank a cup of noodles guy. Whoever you are, man, I'm telling you we, we tell everyone about that and it's going to be on the podcast now too.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know hopefully there's some left next year when we get to the top of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we, uh, we got down to Alpine and we turned around and, let's be honest, you're at the bottom of.
Speaker 2:Alpine Wait, you didn't talk about Pacific grade.
Speaker 1:I will, I will in a second.
Speaker 2:All right, we got there. One of our biggest things, doug. We were excited because we could see you guys. We were nervous Like hey, where's Doug? Because Doug had some tummy issues.
Speaker 5:And then you know where's Eric?
Speaker 2:Eric had some hamstring issues and all this kind of stuff. So it was cool I told her mention. The one thing you said you were nervous about was Pacific grade, because she does have a very small sprocket in the back, which means that she doesn't have the best climbing gears and it's really rough. That's the one area you seem nervous about. Talk about how that went.
Speaker 5:I was definitely feeling the burn in my legs at that point. I just tried to keep doing those little tiny like snaking my way up, doing the little S's up, and that was definitely the spot where it was the most mentally challenging, because I'd see these people climbing past me with their smaller gears and I'm like, oh man, that would look so nice, like what am I doing right now to myself. But then I would remember I'm like it's still hard for everyone, like, yeah, they have a little bit easier of a climbing gear, but we're all still suffering through this. I don't know if it was you, doug, that said it, or if it was Daryl, but they were like telling one of you were telling me about a person that dropped out of Pacific grade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of people do Right.
Speaker 5:And I saw some people walking up it and then one guy was even asking someone at a checkpoint, kind of like how much further uphill is this? And he's like you're only halfway man and you could tell. He sat there and thought like should I really walk the rest of this or should I turn around and I can see where it can be a tipping point? Because it's just kind of like that last little pass that sneaks up on you and it has sharper pitches to it. So I contemplated it for a second. I was like it would be nice to around, but you still got evidence in the back. We're still going to turn around and climb a lot more and we're so close to the turnaround point that it would just be silly to turn around at this point. I will say that's where my mental strength did wane a little bit, because I'm like what am I really doing right now? I should have climbed this more than once.
Speaker 2:We talked about it. We've done it. I don't know what, doug, I think probably now five times right, with some training rides in there At least. Yeah, yeah, I tell you what I always, every time I get there, it's like I just, I think my, my mind purposely forgets it because it's so painful. Because, every time I'm like, oh, you got to be kidding. And this year we, we talked about it. Doug, we saw more people walking this year than ever, and I think it's because of the heat.
Speaker 2:Um, because, I mean we see one or two people. We saw like tons of people walking because of the heat in the in the grade, so so we got to talk about ebbets. Backside we're coming up, ebbets. Everything feels the world is right.
Speaker 1:We saw you, doug, which was awesome, yeah, and I was so pumped because I was having massive stomach issues. I was in every port-a-potty and I was wondering. I'm like man, I hope Emily's hanging with Daryl, but I knew Daryl was on a mission. He was crushing it that day. It was just his day. And then I see Daryl coming back and we catch each other's eyes and we're smiling Like he's all Doug and I'm like big D go and I'm like okay, where's Emily? Where's Emily? Where's Emily? And then like within a minute, maybe two at the most, here comes Emily and I'm like holy shit, this girl is kicking butt right now. So, holy shit, this girl is kicking butt right now. So yeah, I was. I was so pumped to see you, emily.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I didn't get you at first on the downhill, and then you screamed and had your arms up.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, my God. And uh, we, then we saw, and then I was like please, let's see JR and David, please, let's say JR. And then we saw them and then I kind of in my heart knew because Eric, eric, I think it sent a text that his hamstring he seemed injured. So when we didn't see him we kind of figured, hey, maybe he didn't make it, uh. But we're heading up and all of a sudden little clouds, one drop and doug I know you didn't hit this too much, but it started raining, exactly like last year yeah and then it started raining some more and then we pulled over and put on some, some rain gear, the best we could.
Speaker 2:We didn't really have much. And then we started and then the hail came. And that's the only time I coached Emily. I said Emily, we need to go now. We need I don't know whatever we had. I think think 1.9 miles, she added.
Speaker 1:I was like we got 1.9 miles Go now. Daryl was having PTSD right now.
Speaker 2:I was PTSD man, that's what was going on, so tell me what your thoughts are. When it started raining and hailing.
Speaker 5:It was kind of funny because we're like climbing up and I'm like man Ebbes is going to kind of stink in this heat and kind of stink in this heat, and you kind of heard a little bit from Pacific Valley and then it started getting cooler and I noticed the shade too and I pointed it out and you start looking up to the sky and we're like, oh no, but it kind of numbed the legs. So that was nice, it kind of refreshed you a little bit. Everyone had told me if you go over Ebbets, there's no way back besides going back over Ebbets. So I'm like there's nothing we can do to turn around. That makes no sense. So we do have to keep going forward.
Speaker 5:And even when we were climbing we did see someone hiding out in the trees and Daryl brought it up. He's like he's going to get freezing. I don't know what his plan is, but I was happy that Daryl was there, like we need to keep moving, because you heard the thunder roll in a little bit too and I was like, oh no, we're going to see how this goes.
Speaker 2:And Doug, I felt bad, but I didn't feel bad. I got a little directive at the top of Abbott's. We pull in there and people had the garbage bags. I grabbed a garbage bag and put it on real quick and then they gave one and they were like, oh, this one's ripped, oh, we'll get another one. And then they gave one and they were like, oh, this one's ripped, we'll get another one. And then there was like a minute Nobody was doing anything and I literally had to say somebody, get her a garbage bag now. Right, and we got it. And we went going and I tell you what I don't think I've ever done that last 20 miles faster. We had about two miles of rain and then we just, we just crushed it. So congratulations, emily. So you've had a couple of days. This is what. Four or five days, doug. I always ask our guests yeah, what did you learn? What's your perspective three, four days later?
