|   Kokopelli Race on a 29 | Mikec
May 29, 2003 1:36 PM | | Hello All-
Just wanted to let you know that the 146 mile Kokopelli Race ended on Sunday evening. Six racers left Moab's Slickrock Trailhead at 3:34am under crisp starry skies at 48 degrees. On the initial climb all racers were treated to a subtly beautiful moonrise over the La Sal Mountains, complete with shooting stars as exclamation.
By sunrise we'd climbed to over 8200' and had stunning views of the redrock buttes and mesas of Fisher and Castle Valleys, even as we approached snowline in the high alpine of the La Sals.
Pre-race concerns about high temperatures, high winds, and scarce water forced all racers to carry more than seemed necessary. Any desert veteran knows it's better to carry too much water than not enough. As it turned out there was adequate water to be filtered from surface streams along the alpine stretches of trail, so dehydration was a non-issue.
Near the high point of the course, on North Beaver Mesa, I managed to pull ahead of the group by several minutes. I crossed the Colorado River at Dewey Bridge at exactly 11:00am, riding a comfortable pace under partly cloudy skies and mid-90 degree temps. The favorable conditions (lots of water, relatively low temps, high clouds) kept my spirits high as I rolled along.
While the first half of the trail is characterized by big climbs and descents, the second half from McGraw Bottom to Loma is a high desert roller coaster, and I was fortunate to be carried through much of it by a 20 knot tailwind. I stopped to refill water and mix an elecrolyte solution at Westwater, then briefly massaged my cramping legs before climbing away from there at 2:45pm.
While rolling through Rabbit Valley I calculated and recalculated the approximate time I might finish. The Kokopelli course record stands at 19 hours, yet no matter how I figured it it seemed like I was going to come in under 17, and possibly close to 16 hours. The prospect of 16 hours made me pretty excited. I tried not to think about the finish, but it was difficult not to.
To take my mind off the finish, I kept running through the mental inventory that keeps me online through events like this:
Feet: sore; eat some Naproxen
Legs: cramping; pound water and eat a Tums
Knees: okay
Butt: a little raw; stand up!
Stomach: running on empty; eat a gummy worm and a Clif Bar
Hands: good
Eyes: need a few drops of Visine
Bike: perfect
After the technical descent to Salt Creek I checked the time again, and was again encouraged by the progress I had made. Portaging up the Troybuilt Trail into a stiff headwind I really started to feel the effects of the day. I was going as hard as I could now, with less than 20 miles to go, but I just felt so slow. I topped out on Troy's in a small scale dust storm, then pedaled out onto Lion's Loop for the home stretch. The headwind increased as I intersected Mary's Loop, and I began to recalculate times again. The numbers I came up with (sub 16 hours!?!) spurred me to push even harder, even though my stomach was on the verge of revolt. Near the bottom of Mary's I passed Lenore and Doogan, shouting out encouragement, and I pushed that much harder.
I attacked the last short climb with everything I had, sprinting out of the saddle until I nearly vomited on my shoes about halfway up. I sat back down and spun over the top, coasting into the trailhead at sixteen hours and 35 seconds (16:00:35).
Exhausted, euphoric, and delirious, I hadn't even dismounted the bike before I started wondering where I could have saved 35 seconds along the way. Obsessed, with a capital O. Someone from the peanut gallery recommended (in jest, referring to my tt rims I'm pretty sure) that I try bladed spokes next time. Hmmm...
As I sat eating an orange and trying to get my heart rate back down, I learned that none of the other 5 racers had continued past McGraw Bottom, citing reasons ranging from mechanical difficulties to flat-out bonks.
Here is a list of the gear that I used. All of it had been fanatically tested and methodically tuned for this event, and I won't change a thing for this weekend's 360-Mile Grand Loop race. That'll be my last big event before I taper off the training. The 2500 mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route looms a few short weeks away.
Airborne B-29 Frame
King NoThreadset
Marzocchi MX-Comp fork, with coil spring kit and 1 psi
Hugi 240 disc hubs
DT Swiss supercomp spokes and prolock nipples
Zipp 404 time trial rims
Hayes Mag Plus Hydraulic Disc Brakes
FSA cranks, bottom bracket, rings, and Egg Beater pedals
SRAM grouppo, including X.0 rear der and shifters, PC-99 chain, 9.0 cassette
Kenda 29" tubes and Klaw XT 29 x 2.1" tires
Oakley M-Frame glasses, G-30 lenses
Lake MX-160 shoes and Durango gloves
Wigwam/Outlast socks
Lambda Illuminator LED lights
Clif Bars
Dumonde Tech chain lube
All for now.
MC |
| re: Kokopelli Race on a 29 | mv
May 29, 2003 2:45 PM | | Congratulations, great job! |
| WOW! congrats.. that is incredible | SuperBad
May 29, 2003 9:00 PM | | |
| Can't begin to relate, but thanks for sharing | AK Ken
May 30, 2003 12:37 AM | | your adventure in your usual rational, matter of fact style. You are definitely the man.
Course, it wasn't 30 below, or snowing, or punchy trail, so you probably thought it was a picnic, eh??
Can't wait to read the next installment.
Ken |
| inspiring | escamillo
May 30, 2003 9:39 AM | | Very inspiring!
Your ride made the cyclingnews.com website
www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2003/news/may30
e |
| how do you carry enough water when its dry? | tpayne
May 30, 2003 10:03 AM | | |
| Nice work Mike! | 2melow
May 30, 2003 12:58 PM | | That's a looooong race! Great Job! |
| Wow, that is incredibly impressive. Way to go! nm | GlowBoy
Jun 2, 2003 6:36 PM | | |
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