I Love a Great Rack

I've had my Kuat NV rack for several years now.  It has been awesome in every way.  This thing has travelled so many miles on the back of Adventure Jeep and been abused in so many ways that it was way overdue for something to break.

I loaded up the two bikes and drove out to Lost Valley for a day of single-track fun.  When I got to the Mound (local name for the parking lot) and started unloading I found a broken rear wheel strap.  Looked to me like the plastic strap holdown for the wheel wheel just gave it up and snapped in half.

There was no easy fix i could make on my own so I called the Kuat Customer Support Line.   Get this:  A real guy answered in English on the second ring!

I explained the part that broke, and the guy said that those straps are made out of a really tough plastic, but after years of UV and weather exposure, sometimes they will break.  He asked for my address and said he would send me a replacement.  This was the Wednesday before the long anticipated Cedar Cross race, so I told the guy my plan to zip-tie my bike to the rack for the drive to the race.  He said, "Oh, I'll just overnight it to you."

 

The next day, a package from Kuat was at my house when I got home from work.  It even included the tool for the tamper-resistant T40 Torx screws.  No charge and overnight delivery!  Seriously.  It don't get no better than that!

The fix was easy and straightforward.  I removed the two Torx screws using the Kuat tool and pulled the cap and lock out of the way. Then slid the new strap assembly onto the rail.  The cap was put back on and was torqued down with the same hardware.  Done.  Not even 5 minutes.

I never noticed until this project that the NV racks use tamper-resistant screws.  Makes me feel even better leaving my bike locked outside on the rack.  Nice touch.

My favorite rack company is now also my favorite customer service company.  Thanks Kuat!

The KIND in Kindness

When I was organizing the tracks n treads race, KIND had graciously offered to supply ROCK Racing with KIND bars for the racers.  I had big hopes that we would get 300 racers this year based on last years participation, but mother nature was not playing well with us and I think due to the crazy weather changes, many people were afraid to sign up.  Well, race day came and the weather could not have been more perfect.  The problem was registration was low just over half of what I had anticipated.

So we gave out these fantastic KIND bars that everyone loved, but we had some left over because KIND was so generous in the number they sent us.  This left me with a dilemma. 

I wondered what to do with the extra bars, I mean, I could have kept them and Chuck and I could have eaten them ourselves, because we love all of them, but that would be disrespectful to the generosity of KIND.

I could have taken them to the next club meeting and we could have had a nice snack during the meeting, but then again, that just felt wrong. 

I could have taken them to an animal ride and given them out to all the riders, but that felt a little wrong too.

Then I had this great idea, since my friend Krystal had just started a kids run club for 3^rd through 5^th graders at a local Boys and Girls Club, Chuck and I thought this would be a perfect place to use the KIND bars.  I had signed up to be a volunteer there, so on my first night, I took the bars to give to Krystal to use during the club practices. 

Some of the Run Club kids running with Coach Krystal

After we ran with the kids for a while Krystal gave the kids all a bar to eat, while she talked about fitness and nutrition.  I was a little leery, because usually kids aren’t good with stuff that is meant to be healthy and turn their noses up at it.  To my surprise they all liked them and almost seemed to inhale them.

One of the kids trying out a KIND bar

It made me happy that they liked them so much and I knew right then that we had made the right choice in how to distribute the extra KIND bars. 

KIND is a perfect name for these bars, because the company shows generosity and kindness while working for a healthier society, plus the bars are really tasty.  THANK YOU KIND for your efforts in helping the community stay healthy and exposing these kids to a healthy choice. 

Tour of Hermann Gravel Race 2013

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

Gravel racing seems to be a quickly growing bike racing event.  Just a couple years ago, I had never heard of gravel racing, now these races are popping up all over the place.  Being an adventure racer, this type of racing caught my eye, because in adventure races, we do a lot of gravel riding.

