Recap: Unbound 100 2023
“Never again.”
The Unbound 100 or 200 races have never been on my bucket list. The huge crowds and more corporate nature of the event just never spoke to me. But when Kenda Tires approached me about a month ago and asked me to go out to Emporia with them this year to help with some tire testing and a media project - I figured why not? The training wasn’t quite there, but with some adjusted expectations and my new Diverge STR from Bikesource Columbus, I was totally in to have a good time!
Photos by Andi Mireles
The Kenda team (Aaron and Andi), my husband Noah, and I rolled out of Columbus on Tuesday morning after some bike rack tetris so we could break up the long 12 hour drive. We stayed in Columbia MO that night and enjoyed a fabulous breakfast at an adorable little diner before hitting the road for the final push to Emporia. We got super lucky and with a connection from my teammate Ivy, we were able to snag a fabulous pink room in the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority house just ½ mile from the start. We couldn’t have found a better place to stay. Everyone was super nice and welcoming, the beds were comfy, and you can’t argue with a house full of new friends. Aaron hooked me up with some super secret special prototype tires for the week so upon arrival at the sorority house, we set straight to getting them set up. Aaron discovered a hole in my rim tape so he wanted to swap out my tape. We didn’t have quite enough to finish the job so we introduced ourselves to one of the local shops and got it squared away. The prototypes set up easily and within a couple hours, we decided to roll out on a brief ride to shake out the legs and make sure the tires were set up correctly. Post ride, we went to the famous Casa Ramos for Mexican and Margaritas - two of my favorite things!
Thursday morning we were up early and headed into Commercial Street Diner for a delicious breakfast and a solid start to what was going to be a long day of setting up and running the expo. We had a fantastic day at the Expo greeting the Kenda athletes and all the other fun folks wandering around. I got to meet some fabulous people like Alex at Ride With GPS who runs the Cutty Cap Challenges, Marianne from Cantilever who makes gorgeous and fun water bottles, the Skratch team, and the Chamois Butt’r crew. We did some athlete interviews and portraits throughout the day, met and petted lots of wonderful dogs, and I did an interview with the amazing Lea Davison who is even more nice and approachable in real life - if that’s even possible! We closed out the day with more Mexican and crashed early for another busy day on Friday.
Friday we did a repeat of Commercial Street Diner and another quick stop for coffee before heading back to the expo for another busy day. I headed out at 10:00am on the Chamois Butt’r shake out ride. This ride was HUGE and everything I had been hoping for out of the community. I ran into Sheila from Melanin Base Miles and Joanna from The Gravel Collective amongst lots of other fabulous new friends. The 14 mile loop was a perfect way to shake out my legs and enjoy the dry and dusty gravel. Back to the Kenda tent to rest for a bit before joining Lea on the Pride ride at 1:00. Another fabulous group of people to enjoy the dusty gravel with. While we were waiting for the Pride ride, Scott bikes came out to ask if I would do an interview with them for their Women of Unbound project so of course I said yes and I’m excited to see what they do with it! It was getting pretty darn hot at this point, so I grabbed some lunch and rolled back to the sorority house to cool off and put my feet up before the big dance on Saturday. I watched the riders meeting from the house and the promoters shared that there was a “really muddy section” that they would be monitoring, and that we should be prepared for a reroute.