Speaker 5:I'd say with your team if everyone's so positive that I think it makes the race so much more enjoyable and manageable that I guess I didn't realize how big the mindset of it was. I knew negative talk could put you out of a race when you're doing running and whatnot, but being positive throughout all those points throughout the race was really nice. You would even bring up some of the stats and sometimes I'd be like don't tell me the stats because I want to be ignorant. I don't know how far I've gone, because in training the furthest I had gone was 60 miles. So when you were like we're at 70 something miles and we already did 10,000 feet of climbing and I'm like I've only ever done 6,000 feet of climbing, like what am I doing? But sometimes I just like let it go. Be like okay, okay, we got this. But I guess overall it was just kind of insane what you can push yourself to do, especially when you have that support. I think Cool.
Speaker 1:And what did you learn about yourself? Anything you learned about yourself, emily, just that you know personally, regardless of the race, or just in life, general.
Speaker 5:I don't know. That's actually a really good question. I'm like trying to think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no worries, no worries.
Speaker 5:I really came out of it.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a good question to kind of ponder and think about and you can share with us off air, down the road or whatever. But uh, you know, these are, these are moments. They're fun that you meet new people. You have, you know, you get your ass kicked, all that other stuff but, there's always a little gem that you know it's good to log down or journal about, or something just to keep in hold, and that you can build great stuff off of those little moments, those little nuggets.
Speaker 5:And so I encourage you to.
Speaker 1:You know, do that and I mean you're already doing some bad-ass stuff and you know so you have a lot of opportunities in your life to really just learn and then share. Share with others, man, that's what we what. One of the things that we as team peach, one of the most fun things we look forward to is meeting new people and find, especially finding people that are struggling along the way and then feeding them some positivity and some encouragement and and and a whole lot of love. You know because, uh, we know what it feels like man and it it's like you get injected with this juice to keep on going. It's cool, it's a cool thing. So we were so glad and grateful to have met you the week before and then to and to have you find us in the dark, you know, on the day of. That was so freaking awesome man. That was so cause you did the whole ride, pretty much the whole ride with 18 members somewhere along the along the way.
Speaker 1:That's true. Yeah, real quick for any first timers. What would you suggest?
Speaker 5:More training would be nice, obviously, but getting out there and being on the course as much as you can so you can get familiar with it was really helpful, because then you are mentally prepared for what you're about to tackle. I remember when I was training with Thomas it was like pulling teeth trying to get him to like ride the actual course. We'd ride Blue Lakes, we'd ride a few other rides nearby, but I was like dude no we need to get out there Like you need to see what monitor's like, what Ebbit's like.
Speaker 5:So that was a big helpful point of training, I guess.
Speaker 1:Right Is just getting out there and riding as much as possible. Okay, awesome, awesome, great, great tips, great stuff. Thanks for joining us on a peach podcast. It's a pleasure to have you as a guest, is pleasure to meet you, and I hope we reconnect and do some other stuff. So other fun stuff, especially up your way. We all love it up there in the Tahoe area. Um, that would be awesome, but we'll see what, uh what the world, the universe, brings us and we'll just tackle it one event at a time.
Speaker 5:Sounds good. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What a great connection. And the whole team man just, uh, really, really connected with Emily. Emily's one of those people who just brings a beautiful light, beautiful energy and a beautiful vibe to the world. And, emily, we're so, so pumped and so grateful that we got a chance to meet you and do some hard shit with you. Man, that was awesome.
Speaker 1:But without further ado, we're going to get to the team. We had two of the team members Well, yeah, two of the team members we interviewed. Who was it? The Fixer? Dave the Fixer, and JR, who was threespoke, but we're now calling him JR the finisher because he finally finished his damn thing. Great job, great job. So tune in, listen to a couple of the team members. Daryl and I will be on here as well, but Daryl and I share our experience after this episode with the team members, and so lean in and listen up. Here we go. So we are here with a couple of Team Peach members who showed up to the Death Ride 2025. And, man, this is what we've been waiting for. We want to hear some feedback and, daryl, you're really good with the questions. Why don't you go ahead and pop off the first few questions and let's get this conversation going?
Speaker 2:Great, I just want to you know. Wonderful, wonderful weekend, jr. David. Just want to hear number one what was it like kind of the last maybe 12 hours heading into the ride and then, more than anything, tell us how it went? Yeah?
Speaker 4:uh, interesting, I uh anxiety. Every time we did a training on the, on the on the hills out there, anxiety was like what I was feeling and uh and I went, there was no release or anything. And then uh, uh, until we went to bed early because we were going to wake up around what 2.30 in the morning, which I really didn't like that.
Speaker 1:But no, neither did I JR, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:But anyway, we had to wake up early. But it was funny because I was like man even then anxiety through the sleep. I can't sleep, I need to get sleep. I'm not going to be able to handle this ride tomorrow. I need sleep.
Speaker 4:And uh, and it was funny around two o'clock in the morning. I may have fell asleep for an hour or two before, but then I woke up. It was two o'clock in the morning and I couldn't go back to sleep to 2 30. So I was like you know, I changed that anxiety. And I was like you know, I changed that anxiety and I was like you know what I am going to now? I just want to beat this hill. Now I changed from anxiety for some reason to I don't care if I have sleep, I don't care what I'm eating, I want to conquer this hill. Today's the day, here I go. And it was kind of cool to have that feeling because there was no more anxiety being afraid of that hill. It was like here I come, I'm going to give you all I got and here I come. So and it kind of helped out. So otherwise mentally I could have been destroyed with that anxiety and not enough sleep or whatever you know.