 

Chuck and I had been watching this sport grow from the sidelines, but last summer Chuck started building a gravel bike, you might have seen his gravel bike build posts.  Well, as soon as he finished his bike, I of course did not want to be left out, so I started shopping for a gravel bike. Chuck built a true adventure bike, so it’s a bit heavy, and like a tank, it can go anywhere.  Me on the other hand, I was thinking about trying some cyclocross this year, so I went with a gravel/cyclocross bike.  It’s much lighter than Chuck’s, and since I’m not as strong as him, it helps me keep up.

Chuck and I showed up about an hour before race time, did all our pre-race rituals, checked-in and picked up our schwag.  We both got a bottle of wine, Chuck picked red and I chose the sparkling grape juice.  I don’t drink much wine.  We also got a jar to fill with gravel, which was kind of cool.

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

We rode over the bridge and out of town, and then turned on to the Katy Trail.  For a few short miles we were on the flat trail, and everyone just took off, I on the other hand hung back, I was almost last at that point, but I knew it was going to be a long day and I just didn’t have it in me to ride fast that early.  I have to warm up for a long time, I’m more of the endurance rider and less of the sprinter.  Chuck was pretty far in front of me, but when I made it to the turn on a paved road section he was waiting for me.  I told him not to let me ruin his race, so drop me and go on, but he said this was just training for him, not to worry.  I do worry though, I don’t want anyone holding back just so I can stay on.  He stuck with me though, the good thing was as the day went on I got stronger, so I didn’t slow him down as much as I thought I would. 

 

We soon hit all the gravel roads, the rock on the first lap, was mostly small and only deep in spots, most of the time we could pick a line that wasn’t too bad.  The hills on the other hand, SUCKED, they were so steep and so long, but every hill we rode up we would see someone walking, I would think to myself, “you will not walk this hill, even if this bike falls over, you will not walk this hill”, and I didn’t.  Chuck of course made it up all the hills too, there were even a couple hills I beat Chuck up, not many, but a couple.  The down hills were probably more treacherous than the uphills.  They were so steep and the gravel made it really sketchy coming down.  My max speed on the downhills was 40 mph and Chucks was over 41 mph.  On one hills we both hit some deep gravel and started fish tailing.  I think my life was passing before my eyes at that time, but somehow, both of us kept our wheels on the road.  I was so scared that I was shaking at the bottom of the hill, but not to worry, there was another uphill right in front of us, so I was quickly in oxygen debt again and didn’t have time to start crying. 

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

I wish I could explain how big these hills were, the pictures just don’t do them justice.  I was thinking, that riding hills is much easier in the dark because you can’t see how big the hill are, you just keep grinding away until you come to the top.  Chuck and I discussed how we had ridden to the top of the LaSalle Mountains in Utah during the CPT National Adventure race championships, it took us over 6 hours and it was uphill the entire time, but we did most of it in the dark and I think that is what helped us make it to the top. 

We finished the first lap, and refueled at the Adventure Jeep, we probably wasted a little time, we were taking off layers, eating, filling water bottle and packing our pockets with food.  We headed back out for loop two which had longer steeper hills and deeper bigger gravel than lap one.  

Lap 2

I felt pretty good though and I think Chuck was in good shape too.  We were somewhat worried because we thought the cutoff to start lap 3 was at 3:30, but at the start of the race, the race director said it was 2:30, I was thinking he probably just said that in error, but we knew we wouldn’t make it back by 2:30. 

Right from the start of the lap, it was uphill and it seemed to last forever, but it was a paved section of road so at least we wouldn’t have to worry about spinning tires.

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

After the first hill the roads turned to gravel and it was a chunkier, thicker gravel than what was on lap one.  It reminded me of the gravel that you see in a river bottom.

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

The gravel went on and on, the downhills were getting tougher and tougher, plus I was so tired from the uphills, I just didn’t have the strength needed to really control my bike, so I just started loosening my grip and hoped the bike would take me where I wanted to go.  We stopped at the top of a hill where we rode through a small town, and grabbed some food from our pockets, and took off more clothes.  The day was getting warmer, but the wind was making it cool on the downhills. It was really a hard day to dress for. We looked at our watches and the mileage, and knew that we would not make it back by 2:30, but maybe we could be there by 3:30.  We hoped that 3:30 was the cutoff for the third lap. 

