How do you worry?

[giverdada]

My lady is in Kansas right now, hopefully still grinding out the Dirty Kanza 200. Seems it's a rain-soaked slop-fest and has been a bit of a slog. She's a hardass and a trooper and a very smart and capable rider. And I'm worried.

When she waited for me on Boylston to finish Boston this year, it was wet and windy and cold, like Kanza today, and she didn't know if my leg would hold up and she didn't know if I would hold up. But it only took three hours and she had her answer.

I got an automated text update when my lady crossed the first checkpoint in Madison, after 7.5h of riding. I'll have to wait another 7h until I hear again. Her results currently show no data for time on course. It's raining here in Toronto. I've got the girls and I'm drinking a beer while making dinner. And I'm worried.

How do you all worry? What do you do to cope? Did you ever feel like someone waited for your arrival after a long ride? Has it changed? Now that you're a parent? Now that you've lost someone? Now that you're on a bike that can take you hours and hours in any direction, away?

Give'r.

[gone]

I'm kind of on the other side of the equation: I'm doing the riding and my wife is the one doing the worrying. To make it a bit easier on her, I use either a Spot or Garmin Connect (sometimes both on e.g., 1200K's) and she follows along. As long as I'm where I'm supposed to be and still moving - no worries.

[RedRider]

Kudos to her for doing that race!

[giverdada]

yeah man. she's tough. when i run in the winter i use the roadid app that allows for tracking. she knows exactly where i am and for how many minutes i was at the donut shop...:rolleyes:

[gavingould]

That's rough. Good luck to her!

Incidentally, I had a couple acquaintances riding it who've already mechanical'd out. Last I've heard one still going on his SS

[Schmed]

I just got back from DK200. My buddy finished in 12 hours last year, but this year, that rain made it a crazy tough course. Broken derailleurs, wheels, flats, mud caked everywhere. It was cold, windy, and misty this morning, and it took a long time to clear up. I had to rescue by buddy and found riders abandoning the race all over the back roads.

Driving out there, the fields had standing water and the rivers were running high.

It's a neat town that truly supports the race and riders. They seem genuinely excited to have the event, and that goes for all the residents, not just the organizers.

Many pro-level riders didn't seem to make the 2nd checkpoint. That's amazing.

I hope you wife did well and had a blast.

[giverdada]

thanks, eh. i'm still up. i finished the beer and moved on to cereal and netflix.

she's still out there, at mile 158. she's so effin tough. amazing. seemed like a super hard start to the day. her buddy in the race DNFd at mile 25. 42 miles is a ways to go in the dark, alone, in 5 hours. i love that lady.

[Schmed]

There'll be plenty of other people on that road with her tonight! It's also ending up to be a decent day - a bit warmer and drier.

The people there are super nice and helpful. I stopped to ask about 10 riders if they needed help, and they all basically said "naaa... I'll just keep plugging away" with a big (muddy) smile on their face. You've never seen such a happy group of suffering riders in your life!

Don't worry! :)

[giverdada]

thanks for the support; helped me worry less.

SHE MADE IT!

texted me at the finish to let me know that it was her longest day on the bike ever. at least her hands still work and she sounded coherent! hardcore. the lady's a stud.

[Schmed]

I never comprehended how tough that ride is.

On a good weather day, it's a long, hot, windy, humid 200 mile grind on dusty gravel roads. Not just long flat roads. They are rolling hills with water crossings in a surprisingly-remote part of the country. I don't know if I could finish it on a good day.

With yesterday's conditions, the riders rode through many 6", 12" deep puddles within the first few miles of the start. Shoes soaked. Everything wet and muddy at this point. Then, riding through sticky mud so thick, you had to push your bike. Then you realized that pushing the bike still accumulated mud so your tires wouldn't roll, so you had to carry your bike while trudging through 6" thick mud. One rider described it as walking with 5 lb birds' nests on each foot.

Every so often, you have to stop to grab handfuls of mud from your bottom bracket and seat stay/fork area so the tires would roll.

