Recap: The Crusher EX - Enhanced Gravel Race part 2
It took until Thursday probably but the swelling finally went down in my ankle and I could walk without pain again. I debated all week whether or not I should take a chance. Long term injury is not in my plans right now. Do I do the 100 as planned with the folks who were driving all the way up to Marquette to ride it with me? Do I drop down and try to do the 60 now and potentially make a third trip for the 100 later? I landed on doing the 100 with Jeff Richards (aka Fresh Jeff) Saturday as planned. Hoping against hope that I could then follow it up with the 60 on Sunday and wrap up the bike portion all in one go. I had to pinky swear promise multiple people that if my ankle started bothering me, I would pull the plug and not be stubborn and push through. I promised, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Saturday dawned beautiful and clear once again. It would end up being hotter than the surface of the sun at some point, but I’ll take that over pouring down rain any day. We rolled at 6am as planned. There was a small group of maybe 4 other riders heading out when we did, but my legs felt really fresh after a week off and we quickly left them behind. Once again, my cue cards on the handlebars were fantastic and allowed us to find all our checkpoints easily while we were out there. About ten miles in, we came upon a rider looking distressed. I asked him if he was ok and he answered, “not really”. Turns out, he had torn his calf not too long ago and was realizing he wouldn’t be able to finish his ride. He was trying to figure out how to get back to the start in the quickest way but didn’t really know how to use his device. We stopped and got him sorted out and then headed on our way. I always ask if someone is OK and I’ll never keep moving if they say no or that they need help. My race or activity is 100% not worth leaving someone behind in trouble.
Second checkpoint in, Yellow Dog river. I knew that if I did end up being able to ride Sunday, I would most likely be running on fumes when I came through this section. And since I was feeling fresh, I went ahead and burned some matches here to ride some of the technical stuff I had been admiring the week before. I was feeling super good about that and then really enjoyed bombing down Mosquito Gulch again. I lost Jeff somewhere in that descent? But he showed back up at the bottom. We were looking forward to seeing Noah on the other side of the river for a quick snack and water refill. I didn’t NEED anything at this point, but it’s nice to see a friendly face out there. Except, when we took our selfie and crossed the river, Noah was nowhere to be seen. There is zero cell service at this point. I definitely had a small moment of panic. I didn’t need anything, I would be totally fine getting to the Huron where we would see him next, BUT I also had no way of letting him know we were actually a touch ahead of schedule and would be moving on without him. I knew he would wait and then HE would panic when we didn’t show. We stopped for a few minutes, chatted with some other riders, ate our snack and tried to figure out what to do. We decided, finally, to keep moving and hoped we’d see him. As we were riding up the road out of the checkpoint, he came driving down. Turns out, Subway doesn’t open at 9 as advertised on google and he had to wait around for my sub. Quick snack, refill, and on our way.
The ride to the Huron was fairly uneventful except at one point, we looked down and Jeff had lost his tool kit off his bike. He did a quick backtrack but no luck. It was gone. We passed or and were passed by several folks along the way. Rode with a couple guys out there for the 225 when the course overlapped. Helped them find the correct checkpoint for Dodge City. It’s a fun one and you don’t dare miss any of the checkpoints or your ride won’t count!
We crossed the Huron in great spirits but the worst was yet to come. We had to climb up Mt. Arvon. For the 225, I climbed up the backside but for the 100 we would go up the “road” that cars take to the top. I remembered it being steep but I clearly blocked the worst of it from memory. It was steep and loose and the temps were blazing at that point. We struggled up that. We ended up walking a bit of it. Lucky for us, we were out on course on the same weekend as the P2P folks so Todd had set up an aid station at the top of Mt. Arvon. It was so great to see people! We sat down and chatted for a bit. Had some snacks. Petted cute dogs. And then headed down the back side trail. It was a refreshing blast after climbing to the top. So much more fun to go down!! I’d been chatting with Jeff about joining me for the 60 the next day all through the morning. But it was at the top of Mt. Arvon that I realized that I was really going to do that. I really was going to turn around and ride 60 miles of this rough UP gravel again the next day and get this thing done in a week as planned. It had seemed to abstract, but when I was still feeling solid at mile 80, I knew it was going to happen. With a full heart, we headed for the last checkpoint, McCormick Outhouse.