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

Once we were back on the road we started passing people, some were just slowing down, others were having mechanical problems. No one needed help, so we just kept riding. As we rode into Hermann, I knew it was going to be really close to the cutoff, but didn’t know just how close.  We made the turn to ride the last hill into the chute and as we were just about to the top we heard the announcer say, “we have just reached the cutoff time”.  We finished in 6:30:30, just 30 seconds too late to start the third lap. 

 

On one hand I was upset because I wanted to do the full 3 laps, on the other hand I was secretly glad because I was so tired that the last lap would have been brutal.  The good thing was, when we rode back to the jeep there were racers everywhere who did not go out on the third lap, so we didn’t feel like real losers at all.  We stopped and talked to our friend Wendy, who is in great shape and she made the decision not to do the third lap, so now we felt a lot better.  Chuck made a good point too, we could still walk after the ride and we had a really fun time with good memories, so maybe not riding the third lap was a way of keeping the memories good because I know I would not have finished that last lap with any good memories.

Photo Credit - Wendy Davis

So our first gravel race went really well, we both want to do more.  I do need to have my brakes looked at and Chuck needs to learn that it’s ok to drop me, but all in all, it was a beautiful day, spent riding bikes with good friends, you really can’t ask for more than that.  

Oh, and one last thing, I love my new Cannondale SuperX, I will have a bike review coming soon. 

Thanks to the race sponsors for having this race, and having such great support out on the course, I think I saw the race truck about 50 times, it was always around when someone needed help.  Like the guy on the ground that looked like he broke his collarbone. See neither Chuck nor I broke anything and we didn’t have any mechanical problems, well Chuck dropped his chain once, but I don’t think that counts.

tracks n treads 2013

Well I can’t say EVERYTHING went perfect, but I can say that it was an excellent race even with a few glitches.

So let me see if I can get tell you the story of tracks n treads in less than 100 pages.  Oh, quit moaning, I will keep it short.

As you know the weather this year has been more than crazy, we don’t know from day to day if it’s going to rain, sleet, snow, or be hot enough to jump in the pool.  So as we were just 3 weeks out from the race, and we ended up with 12 inches of snow, I was more than a little worried about anyone showing up to race. Just a week before race day, we only had about 50 entrants, but then the weather got nice and by the closing of online registration, just two days before the race, we had 105 entries. After race day registration, we had 159 entrants.  I guess I need to thank mother nature for that.  The weather was perfect, in the low 60’s at start time and the trails both run and bike were in perfect condition.

In the past we have always gotten a lot more trail runners than biathlon, but this year was different, which makes me believe that the word is getting out to the mountain biking community that this is a great race.  So here are the stats for the race.

Biathlon - 82 Male, 19 Female, 12 Team Male, 12 Team Co-ed                    

Trail Run - 10 Male, 12 Female

There are even more stats, which I love, but most people don’t so I won’t bore you with them.  Thanks to Randy from Metro Milers for leading the timing team and getting me the stats.

Now that you have the stats let me tell you a little about the day.  We had great volunteers that helped mark the course and setup the transition and finish line. 

Finish Line

Wade did a great job making the finish line interesting with a hill and a cyclocross barrier to cross, and with red bike sculptures along the finish chute. I bet there is no other race that you can get an art exhibit with your race at no extra charge.  

Bicycle Sculptures

The barrier gave spectators plenty of entertainment, watching the variety of ways people crossed the barrier.  This guy in particular was very cool.

Cool Dude jumping the barrier

All the pre-race setup was finished on Friday and on Saturday we just had to pull the race off.  We started the day with late coming information about a 5K race starting and running on some of the same course as our bikers and the race start time was about the same time as our bikers would be coming through.  Lucky for us Mike was able to reach the race director and workout a safety plan just before the race. We also found out about a canoe race so there were spectators all over the course.  We adapted to the change and no one was hurt.