Speaker 1:So Great call man. What a great paradigm shift. Jr, that's awesome. That is awesome, especially at two in the morning. Shit, come on.
Speaker 2:Dave, Dave, talk to us about that last 12 hours. How did you feel heading into to the ride?
Speaker 6:You know, I felt actually really good. I felt, you know, when we did that practice ride I was like, oh wow, I'm like way I felt a little, even though I had some really good workout routines and strength training, I felt a little under, uh, trained for it, uh, haven't had as many hill climbing and things as I wanted to do, but it really opened my eyes. So I really intensified. There's weight training and what I could do, and you know there's there's holiday training and what I could do, and you know there's there's holiday weekend and all this things and family functions, all these things going on. I felt really strong. I actually felt great.
Speaker 5:I mean my diet was good.
Speaker 6:I quit eating sweets and just ate really good food. And I uh, I hydrated. I was drinking a lot of water in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool, hey, dave, you know, um, I'm just going to remind everyone, especially new listeners who don't know you had a stroke, you had two strokes, right, three strokes, two strokes and you were dealing with some serious issues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were dealing with some serious issues and you know I got to. I have to say, uh, last year, uh, you know I, you, man, you brought that up a lot, you brought that up a lot. But, man, I'm going to tell you I did not hear it at all this year. What, uh did something shift, was it on your mind? And what? What were you thinking about? What was going on?
Speaker 6:mind and what were you thinking about? What was going on? Um, yeah, I mean, I do, I'm gonna do what I can do. You know, that's where. That's where I'm at now. I'm gonna go try, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it all, all I got, and that's where I'm at now.
Speaker 6:Today, I'm gonna continue doing endurance stuff. I'm gonna continue doing long rides, I'm gonna be doing my stuff, but now I'm just gonna get done what I can get done. You know, that's kind of where I'm at and I'm and I'm happy. Honestly, I'm a little discouraged. We'll talk more about that. But uh. I'm very happy, healthy and alive today.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, amen, okay, yeah. So yeah, it really wasn't you. You were, you were. It sounds like you were more focused on just I'm going to show up and do what I can do. You weren't even focused on what had happened to you. You were focused on here. I am now and I'm going to do what I'm going to do. That's awesome. I love that. Great, great perspective, great shift. Daryl, you got another question for JR.
Speaker 2:You know you're going to be on the road for the next 10 to 14 hours. So, JR, how did it go?
Speaker 4:It went pretty well. I think I stood out there a little too long but going up monitor I was feeling pretty good. I was like this is going to go good today. Man, I could feel it. I didn't even go on that monitor, I felt pretty good. In the end the temperature kind of got to us and it was strenuous and um, what's the um, the past?
Speaker 1:uh, habits pacific, great pacific, great, pacific, great.
Speaker 4:There you go right after pacific gray, with the sun beating down on us, trying to hit those steep hills, uh, that's when you could start feeling the, the toll.
Speaker 4:And it was funny because last year, uh, I didn't train, uh, quite as well as I did this year, but I had more energy, uh, going over that pass last year than I did this year and I was thinking I was like, wow, this is uh, this right, starting to really kick my butt here. So for the most part, you know, I thought I would feel a lot more strength, but in the end, uh, I was so glad that I got it, got it done, but it did, it did, it did kick my butt uh, and it just, you know, after we did the turnaround, I was like, wow, I just know I had a lot more energy this last, last year, when I had hit this turnaround, but it did, it came out. I was still. It was still a great ride. So, uh, you know, I don't want to say I loved it, but it was. I loved getting it. I get love getting it accomplished. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1:It was a great ride, no matter what and let's just a big shout out to jr man, he, he last year, he, you know, due to, uh, mother nature and circumstances he didn't get to finish.
Speaker 1:In this year he showed back and it, and again, jr hit his head, was unconscious and in an ambulance a couple of years ago and, uh, you know, it was a big fight for him to get back.
Speaker 1:And I remember you, jr, coming back last year and you and I went to do a training ride and you were really there was a lot of anxiety and curiosity and just not knowing and. But then you went out there last year and you were man, you were really there was a lot of anxiety and curiosity and just not knowing. And. But then you went out there last year and you were man, you were, you were going to finish, but then mother nature showed up and said no, you're not, and so to have to deal with that and say, damn it, I got to come back and do this damn thing again. Uh, you know, just to prove to yourself that you can do it. Um, so great job. Huge kudos to you, jr, for coming back, getting it done and finishing JR's new name he used to be three spoke, but now we call him the finisher, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I. I want to highlight one thing We've done this three years in a row. Right, jr is only participated two years, but the year that, the first year, he came up with us and supported us, remember, yeah, yeah, you've been with us all three years, the first year physically, because of your accident. You couldn't, but you were there.
Speaker 1:In spirit, you were there you were on the poster boards man. He had poster boards right.
Speaker 2:So so the reality is this is your third year. You participated two years and, by the way, I just want to say it, every one of us knew, jr, you were going to finish, dude, you had a killer mindset. You were you might have. You might have walked in like today and finished, but you were going to finish, it didn't matter right, you were going to finish somehow some way. I mean, that was it. So, dave, uh, talk to us. How was the ride for you?
Speaker 6:The ride felt really good. I monitored, I felt very strong. I felt stronger than I did two weeks prior, I think. I told Jarrett I think I've stopped a third of the time I did a couple weeks ago going up that hill and we felt pretty good. You know, jared and I were together for pretty much all the ride, I think, and so so I think everything's going pretty good. Got up to Ebbets, I mean, I think we even went into the pond and soaked our feet and our knee.
Speaker 1:Kenny Reservoir. That's Kenny Reservoir, yeah.
