MountainJah Adventures: 2014 Durango Dirty Century

How quickly June passed and the 2014 Durango Dirty Century arrived. Was I ready? Absolutely Yes! Did I finish? Unfortunately, no. Although this scratch marks two straight years of DDC DNFs, the differences between my 2013 ride and this year's effort were incredibly clear. I was a much better racer this year.

DDC Cultural Prologue- Durango Dennys 3am

I met Bonecrusher for our pre-race grub down at dirty Dennys. (Seems to fit the DDC) Visiting the Durango Dennys at 3am, on a Friday morning, you really get a glimpse into a seldom observed and little understood side of our town. After crushing breakfast, it was off to Velorution Cycles for the start of our Friday ITT. 4:04 am and we were rolling north.

The Hermosa Creek Mongoose-someday I'm gonna hike it out...

We made great time in the dark getting to Lower Hermosa Creek TH. Hydration and calories were all on target. We were hitting our splits and had 15 mins of stopped time over the first 4+ hours. We briefly chilled at the abandoned walmart bike and I shook off on an early over the bars miscue where I avoided serious carnage by catching a pine tree in mid air and swinging my legs around underneath me. Tom was moving well and we finally stopped for a for real 2nd breakfast break at Big Bend at approx 8:00am. Filled all three bottles/ate and then charged the final four miles up to the northern Hermosa TH. On to the seven mile, sucky ass Bolam road climb! We ran into a group of 10 Californians riding up to Hotel. They took pictures of us. Arrived at Celebration and ate a sandwich, filled 2 bottles and proceeded to get really cold waiting for Tom. Something seemed off for him. Maybe the Dennys? Lost 30 mins. at Celebration.

Moving again. Feeling good. Heading above the lake on CT Segment 26. Hail storm. What a difference in snow from 10 days ago. Took me 1hr. 50 mins to gain Blackhawk pass with only three snow crossings- all super mellow. Seemed like it took us all day two weeks ago. I had lost Tom right after the intial climb around Hermosa Peak. Kept going....nothing. Kept going. Waited on Blackhawk pass to get a visual on Bonecrusher/called Rae and took some pics. Hail storm two arrives. Finally saw him about a 1,000ft. below the headwall and about 1.5 miles back.....waited until I was too cold to wait any longer. Add another 30 mins. As I headed down from Blackhawk, I tried to cross the steep snowfield in the corner below the pass...lost my footing and took a ride down the snow tounge, cutting my knee and breaking a grip trying to arrest my fall with the bike. Phil from Mancos, who is the section adopter, had a front row seat to this feat of stupid and after I picked my duff up off the tundra, we had a great conversation about all things CT. I told him to be on the look out for my boy as I was off to Straight creek to fill up, eat and wait for him lower down in the sun.

Sometimes the events of the day conspire to throw you off the rails and there's really not too much you can do about it. Today was turning into one of those days fast. I was not going to go any further without Tom as I wanted to be sure he was good and that he knew to pump up at the creek- With no aid station at Hotel Draw, it's the last reliable water until Taylor Lake, 22 miles away. When Tom arrived at Straight , he was white as a ghost and totally gassed. For those of you who don't know Tom, realize that when someone earns the nickname Bonecrusher, it's usually because they are a physically imposing monster of a human being. Mr. Wolf is all this and more... So when my boy showed up looking totally devastated, I new something was wrong. Apparently, Tom had experienced violent intestinal distress and was blowing up at both ends. He had had a bought of similar "food sickness" earlier last week after one of our rides. Putting two and two together, he realized the culprit was the Tailwind nutritional supplement he was using to drink his calories while on the bike. I'll link to his write up/TR once posted and you can hear about all the details and how he solved the mystery through "taste" Totally gross....I believe this is what may have turned my stomach at Mesa Verde too?

Tom told me he had called his lady and had her mobilizing to the top of Kennebec pass. He said, "I'm gonna take two hours to hydrate and refeul. You go ahead. I've got Kelly driving up to Kennebec" I paused- Two hours, after already losing two hours was too much time to burn on the DDC. If he took that long, we'd need a bivy-or at least much better lights than I was rocking. "I should stay with you man." Tom insisted. "I've cost you your race.I'm holding you up. Now I'm sick. I'll be fine. I just gotta take the time to bounce back. "Okay", I said reluctantly- "You sure you're okay?" "Yeah son! You feel okay?" I appreciated Tom's want to urge me forward..."I'm feeling great!" I said, trying to downplay the stark diffenernce in our attitudes and condition at that point. "I'm feeling good and ready to charge, let's see if I can't make up some time. I'll wait for you regardless at Kennebec!"