Racers showed up and got registered, picking up a very cool custom printed Camelbak water bottle and KIND bars. 

Participants Schwag

The volunteers worked overtime getting everyone checked in. There were a couple bib number mix ups due to changes from trail run to biathlon, but other than that, everything went extremely smooth.  Soon we had everyone in place and after some pre-race comments, we were ready to go. Oh wait, I have one story to tell at this point.

My daughter China and her friend Jordyn had one important job to do, it was to stand at the top of Whiteside hill with the police and make sure that no cars came through as the runners crossed the road.  So Jeff, the Run Course Lead took them to their post and tells them what to do. Well as they stand there, they have a great idea to run to the car and get a blanket because it was kind of windy and they were cold.  Being teenagers, they didn’t think to check the time, so they headed back to the car and Jorydn starts to cross the street out of the cross walk, China tells her not to J walk because you can get a ticket. They get to the overpass and see the runners take off, so they turn and start running as fast as they can to get back to their post, Jordyn is running for the cross walk and China yells “just J walk” so they cross the street and are only yards in front of the first runner, they barely make it to their post as the runners pass by. 

The Race has started

They are so out of breath that they had no idea if there were cars coming or not, it’s just a good thing the police were there.  They did go back and hand out water though, at least they were good at that.

The volunteers that almost missed the race

So as you can see, the race took off at a fast pace with Travis Redden and Garrett Fulkerson running neck and neck most of the run. 

Travis followed by Garrett

Travis finished the run first and went through the finish chute, but then we noticed he was on a team, so he just ran about 200 meters out of his way and had to run over and tag his teammate.  Russ quickly ran down to the tunnel to direct the runners to make sure that didn’t happen a second time.  Garrett Fulkerson came in winning the trail run, with Renee Wilcox winning the female division of the trail run. Garrett ran a time of 27:07, while Renee finished in a smoking fast 30:52.  These were both super fast times for the difficulty of the course.

More and more people headed out on bikes while trail runners finished the race, there was an incredible race going between the 1^st and 2^nd place overall all men, Anthony Dust and Matt Fulbright were racing it out for 1^st overall with Anthony taking first in a time of 1:05:24 with Matt coming in just over a minute behind him. Melisa Lemus took 1^st place for the women in a time of 1:10:22.

Anthony Dust

Another notable finish was our club president, Mike Wever.  He competed in tracks n treads for the first time and had a pretty good finish for an old guy, but he couldn’t beat Pat or Keith, which means they will never let him live it down.

Pat

Keith

Mike

Mike at the finish

Soon it was time for the awards and other then one competitor’s time getting lost, due to a missing bib tag, all went well.  Winners took home a really cool acrylic leaf.

Cool Awards

We had several people taking photos and they can be found on the Team Godzilla website, along with the full results. 

I want to take time to thank everyone involved with this race, the Cyclery and Fitness for coming out and helping with bike needs, Wild Tracks for loaning us their cyclocross barrier, Metro Milers for doing the race timing, SIUE for allowing us to hold this race on their beautiful campus and providing police protection, KIND for donating the very tasty and nutritious bars, that everyone loved, and of course GORC for building and maintaining great trails for us to ride and run on.

A special shout out goes to all those behind the scenes that do the work no one ever sees, thanks Jeff S, Mike W, Russ D, Mike H, Andrea M, Andrea W. And lets not forget the 40+ volunteers who were out there on race day.

2014 will be our 5^th year for this event and we hope to make it our biggest and most memorable yet.  I hope to see you next year.

Now I Have One

We all know that when Chuck wants new equipment, he searches Craigslist and ebay to find all the parts, then he builds what he wants. 

I'm just the opposite, when I want new equipment, I check my bank account and then shop accordingly. 

Well Chuck just finished the build of his adventure bike, and you know I can't let Chuck go out and have fun without me, so I needed a adventure bike too.  Chuck tried to convince me that I should build my own adventure bike, but anyone who knows me, knows that I am not mechanically inclined.  Next I had Chuck on the hunt to find a used bike, but the problem was everything he could find was too big for me.