Speaker 6:Reservoir, yeah, and that would felt good. And then we got it to the top of ebbets, took a break and then, uh, you know, and that's uh jared, we go down ebbets, that's the mountain, five, or peak, five or four or five, I can't remember uh, that's number four going back down yeah, four going out to pacific yeah, pac great.
Speaker 6:And then we passed these guys. You know, and that's where the, you know, the pain starts to happen, you know, the torture starts to happen in that second half and we passed these two guys, these two, these two dudes, and we're like hey, how you guys doing, we're like we're just we're doing it. And the guy said something like what did he say, jerry? He goes yeah, what did we do? What did we do?
Speaker 4:so bad? What did we do in our life that we torture ourselves like this?
Speaker 6:He goes what did we do so bad in our life that we had to do this to ourselves? But it is real torture. You get over that. And then, of course, we were fighting the time clock. I feel like my purpose in the day was just get to that end. At the late they were putting away the tents on the cutoff and, uh, we raced down there and I got to, got there to the lady first and uh, they had everything. And and I just said, you know, and jen jer pulled up right behind me and I was like we've tried this three times, is there any way that we can get a stamp? And the lady goes oh, okay, let me go find a stamp, let me go find the stamp. Uh, so that was super cool. I was just like so happy because I really, really I was going to get that done. Once I got that, I was like, all right, let's get back home now.
Speaker 6:And then it just the pain and the long last hill, that last mountain, was doing it to me. And once I get past 8,000 elevation, my body gets a little. You know, I think everybody's does. But that's where I'm really feeling it between that 8,000 to 9,. You know, I think everybody's does, but mine. That's where I'm really feeling it, between that eight to 9,000 feet elevation. And then I was just losing. I was losing more and more and Jared kept saying ah, you don't look so good, you don't look so good.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 6:So I was like you know what I? I told myself I'm going to do what I can do and I tried. I went like we went every a hundred, 100, 200 feet we would stop. And then, uh, and then at that point I felt like I was just slowing jared. I felt like I was just stopping jared and I said, yeah, I'm just gonna walk. Um, you know, the van started picking up people. There was a bunch of people needing rides and so, uh, so jared, just he pressed on, uh, he wanted to stay with me and walk with me. But I was like, dude, you get this thing done, you go. And so I was super, super happy, he did and and uh, so it was, it was good I, I was very happy. I got, you know, almost 13 000 feet done and 85 miles. I was very happy, I was healthy and alive when I was done, because I was.
Speaker 4:It was complete torture at that point for me yeah, I uh, if I could say uh, I was watching, um, you know, we're riding together most of the that event, me and david and uh uh. And then when we started going up, um, what's that pass again the uh pacific grade.
Speaker 4:We're gonna talk about that in a minute okay, but we're going up, going up Pacific grade and and David listen, david's a better writer than I am and that always has been. So I think, after we did the Pacific grade and we did the turnaround, you know, then I I was like I was like, come on, you know, I was trying to pull David with me, you know, and he was kind of slowing down a little and I was like pull David with me, you know, and he was kind of slowing down a little and I was like I got this kind of weird, you know, because David's usually ahead of we, way ahead of me, right, so I could see, you know, poor guy. But anyway, I was going to say he so apparently, come on, david, you know, we're going to got to get this time. You know, two things are going to take us out, you know we're going to take us out. Either we're going to be out here too long or or our body's going to give out. I go, so we got, let's crunch the time so we get, we get out of here, and uh. So they was like, oh, yeah, okay. But then I, you know, so we started going, I turned around. I just remember seeing david, his, his head was down and he's just paddling, you know, slow, and I was like like, oh, sheesh, and this guy, he's feeling it. It's uh, I kind of went that's.
Speaker 4:I kind of I had to kind of retrain my thought to like, let's see, uh, you know how david's feeling, let's make david the leader here and we'll just go wherever he goes and we'll do whatever he does. And uh, so I thought like, hey, man, you feeling all right, or you think we should call a side over here, uh, pick us up or something, call it a day, you know. And uh, he goes. No, no, so I just gotta say, man, because he, he was dead before that, but he just kept going, kept going, kept going, and we're like two, two miles from the top of uh, of ebbets, and uh, he wanted it. So bad man, I just felt so bad for him. I was like dang it, man.
Speaker 4:And uh, so I was like you know, I, and I at that time I was like you know what, david, we don't. This doesn't mean, you know, we don't need to finish this off, you know, we can just finish it right here. But uh, that's kind of when he was just like you know, jared, get out of here and get up there and uh finish this race, you know. And so uh, he called it, but uh gave it one heck of a and you know he gave it a hell of a ride and you know a lot of people out there gave it everything they had and right, but I was watching him. I was watching him and I was like god dang, he's really wanting that summit, just didn't quite get it there.
Speaker 1:I love how you guys really, you know, without even really saying it or knowing, maybe not even knowing it, you guys are really trying to lead each other, you know, and be there for each other. And even if that meant, in your case, sierra, sometimes, like you know, let me pull back, let me get Dave out in front, because that is a strategy, when you put people, when you fall back and let somebody get out in front of you, it's, you know, it gives them some encouragement, some push, because then they feel like, okay, I'm leading this person. And well, what an awesome uh mindset both of you had working with and for each other to get this thing done. And uh and Dave, no small feet, 85, 13,000. That's freaking huge man. That's freaking huge, you know, sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to bring up a couple questions. Pacific grade let's just talk about it for a second. Yeah, you finished three monumental long climbs Monitor, topaz and Ebbets. Those are more, doug, probably in the seven to almost what. 10 miles for Ebbets, right, really long things, right. And then you got to go take on Pacific Grade. Pacific Grade, I just want to call out, is 2.27 miles, about 1,000 feet, and averages 8.2%. It's short but it is steep and there are points that get over 16%. And those two switchbacks are like hairpins, are like you're questioning your life, and I have never seen more people walk it in my life than I did, because not only are they hard, that was in the heat of the day, it was about 10 degrees harder. So I just maybe I'm going to ask Doug too. Let's all kind of give thoughts on Pacific Grade, because that's like the last big, huge thing that just a lot of people quit. So, jr, why don't you go first Talk about Pacific Grade.