At this point, Jeff was hurting. He had some family issues this year that had left him slightly under trained and his back was feeling it. I started pulling ahead of him quite frequently on the rougher stuff. But he was hanging in there like a champ. We were both super relieved to finally see pavement around mile 90 because we knew the outhouse was close. Both of us remembered the outhouse “fondly” from our 225 attempts the previous year but neither of us had seen it in the daylight so we were hoping we wouldn’t miss it. We didn’t. It was there in all it’s glory. Brief stop for a selfie, a snack, and a gatorade from a Trail Angel and we were back down the road to see Noah. We’d meet him again for the last time at mile 104.
I was ready to be done. Jeff was lagging behind. It was hot. We were tired. We were approaching 13 hours on the bike at that point. I knew that I needed to eat, but I wasn’t able to take in as many calories at this stop as I should have. I just didn’t want anything we had. So we freshened up our bug spray and rolled out to finish the last 14 miles. I think at this point, I thought 14 miles? That’s cake! I’ve got this. But in true Crusher fashion, Todd saved the “best” for last. We were supposed to roll into Last Bluff (same horrendous mountain bike trail as last time) on what appeared to be bike path. The Iron Ore Trail. But bike path in the UP has a different meaning than it does here. Way out in the middle of nowhere where we joined up with the Iron Ore trail, it’s just deep, nasty, sandy, loose and somehow also chunky at the same time gravel/quicksand that just eats all the energy you have left and drains your soul. I was SUPER grumpy by the time we got off that and onto some paved roads. I’m not sure Jeff and I said anything to each other for over an hour, except him letting me know that he was out for the next day, because we just had our heads down trying to finish this dumb thing up.
We popped out on some roads and found Rob Mendeering, the photographer for the weekend. He was smiling and jovial. I looked at him and said, “no smiles left”. He laughed which made me laugh and of course I smiled as we crossed the road for Last Bluff. This time, I knew where to go in and we didn’t waste any time bushwhacking or cursing Todd and the universe for all the things in our lives that led us to this place. We successfully navigated Last Bluff with lots of hiking and a little walking and found ourselves standing back at Al Quaal 14.5 hours after we left.
We sat down and hung out for a bit but had to quickly make our way home to find a food place that was still open because I knew I was doing this again the next day. I stuffed my face full of mexican and went to bed. I planned to be up and rolling at 7 in the morning. Sleeping in compared the two before!
I don’t really have much to say about the 60. I cued up a 7:14 hour long playlist and told myself I needed to be back at the truck before it started over again. I rode solo 99% of the time and loved every minute of it. I sang while I was riding to keep my heart rate in check (I can only sing if my HR is zone 2 or below). I passed a couple ladies out there having a blast. Met some friends of friends climbing those nasty hills I remembered from Monday morning on the 225. Took double selfies at Wildcat Canyon creek again since I never got an answer about which was correct. Met Noah somewhere out there, but I didn’t need him so I gave him a sweaty hug, drank some of his coffee, and headed out. Cried when some Trail Angels cheered for me and told me how great I was doing. Once I hit the deep, unrideable snowmobile trails, I came upon a guy finishing up his 225 point to point. We decided to ride the last 3-5 miles together to the finish. I walked more of Last Bluff this time than yesterday but it didn’t matter. I just wanted to finish the week out. If you’d asked me at the start of this, if I would enjoy the 60 mile route the most? I would have said no way. And at the end of the week as a culminating ride, solo? Even bigger Hell No. But I did. This turned out to be the perfect way to end the week.
Rolling into Al Quaal with 428 miles under my belt on Sunday, completing everything I set out to complete was an amazing feeling. Definitely got super emotional once I sat down and realized it was done. I’ve never done anything like this before. 52 hours in one week on the bike. 428 miles. I have watched other people put up big miles and been so impressed but also so sure that I couldn’t do that. That it was crazy to even consider. But I did it. It truly takes a village and there is no way I could have done this without major support. In the end, I have decided not to do the run this year. My ankle isn’t recovering quite as well as I had hoped and I don’t want to risk further injury and more time off the the bike. The trail run will be there for me when I’m ready.
My takeaway is this, set goals for yourself that scare you. Goals that you think you can’t achieve. Make a plan. Make a backup plan. Make a back up for your back up. Whatever you think your limits are, they aren’t. You are capable of so much more than you think. Push against the boundaries you’ve made in your mind. Adapt. Overcome. And enjoy the adventure.
