100 Miles of Nowhere, Polar Bear Edition
A Note from Fatty: Congratulations to everyone who’s ridden (or is going to be riding) the 2016 100 Miles of Nowhere! I’m really excited to start posting your race reports and stories.
As a reminder, please email me (fatty@fatcyclist.com) your stories with “100 Miles of Nowhere” or “100MoN” somewhere in the subject line, so I don’t lose it among all the other email that piles up on a daily basis.If you are going to have a video as part of (or entirely) your race report, you just need to upload it to Youtube or Vimeo and let me know what the URL is; I’ll take care of embedding it.
Let’s get started!
100 Miles of Nowhere: Polar Bear Edition
by Corrine L.
I’m excited to present Corrine L’s really terrific 100 Miles of Nowhere report, which is both an extraordinary riding effort and a terrific (and inspiring!) story, told in video.
Enjoy!
Comment by Tom in Albany | 11.14.2016 | 10:42 am
We have a winnnnnahhhhhhh!!!
Awesome ride and route and video!
Nice job!
Comment by AKChick | 11.14.2016 | 10:46 am
I LOVED this report (I may be a tad bit biased since I live in Alaska, though about 360 miles south)!
What an awesome report! This is definitely one of my favorite 100 MoN reports of all time. LOVED the polar bear race course too. :)
I had to chuckle thinking that Corinne is probably the only cyclist in the 100 MoN that had to put on so many layers. :) We’ve been very warm down south (way above our norms) in the 30s and up to 40 degrees (which is very odd for us this time of year and we don’t like it – we want SNOW!).
Congratulations on finishing Corinne!!!! Thank you to Fatty for posting these reports. They are awesome and inspiring.
Comment by Mark in Bremerton | 11.14.2016 | 11:02 am
No witty comment here. Just total respect and amazement for that effort. Well done!
Comment by Heidi | 11.14.2016 | 11:08 am
Way to go Corrine! Fantastic job, and what an amazing comeback after your surgery.
That fox had attitude, crossing against the light.
Comment by leroy | 11.14.2016 | 11:15 am
Holy wow!!!!!
That’s amazing, wonderful, inspiring,(and just the right amount of nuts).
Congratulations!
Comment by BostonCarlos | 11.14.2016 | 11:47 am
holy. moly. 100mi on a fat bike in non-ideal (re: ice cold, snowy, overall garbage) conditions. in the shape of a polar bear. You are the raddest of rad!!!!! Congrats Corrine!
Comment by MSL | 11.14.2016 | 11:53 am
Wow, this is excellent and so inspiring!! Nice job.
Comment by Mayhemnsuz | 11.14.2016 | 11:58 am
That route map is the best ever. Congratulations on a spectacular 100MON.
Comment by mbunge | 11.14.2016 | 12:41 pm
A very cool ride. LOVE the route. Congratulations!
Comment by esteefatty | 11.14.2016 | 12:50 pm
Loved it, loved it, loved it so much. Thanks for posting it. Kudos Corinne.
Comment by Cyclingjimbo | 11.14.2016 | 1:35 pm
This is hard core. Very impressive, and thanks for sharing your story.
Comment by Pam | 11.14.2016 | 1:53 pm
Kudos and congratulations for getting out there and going for it! Love your polar bear-shaped map, too. Your video is so inspiring and well done. Thank you for sharing!!
Comment by miles archer | 11.14.2016 | 2:27 pm
Corrine,
You’re f*&!@ nuts!
And I mean that in the best possible way.
Comment by Bart the Clydesdale | 11.14.2016 | 3:28 pm
Great video! I guess I have no room to complain about the temperature for my upcoming 100MoN.
Comment by Brian in VA | 11.14.2016 | 3:46 pm
Best. 100 MON. Report. Ever.
Seriously, Corrine, enormous chapeau to you for, well, everything! Great ride, amazing report, best trail map. I was exhausted just watching you kitting up for the ride!
I’m officially a weenie.
Comment by Don | 11.14.2016 | 4:45 pm
Hi Corrine,
What a crazy awesome adventure! You’re amazing!
Congratulations and thanks for sharing your experience.
That temperature would have been……wait for it……
unbearable.
Don B.
Comment by onemoremile | 11.14.2016 | 5:03 pm
Fantastic recovery, come back, and adventure. You’re a WINNER in more ways than one! Amazing report and inspiring story.
Comment by Corrine | 11.14.2016 | 5:09 pm
Thanks everybody for all the kudos. Actually above zero isn’t too bad for riding a fat bike. Mostly I have problems with cold toes. (spoiler, I didn’t quite wear all the clothes, I wore one less jacket and one less pair of long johns – should have kept the extra long johns on. My butt did really get cold enough to need hand warmers!!) The hardest thing about this ride was having to ride in town. Uggh! Too many stop lights and too much traffic, that’s partly why I started so early. I like to ride on trails and out of town.
I’m a little embarrassed how long it took to ride 100 miles on a mostly flat course but riding a fat bike (with studs) is a LOT slower than a mountain bike. I discovered the route this past summer and thought it would be fun to make some cool Strava art.
And seeing polar bears in the wild in Kaktovik was AMAZING! We had the perfect day and saw over 35 polar bears eating, sleeping, walking, swimming. Totally worth the expense.
Glad everybody enjoyed the video. It was fun to think about and do although as I told Fatty, it took as long to make and edit the video as it did to do the ride!
Can’t wait to hear more reports, Don, I want to hear about the NASCAR ride!