Speaker 4:Yeah, pacific grade. Like I said last year, pacific grade did not scare me, uh, before I hit it.
Speaker 1:And uh that's where you messed up.
Speaker 4:I thought it was a punk, but it was funny because, um, last year the guy says, uh, you know, pass the abit, you go down and then you're going to come up for like two miles and you hit this, uh, the pacific pass there, and you will says it's steep, but then you get over that and I was like, yeah, two miles, that's what the heck. All these other ones are seven, ten miles, you know. So last year I did it and it was, it was rough, but I was like, yeah, you know, that wasn't too bad. The end came pretty, pretty quick. So this year I was thinking, same deal, you know we're. It's like it's gonna be rough but it's gonna go by pretty fast, you know. And we didn't get him that sucker.
Speaker 4:The sun went down on us and that came up and every hill that he saw just wanted to cuss it out and uh, and just bury, bury yourself because it was, it was. It was rough getting past the that pass. It was definitely a lot tougher than I anticipated and uh, and it got me for underestimating it. So so that's my story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one does a lot of people in for sure.
Speaker 2:Dave talk about Pacific Raid.
Speaker 6:Compared to the last couple of years. We had to hit it kind of hard because we were trying to get to the deadline and I think about it now I think that's what finished me off. Is we? We did a big sprint to get over that climb, that hill fast, and then we had to climb out of it. I guess you don't ever remember. You know you don't really don't remember hills so much until you're back on them again. You know the torture, the steepness of them, um, but I don't remember being so far away from the I thought it was important.
Speaker 6:Distance like, oh, it's just a couple miles, and it's like dang, it's like seven miles or something, I don't know what it is, but it took forever to get there. You know, I ran into that guy, uh, eugene, and man, I thought about him so many times.
Speaker 6:That's probably why I kept going, jr uh is uh, the guy had a, a bladder bag and he had to empty it and he had missing kidney and missing bladder and had cancer. And he was, you know, the guy. He just finished going across the United States. He's 66 years old, going across the United States in 22 days. I think it was Maybe 21 days, I don't remember. But man, he's just pumping along and I'm trying to keep up. I go, hey, I go. Sorry you got to slow down. If you want to keep talking to me because you're going. We talked for good 30 minutes. We got each other's numbers and we we corresponded as we were at home on Sunday. Um, in fact, he would love to be on the podcast. Um, he will. He would love to be on the podcast.
Speaker 1:He will, he will, eugene, we're going to have you on, brother.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah. So it was really good stuff and it was super cool to meet him, cause he's got a great following and he's got a fundraiser that he does you know stuff for to, so super. I mean, as you guys know, we meet so many cool people man. It's just amazing that that uh inspire us to keep going. It's super cool.
Speaker 2:Doug, I know we're going to recap our experience, but just give us your one minute on Pacific Grade this year.
Speaker 1:You know Pacific Grade, daryl, I think, your explanation of it a year ago and even this year. The steps, you know the steps. If you look at it as it is steps, then you know the hard parts are going to be. They going to be there, they're going to be hard, but it's after the step there is a little flat space, a little reprieve, and I just keep thinking, like every time I hit a flat heart, you know, or a steep grade, I knew there was going to be a flat step there right after that. So that got me up and over that grade and it was hard, don't get me wrong, man, it was hard, very, very hard. It was hot. And those two hairpins you're talking about, they're freaking brutal. They are brutal and I probably wanted to get off my bike a thousand times on that hill.
Speaker 1:But I stayed on and I just slowed down and grinded it through. And it's such a rewarding feeling to come around that last turn and you see the lake, you see the sign, you know the peak and the elevation and the lake, and you're like, oh, man, and you got some rollers down to the to the end. And you're like, oh, man, and you got some rollers down to the end and you're like, oh, what a great feeling. So, yeah, it's definitely. And you know, daryl, I think you mentioned it, but that's the hill.
Speaker 1:It's funny because I was on top of Ebbets talking to some first timers and I'll go into this a little deeper when you and I share our portion but just telling him about Pacific Great, I said, hey, it's probably the shortest climb we have, or maybe not the shortest climb, but it's, it's one of, but it's the steepest. And this is where you're going to see a lot of people walking. And don't feel guilty or shamed If you're one of those people walking, just do whatever it takes to get to the top of that thing. And uh, sure enough, man, there was a ton of people walking it and I don't blame them and I don't have any lesser feelings about them or anything. That is a damn tough hill.
Speaker 2:So we're going to one more question. We're all going to participate. Give us your short recap of your high and your low of the day. Yeah, you go first.
Speaker 4:Well, of course, I think the high would, uh that I finished the, the, the event, yes, uh. So actually the high would be on the top of summit when you're coming, coming up for that last hill. Uh, that was probably a big high when you hit that summit on top of ebbets. And then you're like, okay, you know, say my prayers, thank you, god for letting me get here, and then, uh, coast down for about, uh, you know, 12, 12, 15 miles or whatever it is down, 20, 20 miles yeah, jr, it's 20 miles, just to be clear wow, I'm saying downhill I know a lot
Speaker 4:of a lot of uphills when you get back there, but it was still. Still. That was probably the high. The high right there was reaching that, that section, and the low would be, you know, probably not be able to get to cross the line with David. You know he was just right there but we couldn't quite get it done. So that's probably the low. But other than that, the day met people. Um, you know, me and david talked to some people. Uh, we met this person, teva from down south, and uh, just a bunch of people. We met emily, the small sprocket emily.
