HAMR Race 2018

”Adventure is an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks.”

I randomly saw a post on Facebook for HAMR in 2017 and it looked to be something too great in scale for me to attempt but I was intrigued. The Upper Peninsula is a place I wanted a reason to visit so I started asking questions to the HAMR page. I swear I was the only one asking real questions, such as water stops, river crossing depths, food, support, and terrain. It had a random start from 3am-7am. Random start means they wake you up at 4am and you have 1 hour to get ready to start. After breaking down the event more I started digesting it and putting it as a maybe for 2018 but as second A race. I knew that it would be the most difficult thing I was going to take on so I built a plan to sharpen my handling and mental skills.

I want to thank Matt Acker for hosting two races that helped me prepare. The Barry Roubaix 100 Mile Panaracer Psycho-Killer where I finished in 6:32 and received the mug, and Coast to Coast Gravel Grinder, which was my first A race (finished in 16:02). Both of those races had a ton of sand that I sucked in before this year, now I just kind of suck in it. Then I did Lumberjack 100 mountain bike race to see how it was riding my full suspension Cannondale Scalpel for 100 miles. I finished within my goal time of under 10 hours (9:52) and other than my back being super sore, I was good. I learned from that and borrowed a better pack from a friend that helped with the weight I would have to pack for HAMR.

This was my first unsupported race. I would have to carry everything I need. Water was provided at some checkpoints but filtering was required. I ended up carrying all my food for the whole race.  My food consisted of ~6,000 calories based off a 80% liquid / 20% solid food blend. I seem to do really good with Infinit and it forces me to drink water which keeps me well hydrated. I took about ~4,300 calories of my Infinit custom mix including a mix with caffeine which I use when I need a boost. I also included an assortment of gels, Honey stinger waffles, Payday bar, and Kroger trail mix.

What it looks like to carry everything you need for a 18+ hour race:

I waited until the Sunday before HAMR to register but I kept doing super long rides to keep my fitness up, followed Attack Cycling coaching and my training peaks annual training plan. What a training plan looks like for something crazy like HAMR:

When I registered for the race, the weather looked great, partly cloudy and 76. The day after I registered it changed to rain! I decided it best to drive up the day before the race to split up the 7-hour drive and stayed in a cheaper hotel that was actually nice. I rode around a nature preserve as a 20-mile warmup on Thursday.

I had dinner and then breakfast at the Jolly Inn that was 20 feet from the motel.  I arrived at base camp around noon on Friday.  I setup my tent, my bags, and did a test spin around the campground.

Basecamp Meeting at 8PM

Me on the left questioning everything, Matt looking at the passport, and Todd giving advice.

We received our passports and the course file for our Garmins.  I was worried about only four toilets in the morning and one hour to get ready. After configuring the route on my Garmin Edge 520 it was almost unresponsive. Every button press took around 5 seconds to respond and I was having a panic attack at 9pm, and Roy can vouch I was panicking. I ended up using my geek knowledge and tethered my laptop to 4G. I took the TCX file, uploaded it to gpsies.com, and converted it to a simple route. What happened is that my Garmin 520 does not have a ton of memory and processing power. The route had over 9,000 (3mb) course points, so I used gpsies to convert the route to around 1000 (1.2mb) points and simplified it using their free tools. After restarting the Garmin about five times and processing the route, it came up and was working at about 10:30pm. I charged my Garmin and went to bed praying when I woke it would work without issues.  I slept okay I guess considering I had nightmares about my Garmin freezing up and leaving me stranded.

At 4 AM, people were yelling GET UP! and the song Africa by Toto blaring. 

I actually was laughing a bit and super excited to start or in a complete state of madness who knows. The first thing I did was turn on my Garmin and it was ready to rock, had the route, and was responsive. Then I was lucky and had the call to use the bathroom right away and a toilet was OPEN! I grabbed a coffee from Velodrome Coffee. I was back to my tent at about 415am, changed, and double-checked my pack/bike. I ate a bit of my Muesli that I had ready to go (had milk, more on that later) and exited the tent at about 4:40am. Pumped up my tires and checked tire pressure, 27-psi rear and 26 front. I ran an extra psi because of the rocky terrain to make the tire a little harder. Applied some butt butter and checked my Garmin and it was ~4:55am. Mounted my Scalpel and headed over to the start. I was excited to toe the line with Roy Kranz (Dirty Kanza fat bike champion) and Matt Acker (Dirty Kanza 350 mile winner), and Paul Rytlewski who finished the Tour divide last year. We were all just standing there ready to go and boom they said okay go, get going!