Saturday dawned with such promise. The sun was out, no sprinkles, and I rolled to the line with 4,000 of my closest friends. My tentative goal for the day was between 7-8 hours. Not really knowing the course, but basing my time around the elevation and mileage, I thought that was doable. I lined up next to another lovely woman named Carrie from Chicago and chatted with so many people who recognized my Dirty Kitten kit and wanted to say hi. There was a slight delay at the start due to trains, but then we were off. Go! No wait, stop! Another train held us up at the tracks! Several riders chose to duck the gates and race the train, but that kind of risk is not for me so we waited the train out and then - go time - again! I was rolling really strong for the first 11 miles. My HR was in zone 2/3 and I knew I could hold this pace all day. And then. The mud. At mile 11 we ran into 4 miles of unrideable mud. You couldn’t really even push the bikes because the mud was packing up the fork so badly the wheels wouldn’t turn. Some people had mud sticks with them, I was not one of those people. I did figure out a rhythm of pushing and pulling the wheel to pop the mud out so I could keep pushing. The Diverge STR has a small amount of rear suspension which helps soften the bumps and make for a more comfortable ride, but does cause some challenges with regards to carrying the bike, especially on a small frame like mine. The prototype tires shed the mud like champs, but my rims did not and the mud packed up on the rim and sometimes contributed to the packing up of the fork. 4 miles later, one interaction with a barbed wire fence, and one small crash, I decided to screw it and try to ride again. I was able to ride out of there ahead of some other folks, but just barely. My rear derailleur survived and I only dumped the chain once, but the damage was already done. The hike had put my heart rate into zone 4 and with the heat, I wasn’t able to bring it back down. I struggled to get to the water stop at mile 41 only to discover they were out of water. I did some quick math and thought I could make it to 65 on 1.5 bottles - turns out that was incorrect. I ran out of water around mile 60. The 99* heat coupled with no shade was wreaking havoc on so many riders. It felt like every quarter to half mile, I saw someone either standing or sitting by the side of the road just absolutely crushed and waiting for a pick up. I texted Noah from my watch at one point and said, “I don’t know if I’m going to make it to you guys. I think I’m done.” I made it to the sag stop at 65 by the skin of my teeth.
Aaron, Andi, and Noah were waiting for me with ice, water, popsicles, and cold cokes. I typically am in and out of aid stations in five minutes or less. I do not sit down. I fill my bottles, refill my snacks, chug a coke, and roll out. Saturday, I collapsed into the chair they had waiting for me and just fell apart. I was not able to catch my breath and it felt like I was having a panic attack. My HR was still up around 160 while I just was sitting still in the chair and it took awhile to start to come down. Aaron took over bike duties while Noah and Andi took care of me. I ate two popsicles, drank two cokes and an entire bottle of water, and ate a banana while sitting there. Copious amounts of ice and water were dumped on me. After an hour of sitting there and debating back and forth if I was going back out, my HR was still at 115 and as soon as I moved, it jumped ten beats. In my gut, I just knew that my day wasn’t over yet. I filled my sports bra and pockets with ice, put Skratch Labs Hyper Hydration in one of my bottles (I cannot speak highly enough of this product if you’re going to be riding long miles in the heat), Infinit in the rest, topped off my snacks, and rolled out with hope in my heart. Shortly after I rolled back out of the sag, storms started rolling in and the temps dropped about 20* which was a huge help for me. The Hyper Hydration kicked in and I got my second wind. I quickly picked up a younger rider named Andrew who was hopping between riders because his Garmin had overheated and he no longer had the route, so he was looking for folks to help lead him to the finish. I rode with him for about half of the remaining 40 miles before he couldn’t hang onto my wheel anymore. I also picked back up with Carrie who I met at the start line and we decided to try to roll in together. She hung with me until about 10 miles from the finish before she had to slow down and back off. Even with stopping for a local to dump some water on us, and fighting through another muddy section, I was able to average just under 16 for those final 40 miles. I passed so many people, shouted words of encouragement, found Kenda again on a random gravel corner and received some much needed cheers, ran into friends, got passed by the pro men, and finished in the pouring rain in just under 10 hours. My equipment ran pretty much perfectly all day with a slight adjustment at the sag stop. The new prototype tires are amazing and I’m stoked to bring them back to Ohio and put them through more testing.
The first words I had for Aaron once I crossed the line were, “Never again.” This was not the race I wanted, but I did what I could with the day I was given, and I am proud of finishing. The expo and shake out rides were amazing. It was super cool to see the community along the side of the road cheering for us and supporting us. HUGE thank yous go out to Aaron, Andi, and Noah for swapping tires, keeping my bike rolling at the sag, making sure I was fed and taken care of before, during, and after the race, and cleaning my bike when it was all over - I truly do not know if I would have finished without them. I don’t know that I’ll ever go back for the 100 or 200, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to have gone this year. Never say never.