So then I started searching for the perfect bike.  I looked at Felt, Specialized, Giant, Trek and Cannondale.  When it came down to it, I was torn between the Trek and the Cannondale.  I really liked that the Trek had tubeless ready wheels, but the Cannondale have Ultegra components verses 105 on the Trek. 

One minute I was sure that I was going with the Trek, and the next minute, I was back to thinking Cannondale.  When it came down to the line though, the Cannondale SuperX won.  I chose the SuperX because it came a 44 which was the size I needed.  The smallest Trek they make is a 50, so it was going to be too big. 

So the Adventure bike is the first Cannondale I have ever owned, I will be putting it to the test, gravel racing and cyclocross racing on it.

I ordered the bike and it was going to take a week to arrive, it did, but it arrived with missing brake parts, so it took another week to get the brake parts in. Once they arrived, Matt at the Cyclery got it put together and fitted for me.

Matt putting on the final touches

This is my new baby

The brake parts finally came in

 

The reflectors came off, I'm not getting caught racing with those on





So I took the adventure bike out on it's maiden voyage and I loved it, well everything except for the seat, I will be getting a new seat.  My butt needs more surface area than that seat has.

 

My first ride

After putting the SuperX to some real tests, I will be back to give you a full review.  Thanks to Matt for getting me setup and on the road, and to Andy for helping me pick the right bike for me and last but not least, to Allan for working his magic and making the bike fit my budget.

Great Graveyard Gravel Grind

Video from the Graveyard Gravel Grind on 3/10/13.  3/10 was the changeover to Daylight Savings Time.  The quasi-holiday was good enough reason for us to set up a mini-adventure day.

Checkout Superkate's great report of our adventure day here.

And Patrick's awesome video here.

The SHITR In Trail Runner Magazine

Here it is, the day we have all been waiting for, The SHITR is now officially famous, it is written up in Trail Runner Magazine.   Read the full story here: The Joy of the Non-Race

Gravel Bike - Evolution

Don't build this bike.

If you could stand to follow this build all the way from post1 through post 10, you know I had been using an Ebay Cannondale CAAD7 frame for the base of the build.  I was pretty excited about an American made CX bike with disc brakes.  But, as I added more and more mileage to the frame, the original small idiosyncrasies I found starting growing into big downers. Since I plan to ride some high mileage races this year (Cedar Cross, DK200) I really needed to have it dialed in as close to perfect as I could get it.  The things I couldn’t get around were:

Front wheel toe overlap.  Why would a bike mfg design a geometry that allows your toes to hit the wheel when turning?  It’s beyond me.  At best, this is absolutely annoying and at worst it’s downright dangerous.  It’s probably partly my fault for setting the cleats on my shoes so far back, but they have to be there to avoid those damn hotspots.

Limited tire size.  I literally had to cram 35c tires in the frame.  They were so close to rubbing but I went with it because it ‘is what is’.  I should have had 30 or 32c on this frame.  Any amount of mud or sand collecting on the rear seatstays would likely lock the wheel up.  I really wanted to ride 40c tires for the added comfort and controlabilty in wet and/or loose gravel.

Geometry.  I think the Cannondale geometry was designed for short cx races.  It felt fast, but always twitchy.  I was constantly focused on the steering, working through the heavier graveled sections of road  slower than I wanted.  It gave me that unsteady feeling of sitting up too high ‘on-top’ of the bike.  I like the feeling of being ‘in’ the bike.  Wish I knew how to explain that better.  I first discovered that feeling on my Superfly and now I want all my bikes to feel that way.

Road Buzz.  This is probably the aluminum fork and frame.  I’ve read plenty of frame reviews and this is the reason people give for not liking aluminum.  Take that buzz on the road to gravel and it gets more magnified.  This is kind of a minor thing compared to the other reasons, but it was still there. I bet a carbon fork would've fixed it.

