06.21.2013 | 5:46 am
A Note from Fatty: After reading this report, why not check out another by The Self-Righteous Cyclist? Click here.
100 Miles of Nowhere Race Report: Winner of the 64 Times Across the 64th Parallel Category
by Gary Cooper
Delta Junction, the small town my wife and I call home, is at the end of the Alaska Highway, in the interior of Alaska. By many people’s standards it is in the middle of nowhere. With a limited amount of paved roads to choose from, I decided to ride a 2.5-mile out and back section of a nearby road that joins the Alaska Highway at milepost 1415. The official end of the Alaska Highway is milepost 1422. I considered riding the additional mile to the Alaska Highway, but that might be considered as going “somewhere” and I wanted to be sure that I was riding 100 miles to ”nowhere.”
The road ahead on the day of the ride
I would travel north – south and cross over the 64th parallel, which is 177 miles south of the Arctic Circle. By riding the five-mile round trip twenty times over the 64th parallel, I would go over and back 40 times.
Looking southwest to the Alaska Range along the route
I decided to take a short off-the-bike refueling break every 5 laps (25 miles) but before each break I would do an additional 3 loops at the marker I placed at latitude 64.000. By doing the additional twelve loops I would cross the 64th parallel 64 times.
Latitude 64.00000
I started riding about 9:30AM and finished around 4:30, with a riding time of 6:08:24. The high temperature of the day was 80 degrees and there was a west wind blowing at 15 mph the last four hours of the ride.
Mt. Hayes from the ride route
The day went off with out a hitch with my wife and several friends stopping by to cheer me on through out the day. Hopefully I successfully secured a top spot in the category for the number of crossings of the 64th parallel in one day by a 60-year-old.
Many thanks to Fatty for spearheading this great fundraising event, all the sponsors for the fantastic gifts, and the helpful folks at Twin Six.
PS from Fatty: It is my hope that Gary will do this exact ride again in four years…when he is 64.
Comments (10)
06.20.2013 | 8:08 am
A Note from Fatty: I plan to post a few 100MoN race reports today, so you may want to check back a few times.
100 Miles of Nowhere Race Report: Winner of the left-handed 50 year old cancer survivor who lives on Ivy Drive in Simpsonville, SC Division
by Jerry Pringle
I would like to begin my race report for the 2013 edition of the 100 Miles of Nowhere by thanking Fatty for setting the whole thing up, and for his commitment to helping others. I am proud to say that this was my first century, and my first win of any kind (of course, I was racing in the left-handed 50 year old cancer survivor who lives on Ivy Drive in Simpsonville, SC!)
Below is the summary of the ride taken from my Garmin. I contemplated the true 100 Miles of Nowhere, in my basement on rollers, but I didn’t think I could do it without falling and hurting myself. Next I thought that I may do it on a traffic circle (too much traffic) or perhaps the bus loop at an elementary school near my house (too many tight U-turns would kill my speed.) I settled on a 7.15 mile loop around an industrial park called Donaldson Center (now called SCTAC, but no one knows it by that name!)
I brought two bikes to ride, in case I had a catastrophic mechanical breakdown on one of them. My road bike is an older Jamis Comet, which I have ridden to my previous longest distance, 56 miles at the Augusta 70.3 triathlon last September. Thus any distance over 57 miles set my new PR! My tri bike, purchased in April, is an older Cervelo P3. I have not gone over 14 miles on it either, so I went into the 100 MoN fully prepared!
Both bikes have aluminum frames, and Ultegra components (the Jamis is a 9 speed, the Cervelo a 10 speed.) Surprisingly I did not have any breakdowns, flats, or accidents! I could not be more thankful for that! While the Jamis is more comfortable, the Cervelo is faster. The Cervelo is comfortable only if you are really going hard, though – I found that riding fast on it is better than just cruising slowly. The Jamis can be ridden slowly or fast, depending on how you feel or the hills that you are climbing.
Here is a picture of my bikes:
I alternated directions for each lap – one lap clockwise, the other counterclockwise. I did this so that I wouldn’t get too bored, and to ride the uphills and downhills from both directions. I rode the first 4 laps on the Jamis, the next 4 on the Cervelo, then 3 on the Jamis and the final 3 on the Cervelo. I had an absolute blast with the race, and finished as thankful and excited as any race I have done (9 marathons, 12 halves, the 70.3 in Augusta, and several dozen 5k and 10k). I was grinning from ear to ear, and both exhausted and pumped from the effort.