Speaker 4:Yeah, small spark, a strong leg yeah, yeah, so it was, it was all that was all part of part of the meeting these people as well.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6:Dave highs and lows, lows were. I couldn't finish that last peak but, like JR said, I tried like a mofo. The highs for me is just, you know, hanging out with JR, you know, for that whole day was super freaking cool. The meeting the people, you know that we did Always love when we connect with somebody and somebody that's struggling and just whatever, it's just amazing stuff. The people you see out there getting the stuff done. But uh, for me that was cool. And hanging out with the guys hanging about with you guys, you know the peach team is amazing, it's good stuff. Everybody's getting spiritually connected and strong and it's just awesome. You know we're a bunch of dudes doing some hard stuff but growing together in christ, you know it's it's uh, awesome, awesome stuff I just also you know eric's not here with us today and I felt bad that he couldn't finish the event either.
Speaker 4:Uh, and that watching david struggle mightily and continue and then to where he stopped, it just gives you your heart goes out to those guys that put all that effort in there, all that training and stuff, and they didn't quite make the the finish line, but they were definitely tough, tough people that uh did that endured that event as long as they could, right. So, uh, but also I have to give a shout out to Doug and Daryl for doing this again and getting it accomplished for third year in a row, and Daryl was on a different planet.
Speaker 1:He did not have tummy issues. He did not have tummy issues.
Speaker 4:This guy was I don't know, daryl, how you did it. You know you're running all year and like, oh, we gotta do death, right, and I think what. Two weeks of training on the bike and all of a sudden he's just pumping this hill, these hills, like there were nothing about them and uh, right, it was very impressive, uh, daryl, your your ride. Uh, as well as doug's, but daryl's was definitely a little definitely a notch, that's, that's a whole other level right there for
Speaker 2:sure, but. I think we can all say I mean, that was an epic weekend.
Speaker 1:The whole weekend was awesome.
Speaker 2:I had a great time.
Speaker 4:It's probably one of my favorite events that we've been together. Just thought everything was connecting. We were together, it was good. It was good vibes all the way. So I agree with you.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, there it is. There's Dave the Fixer, and then we had Three Spoke the Finisher Great, great interview. There was a lot of great wisdom and nuggets in there for those of you who are brand new to Death Ride and looking for some bits of advice and pearls of wisdom on how to prepare and what to do, and, for those of you who have done the ride last weekend or years past, some great information to you to kind of reconnect with and relive the event. So Daryl and I are now going to just share our perspective of our experience and kind of what we learned from the death ride this year in 2025.
Speaker 1:So lean in and listen up. Here we go. So, daryl man, we have heard from Team Peach, we have heard from Emily, first Timer, who crushed it, and we also heard from John Erickson man, the course coordinator and a four death ride, four death ride, and, as you heard in his interview, he is, you know, he's passionate about getting cycling, you know, just out in the world man, and I love that about him, I love that. That's his mission, that's on his heart. But there, what we haven't talked about is, you know, in detail anyways, we sprinkled it here and there about your experience and my experience. So, darrell, we, you know, two episodes ago, we heard from the whole team what they anticipated you know coming up here, so let's jump right in. What did you experience? What did Darrell Gannis experience on the death ride this year? And then what'd you?
Speaker 2:learn. Yeah, I think the number one thing I experienced this year was, um, when we said yes to death ride. It was a oh my god, bucket list items. Now I just feel like it's part of us, so I look forward to it. And, um, I look forward to it. I look forward to meeting people. I look forward to meeting people. I look forward to riding with the team. Everything just just such a great experience. Um, every year is different. You know, every year is slightly different. The first year was super nervous. The next year, I think we might've over-trained.
Speaker 2:I mean, we trained like fools, doug right this year we weren't quite trained in cycling, but we were pretty, pretty athletic and all that. So you, just, every year is slightly different. Um, every year I get from more familiar and I, just every year, I love it. I love it even more. Right, um and uh, everything came together and it was such a cool vibe. It was such a cool vibe from packing up to being there, to the condo, to the people we met, to the events. You're just a great day, um day. I couldn't be happier about it. I was very happy with myself not being extremely trained on my bike, but being overall trained overall. How well I did, but overall, just thrilled that we're a part of this, and Death Ride is definitely part of me. I got the bug. I got the bug. But what about you? How was your experience?
Speaker 1:Man, my experience was it was awesome. I mean, the fact that we got there you know this was this year was probably the furthest we ever stayed, you know, in our accommodations from the starting line and, man, I was real anxious about that. Not super anxious, but it was on my mind and I'm like, hey, we're not going to start super early and let's you know, because I need my sleep and blah, blah. You know, you heard me. But we got up. We got up and, man, I didn't even need an alarm to get up. We got out the door five minutes, five or 10 minutes earlier than we had planned to and we got to the starting line and we started, if not on time earlier, maybe five or 10 minutes earlier than we had initially planned to start, and it was all good, it was all good.
Speaker 1:The in the interview with John, you guys probably heard me say that you know, just, they do such a great job of removing any kind of uh, I'm running going to run out of water or not have enough nutrition, or if I get a flat or or whatever. I mean they got mechanics on the course, they got vehicles going by to check on you uh, the whole day and everywhere, every stop you go, there's tons of porta potties which I needed. This year. Oh, my gosh, this was the porta potty year for coach D flex, I tell you that much. But uh, but I appreciate it. So they, you know I the experience that just brings to the experience. You know, daryl, the first couple of years I always packed a lot of extra food in my, in my Jersey. But this year I had one emergency bar just in case I got caught in between and I didn't even really need it. I did have it at the very end, before the turnaround, because I'm saying, you know, this is the hardest part for me, because it's the last two climbs of the day, and I said a little extra energy ain't going to hurt me. So you know, I refueled at the last stop, but then I had the energy bar as well and that was it. You know the fact that I could go out there and ride without extra water. I kept one bottle only half full with water, the other one with product. And you know, for a ride like that the first two years I was like overstocking, I was just anxious and nervous about running out. But they do such an amazing job that you could run, you could ride with less weight. You know if those things matter to you, just, uh, you know the, the water and all that stuff if you want it to. So it was a great meeting.