I could live with the buzz, I didn’t like the geometry.  But I really hated the toe overlap and limited tire size.  I tried to think my way through solutions to these problems and I kept coming back to the same one:  New frame.

So I obsessively read my way through a half million reviews, thousands of blog stalks, hundreds of conversations and as I narrowed my search down, a month went by.  Then I did it all over again, narrowed my search even further and another month went by.  I finally decided on a Salsa Vaya.  Salsa calls it their "road adventure bike, designed to handle any ‘road’ surface, from pavement to gravel."

The Vaya has a long wheelbase = no toe overlap.  Takes up to 42c tires (and it looks like it could even go bigger than that).  Middle of the road geometry (touring meet racing).  And a steel frame means goodbye road buzz.

Now that my frame search was more specific.  I bombarded Craigslist and Ebay and all the forums I could find.  Constantly looking for used 56cm Vaya frames.  There was nothing out there, not a single hit in a month of searching.  God bless my angelic wife for finally putting an end to my suffering!  And No, she didn’t smother me with a pillow.  She ordered a brand new Vaya frame for my birthday eve/first birthday/second birthday/post birthday/Christmas combo!!

 The 10 part blog build of the Cannondale turned into a one hour part-swap-fest.  Everything swapped over easily to the Vaya and only left me with a mild cable length problem that I’ll get to someday.

While I was doing all the part swapping I also put on the bigger 700 x 40c Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires I was wanting.  They fit great with plenty of room to spare.  I also replaced those crappy road bike handlebars with some Salsa Cowbell II bars and wrapped them up in lizardskins tape.

These bars are short reach, shallow drop, and have the lower legs flared out at a 12 degree angle.  I'm gonna tell you they are the best drop bars I've ever ridden.  If I ever get on my road bike again, I will have to replace the fancy-schmancy carbon bars for one of these.

I've got a lot of riding to do this spring, I'll get another post out to let you know how the Evolution to Perfection is progressing.

The SHITR Made The Big Time

The SHITR hit the big time...  It made the Adventure Blog, an international Adventure Racing Magazine.  Yep, that's right, the SHITR is now known world wide.  If you would like to read the article, you can find it at the link below.

http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/1st-annual-shivering-icy-trail-run-is.html

The 1st Annual SHITR

By Robin Rongey with Comments by Chuck Vohsen

"What an amazing/awful and magical/miserable and great/terrible night to run!" 

This was a quote by Chuck after the run, and I find that it is so fitting, not just for the runners, but for the volunteers too. To understand why, I need to start from the beginning and this is how the story goes.

Chuck and I are out running and he says “hey we should put on a trail run event, all of our friends are doing it and it is always fun” I, of course say, “that’s a good idea” he then goes on and explains his idea. A nighttime trail half marathon and have it in January. He was working on a great name for it, and Lori thought of  a great sticker idea to make it come together:  The Shivering Icy Trial Run, SHITR for short.  I laughed, then went into director mode.

We found a date that worked for both of us, and I started calling all my race directors friends looking for free schwag that we could give away. Chuck setup a Facebook event and posted the run information on the blog. We did a pre-run in December and checked out what Chuck thought would be a good mystery event. I have to say here, that we had a couple other runners with us so they knew the answer ahead of time or at least where to find the answer, I won’t name names, Kate, Patrick and Russ so don’t worry no one will know it was any of you.

I also sent out emails to the Metro Tri Club mailing list and from there it got resent to the SLUG’s mailing list. Of course somewhere in the email chain, it got to someone in the Missouri Dept of Conservation and we were asked to get a permit. Lucky for us Patrick was wrong about how the government works and we got the permit without incident. 

Patrick wasn’t wrong about how the government works, they almost always suck.  But we got incredibly lucky – the land manager for the wildlife area was exceptional!  He was totally understanding about our ignorance of the permit process and had the permit ready for us in no time.  Thanks  John!

