davesupra

On a whim about 2.5 years ago, I went mountain biking with a buddy at the Cuyuna mountain bike trail system. I hadn't ridden a bike or done anything really physically demanding for about three decades. I learned on that first ride, that even though I wasn't overweight (good genetics I guess), I was in terrible shape. Even though I was sucking air badly, I had a blast and I was hooked.

Since that time, I've been riding a LOT. I got myself in good enough shape last year that I did a few small local races in the sport class, and over the winter I did a couple of fat bike races in the snow. I'm not a lead pack racer, but I enjoy the competition and it gives me goals to shoot for.

Well, a couple weeks ago I tackled the Maah Daah Hey race in western North Dakota, this would be my first real endurance race. The full race is 100 miles, but with the wisdom that comes with age, I decided to "just" do the 50 mile race since this was my first time. The race is a point-to-point race with aid stations every 25 miles, and some misc check points every 5-8 miles. My main goal for the race was to finish. I talked to some locals who had done that race in the past, and based on their experiences I was hoping I could finish in 8 to 9 hours.

Around 9:00 am the promoter got the race underway, I had a plan to keep my heart rate around 160-165, figuring that I could maintain that the whole day. I went out fairly strong at the start, and I'd guess I was in about 20th place out of the 70 or so racers. Just a couple miles in, we hit the first big climb. It was about 2 miles long, and my game plan went out the window. I wanted to make this climb without getting off and walking, this would come back to bite me later on. I saw my HR in the 180 range, and I knew that I couldn't maintain that, but I kept pushing. I finished the climb, but I had used a LOT of energy. The next 20 miles went well, there were a lot of climbs, some scary technical sections, and some fast downhill sections that were fun, but the terrain was rough and you had to concentrate the whole time because any small mistake and you'd be on the ground. The temperature had been steadily going up all morning, my Garmin said it was about 90F.

Then it started, on a moderately steep climb I was plugging along and my left hamstring knotted up. I caught it right away, bailed off of the bike and stretched it out. This was going to become commonplace for me the rest of the afternoon. I was drinking a LOT trying to make sure I didn't get dehydrated, so the muscle cramps were a little surprising. The first aid station came up somewhere around mile 27, the workers there were all great. Someone gave me some pickle juice to help with the cramps, I refilled my backpack with water and tailwind, had a coke and some food. I spent around 6 or 7 minutes there, and then headed out again. I found that as long as I didn't have to put down a lot of power on the climbs, that my cramps would stay in check, but if I had to really push hard up a steep climb, I'd cramp up and be in agony for a while until I could work them out. As I got to one of the next checkpoints my Garmin said 108F, it was really hot. I was walking up all of the steep climbs now, or else I'd cramp up. The 9 hour mark went by, so much for my goals, now my goal was just to finish! The last 7 or 8 miles of the race seemed to take forever, the climbing had got easier, but I was still cramping unless I walked even the gentle climbs. Finally, there it was... the last mile was a paved trail and I came rolling into Medora with 2 of my buddies, we finished in about 10 hours and 50 minutes. Even with all the walked I had done, I still finished in 26th place, and I was happy with that. I found out later that out of the 70 or so entries, that only 28 had finished. It was tough.

Now that I've had some time to recover, I'm trying to figure out a plan for finishing the full 100 miles next year.

davesupra

Completely exhausted at the finish. I'm the guy in the middle.

qcpmsame 

Chapeau sir, very well done. I'm tired just from reading your report.

Bill

Gerryattrick

Well done. I've walked in that area and that was hard enough for me.

Love the name of the one station at Scairt Women Road!

h2oxtc

What a ride! And the determination ... wow. Congratulations on the finish.

Edit: just checked out the race and various videos of the trail. I'm even more in awe of your accomplishment.

BobbyG

Day-yum! Congratulations on a grueling accomplishment!