I started running and biking 4 years ago, after completing treatment for lymphoma. My oncologist told me that I would have to start doing cardio workouts to burn off the effects of the chemo. I started chemo in January 2009, and finished up in June 2009 — every checkup since then has been excellent, and there have been no traces of the cancer since!
I had gotten an email from a high school classmate about raising money for Team in Training just as I was finishing up the chemo treatments (May 2009.) After checking them out, I went to an information meeting. The coach that talked about the events for that summer got choked up about running up the hill to the Iwo Jima Memorial at the Marine Corps Marathon, and I was sold! I hadn’t run more than a couple hundred yards at one time in 20 years, but I signed up that day!
I started with the plan that my coach gave us, and I have used it for every marathon since (my PR is a turtlelike 4:40, but I have finished every one with no injuries!) I finished the MCM in a shade over 6 hours, and I cannot describe the feeling of running up the hill and through the finish. Getting the very impressive MCM medal was a total blast, and to have my family, including my Mom and brother, there made it very special.
I have since completed the Chicago Marathon (on 10/10/10!) and have now become a TNT run coach for our winter teams. I honestly believe that when you sign up for any event that makes you nervous, then you commit to doing the training necessary to complete it. The downside, however, is once you have done several big events (marathons, long bike rides) and can kind of predict how they will go, you tend to neglect putting in the training.
I did take way too much food and water – I had 3 Bonk Breaker bars (ate one), 6 Poweraid gels (ate 3), 2 peanut butter, Nutella, and honey sandwiches (ate half of one), 2 gallons of water and a gallon of Gatoraid (drank 1 gal water and half the Gatoraid). I met up with some friends during lap 4, and rode with them for a mile or so, but for the rest of the day I was alone. I had a great time, and again, thank you Fatty for all you have done and continue to do! I look forward to doing this event next year and beyond!
Comments (12)
06.18.2013 | 9:52 am
A Note from Fatty: Janeen — The Noodleator — makes amazing photos, videos, and words for a living. She’s done a few 100 Miles of Nowhere videos, and they are amazing. This year’s edition, I think, is my very favorite.
Watch it now.
Janeen’s Notes From the Ride
Since I’ve backed myself into a corner with the one-uping myself for 100MoN, this year I thought I’d do something a little different that could serve as my ‘this is my last one’ retirement Nowhere.
So I found a road. In Colorado. Called Nowhere Road. Brain clicked. It made perfect sense to ride 5x 100 miles of nowhere to nowhere. Road. :)
Some quick facts
Rider: Janeen
Bike: Peanut Butter
Team: PB+J
What kind of centuries?
They were out-and-back centuries. Why? Because I was by myself and had to be able to get my car to the next century.
How did I get from one place to another?
It went like this: Drive to start. Sleep in a hotel. Get up, ride a century. Get back to the car. Drive to the start of the next (eat something on the way or stop if time). Sleep. Rinse. Repeat.
What was the hardest part?
Not the riding. That was actually the fun part. Driving and sleep were the issues. For example, I had a 7.5 hour drive to Cedar City from Fallon which only gave me 4 hours sleep that night before doing the Cedar Breaks century (which was the hardest). That was immediately followed by a 5.5 hr drive to Moab after a very long day in the saddle, which again only allowed for 4 hours sleep before the Moab century.
Any injuries?
5 centuries in 5 days was not without consequences. I felt great. The fittest I’ve been in a long time. I could have easily gone out and banged out a 6th century on day 6 had it not been for some compression damage to my ulnar nerve, which caught up to me on the last day. Left hand numbness, and only now, 17 days later with no riding, has the numbness and tingling in two fingers begun to get better. Nerves is crazy!
Overall?
Amazing experience. Fantastic adventure! I’m glad I did it.
Comments (42)
06.14.2013 | 6:59 am
A Note from Fatty: If, after reading today’s 100MoN story, you feel like you’d like another for the weekend, check out Giro d’Jenny’s really excellent writeup.
Another Note from Fatty: I love this race report particularly, because it’s absolutely positively totally old-school, taking the 100 Miles of Nowhere right back to its roots: on a trainer, going nowhere. And then he takes the idea even further back than that.
