“It was cold. It was wet. It was windy. It was the 43rd Annual Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride.” – MN Ironman Website
According to the MN Ironman Bike Ride event website there were over 4000 riders on the road Sunday, 26 April 2009. I honestly wish that I could report that it was an enjoyable event but I’d be lying.
This by far was the worse weather I’ve experienced for any event that I have done. Hopefully it is not a sign of things to come this year. The weather is not something we can predict (with any accuracy) or control (at least not that we common folk know of) and I’m OK with that.
When an event is on the horizon the weather becomes a daily topic of discussion amongst the participants. We report to each other what we’ve heard and discuss how the weather may effect our event day strategies. This ritual usually starts 12 to 15-days before the event, depending on what long range weather forecast you subscribe to. But in the end, “the weather is what it is” – Miles Burd (I’m probably not the first to use this phrase but I did not copy it intentionally). We either find a way to cope and deal with it or it deals with us. Over the course of a 36-week training and event schedule you’re going to run into a variety of weather conditions. The best way to prepare for adverse conditions on event day, train in adverse weather on training days.
Event Report
All things considered the event was very well organized and run. I was surprised just how many people were involved. I’m not sure how many people actually registered, but if there were over 4000 on the road Sunday, I’d imagine there were a fairly high number of no shows (due to the weather). The registration process on event morning was smooth and quick. I checked in and got my wrist band and map with very little waiting. I was on the road a tad before 7:00 AM. Heading out of town, the busy cross roads had State Troopers directing traffic. I made a point to thank as many of them as possible (I can’t image standing and directing traffic in these conditions was any better then riding in it). The ride for me was broken into five stages. The stages coincidentally correspond to the four rest stops on the 100-mile route. When I was planning for the event, I had originally only planned to stop once, but as we know, as the weather goes, so does the plan.
Stage 1 – Lakeville North High School to Jordan High School – Rest Stop 1 (mile 23)
Within the first mile or so I was warmed up. Body temperature came up nicely, I felt warm, it was dry, and I did not notice the wind. I passed a group of 10+ riders on unicycles. Big ones, the wheel on these machines had to be 4-feet in diameter, incredible skills these people have. In that first 23-miles I saw a variety of interesting machines. Tandem road bikes, tandem incumbent bikes, mountain bikes, a bike with ape-hanger handle bars, an older gentlemen on what looked like an old ten speed with a milk crate strapped to the back.
I made great time (just under an hour). There were a lot of people at this first stop. This was a shared stop between both the 65 and 100 mile routes. In the pre-race information, riders were asked to remove there cleats when entering the schools. Apparently only 90% of the riders can read and follow direction. I made a quick pit stop, ate a cliff bar and headed out. There were many comments from riders about how dark the skies looked as I departed.
Stage 2 – Jordan High School to LE Seuer-Henderson High school- Rest Stop 2 (mile 47)
About 5-miles in to stage two, thunder, lighting, and heavy driving rain joined me on my way south-west towards Belle Plaine. It didn’t take long before I could feel the water seeping its way into my shoes, gloves, and everywhere else. I started to cool off quickly, I could not maintain the warm body temp I enjoyed for the first stage. I’m not positive but at one point I swear it was hailing. I thought of the movie Forrest Gump, when Lieutenant Dan was on the shrimp boat with Forrest in the hurricane, and Lieutenant Dan is daring God, if this was the best he could do. Believe you me when I say I was not daring God but there was a point were I thought, what next, burning hail?
As I approached the second rest stop I passed a couple of late teen or early twenty something young men in shorts and short sleeves. Now there’s some planning for you (OMG). I later saw one of them in the rest room shaking uncontrollably, I’ll assume his ride was over (I hope) for the day.
As I tried to warm up I heard announcements for bus pickups. They were announcing that there would be buses coming about every 30-minutes. I saw several people being assisted by EMT’s, obviously hypothermia concerns. I ate some trail mix, M&M’s, a Snicker bar, a bagel with peanut butter, had two cups of coffee, a banana, and a little water. I changed my socks, wrung out my gloves (both pairs) and my face mask, and then started putting it all back on, as I thought, IDIOT!
Stage 3 – LE Seuer-Henderson High school to Montgomery Middle school- Rest Stop 3 (mile 70)
The route leaves Le Seuer and heads primarily due east. The wind at this point was relentless. The rain was intermittent (more on then off). Occasionally when climbing I’d warm a little. Because of the wind I started to dread the down hill sections. I felt the cold more, but worse, the wind made it tough to keep control. I found myself having to focus more intently on steering and at times did not feel in control of my bike at all. I paid little attention to my surroundings and watched the road. There seemed to be long stretches were I was completely alone on the road. As I approached Montgomery apparently I was not paying as close attention as I thought. I turned south on county road 13, went for about 10-minutes, before intuition told me maybe I was not going the right direction. One of the SAG vehicles doing a u-turn in front of me helped my intuition a little. So after my little detour, I pulled into rest stop number three.
