Dirty Kanza: Grind

Three quarters of the way through the Dirty Kanza Corey looked at me and asked, "so what's your favorite moment of the race?" I didn't have anything for him. I also knew he was asking as much for the sake of conversation as for anything else. Riding 200 gravel miles can be a bore. "I don't know. Getting out of that fucking headwind around 120 was the first thing that came to mind."

After a 20 mph first hour ("No one's going to keep this up"), hub deep creek crossings ("Damn, I thought I was going down", and riding with only the Lincoln crew for miles ("It's like a group ride") that's what I had to offer. Headwinds.

From the checkpoint at mile 100 to a point at approximately mile 120 where the general direction finally switched to the North, the race was a south, southwest grind into a 15-20mph headwind. I looked at Corey before we started out with MG and said, "This is going to be a grind." During this time, we saw nearly as many people who had turned to head back to Cottonwood Falls as we had seen going forward on the course. "What the fuck?" I thought. "Just get to the turn, man." Somewhere along the way, the Alice in Chains song "Grind" got stuck in my head. (Click and get the groove before continuing to read.) It was perfect. I'm no fan of the group, but that song fit the bill so well I would never complain.

In the darkest hole, you'd be well advised

Not to plan my funeral before the body dies, yeah

We also rode by one of the race organizers who flashed ten fingers at us and yelled out that we were tenth in the race. Now it was head game time. Angel/Devil. Sweet/It's not over. We're rocking/There's a lot of race left. We chucked that nonsense, managed to not flat over a beautiful but incredibly rocky creek side rode and found ourselves only a mile away from turning out of the wind, when I promptly started to bonk. I walked a hill, ate my last food with 35 miles to go and cursed myself up and down.

I could set you free, rather hear the sound

Of your body breaking as I take you down, yeah

I walked a hill, stuggled my way back to Corey who was standing at the long sought turn and smiled.

"That hurt."

"Yeah."

"How's your food."

"I've got tons. I need water."

"Let's find a farmhouse with a hose."

"Yeah."

"Now we've got a fucking tailwind. Let's go."

More tomorrow. Unless it's your first time here, you know it takes a few days for me to get this out of my system.