When we decided to do this, we wanted to offer a really crazy run, with hope of seeing snow or ice. Oh and to make the mileage 13.1 we had to add a leg, so a trip to the top of the mound and back down was added. BTW, Chuck thought that up, so everyone blame him, it wasn’t me.

Haha, someone in the group I was running up the stairs with yelled out, “Who’s idea was this?”  I yelled back something like “Mine! Ain’t it great!  This wind is just as amazing as I hoped it would be!”  I never heard a reply but I’m sure it went something like, “You sick bastard”.
 

We thought maybe we would get 10-15 people to show up for it, but we quickly saw that we have a bunch of really insane friends and we might get 30 or so runners to come out.
We also thought why not make it something charitable.  Trail runners and adventure racers are just great people, so we thought they would be all up to contribute for a good cause. Chuck updated the blog to let everyone know that contributions to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America through our friend Patrick’s, 100+ Project would be appreciated.

The SHITR day finally came but due to a lingering injury, I could not run, so I switched over to full race director mode. Chuck’s wife Lori was also nursing an injury so she would be volunteering with me. Rob, Michelle, Sharon and David were also on hand to help out.

We had everyone sign-in by writing their name on a piece of poster board. We did this so we could make sure everyone made it out of the woods and if they didn’t we could go find their bodies.

I wanted the whole sign-in and timing thing to be minimalist so it wouldn’t spoil the grassroots vibe.  But I also wanted to know how many people came and be able to post some kind of results.  Hopefully we hit a good balance.

We were also giving out KIND bars, if you have not tried one you should they are the best bars I have ever had and they come in many flavors. I think they give me super human abilities too, I don’t have any scientific evidence to backup this claim, but I really believe it anyway. The people at KIND were very generous in donating these bars for the run. Many of the runners took a bar along on the run so they would have some extra energy when needed.

Thanks KIND!

As the runners lined up, the temperature was starting to drop. It had been 60 degrees earlier in the day, but it was 50 at the start of the run.

As the runners took off and headed up to the top of the mound, we felt the first rain drop fall.


It felt so good to finally be off and running with such a great group!  All the planning headaches were totally worth it.
 

In just minutes runners were headed back down and the darkness started to fall. Head lamps started glowing and soon all we saw was the backs of runners in the distance.

Lori and Michelle had headed down to the creek to get photos, so Rob, Sharon, David and I grabbed umbrellas and rain jackets and headed down the Hamberg to the Lost Valley trail head. There was no real purpose in the trip other than to keep busy while waiting for the runners to finish. It took us about an hour to get back to the van at the finish line and we were soaking wet by the time we got there.

We jumped in the van, turned the heat on full blast and pulled the van up to the finish line, turned on the head lights and waited. Soon we saw headlamps in the distance and at 1:43 Rob Ragnet-Schofield crossed the finish line.
 

Lori, Michelle, Sharon and I were standing out in the rain cheering and ringing cow bells. We gave Rob the Fastest SHITR award and Lori handed out the first custom made SHITR window sticker.

Minutes later Travis Redden crossed the line to cheering and ringing cow bells.

Then Aaron Fanetti crossed the line in 3rd place, but what was even more incredible was that he was wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts. Oh, so this doesn’t sound so awesome does it. Wait for it… by the time the first finisher crossed the line, the temperature had dropped to 33 degrees and the rain had turned to sleet. He is a little more awesome now isn’t he.

One of the other bits of schwag handed out at the finish line went to Russ D. from the Metro Tri Club.  A great pair of wool compression sleeves from Swiftwick!

By this time, I had to stop taking photos because my camera kept trying to focus on the sleet and I could get a good photo. It was so cold and we were so wet we started standing under the open hatch of the van trying to suck some of the heat out onto us. I’m not sure how this happened, but while all four of the girls were out in the cold, rain and sleet cheering the finisher in, the boys were in the warm dry van recording finish times. All finish times were taken from the clock in the van, so they were really an estimate, but hey what is a minute or two difference between friends.