We took off and I was on Roy’s wheel, which I knew I would not hold for long. Acker comes back the wrong way screaming I left my damn wallet at camp. Everything felt well except my stomach, eating 30 minutes from the start was a bad idea with something that had milk. I usually eat 2 hours before a race. I should have just had a cliff bar. We all came screaming down a pavement road by the campground to see a 20% grade “enhanced” gravel hill. Everyone stops and is like is that the route? That was the route and the hill had most people walking. A couple minutes later, I hear a rocket coming behind me and it is Acker with his wallet. That was the last time I saw him. That dude is so damn fast.

This race was different because it had checkpoints.  You had to get punches on your passport to prove you were there. The run into the first one was not that bad it was only 5.5 miles in on the 510 bridge (56 minutes total race time). Did my punch and headed to Mosquito Gulch for the next CP at mile 27. There was a good bit of sand on this portion and the good thing was the rain overnight packed it down.  Arrived at the 27-mile checkpoint and refilled my water with jugs that were there. (2:37 race time)

Then I entered the famous Mosquito Gulch that looked like something out of a horror film. My heart rate was elevated that's for sure.

 

Huge rocks in the center and a ridge on both sides that was about 2 feet wide that you could try and ride. I am not going to lie because I walked probably 50% of it. I saw one-person attempt to ride and wiped out and that was entertaining. After the gulch, I was actually riding with Todd who was one of the race directors making sure everyone was doing okay. I was just worried about when the next water stop was and I was glad Todd was with me. 

The yellow dog river was next on the agenda and had me nervous because I did not know the depth. It turned out to be no big deal and was beautiful. I took my shoes off and crossed in my socks but did manage to get my drive train all wet. I should have lifted my bike out of the water, oh well. I ended up stopping soon after, drying the chain, and applying more lube.

Todd Poquette crossing the river.

At this time, it started pouring buckets and the roads were getting muddy and just plain shitty. 

Around mile 50, we came to Wolf Lake, Todd took me the wrong way, and I earned some bonus miles! We found the correct lake entrance and I used my Trail MSR filter (sucks) and filled my bladder (thanks Mountain Man Sports read my updated review at the bottom). I also fell off the dock a bit into the lake so that was stupid. Todd and I took off and the next part was a lot of two track with some enhanced gravel but it was rideable. After a while, Todd disappeared and I did not see him again until mile 160 or so. He was checking on people in the back, as a good race director should do. 

The next checkpoint was a climb up Mt. Arvon, which was super steep, but at least it was rideable. At the top of Mt. Arvon I had to take a picture of a mailbox which was interesting with the damn rain causing my phone to not respond. (9:09 Race time)

 

 

People from the team competition were on the summit bailing which was not good for moral. I learned in these long events that if you stop for too long your mind can play tricks on you. The mind tells you sit down take a break, don't listen to it.  I figured out the way down with some help and learned it was going to be a jaw-dropping ride down. It turned out to be a ATV trail that had turned into a stream with a ton of standing water. I walked and rode what I could it was so nuts, probably the scariest thing I have ever rode on a bike.

After Mt Arvon the course had rollers and a descent into L’anse which was the resupply at mile 103. It was great to see civilization, Paul, and Alan at subway. I figured I should eat some real food and had a six-inch turkey sub with Funyuns!

 

I called my beautiful wife and told her how it was going.  It was nice to hear her voice and she gave me a boost.  The subway workers were nice enough to fill my bladder up. I also rode to the car wash next door and cleaned my bike along with lubing the chain. It sounded a lot better after that. I took off and the rain ended which was wonderful. 

Bike wash on left and Subway on right.  Keep in mind the car wash has a $5 minimum :(

 After Subway I was hot and took my arm warmers, jacket, and knee warmers off. Pavement was for the next 20ish miles and enjoyable considering the trails we were riding. 

Pavement, what is this substance?

 I did my best to motor it and actually missed Finn’s bar, which is where I was going to refill my water. I thought it was at mile 130 when in fact it was at 123. I whipped out my passport and saw that there was a campground at mile 132. Then by the grace of God a car comes saying hey you need help? They said the campground was a half mile down on my left and that I was in 8th place. Sure enough, the campground was there and after some searching, I found the spigot and filled my water. Some family members of a fellow racer Paula were at the campground and were talking to me when I was refilling.  The next checkpoint was Blind 35, which was at mile 154. The roads from the campground to here were probably the most enjoyable.  The rain had stopped and they dried up a bit.  Here are some shots of the nice roads and one with a nice red logging machine.

