2016 Land Run 100 Race Report

Last fall, my buddy Mike told me to check out the Land Run. At the time it just seemed like a normal 100 mile gravel race, but I had never ridden in Oklahoma before so I said “sure let’s do it.” I maintained that same carefree attitude all the way till race day. I simply thought it will not be as bad as some of the other races I have done.

We drove out overnight and arrived Friday morning. We went into town to check out the bike shop and waste some time. The shop was not open yet, but Bobby the race Director was outside the shop talking to a couple on bicycles. We said hello and kept walking, till Bobby recognized Mike’s “gravel jesus” shirt. “hey! You guys know Jay? Where are you from?” we instantly noticed that Bobby had a crazy amount of energy. He kept that excited energy all weekend long. He treated every person like they were the most important person in the race, and was so happy to see everyone.

The infamous Bonk King

Mike and I were exhausted and bickering like an old married couple. So we went back to the hotel to get our room. Unfortunately it wasn’t ready yet. So we slept in the parking lot. We woke up, went to lunch and finally our room was ready. I went up and took a nap again.

There was a group ride / pre ride scheduled for 3pm so we headed back into town on our bikes to check that out. The gravel was dusty and fast, confirming my pipe dream that Saturday was going to be easy.

Overnight we got some rain, but by the time we woke up the parking lot was nearly dry so I figured the gravel would soak it up no problem. I had my entire day of food planned out and organized. Mike laughed at me for it, grabbed his 20lb bag of candy and headed down town for a breakfast burrito.

Everything I ate for the Day

It was warm and humid at the start, I was glad for that because I hate having to wear a jacket for the first half hour then have to carry it around the rest of the day. We were led out by a police officer in a suburban, who was blaring “Eye of the Tiger” through his megaphone. No joke.



The gravel started off in good shape, a little mushy but not bad. I was in the lead pack and we were cruising along pretty quickly. We were living it up for this first 15 miles or so till we came to the first sloppy up hill. I wanted to stay with the fast guys so I fought against the mud and hurt a little more than I wanted, but it worked. A small group was able to break away, that lasted for a few more miles till we hit the bottom of a hill and tried to power through again. The heavy sticky mud threw my chain off and I was buried. When my chain came off I tried pushing my bike only to have the mud grow around my tires and clog up everything to the point where the tires would not turn anymore. My pipe dream was over.

It took me a second to assess the situation. It was almost as if my head was shifting gears from this will be easy mode to don’t break your bike mode. I witnessed 4 derailleurs get sucked into the spokes of other riders bikes, and saw several other riders already on the side of the trail with same problem. I found a stick and cleaned my bike enough so it wasn’t as heavy and lifted it on my shoulder.

I jogged as much as I could, but kept a close eye on my heart rate to make sure I wasn’t over doing it. All together I would guess I carried my bike for about 2 hours. After that the roads would switch between good and bad until the 50 mile check point.

I grabbed my fresh bottles and left. I saw a hose was available to clean gears, but I didn’t want to waste any time. I regret that decision, because by the end of the race my bike sounded like it had a knocking motor.

Just after the checkpoint I met up with a guy from Colorado, his name was Mark. Before the checkpoint they said I was in 17th, but Mark and I were able to work together really well and we were picking guys off pretty steady. In fact for the last 50 miles of the race we did not get passed. By this point in the day the gravel was drying out and the only problem we had was wind, but since Mark and I were sharing the effort, wind turned into an advantage. Toward the end of race, Mark started taking longer and longer pulls. I was having a hard time staying on him then he finally dropped me. Good ride Mark.

I rolled in behind Mark for 8th overall. To say I was pretty pumped would be an understatement. I was really happy with how the day went. My bike held together, I stayed hydrated, and I was able to push hard all day. I got cleaned up and got a “Big Pig”(pulled pork sandwich) from the big green truck along with a Land Run Ale and waited for Mike to roll in.

He came in exhausted, but finished and seemed pleased. His main concern was not pedaling the bike anymore and getting some food. Speaking of food, we ate like kings on this trip. First we stopped at The World’s Largest Truck Stop, which was not that great. Then we ate breakfast at a small diner in Perry, Oklahoma. Lunch was Mexican food, dinner was from the green truck(so good I went back on Satuday). Jack in the box, where Mike introduced me to deep fried tacos. Then finally on the way home we stopped at Trans Iowa favorite Tacopocalypse.

Would I recommend this event to a friend? Damn Right I would!

Loop Out of Orangeville

The Hills are taller than Silos

Fence Post Decorations

I was surprised to see an atv trail as part of the route.

Mountains in Illinois

Crush it

http://www.strava.com/routes/3255625

Photos from the Chequamegon Trip

Here are a few more photos from our trip up north last weekend for the Chequamegon 100(Race report HERE).  We had a great weekend, Evan said a couple times “daddy I wanna live here.”  I don’t think he realizes that summer begins in June and ends in July up there, but we all enjoyed our time away.

