The 2020 Crusher 100: This is Not Triathlon

     After 9 years of competing in Triathlon, with competing in one 70.3 World Championship, and 3 ITU World Championships, and having the last one be in Switzerland, I decided I was done.  I was SO burnt out.  Training at that level for 3 sports was exhausting, especially while working full-time as a Wellness Coordinator at an inpatient rehab center/skilled nursing facility, where, even though they are for older adults, I teach 10 exercise classes (not right now obviously!) and walk all over the building for private exercise sessions with residents the rest of the time.  I just felt like I had gotten as fast as I could in triathlon, and part of me had been wondering for awhile what I could do on the bike since I became very strong at it.  So, I decided to give up my slot to the 2020 ITU World Championship in Canada (good thing this year!), and focus on bike racing/training, but not road riding, I wanted a different challenge-gravel racing!

     In January, I bought a Salsa Warbird!  I had raced Barry Roubaix on my fat bike for 4 yrs, winning the division twice, and part of me kind of wondered what I could do on a gravel bike since last year I was able to hang with the lead women's group of gravel bikes for over half the race, on my fattie! 

     The bike training was going well, and even though I was actually training the same amount of hours I normally would with all 3 sports, it was better mentally and I felt like I had more time.  I was doing most of my training on the trainer during the week before work in the winter, and got out on most weekends.  Much less stressful than packing my swim bag with my clothes, make-up, and breakfast/lunch for the day 3x/week.  I had signed up for the Polar Roll, Barry Roubaix 62, Dirty Kanza 100, Coast to Coast 100, Watermoo 100, and I decided to throw in the Crusher 100 because my husband Mike was doing the 225.  I have only been to the UP once, this past winter, where we did the Polar Roll.  Let me also say that I'm TERRIBLE at mountain biking.  Kids can mountain bike faster than I can, and I will only ride those trails on a fattie!  I have a lot of anxiety of falling/hurting myself, I flipped over my handlebars one of the first times I tried mountain biking, and have fallen off a few bridges.  Somehow though, I made it through the Polar Roll in about 6.5hrs..very slow...a far cry from my placements in Triathlon lol!!

     I'm starting to become more comfortable on the trails, but you won't find me on difficult ones!  Anyways, I knew the Crusher was going to be tough for me, but I figured I'd just walk my bike when I felt uncomfortable riding.  All races were cancelled/postponed for 2020, but the race director Todd decided to still have the Crusher, we needed some hope this year!  He gave us the GPS route and the passport with checkpoints, you do it on your own or with a small group of friends anytime from July-October.  And to be honest, in a race this long, you wouldn't really be around people too much anyways except at the start.  We kept the original weekend.  Since all races were cancelled, I asked Mike to do the 100 with me (he is going up again next weekend to do the 250!) and boy am I glad he was there. I just kind of relied on him, not really reading too much into the event because I heard his many stories from Hamr and last year's Crusher.  I also didn't back off training for this since it wasn't a race race (yes, for some reason I'm still training like normal!).  Thought I would just kind of wing-it, it's just a 100 miler, right?  Bad idea.

      Onto the ride!  We woke up at 4:15, ate some breakfast and aimed to start at 6am, got started at 6:19, close!  I knew this thing could take me like 12-15hrs, but then when I posted in the Facebook group, someone said it took them 20hrs!  Ahhh!  I was hoping to finish before dark at least!  I knew the first few miles were going to be very slow, and they were.  There was single track to begin with, so naturally, I was very slow.  Mike got too far ahead of me, and I lost him at a turn so I wasn't sure if I was going the right way.  Thankfully, 2 other riders passed me and said I was going the right way.  Found Mike.  Thennn we arrived at Hogback Mountain where we just hiked with the bikes the whole time.  It was rocky, but nothing we couldn't handle until we got to the big rock faces. 

What the heck!  What a crazy idea to have us lug our bikes up and over all those big rocks, this was meant for hiking, not biking or carrying bikes over lol.  I could have hiked that thing MUCH faster with a 50lb pack on my back.  The descent was the same, slow going, carefully getting the bikes down over big rocks.  Needless to say, it took us a few hours to go maybe 4mi.  Also, I felt a sharp pain in the side of my left knee, nothing new to me, but I haven't felt it much all year.  My IT band was pretty tight.  Once we got moving again, I just felt it the whole ride, unfortunately.  I did a crazy interval ride on Tuesday, was trying to get 1000mi in for July, etc. but lesson learned....

     It took us over 6hrs to get to the second checkpoint at 33mi....I was able to go somewhat fast for maybe 10-20mi but I didn't feel very strong, not with my IT band bugging me, so I wasn't able to climb well either.  When we got to the 2nd checkpoint, Roadside Spring, to filter water (which, we now know that water didn't need filtering!) I questioned if I should continue.  This ride was going to take us a very, very long time.  We went a little further and I had to walk....I was limping.  I got back on my bike and we came to some road....Mike took off and I actually had to walk again...on the flat...on road where we should have been riding fast!  At that point when I caught up with Mike, he questioned if we should quit because I was in pretty bad shape.  He said he could call Todd.  But that's the last thing I wanted, was to have the race director come pick us up.  If I was the race director I'd be annoyed at having to go drive far out to pick up a racer, lol, and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one so I didn't want to have him do that.  Plus, in the back of my mind, I didn't come all the way up to  the UP to not finish.  I was here to experience it, not race it, no matter how long it took.  I knew I was in way over my head with some of the technical parts, but I could finish.