100 Miles of Nowhere: Winner of 29-yr-old in East-Central Indiana stationary category
by Eric B.
I hadn’t intended to do the 100 MoN. As I a regular reader of Fatty’s blog I’d heard of it, but decided it was too much….but then I read this post. Now as a relatively sane man, I should have stopped there, but then I read Fatty’s original 100 MoN race report. As I am evidently a very damaged man, I went ahead and read every post and clicked every link I could find on Fatty’s blog about this event. I shouldn’t have.
100 miles…in a garage…on a trainer….with a MTB
I really didn’t understand what I was getting myself into. I knew that it would be tough, I knew I would hurt. I underestimated it.
See? That’s a pic of my mug at 6:45 am happy and hopeful, engergetic and pleased with myself, naïve and stupid.
To sum up my experience, I have a list of good ideas and bad ideas that others may want to take note of.
- Good Idea: Doing the 100 MoN. Great fund-raiser for a great cause. ‘nuff said.
- Bad Idea: Riding a 15-yr-Old MTB:
- It’s slow. At a high cadence (90-100) in top gear I could only maintain 20-21 mph.
- It’s loud. The noises it makes when you get it into its top gear are dazzling and horrifying. It sounded like an evil popcorn maker was chasing me with a maladjusted dentist’s drill while also randomly opening and closing a zippo for over 8 hours.
- It has flat bars. You are severely limited in riding positions. Normal and side-saddle are about it.
- Good Idea: Electrolytes: It was hot, the Half-Evil from the swag bag and a whole load of G****ade kept me from bonking. My engineer/coach/younger brother told me I sucked down 2 ½ gallons of funny-colored liquid over the course of the day.
- Bad Idea: Drinking 2 ½ gallons of G****ade: I suffered from worsening symptoms of pyrosis , eructation, and flatus as the day went on…and on… and on.
- Good Idea: Being a Musician: I discovered that I am able to count my cadence without a cadenceometerajig. This ability started to slip at about the 75 mile mark.
- Bad Idea: Letting your engineer/coach/younger brother be an engineer for the 100 MoN:
He will want to build a special rig to capture/store/monitor the data that corresponds to your suffering. You will start riding over an hour later than you intended. Just have him coach, or do the engineering part of it the day before.
- Good Idea: Eating: Once I started riding, I ate anything I could find. I had prepared 6 peanut butter sandwiches; gone before mile 60. I had the snacks from the 100 MoN swag bag; gone before mile 30. I had flatbread pizzas in the fridge for my lunch and my brother’s; I slapped them together and ate both of them like giant sandwich. My wife made pasta for 4 for dinner; I’m quite sure I ate half of it before anybody noticed. Eating is awesome.
- Bad Idea: Riding 100 miles on a trainer:
I hadn’t thought it through, there are no hills to coast down on a trainer. You have to grind out every single mile. Knobby tires also drag down your inertia…a lot.
- Good Idea: Watching movies with the dog to get through it:
Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The Avengers all only had a few slow spots that were tough to maintain pace.
- Great Idea: The 100 MoN: It’s a crazy challenge, but worth it.
Here’s proof I actually did it, with breaks, in 8hrs 44min.
I made my wife present me with the shirt like I’d just won.
She made me change clothes before I could come in the house. I’m making my engineer/coach/younger brother ride with me next year, someone needs to share this suffering and madness.
- E.b.
Comments (23)
06.11.2013 | 8:14 am
By Jeff DeVries (aka ClydeinKS)
Upon the announcement for the 100 MoN ’13 edition I rallied two buddies to register and join in planning for the day. I was excited to have 3 of 500 “official” MoN participating and began talking to other people about our insanity. During one of these share sessions with one of my patients, I was intrigued when she told me of a newly forming charity called the Team Ryan Foundation for pediatric cancer research and I began to have ideas for something larger scale.
Fatty was gracious enough to give his blessing for bringing in more riders for the MoN, so we added a silent auction, and the “Spin and Bid” event was born. Following two weeks of intense planning, our event was going to happen! Here is the flyer we had made to spread word:
We had decided to allow additional riders to join for a minimum donation of $20 to Camp Kesem. Next Door Pizza, our host for the ride and after party, committed to donating 10% of the day’s sales to Camp Kesem as well. During the evening after party, a silent auction of items donated from all over the city was held benefitting Team Ryan. The three “official” riders had also received an incredible anonymous sponsorship of $10 per mile ridden to go to Team Ryan.