Chequamegon 100 report

The Chequamegon 100 – 100 mile single track mountain bike race, in Northern Wisconsin in the Chequamegon National Forest.  The course does not use the same trail twice, it is one giant 100 mile loop starting in Cable going east to Lake Namekagon , then south to Hayward and back north to Cable.  All the money from the registration goes back to the trails.

I showed up early to the pre-race meeting on Friday and went for a ride.  I had never ridden the area before and wanted to see what it was like.  I was running a 32:17 on the single speed, which is what I always run, but I heard a few people were running much lower.  After much thought I decided to switch to 32:18, and was very thankful that I did.

The trails on Friday were perfect, but rain was in the forecast overnight and when I woke up in the morning I was pretty pumped to see that it hadn’t rained.  We were staying about an hour away from the race, so Christina and I had to get up pretty early to get the kids up and moving. About 15 minutes before the start it started raining.  The rain would continue until 6 hours into the race. 

The start of the race is a roughly 3 mile gravel road to the single track.  This is great for guys on single speeds (sarcasm… as in “real fucking great”).  The trails were actually in really good shape at this point, muddy but “rideable.” The grime was quickly eating away brake pads and wearing out chains all over.

The forest roads that we used to connect sections of trail were awful, like quicksand. The roads were so soft you could count the number of riders ahead of you with the ruts they left behind. Getting back on the single track was so nice.

Photo by Marty Larson

About 40 miles in, I made it to the HWY OO trail head where I planned to meet up with Christina in case I needed anything. I quickly filled my camel pack and grabbed an extra chain, some brake pads, and tools out of the tool box. At this point the trails had standing water and I knew it was going to be a “take care of the bike” kind of day. I wasn’t worried about the weight from the tools and chain; I just wanted to make sure I could keep the bike running.

20 more miles of single track and we were in the Hayward area, where the drop bags were placed. This seemed to be the deciding point for most people. Many had already dropped and I saw others loading up bikes in cars here. Which is a bummer because the trails only got better from here, I feel like if you made it to the Hayward checkpoint @ 62 miles, you could have finished.  I distinctly remember the rain stopping and the sun peeking out at 5 hours and 56 minutes on the timer, and from that point the trails started to dry and get good.

I left the checkpoint with another rider and we rode the forest roads together for a while.  He was about 20 yards ahead of me when he slammed on his brakes and hollered “I just saw a bear cross the road!” “Do you think it’s safe to ride through?” I said “well, you have gears so he will eat me first!” and we rode on.  From this point I kinda don’t remember much of the race, I was hurting and riding alone so I just rode.

About 5 miles from the finish line Rick Blackford and Mike Curtes caught me.  They were also on single speeds, so we hop out of the woods for the last few miles of black top back to town.  We were spinning our brains out doing 19 mph, I couldn’t stop thinking “man I wish I would have left the 17 tooth on there!” We each took turns leading, but Rick wanted it the most and inched away from Mike and I.

Single Speed Sprint by Chris Schotz

I ended up 14^th overall in 9 hours and 52 minutes, with half the field dropping out.  I went through three sets of brake pads, but the rest of the bike had no issues. A tough race in an awesome area, I really hope to get picked again in the lottery for next year.

Clean up

Frame up restoration

Almanzo 100 2015

                Friday night I left straight from work to meet up with Mike and Kurt, they were kind enough to let me borrow a spot on their hotel room floor for the night.  Once I arrived we just hung out, discussed plans, life, and watched some goofy movies Kurt had.

                We woke up Saturday, got some breakfast and watched the weather. It rained a bit before the start, which made for some gravel splatter everywhere.

                I got in a large group of strong riders and we were hitting it pretty hard. All different genres of bikers were represented in the group. The roadies were trying to get everyone to rotate and work together, but the group was too large to get everyone on the same page. The cross and mountain bike riders attacked the down hills, making the roadies shake their heads in discomfort. We made it to Preston in just over two hours. I hung onto the group till mile 60, when a few of the guys started to turn it up.

 

                I had zero interest in bonking that day so I backed off and held a steady pace for a while. I stopped at the 3^rd checkpoint for a banana and a beer, and then cruised on to mile 90. This is where I got bored of the steady pace and decided to push really hard for the finish.

                I passed a bunch of guys in that last ten miles, but I didn’t stick around to see the results.  I didn’t plan on staying the night again so I wanted to get on my way.

                I stopped at A+W for a burger and Root Beer float which tasted like heaven and vanished quickly, and I hit the road.

                Another great trip to Minnesota – David S

Update 5/19/15 - results are in, 55th of 543 finishers @ 6 hours 12 minutes.