As I approached the school building I noticed that I could not see clearly out of my right eye. I blinked a few times before realizing I no longer had my contact. A sense of panic came over me, without a contact my day most likely would be over. I did not plan for that and had no spare (I’ll be carrying a couple spares in Madison later this year). My only hope was that it was on the inside of the sunglasses lens (this happened to me once last summer on a ride) and it was. I managed to put the contact back in and began what was becoming my rest stop ritual.
The scene at the third stop was similar to the second. There was a lot more talk about the buses and when the next one was to arrive. I drank a lot more water, changed socks again (I had three extra pairs, in zip lock bags, one of the few good decisions I made this day). The bathroom had hand dryers, so after ringing out my gloves and face mask in the sink, I hopelessly tried to dry them off a bit. If nothing else the warm air from the dryer felt good on my hands.
A side note, this might be TMI for some but, getting in and out of bike clothing to use the restroom can be quite the challenge, especially when wet. I had on more layers then a Bloomin Onion. I’m sure glad this was not a timed event.
Stage 4 – Montgomery Middle school to Lonsdale Legion Hall – Rest Stop 4 (mile 80)
When I left Montgomery Middle school and headed east/north-east, I had no intention of stopping in Lonsdale. I had 30-miles left and planned to just keep going. Two to three miles in, my right contact came out again. It was raining as hard as it had all day, I assumed I would not be so lucky this time, and besides, without some kind of reflective device (a mirror) I’d probably end up poking myself in the eye. So I kept going, my mind seemed to adjust, and the fact that I couldn’t see much out of my right eye didn’t seem to bother me that much. I focused my attention on blinking to keep my left contact lubricated and in my head. The 10-miles seemed to just happen and before I knew it I was at the Lonsdale Legion.
This stop, like the second, was shared with the 65-mile route. There must have been several hundred riders here. The parking lot was littered with bikes and school buses, with several other SAG vehicles coming and going. There was a bonfire burning under the bike repair tent. And it was pouring.
I found a space behind the building for my bike. I was pleasantly surprised to find my contact stuck to the inside of my sunglasses lens again. As I was putting my contact back in my head, my sunglasses fell and hit the ground. The right lens fell out and was laying next to the frame. When I picked them up I noticed that the frame was now split. I put them back together the best I could and went inside.
The place was wall-to-wall with riders. You could barely make your way through the crowd. There was music playing, they were serving hot food (chili and some kind of pasta). I found a few paper towels to wipe my glasses and headed for the door. Outside people were lined upped to get on the buses. I heard volunteers telling them to just get on the bus and not to worry about their bikes. A guy was putting bikes into a open trailer, he must of had 30 bikes piled on top of each other. I’m thinking there is no way my bike (that I just bought a couple of months ago $) is going on that pile, I’ll carry it home before that will happen.
Stage 5 – Lonsdale Legion Hall to Lakeville North High school (mile 100)
My goal at this point was to just make it back. In the last 20-miles my bike starting making a variety of weird noises. The dirt and grime was building everywhere. My rear brake starting sticking. The left aero bar loosened up and would move up and down when I shifted. The rear derailleur starting having intermittent shifting problems. My right knee and left elbow started to hurt noticeably. I’m not sure which road it was but there was a section were traffic had picked up noticeably, the road got extremely rough, and there was no shoulder to speak of.
Why is it that when you start to approach your mental limits, all of this stuff seems to take on a life of its own. Now that I reflect on it, could it really of been that bad? After all it’s just a bike ride, right?
When I saw the Lakeville water tower I knew it couldn’t be that much further. Since the route came up from the south I did however get the grand tour of the city of Lakeville, which by the way is a pretty good size town.
Epilogue
When I pulled up to my car I was relieved and glad that this ride was over. It was just about 3:00 PM, my Garmin indicated that my actual saddle time was just under 6-hours, with a total elapsed time of about 8-hours.
I had packed a change of clothes but had no real desire to go into the school to shower. I pulled on a pair of jeans over my wet bike clothes, put on a winter hat I had in the back, loaded up my bike and headed in to collect my finisher shirt. I ate three M&M cookies, picked up my finisher shirt, and bought a souvenir pin. I thanked the volunteers I encountered and headed for the door. My only thoughts now were of a long hot shower at home.
The event website says that we earned our bragging rights for the year. I don’t know about that, but I did learn somethings that will better prepare me for future events. I hope I do not have to experience anything like this again any time soon, but as the saying goes, “the weather is what it is”.