 

Mike thought maybe I bonked, but I was eating....maybe not enough during the first 2-3hrs of hiking, but I was eating....so I stopped and ate some trail mix.  Yuck, it wasn't very tasty.  The only thing that tasted good to me was my Honey Stinger Waffles, bars, and chews.  Thank you Honey Stinger!!  After eating some calories and getting back on and riding, I started to feel a bit better.  I have never done anything this long besides backpacking, where you just walk.  So I was probably a bit low on calories.  Whatever.

Things were going ok for awhile, until I lost Mike after we filtered water at the Yellowdog Crossing. He told me to go ahead and he would catch up, but to not make a wrong turn at the fork.  I swear my GPS told me to turn right, but then I noticed real quick, thankfully, that I was off course so I turned around.  I called out Mike's name...nothing.  Screamed his name a few times and got nothing....figured maybe he was still at the river so I walked back a bit, yelled his name, no Mike!  I went back to my bike, got out my whistle and started whistling...still nothing!  I didn't know what to do, and figured he must have rode on.  I started to ride, and called his name, still nothing.  So...I just rode on, questioning if I really was going the right way since Mike wasn't around....maybe that wrong turn was actually the correct way....I was SO unsure of myself.

     Mike said we were approaching Mosquito Gulch, which is quite challenging.  I just hiked my bike the whole time, probably even more so since I was alone.  I heard this part was challenging, but I honestly didn't think it was bad.  My mind was preoccupied with finding Mike, wondering what happened to him, and hoping I was going the right direction.  As for hiking the bike through it, no problem lol, not compared to Hogback Mountain.  Nothing will compare to that thing!

I got through Mosquito Gulch all by myself to some flat sandy/gravel road, and decided to call Mike.  I had 5% left on my phone battery.  I called him, but no answer.  Thankfully, I saw a text from him about being on Silver Lake Road, then I received a call from him, but my phone died!  If I didn't see that text though, I'd still be freaking out.  So...I rode on.  I wasn't too far away!  When I turned onto Silver Lake Road, he wasn't there.  That's when I started to cry.  Legit cry, tears, lol (and this actually wasn't the first time on this ride I cried, either, lol!!).  But, I just kept on riding, and FINALLY ran into him, hallelujah!!

I think by that point it was around 7pm.  We rode on, nothing too hard.  We got to road again towards the end, yay!!  And someone had left water bottles in a cooler for us Crushers, we didn't have to filter again woo thank you!  We got to mile 90 when the sun was starting to set.  We still had 20-some miles to go and I honestly thought we might finish before dark, however, Chunky Summit was a bit challenging for me.  Unfortunately, it got dark quick, and we ascended and descended that thing in the dark.  I had to walk a lot at that point, I was just tired, my knee pain was still there but I could deal with it, and I wasn't descending over rocks much in the dark, no thank you!   Thankfully we had lights, but it was my first night ride.  Something I had wanted to avoid with this ride, but here we were...in the dark.  I was scared.  There are bears, wolves, and moose up here.  I told Mike not to get too far ahead, and when he did I told him to slow down, lol.  Those last 5-10miles took forever.  When we reached the summit and found the checkpoint, I took a selfie.  Thankfully after its rocky descent there was a smooth, grassy descent!  It seemed to take forever, but it was the last section, and then.....the end!!!

     OMG I just cannot believe I actually finished that thing....lol, especially in the shape I was in around mile 40.  However, I've never quit a race before, and I wasn't about to quit this thing.  Something inside me always tells me to continue on, no matter how long it may take.  It took us 17.5hrs.....it was about 13.5hrs of actual ride time for me....so we were stopped for 4hrs....lol!!  Filtering water, trying to find Mike when I lost him, and who knows what else we stopped for...too long at the selfies...I was glad to just be done though.

     I'm not sure if that was fun, but it was a great adventure!  I read some other woman's post of the Crusher, and she mentioned how AMAZING it was and how she LOVED all the rocky descents....I just laughed to myself....yeah right lady.  lol!!  It was actually the hardest thing I've ever done, and that's mainly because of my skill level and having to follow the route on the GPS in the wilderness.  Glad Mike was with me because if I was on my own like originally planned during the actual race, I would definitely have been lost more and there would have been more crying!  I'm not sure I'll ever do this again, but if I do, I'll back off training and have fresh legs like I normally do for actual races, haha.

     Riding a fat bike was the best option for me, as I would have had to walk even more with thinner bike tires.  I was able to ride most rocky descents, so that was a win for me.  Maybe this ride helped me get a little better skill-wise.  Who knows.  It was also my first ultra-endurance event besides backpacking.  With triathlon, I only ever competed in distances up to a 70.3 because I like to be fast and felt longer stuff wasn't my thing.  Still don't think it's my thing after this lol.

     Anyways thanks for the adventure, Crusher!  Now I know what to expect in those type of races.  Next up is Watermoo (I'll do that on my Warbird), and the Coast to Coast if those events still happen!  Perfectly fine if we have to time trial them, haha!

  

Best Bug Repellent Ever.  Had maybe 1-2 deer flies try to bite me before I swatted them away.  Never got bit.  The helmet tape worked awesome too, as well as the deer fly net over your head.