At just under two hours we cheered Emily Korsch to a first place finish for the women. She got her custom SHITR sticker and got to pick a prize from our schwag box in the back of the van.
After that things were more of a blur, probably because icicles were hanging off my eye lashes. People came in so cold and wet, but all with smiles and their faces, knowing what an accomplishment it was to finish.

We needed a couple awards for the most Awesome SHITR husbands, Jeff Sona went back out to run his wife Carrie in and Chris Fulkerson went back out to run his wife Kerri in. I’m seeing a trend here, women named Carrie/Kerri, no matter what the spelling, have awesome husbands.

As we stood there cheering, more and more people came across the line, it doesn’t matter if they did the full distance or the short course they are all champions in my eyes.

Standing there seeing the runners shiver and try to change clothes and get warm, made me jealous of what I missed. I know, crazy right, they had crazy stories to tell and I wanted to have stories too.

They were so cold, I heard Kate exclaim, “I can’t feel my ass”. And she may or may not have had to have help getting her jeans on after getting a cramp in her foot. Jim D may or may not have had to have help changing clothes. Props to Doug Bristow for taking on that task and finding Jim hand warmers to help him warm up.

As it got later in the night, groups headed out to El Azteca for Mexican food and margaritas while we waited for the last finishers to cross the line.

We waited knowing that Christina and Chris and Kerri were still out and worried as the temperature continued to drop and the rain became more ice and less rain, but in the distance we saw head lamps, and soon they crossed the line.

It was Kerri’s first half marathon and what a half marathon it was. She should be very proud when she tells the story of her first half marathon. So now there were no bodies left for dead and we were all headed to get Mexican food.

Note: Jim Donahue got the Biggest SHITR award, and I don’t want to discuss why, Carrie Sona got the Messiest SHITR award because she was covered in mud when she finished the race, and Bob “Goldmember” Jenkins got an SPBLD award, but again maybe I don’t want to write about that either, the acronym stood for Shit Pants Bob, you decide what that means.

It was so cool that Russ brought the old bowling trophies to recycle.  They fit the mood of this run so well that we’ve got a guy out scouring thrift stores already for next year.  He’ll come up with the cheapest, campiest, old trophies for whatever awards we can think up.

Chuck and I want to thank all 45 runners for showing up and getting exactly what we promised, a “dark shivering icy trail run”.

We would also like to thank KIND, the Simmons firm, and the Metro Tri Club for donating schwag, the MO Dept of Conservation for use of the conservation area and GORC for building and maintaining the trails.

I’m going to channel Patrick right now and tell you what I think he wants to say to the runners.

I would like to say thank you to everyone who made a donation to the 100+Project! The money you donated will go to help out kids and young adults that suffer from asthma and allergies who are uninsured or underinsured. Your donation will make a difference!

Click to see Photos taken by Lori

Click to see Photos taken by Robin

For myself reporting on the run;  I had a great time hanging out at the start talking and goofing off with everyone and probably would not have gotten us started on time if Robin hadn’t been there directing.  It was really cool to start off running with my youngest son, and to run with everyone I met along on the trail.  My favorite part of the night had to be hanging out drinking and eating at El Azteca.  There were times I was laughing so hard I could’ve fallen out of my chair.  Other than that I’m going to leave all the details of the dark, cold, rain and sleet to other runners who are far better writers than I am.  Go check out these race reports, they are really inspiring!

http://mlkillian.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/shivering-icy-trail-run-the-shttiest-trail-half-marathon-non-race-ive-ever-done/

http://kate-my-mind.blogspot.com/2013/01/shitr-happens.html

http://adventuresofdog.com/2013/01/15/latex-gloves-and-a-sticker/

http://silkychrome.blogspot.com/2013/01/race-report-gear-review-shitr-salomon.html

http://patrick-trailanderror.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-shitr-promised-challenge-and.html

http://apabstsmear.blogspot.com/2013/01/bat-shitr-crazy.html?zx=e1a0865960ab5440

http://100plusproject.com/2013/01/15/the-shitr-promised-a-challenge-and-delivered/