In 2 weeks time, we received approval from the local police and parks and rec. dept to use the route we planned without alteration – a 2.5 mile loop going into park grounds, past ball fields, and around a community college campus with what appeared to be leisurely rolling hills. Media coverage was obtained and silent auction items were coming in. Riders were asked to ride a minimum of one lap of the course that was marked and then feel free to continue the loop or take another route as desired.
Much advertising was done through the Select Physical Therapy (where I am a therapist) cycling group that was formed and organized by myself earlier this year. We gained more riders from work, set up a Facebook page for the event, had hand-painted banners donated, set up a tent for registrations, and were ready to start the day. I stayed with the FC jersey to maintain representation through the day.
The morning couldn’t have started much better. The winds were very calm, temps were perfect, and 3 gorgeous whitetail deer were observed on the initial laps before a large group of approximately 50 riders came through the other direction and scared the deer back into the woods.
The route was nice as it provided good scenery entering park grounds, moving toward a lake, a nice tight bend to play with, approaching youth baseball fields, and traveling alongside a golf course. This provided lots of exposure but also unpredicted complications. The deceptive rolling hills were longer and steeper than first anticipated as well.
Contact was made with Scott R., another “officially” registered 100MoN rider and he was able to join up with us approximately 12 miles into our ride. It was great having him out to join, was able to chat some during one lap and then my wife (Mighty Athena) and 7 yr old son arrived to join on the ride. Scott had gotten called away and needed to leave, sorry I missed you leaving and hope everything was alright – thanks for joining us while you were able!
Most of my route pics were taken while riding with my 7 yr old, Derek participating in his first event and proudly displaying his homemade race number. Around the time that my wife and son joined, we began seeing more and more coworkers show up. There was also a second group from the bike shop (30-40 riders) leaving. Awesome doesn’t appropriately describe riding the loop twice with my son and hearing his joy proclaimed with each down hill section (“Woohoohoo, YEAH!!!”) and cheers and encouragement for him from the bike shop riders!
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera ready as the large group went by.
There was some fun and building confidence developed in taking that tight bend with speed. The initial laps averaged going the through the turn around 16 mph. As the day progressed, the speeds and comfort increased and I learned that my top speed going through was 27.6 mph, couldn’t quite stay in my lane when I hit 28 mph. There was bump prior to entering the corner and Derek’s first trip around, his feet flew off the pedals and his handlebars shimmied side to side 5 or 6 times but he saved it and maintained upright and moving forward. There were some good ascents he completed and was a real trooper when needing to push 3x, if only he had some gear options!
As the day progressed, the temps were climbing, nearly all riders completing above 40 miles were cramping badly, and the ball fields and pedestrians were becoming more busy and nonobservant, causing some safety risks in continuing to push the distance.
In the early afternoon we encountered a raccoon, and we knew that with him being out at that time of day, we were best to leave him alone!
My final 6 laps had both quads cramping to the point I couldn’t pedal on flats but had to keep pushing for the sponsored money and on my final lap decided to stop as two cars blocked my passage near the ball fields and people were beginning to congest the road making it stop and go which the quads couldn’t take.
Unfortunately, I was only able to complete 66 miles this year, one rider went nearly 70 and I was the final representation on the course for 2 loops to end the day.
There was a decent turnout for the ride and evening silent auction, but sadly we did not get the television coverage before and during that we were promised. Final numbers for the day included a total of 16 riders and 499.77 miles, and additional $260 raised for Camp Kesem (not including the 10% from the restaurant as it was unavailable upon leaving), $558 raised from 17 silent auction items and $1960 from mileage sponsorship (although likely to be full $3000 as hoped) raised for the Team Ryan Foundation. Their “motto” is HANDS IN!! but sadly there wasn’t anyone to finish the ride with hand in hand, so did it myself.
Nothing feels better than knowing we were able to help two great organizations. Hopefully next year we’ll have more than 2 weeks to plan!! Oh, forgot to mention that I still won the “Enjoy volunteering, but have a whole new respect for event organizers – 38 yr Male division.” Special thanks to FATTY, Todd and Toti for your enthusiasm in joining me, an incredible group of coworkers for your support and participation, volunteers, auction item providers, and NDP for hosting!
Comments (19)
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