Riding is the easy part

I suppose I should write something about Furnace Creek 508, but really all I feel like doing is taking a nap. Prepping my own gear and supplies for the team has been almost a full time job in the last week. That along with squeezing in as many work hours as possible, a few easy rides, baking vegan kibble so the dogsitter has enough easy meals for Bonnie while I’m away, and worrying most of the night about what still needs to be done is starting to take its toll. I’ve gotta say, I’m lucky. My work is flexible, so I can work from noon-8pm, or 3am-11am, when I need to. And it sure makes me grateful for all the help I’ve gotten for all my ultra events, most especially the Oklahoma record, because in the end, riding 500 miles is the easy part.

This year the 508 is special because I’m not riding 508 miles, I’m riding 130. I’m very excited to be riding with a 4-person team. Two of my teammates have crewed for me in the past. Abi Spring the anchor my 2010 Furnace Creek 508 crew; electrician, cooling expert and nutritionist. She earned a new nickname during that race, “MacGyver”. Jenifer Boyce has crewed for me more times than I can count. Often crewing solo. Her trailside style, “Here’s your bottle. Here’s your battery. I have to get back to work,” was critical to me riding as far as I did at 24 Hours of ERock in 2010. She couldn’t have gotten too much work done, because she was standing by the trail waiting with supplies every time I rode by. Catherine Shenk is an experienced randonneur who’s many accomplishments include 2007 Paris-Brest-Paris and 2010 1001 Miglia Italia. Training with Catherine and other Colorado randonneurs was instrumental to me being able to finish Furnace Creek solo in 2010.

Starting on Friday at 11am, you can follow all the action, including webcam, photos, and other updates on the AdventureCORPS webcast. Race progress and time splits for the entire field can be found on the results page. Click on any totem or rider name to get details, including average speed, and breakdown by timestation, for solo/team progress.