At this point, if your derailleur didn't snap (someone coined the phrase Derailleur Kracker 200 instead of Dirty Kanza 200), you had wet, sloppy roads until the 1st support stop at mile 77. Only 123 miles left to go at this point.

Looks like they had 428 finishers out of 900 (?) that started? Plenty of bad-asses dropped out of the race. I don't know what you call the ones that could finish. Warriors?

Congrats to your wife, I'm in awe.

(btw, I was just support crew. I'm still trying to figure out if I could finish the DK100, let alone the 200!).

[giverdada]

Amazing. Really just tough tough times for all. I just got an e-mail from her that she apparently sent earlier this morning from the epsom salts bath: beer in one hand, recovery drink on the side, microwave mac and cheese in the other. Jokes. She is really unbelievable. Turns out she had a bunch of bad luck with water stations being out of water, hiking in ankle deep mud for a couple hours, and two train crossings, one of which had her stopped for 20min. Insane. Just the strongest lady I know. My longest day on the bike was also with her, in 9h of pouring rain, but it was on the road, with no mud hikes or river crossings or darkness. Got her 'I finished…' text at 3am this morning. Best text ever. What a babe.

[firerescuefin]

Amazing. Really just tough tough times for all. I just got an e-mail from her that she apparently sent earlier this morning from the epsom salts bath: beer in one hand, recovery drink on the side, microwave mac and cheese in the other. Jokes. She is really unbelievable. Turns out she had a bunch of bad luck with water stations being out of water, hiking in ankle deep mud for a couple hours, and two train crossings, one of which had her stopped for 20min. Insane. Just the strongest lady I know. My longest day on the bike was also with her, in 9h of pouring rain, but it was on the road, with no mud hikes or river crossings or darkness. Got her 'I finished…' text at 3am this morning. Best text ever. What a babe.

Huge ups to her...and glad you know she's well.

[tiretrax]

Congratulations to her! That's a great accomplishment. I've not done a gravel grinder over 100k!

[bcroslin]

You're one lucky dude. It never gets any easier. I used to drink to cope but can't do that anymore so I just try and stay busy when my wife or daughter (or both) are somewhere and I'm not with them. Xanax also helps. :)

[ORMojo]

That is a great, and inspiring, outcome. This thread was a bit hard for me to follow, but now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, applaud:hello:, and say
http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/320279/file-798736819-jpg/images/what-me-worry-2.jpg

[numbskull]

LOL. If you worry about your wife on a bike just wait until the first time your daughter takes the car out at night once she has her license.

[Jgrooms]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/02/cc9e6e4994adf461a13971dde84dc133.jpg

It wasn't so bad ;-)

[giverdada]

that looks like total hell.

we picked her up from the airport last night and it's awesome to have everyone home, currently sound asleep. peace.

[Schmed]

It wasn't so bad ;-)

Is that you? Great pic. Isn't it nice that Adventuremonkey posts up all these pics for free?

http://adventuremonkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dirty-Kanza-200-2015-13-902x600.jpg

http://adventuremonkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dirty-Kanza-200-2015-27.jpg

http://adventuremonkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dirty-Kanza-200-2015-23.jpg

And the crazy, smiling, single speeder:

http://adventuremonkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dirty-Kanza-200-2015-21.jpg

[Jgrooms]

Is that you? Great pic. Isn't it nice that Adventuremonkey posts up all these pics for free?

]



Yes. Mile 20. Things were going well at that point. Nursed the bike through the mud w/o blowin up- me & the bike.

[gavingould]

one of my buddies did it fixed this year. he finished.

[Schmed]

one of my buddies did it fixed this year. he finished.

Fixie Dave?

[Dromen]

Of 40ish single speed finishers only one fixie.

They extended the cut off times due too conditions(3mi hike at mile 10) even with race shortened a few miles from re routing.

Spoke with local farmer over BBQ on Friday, Emporia had 24" of rain 30 days prior to DK...no annual rain falls in preceeding 5 years reached that level.

Stat: 882 riders started 200mi(950 entered) 428 finished. +50% attrition, Yikes. At least it wasn't Trans IA.