Enjoyable Gravel

 

Hit 41mph down a descent, that was great.

Logging Road

 

More enhanced gravel...

 I knew if I made it to mile 154 I was going to finish. I reached the checkpoint at 16:25 race time. 

 

It was time to get my lights out because the darkness was coming.  I had two strong lights by Niterider that go on my helmet and a smaller Bontrager one that goes on my bars. I mounted the same light I used in the morning on full blast, because I had another one when it ran out. It was dark and a bit scary out there all alone in the wilderness. I kept thinking a bear was going to come out and rip my face off. I arrived at the Gold mine road checkpoint mile 169 at 18:31 race time after searching a bit to find it. I took my snorkel selfie and the punch. 

I noticed my light was low on battery so I reached for my other light and it was gone. I must have lost it on a rocky downhill. I was freaking out for a couple minutes. I went back to the gold mine road intersection with the pavement because I fell here in the sand. I looked for the light but it was nowhere. I thought I may run out of light but remembered I had extra AAA batteries in my pack. I replaced the batteries on my Bontrager 120-lumen front light and it actually lit up the road enough to continue. Then I got out my charger and tried to rig up my other light in my helmet with the charger not knowing that when it charged it could not be used. My only option was to use the handlebar light on full blast and let the helmet light charge in my bag for around 30 minutes. After 30 minutes of riding with just 120 lumen I put the other light back on and I was back in business.

The next checkpoint was mile 180 the Chunky summit. The entrance to the trail for the summit was damn hard to find. A super tiny double track that was overgrown. I ended up passing it and noticed I was off course.  I turned around and sure enough there it was.  I thought I was on the wrong trail but then I saw Alan and Paul. It was very chunky and steep on the way up. I went ahead and walked most of it because I was getting a bit tired at this point I had been riding for about 20 hours. I got to the top and stopped where my Garmin said the checkpoint was. I could not find it anywhere. I rode for another minute downhill but said screw it because I am at the top and I was nervous about running out of light. Anyways the tracker said I made it at 20:21 Race time.

I headed back down and I find out later I was about 500 feet from the checkpoint, it was downhill and not on the summit. The last checkpoint was top of the world at mile 184. It was another steep uphill and you actually had to climb on foot to the top.

 I took this photo from DirtyBag Yuppie (it was dark when I was up there at 2am)

On the top was the checkpoint punch and someone camping overnight, 21:14 Race time. I heard my Garmin Inreach go off and my Dad had not received a status point in a while so I checked in. Then I started riding down and like clockwork, I saw two familiar lights belonging to Alan and Paul. I made it down slow and then had trouble finding the camp entrance. After a minute, I gathered my bearings and finished at 2:45am. It was a great feeling and my final time was 21 hours 41 minutes and in 8th place. About 5 minutes later Paul and Alan rolled in. 

I had the finisher picture, received my HAMR made by a blacksmith, and ate a piece of pumpkin pie.  I went back to my tent and like clockwork it started pouring.  So I just stripped to my shorts and whipped out my baby wipes and cleaned off.  I changed and headed back to base camp to have a beer and hang out with the other finishers while I ate more food.  The vibe was great and around 4:30am I finally went to bed in my tent.  I ended up driving half way home and staying in Gaylord because I was too tired to finish the drive.  The only issue I had during the race other than my light disappearing was my right ankle being pissed off.  Its currently swollen and I am not sure why.  May be the cleat or something, my left leg is fine.  Also I had a imprint of the seat on my butt!  Im doing great a couple days after and the pain is subsiding.

I really want to thank Matt and Todd for putting this on it was an amazing challenge to complete.  It was the hardest ride I have ever done.  I had to overcome issues and survive on my own.  I feel like a better person for completing it.
 Thanks to my awesome wife who lets me train for hours on end and helps balance our life, I love her and couldn't imagine life without her.  Thank you Cyclewerks for the last minute race check and brake pad switch out.  I only had a bit of front pad left at the end.  Also thank to my awesome race team Wheelmen Racing

All my gear before cleaning

 For more finisher pictures and information go to HAMR's facebook page.

Trail MSR Updated review (get a Sawyer squeeze):

 

A video from Roy Kranz's POV