DNF

I entered TransIowa V7 feeling pretty good about things. Physically I felt to be in some of the best shape of my life. Mentally I felt I could handle most things a race could toss at me. But in the end it was a combination of these things that ultimately made me pull the plug on this version of TransIowa.

I knew it was to be an exceptionally hard event but not finishing was something that never entered my mind prior to the event. I have never not finished and event I started. First time for everything, huh!

The race rolled out from Grinell, IA on time at 4 a.m. with 74 riders strong, a race record. Once we hit gravel the sloppiness began. Per usual everyone appears to want to win the race in first 10 miles. Riders were jockeying for position, mud was flying everywhere, and the 'ol drive trains were filling with mud. Here is were I began to fall apart mentally...I was getting pissed. I just wanted to ride my own race without others on my wheel or me on someone's wheel.
Due to a course reroute we were to follow some new course markings. However, and I'm still not sure what happened, the course was not marked yet and we all went down a sloppy ass B road. We all walked the ditches, but at times were forced to walk on the road. This was some of the gooiest mud I have encountered. It stuck to everything in copious amounts. After the B road we continued on for about a mile when it was realized we were no longer on course. Back tracking the majority riders were back together again. More chaos.

Once daylight came it was much easier to navigate the roads. I was dangling off the back of the front group and decided to fall back and ride by myself and chill out my head. I was hoping the lead pack would thin out, I would pass the stragglers and join the front group when the craziness ended. Later riders came up from behind and wanted to ride together. Not sure what my deal was but this frustrated me quite a bit. To add fuel to the fire my drive train was screaming at me. Any pressure was followed by an ungodly noise and/or jumping gears. I replaced the cassette prior to the event to help eliminate this but in test riding I never "pounded" on it. Rookie mistake. I was afraid to pound too hard on any of the hills, or really nervous to shift too much. This, I think, helped to send my lower back into spasms. I had the lead group in my sites until the course turned and zig zagged a lot...out of site and out of mind, they were gone.

Around 7:30 it was realized making the first checkpoint would be a push. WTF? Yet an
other wrong turn, road not on the cue sheets, ugh. Still made it to the check point at 8:40, 20 minutes to spare. At this point my bike was in shit condition, my back was killing me, and my head was saying quit. I still had 270 miles left! I decided to push on, we were now going to head with the wind, which was gusting up to 30 mph! Oh, and before I forget, Iowa is HILLY!
I had cleaned my bike some and put more lube on the chain. It was actually working somewhat better, my back however, didn't want to cooperate. At a small town of Gillman I sat on a curb and struggled with what to do. I still knew where I was and how to get back to the start and hotel. Once beyond this point I would be at the mercy of the TransIowa cue sheets.
I started to struggle with the whole reason I do gravel events. I like them because they are way more casual than most other biking events. But it seems to be that they are coming more and more "races" than events. I too am very guilty of this as doing well is always a goal and a good feeling. Why can't I just ride to ride and have fun? And that's just it, I wasn't having fun. Biking is suppose to be fun (a reminder I was given before I left by a great friend). This kept running around my head. I know it's an excuse but that is why I ride: to have fun, I wasn't so I called Jen, the DNF hot line, and headed back to Grinnell. So I road 7+ hours, 93 miles, 6000+ feet of climbing, not a fraction of the route.

Time heals and already I am sure I will try this again. Yesterday I was questioning if I wanted to do the Almanzo in a month. But I will. I am still struggling if I made the right decision. Part of me thinks that if I would have put in the iPod and rode with my head down I would have worked my way up to where I wanted to be. But who knows, what's done is done.
I was able to spend the day with Jen and the girls. We did lots in Grinnell and just had a fun time.

So that's it. I do have some pictures that I will try to get up tomorrow.

Thanks.