Mr IGH

Nice job! In my old age I find I really sweat and I'm losing electrolytes. Water wasn't enough, now I take SaltStick capsules before, during and after the ride. No cramps, less aches and I just feel better at the end of the ride, esp on hot, dry days.

MickeyDee

That is an incredible accomplishment! Awesome job. Your story is truly inspiring. That looks like one heck of a trail. Good luck in your endeavor for next year.

crockett

That's a very tough ride! I considered it-but went for the 200 mile Dirty Kanza instead 2 years ago, finishing it in 17 hours at age 57.
If you really want to hear from BF members with similar experience you should post in the "long distance" forum. My suggestion for you...is to take up Randoneurring and get used to REALLY long rides/times, which will help you mentally train, and figure out best way to hydrate, supplement, and feed over those distances and varying conditions.
QUESTION-did the trail condition allow for one to use a cross-bike set up instead of MTB? I've heard it's pretty rocky and the cattle hoof prints are quite deep...

davesupra

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

I think that my cramping was largely due to overdoing it early in the race. My plan for next year is to start out much slower and try to maintain a steady pace that will allow me to climb the majority of the race on the bike. I know that there are still hills I'll be walking, but I want to be able to ride a lot more of them. I've also been looking at adding salt tabs to my intake/feeding plan.

I don't think that a cross bike would be a good choice for this trail, there are many downhill sections where you are going ~25 mph and the rough terrain is still beating you up on a full suspension 29er.

davesupra

A follow-up 7 years later.

After finishing the 50 miler in my original post, I ended up entering the MDH100 three times. Twice I was timed out around the 75 mile mark (you only get so much time to make it to each check point). While I thought I had trained enough, both times I ended up walking too many of the climbs. I enjoyed every minute of the challenge, but I just didn't have enough in the tank. The 3rd time the race was shortened to 50 miles due to rain. When the clay gets rained on it becomes completely un-ridable, with your tires looking like big gray donuts. The north half of the trail got the rain, so we started at the 50 mile mark which made the race exactly the same as my very first 50 mile effort. I finished roughly 2 hours quicker than my first effort, so it was good to see that I had made some good progress physically. I got a 100 mile finishers medal, but it isn't really legit. Now I'm 58, do I have another one in me?

Pic for enjoyment, I'm #39.


MDH 100

rsbob 

Quite a heroic effort and an important and unfortunate lesson learned. I have always heard start strong, relax in the middle enough to finish strong. That of course depends on the course length. Your ride sounded brutal and demanding. Keeping that level of concentration for hours on end can be draining in itself. I used to be a die-hard MTB rider until a serious back injury, off the bike, and a fair amount of non-serious injuries on the bike. But now my back can’t take the jarring, so am exclusively road once again - it’s nice to have a backup.

Your miserable cramping episodes reminded me of a 150 mile, 9,700’ one day event I did a few times in my 30s. On one of those races, the day became relatively hot in the afternoon after our 4:30 AM start. The majority of the course was rolling but with a pretty major climb (6000’) followed by a second mtn pass climb. I was keeping an 18-22 MPH pace with 30 miles to go when the left calf cramped so badly I had to get off the bike and stretch. Caught a paceline doing 22-24 and cramped again and had to stop and stretch. Caught another paceline after 5 mins, and it happened again. And before this happened I was going for my best solo time. I stopped and screamed at the top of my lungs a renouned expletive when a woman pulled her car over, who happened to be supporting her husband. She gave me bananas and some pickle juice to help with cramping. I thanked her total kindness and got back on the bike - rode 10 miles at 15 MPH feeling my leg on the verge of cramping when another paceline passed by which I jumped on the end. Of course I cramped again and had to get off and stretch. I figure I lost 30 minutes stretching and riding at a reduced speed just to finish. It was so frustrating to do so well at the beginning but be beaten by putting out too much to soon and not drinking more. This is a long way to say, I feel your pain and frustration but commend you for going for even bigger and better. You are tough. Do well next year.