Comment by Kate Geisen | 11.14.2016 | 6:40 pm
Oh my gosh, I loved this so much. Left me smiling! So many clothes (even if you didn’t wear all of them), and so many miles on a fat bike. Congratulations and thank you for sharing!
Comment by Tom & Barb | 11.14.2016 | 7:46 pm
We thought it was fantastic that your friends Tom & Barb, so generously agreed to get out there with you.
Comment by Jeff Dieffenbach | 11.14.2016 | 8:20 pm
@Corrine, I was blown away by the greatness of your feat BEFORE the surprise ending. Brilliant! Genius! Awesome!
(Uh, @BostonCarlos, pretty sure our ride/report is going to at best be comic relief on the zero to epic scale.)
Comment by Liam Wescott | 11.14.2016 | 9:16 pm
Wow! That is quite the ride. I thought about getting my winter bike (a Kona with Sno-Cats, I don’t have a Fat Bike) and riding at part of a lap with you and whoever else might have shown up to ride with you, but then again, having to get up at 5 in the am to go riding wasn’t very appealing,
However, that is an inspiring enough ride that I will get out with the Sunday winter ride group this coming Sunday and do some riding with them!
(and now that we have some actual snow on the ground, we can actually do some winter riding!)
Comment by AlisabethThurston-Hicks | 11.14.2016 | 11:29 pm
Too bad you left out the part about your loyal friend who endangered her life, trying to ride the course in the opposite direction, but sadly never found you. (Ok, so traffic freaks me out– especially on my fatbike, where I think it’s sacrilege to be riding on the road.) And BIG kudos to Eric and Montana!
Comment by Jay C | 11.15.2016 | 12:07 am
Congrats Corrine!
Comment by Alan S | 11.15.2016 | 12:21 am
WINNNER!!!!!
And now I feel terrible for my first attempt failure. Mere wind took me down. That’s nothing compared to this.
Comment by Jeri M | 11.15.2016 | 12:44 am
Excellent job biking and excellent video production! You rock!
Comment by Laura | 11.15.2016 | 6:08 am
Brrr! I loved the polar bear jokes and theme, and the photo of the fox was great. Like a previous commentator said I like his/her style.
What the heck did you actually wear? The getting ready part of the video was pretty cool (haha) and really does give a sense of how darn cold it is where you live. Will you post a list of what you wore? Also what did you have on your feet? The overshoe looks like one of those indoor puffy slippers but I’m fairly sure it isn’t.
Congratulations and thanks to you and your crew!
Comment by John W | 11.15.2016 | 7:40 am
That was great! Two thumbs up!
Comment by BostonCarlos | 11.15.2016 | 8:57 am
@JeffD – Story of my life. Basically just here for comic relief. And World Bicycle Relief. I’m a relief specialist.
Comment by Corrine | 11.15.2016 | 9:29 am
@Alisabeth – Yes, I totally appreciate that you risked your life to find me, I was bummed we didn’t get to ride together! Another time.
@Laura – I dressed for -10F but it was a lot warmer than that so I actually wore the following -
Feet- Wool socks, toe warmers, Merrell winter hiking boots (lots of people wear clip in shoes but I use flats so I can move my feet around more to keep them warm) and Dogwood Designs ski boot covers which I have used for cross country skiing for years. My feet are my weak spot in the cold. (I heard that Dogwood Designs has just come out with bike specific boot covers. Can’t wait to see them)
Legs – bike shorts, heavy weight long johns, ski pants with wind protection front. Should have kept on the lightweight long johns too.
Torso – wool Ibex bra, bike shirt (don’t usually wear this but wanted to wear my cool Fat Cyclist kit), heavy weight long john shirt, very light weight wind jacket (ended up with this off once I warmed up),nano puff jacket. I got too hot on top and got a bit sweatier than I like to be in winter.
Head – fleece neck warmer, fleece head band, light weight wool hat, helmet.
Hands – light weight gloves and Dogwood Designs pogies on the handlebars of my bike.
The temperature was better than I expected for this time of year. I’m actually a weenie about winter biking. I have friends who commute all winter on their bikes, even when it’s -40F. I will bike to about -20 then I just can’t keep my toes warm. It’s all relative!
Comment by Jan Ohmstede | 11.15.2016 | 9:44 am
Great video, Corinna. Congrats from CO.
Comment by Jan Ohmstede | 11.15.2016 | 9:47 am
Sorry about autocorrect butchering your name, Corrine.
Comment by Lin | 11.15.2016 | 10:13 am
Have you guys gotten your 100 MoN shirts yet? I don’t want to bug Fatty because I know he’s crazy busy, but am wondering if my shipment got lost.
Comment by Lisa in Athens | 11.15.2016 | 11:59 am
Both thumbs way up.
Comment by davidh-marin,ca | 11.15.2016 | 12:28 pm
@Corrine The Noodle has a Doppleganger! I’m sending you some honey.
That was awesome and as @jeff D said the surprise ending was like cake….and pie!
Thanks for all the work.
Comment by Paul | 11.15.2016 | 3:30 pm
Wonderful! Just wonderful!
Comment by Matt | 11.15.2016 | 4:53 pm
Love love love the reveal of the course at the end… and the getting ready section was very funny! Congrats!
Comment by A Mcc | 11.15.2016 | 6:29 pm
ummm…that was freaking amazing. Awesome job! 2 degrees!!!!! I can’t even imagine!
Comment by Ferde | 11.15.2016 | 8:00 pm
Inspiring!