Speaker 1:I met a lot of, uh first timers, I met a lot of younger people, um, had some great conversations, was at the top of Ebbets and I'll tell you, daryl, this year, because I had a lot of stomach issues and I'm telling you, every stop I was in the bathroom man doing my thing and it was rough. I was like keeling over on my bike every climb and severe stomach, sharp pains and I'm like what the heck is going on. So by the time I got to the top of Ebbets, I'm like you know I've already done this a couple of times, I don't really need to prove anything. Maybe I should just go back down and and chill out, because our boy Eric, you know he he was having some major hamstring issues and groin issues and so he called it a day after the lunch stop and I thought, you know, I go out and hang out with him too. And but as I'm sitting at the top of Ebbets, I um talked to uh, several new people who were wondering about how much further is it? Well, you know how much more climbing. All the questions, you know all the questions and the first thing I said I said, hey, before we answer all that, go get a cup of noodles, go get a couple of new cause.
Speaker 1:I know, for me personally, if I grabbed a couple of noodles it means I'm going, and so I hadn't grabbed my cup of noodles yet. So I'm talking to these guys telling them you know, multiple people like what to expect and that man, just go do it. They were way ahead of the time. You know the ending times. They had plenty of time to get down there and struggle on the way back and still be safe before any cutoff times.
Speaker 1:So I encourage I've encouraged a lot of people to go forward and as I'm doing that and I'm making my final decision to either go back or go on, I'm like, well, what the hell am I doing? I can't encourage all these people and tell them why they need to go finish it. And then I'm not. So I went and grabbed my damn cup of noodles, got a little chair, a folding chair, sat down, watched a few more people come up, got my noodles done, got on my bike and headed out. So enjoyed the ride, enjoyed the event as usual and had vowed to never do that ride again. But here I am again, man, talking to JR last night about next year, this and next year. That I'm like what the hell am I saying? It does that to you, man, it does. It does night about next year, this and next year. That I'm like what the hell am I saying?
Speaker 2:You know, it does that to you, man, it does, it does.
Speaker 1:So what'd you learn about yourself, Darrell?
Speaker 2:What'd you learn? You know, I learned, um, I just kind of kicked back over from uh running to cycling. Uh, had a couple of rides that were okay, had a one ride that was good, um, and the whole week I was really struggling with do I kind of relax or do I kind of push it a little and I ended up being uh somewhere in the middle. And I think the biggest thing I learned overall is I do have that internal mental and physical endurance and I and I and I told myself that I was going to go after it, go after it in a steady pace and try to stay consistent. And, um, I was very happy with how I felt through the whole ride and, uh, I got to the top of Ebbets and it we had a little rain, it wasn't too bad, but I did throw a garbage bag on for a few minutes and we had about 20 miles left and I knew I had something in the tank and, uh, I went after it and that last 20 miles, which is all kind of downhill and flats, but it's super fun, it's flats and kind of a couple a couple percent downhill, I just had a blast. And um, uh, I think the biggest thing is I feel like I've got endurance and I can use it in a lot of different ways. Um, could I have been in better cycling shape? Absolutely, but I was really happy with my base fitness and just being able to really go after something like that. And also, I just love that course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you think about it, doug, I'll let you talk for a second. You go from fearing it to loving it. Yeah, Because there's a lot to be fearful. And for some of our listeners, one of the things Doug mentioned, there is no cell coverage, right, like just to be clear, right? I think John told us hey, by the way, there's this one corner and this one mountain where you get cell coverage. So to the club, when you take off, you don't have no communication for the next 8 to 12, 14 hours.
Speaker 2:So it can be pretty intimidating, but I just I learned how much I love death ride and I'm really happy with my overall fitness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you know what I learned about myself, Daryl, and and for before I go into that, dude, if you were, I can't imagine what it would have been like if, if you actually trained for it because, Daryl, to be honest, you didn't really train for it Like you tried to get out on your bike, but uh, you know, I think a handful of times maybe, and I think I might might've mentioned that in one of our earlier interviews, but, dude, I mean, you crushed it, you were a beast out there and congratulations to you, brother. That that's just freaking awesome. But the one thing I learned about myself you had said something in, uh, I think, our last episode last week that you no longer let the weather dictate how you show up or if you're going to show up, and I think I just expanded on that For me, that's what I learned about myself is, you know, I spent a lot of time, I wasted a lot of time worrying about how far we were staying away or about the size of the event. And you know, at the end, when I show up to the starting line, something happens to me Like I just click in. It's like okay, it's time to go to where we're going to punch in. I'll punch out when I get to the finish line, and that just happens automatically. And I learned that.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know what I need to remember. That happens, and if I can do that, then I no longer will allow how far we're staying away. I'll no longer let an event or the environment dictate how I'm going to show up, so that way I can be present in the moments that I need to be present and just enjoy what I'm going to enjoy and not spend so much time needlessly worrying. I mean, it's going to get, you know, at this point, we know it's going to get done, and it's going to get done a little more painfully if you didn't train as much as you wanted to, or it's going to get done a little more painfully even if you train it however you want. It's painful, it's a sufferfest, no matter which way you look at it. But there's something gratifying at the end.