I moved on. Hotel, Corral, Big Bend, Salt and Orphan all came and went quickly. A brief but intense rainstorm hit me just before the Highline. I was moving well but began to contemplate our situation. We had lost approx two hours on the day. My buddy was somewhere behind me trying to recharge. We had two hours of daylight left. I now thought about Kelly, who would be looking for us at the top of La Plata and worried she would tell me to keep going-that she'd wait for Tom. Was this okay? What if something happened and she needed to find him on the trail. Was she really going to climb Indian Trail Ridge to render help? Shouldn't I stay with Tom? Never leave your wingman or some shit like that....but this is self supported? All these thoughts and logistics began to take a toll on my focus. This in turn caused me to pedal harder to try and reach Kennebec sooner. I made it to just before the Cape (of No Hope) at 4:30ish and started to bonk. All the hustle. All the shivering. All the logistics and splits tumbling around in my head were taking a toll on me. Had this been a multi-day race like the CTR or AZTR, we would've pulled up and started fresh in the AM. As this was the DDC, one of the hardest one day mtb endurance events in the US, you just have to go for it if you're gonna finish the beast. Too many folks hit Segment 28 and hit the wall.(or Walls Gulch to be precise.) So as I looked at my GPS and applied my local knowledge to the journey ahead, did the math and contemplated a midnight finish, I started to check out. This was the low point of my 2014 race. Add a bonk in the mix and I was awe struck how quickly the day's strong performance was going to shit. And we still had the ridge proper to deal with!

As I sat huddled in the krumholtz at treeline, I tried to right my calories and attitude. I had nailed my hydration plan but had fallen off the eating plan by pushing too hard to try and get to Kennebec. I put down a final sandwich that hit my stomach like a rock. Some water and orange chews didn't seem to help either. Now shivering. Fuck-this sucks. I threw on my layers and curled up on a log. I was trying to breath, digest and center. I heard a hum of a hub and looked up to see Tom charging towards me. "Holy shit son! I didn't expect to see you again" Tom said. "Likewise buddy! I replied "Just having myself a little bonk here in the middle of the trail." Tom told me he didn't mind stopping/waiting for me. "No-we've blown way too much time already. I'm just gonna push my ride for a bit and wait for the calories to kick in." Rising like a hypoglycemic zombie, I plodded on. Slowly pushing my bike-riding only the flattest, mellowest spots on the way to the scree switchbacks that led up Highline. When we hit 11,800ft., the sugars, proteins and carbs began to kick in and I again was putting distance between myself and Tom. I actually started to feel really good and I relished our position up high. We had had a great day. We were closing in on 75 miles and the weather, although spotty and cool, was holding. I had some magical moments up there on ITR. The highlight being when a bald eagle buzzed us while working the updrafts coming off the massive cliffs on the ridge. Watching Bonecrusher climb up the mountain with the baldy circling in front of a gorgeous sunset over the mighty San Juans was a super cool 'merica moment! I love it up there. I used to be so scared up here. Good weather and good company help too.

I gained the highest summit and let out a barbaric yelp as I screamed the poem Invictus into the wind. I quickly beat feat across the remaining humps of the ridge and in no time I was cruising down the technical ramp above Taylor Lake. I hit Kennebec at 8:30 and found Kelly parked in the truck. We waited and eventually Tom pulled up in the dark. It was chilly and the thought of barreling down Sliderock aided by430 lumens was distressing. I knew that if Tom wanted to press onward, we were looking at a midnight finish....if all went well! When he shared that he was cooked, I knew my race was over. It was now 9pm and we had been on the go for 17hrs. I'm confident that I had the push in me to Junction but I was so over it all at this point. Feeling impressed with my fitness and recognizing that the Dirty was only a stepping stone leading to the summer's big adventure, I had no problem getting in Tom's rig and taking the ride back to town. I had recently taken on a trudge through the night to the finish experience in this year's AZTR-actually both Tom and I had. We weren't looking for that today. Taking a longer view on our overall objective, the 2014 CTR, took the edge off of sctratching. What I wouldn't give to have those two hours back however....

Overall, a very successful push. Super proud of Tom and happy with my efforts. But jeez, what's with this race? Am I the new version of Team Velveta? Tom Purvis from Salida took three wacks at this bad dog before finally finishing in 2013. The DDC has now become "that race" for me. Although I had only wanted to ride the DDC as another shake out leading up to this year's CTR, the scratch so close to the finish will definitly grind on me a bit. I can see this feeling fueling me to train harder this winter so as to kick this course's ass in 2014. Regardless, I know I've got this one and remain satisfied with the effort. I also think the CT Classic coming up in July, which races the same route plus adds 20 more miles of CT to Molas will be rad! Feeling ready for more. Feeling really blessed!

Some "Faces of the Dirty" Selfies

And in keeping with the training plan, it was up early after 5 hours of sleep to see the tribe off on Saturday morning. Love this sport. Love this culture. Love these people. Cheers and congrats to all of this year's DDC racers. I look forward to reading the TR's that roll out over the next few days and seeing everyone at the CT Classic on 7/19. Always moving forward!