This video has a few scenes along the trail.
If you watched the video, you can hear the wind. The wind was relentless for the first 85 miles or so. The last 20 miles the wind let up and we either had no wind or wind at our backs.
I went down with Phil and Glen, who I had just met a few minutes before we left and they were gracious enough to let me ride down with them. Brad drove his truck with his son and Conrad, and Jilene.
We found the campsite late, like 9:30, it was at the top of horse thief. We planned to leave at 7AM and go away from horse thief in the clockwise direction.
The bratwurst at the campsite was delicious. We got there after dark, fortunately there were a few brats left. Most of us slept in tents, except for Phil, he slept under the stars on a cot.
At 5:45, I got up and packed my stuff, opened a can of peaches and ate those for breakfast. That was Erin's idea and it was a great idea, lots of carbs for the ride and they tasted good.
At 7AM we were off, moving away from the white rim trail, out to the road and the clockwise entrance. The road was actually hard to ride because of the wind factor. I hooked on to the tail of a peloton and that helped a lot. I was surprised at the number of singlespeed riders. Hats off to them for having that skill.
I felt pretty good for the first two hours. We arrived at Muscleman arch in pretty good shape, the group was pretty tight, not too spread out. After I left Muscleman, I started noticing that I was fatiguing quite a bit. Later I would realize that I had dehydrated.
By the time I hit the Shafer trail I was dehydrated. How did I know?
I really didn't until a couple of hours later. The Shafer trail is downhill and the trail is pretty flat for a while after that.
So I didn't really notice that I had too much of a problem, except that my heart rate was about 90% of max on a relatively flat trail.
Later when more intense climbing and wind fighting became challenging I started to cramp, bad cramps. So bad that when I tried to walk or just stand it was very painful while my legs tried to implode from the muscle contractions.
I wasn't thirsty. I didn't feel dehydrated. But I realized I was dehydrated. Mostly because I hadn't peed in over four hours and I didn't feel like I needed to at all. So I pushed on painfully and when I reached the top of Murphys Hogsback I set a new goal: To Pee!
Yes my new goal was to drink so much water that I would have to go to the bathroom. So I started downing as much as I could. Man, it made me nausious and that is part of my problem. I don't really like to drink water when I work out. I will drink about 16 ounces an hour in most 1 -2 hour rides, that works in the short term, but long term I need at least twice that amount.
The fact that it was so windy didn't help. I didn't feel thirsty, but the wind sucks the moisture out of your body leaving it like a withered plant in the desert.
After I drank water nonstop for two hours I felt the hydration coming on. I really had to force the water down, making a concious effort to drink as much as I could. I soon was hydrated and had to make a stop. Then I was able to finish the last 6 hours without cramping. That was awesome.
The climb up horsethief was painful, but at least I didn't cramp up, having drank a total of 150 ounces on the last part of the ride. I finally arrived at the campsite at 7:30, Twelve and a half hours after I had started.
Was it worth it. Yes. I loved the scenery, the camaraderie and the challenge. I also hope to do it again next year and hope to not dehydrate this time.
I thought I would never cramp because I was using an old trick that John Robinson taught me. He once gave me 3 magnesium pills and 3 potassium pills before a half marathon. The magnesium pills were 250mg. and the potassium were 125mg. I think the potassium is less important because you get potassium from a lot of foods. But the magnesium is harder to get from a normal diet and can really help in cramp prevention.
Finally, here is a video from fat cyclist I show up for two seconds in the video at 7:05 with a green Sobe jersey on my black frame Niner bike with the white Fox fork. Yeah. 2 seconds of fame as everyone passes me going up horse thief :)