Speaker 1:And the other thing I learned is that, as committed as I was to saying I am not doing this damn right again here I am a couple of days later talking about you know. So I need to stop that noise and find out what that's all about. And I know we want to explore other rides and other areas and other states and stuff like that. So maybe that's part of it, I'm not sure. So, but that's what I learned about myself, man not to let the environment or the event dictate the fact that I'm going to show up. And so, just you know, put all that other BS, that other noise in my head to the side for now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to make one comment. Then I want you to end with the one of the stories that you shared with us. One of the cool parts is, I think we left the parking lot. We were in Tahoe, in South Lake Tahoe. We left there right about 3, 305, 310, something like that.
Speaker 2:And as I'm wheeling my bike out to go put it on the rack to go out, there was two Ubers that pulled up in front of me by the car and these seven or eight guys got out, hammered from being out at the casinos and probably the golf tournament, and they get out and they see me in my full kit. I got my helmet on um and I'm liking my bike and they were like dude, you're gonna go for a ride at night?
Speaker 3:and uh, it's too, and I said to them.
Speaker 2:I said no in the morning and they looked at me and they went and I'm like that's two different worlds, man like yeah, they're coming in, we're going out, and when it's about a 40 40 minute drive over there and the thing is, you drive, you pull off the road into some weeds, yeah, and by the time you turn off the car within five minutes, you're on your bike and you're gonna ride for the next 10 to 12 hours.
Speaker 2:Right, there's, I mean you go from turning off the car unloading your bike and you're going to ride for the next 10 to 12 hours. Right, there's, I mean you go from turning off the car unloading your bike and you're gone. Yeah, and I just remember, when you that first paddle, you, there's something in your brain says I'm going to be doing this for the next eight to 12 hours. Yes, it's like it's on, man, it's on. It's like there's no anticipation. It's like you first paddle, you're done. So hey, tell us the story about some of the new people and specifically about the lady, uh, that you, the Indian lady that you talked to.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So there was, uh, this Indian lady who was. I saw her on multiple passes, um, and the reason she kept getting in front of me is like I was saying I was spending massive amounts of times in porta potties, so I, you know, I'd pass her up and then I'd be in a porta potty for 10, 15 minutes and then I'd ride on and I'd see her again. I'm like, oh man cool, this lady's keeping up, you know a good pace. And but I saw her, uh, climbing up monitor and monitor. She was riding good pace and I'm going by and I'm saying, hey, you're doing a great job. You can just tell when it's somebody's first time or they're, they're new and they're trying and you know. So you know, team peach, we're all about encouraging others and having a positive attitude. But I saw her, um, going up after the lunch stop. I saw her going up Ebbets and I saw her walking her bike. And you know, I love to take those opportunities to really encourage someone and just, and, I love to take those opportunities to really encourage someone, and I told her, I said, hey, I really love your spirit and I love your attitude, because what I see is someone doing whatever it takes to get this done. And she goes oh, thank you so much, this is so hard. And I said, yeah, but look at you, you're moving uphill and you're getting it done, so good job. And so she was really appreciative of that. And again I saw her on Pacific grade walking her bike. Um, and sure enough, you know I come by and say there you are, you're still at it, you know you're doing awesome. And so there was a few times I got to just kind of inject some positivity and some love into her and encouragement. And so we so at the end of the.
Speaker 1:So I finished the, I get the top of Ebbets, come down that 20 mile segment you're talking about and it just blasting down and looking forward to getting into Markleyville. And, uh, cause, from there it's like two and a half to three miles to the finish line. And I get to Markleyville and I see these two knuckleheads sitting up on a porch cheering people on. And it's you and Eric, and I'm like they're like Doug, what's up, man? So I pull over and I think I asked you. I said, darrell, give me a beer man. So, cause you were at the porches, at the general store right there, so you went in and grabbed me a beer. Thank you for that. So it was nice to have a little ice cold refresher just before I did the last two and a half miles, just to finish it up. So I'm sitting there, you know, finishing the beer and taking my time. I probably was probably there for maybe 20 minutes, half hour with you guys just kicking back.
Speaker 1:And so I said, okay, guys, I got to get, let me go get this last two and a half miles done. Man, I got to get this over with and get my, my, uh, my meal. And so, um, I get back on my bike, I start riding and, lo and behold, there's the freaking girl again on her bike and she's at the end and I said, oh my gosh, you made it, she goes. Yeah, you know, I had to walk a lot and she goes. But you know I'm at the finish, I'm coming up. I said who cares if you walk? That is so awesome. You know you did whatever it took and she goes. Thank you so much. I appreciate the encouragement along the way. And I said, well, you keep on going, little sister, you are doing awesome.
Speaker 1:So it was really cool to see someone who was literally in the midst of the suffering throughout the whole day and then to be at that last two and a half mile mark. Because you know, for those for the first timers, the last two and a half mile mark, because you know, for those for the first timers, the last two and a half miles from markleyville to turtle rock, it's a, it's a little bit of a climb you know, and you think you're all done with the climbing and they're like nope, we're going to just make sure you earn this, this jersey or this finisher status you know at for the last two and a half miles. So that was just so cool to see someone you know struggle through and get across the finish line, and she was really proud of herself and I told her I was proud of her too.
Speaker 2:Well, unbelievable successful weekend. Third year. Got to feel like there's going to be a fourth out there and a fifth and other things We'll we'll talk about that, but great episode. I'm thrilled that we're able to get a multi, a lot of different people and, like you said, a lot of new people, a lot of first timers, and just such a great vibe, such a great community. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure. And just a big shout out to our boy, eric. We didn't get a chance to, you know, e-train, ultra E. We didn't geta chance to interview him on this one, eric. We love you, man, and you know you had issues this year. Don't be hard on yourself. You're a badass, no matter how you split it. But so I'm going to go ahead and sign out the way I normally do, daryl, and say God bless and peace out, peach out, we're out. Outro Music.