05.12.2010 | 3:00 pm
I’m pleased to report I have completed the 100 Miles of Nowhere – Suburban Unicycle Division. I finished the race in 11 hours 58 minutes and 53 seconds, and while my time likely fell quite short of the best bicycle times, I nevertheless dominated my division. I only saw one other unicyclist on the course, but he was out for a pleasure ride, not to go the distance.
To my knowledge, I’m the only person that’s completed the race on a unicycle, and while there’s no dispute on whether I won or not…there is a question as to which year I won. Since I did the ride on September 20, 2009, I was either the LAST person to complete the 2009 race, or the FIRST person to complete the 2010 edition. Since I pride myself on both punctuality and leadership skills, I’m going with 2010.
For unicyclists wanting to ride a century, the 100 Miles of Nowhere actually solves a nagging logistical problem. Unicycle frames don’t have space to mount water bottle holders or tool kits, and our tubes and other hardware aren’t “bike standard”. So that means everything we need to make the 100 miles have to carry on our backs…which gets really heavy and tedious after about the first 10 miles.
The Nowhere “rules” solved this, and I chose my suburban cookie-cutter neighborhood, where I could do a five-mile-loop 20 times, while never traveling further than 2 miles from my house. No need to pack a lot of food or water, since I’d pass my house every 25 minutes. No need to pack tools, since help would be a 5 minute drive away. No risk to the rules, since I’d never leave my neighborhood, hence never ride “somewhere”. The only downside, as every Nowhere racer knows: tedium.
The ride itself was pretty un-eventful. Started at 6:30am, ended just shy of 12 hours later. Same loop over and over except for about 15 miles near the end where I just lapped the local middle school cinder track. After 80 miles, even the tiny hills on my route were starting to kill me, so I needed to find something flat for a while.
I started the day with a sub-goal of trying for a “100:10:1″, which is kind of a big deal in unicycling distance circles. It’s 100 miles ridden in 10 hours, in 1 day. That’s total elapsed time, not just riding time, so bio breaks and food stops count against you. On a bike it’s no problem, but on an ungeared uni, it’s really a push.
I managed to stay on pace through the first 50 miles, although with every 10-mile-break the clock was catching up to me. Finally at Mile 50, I decided to bag the 100:10:1 goal to focus on taking a little bit longer breaks, chewing my food, and not worrying about always being in full speed pedal mode.
Biggest excitement of the day was the suspence of not knowing whether I’d be able to finish before dark or not. Dark is not fun on a unicycle, where you really need to see the bumps in the road lest you go flying.
Stats? Hydration was one litre of water with an Elixir tablet every 10 miles. Nutrition was lots of Chewy bars, PB&J sammys, and Boost energy drinks…supplemented by a couple of Builders bars, umpteen packets of Sport Beans cherry flavor with caffeine (thanks Fatty for the recommend), Reeses cups, and those little chewy candies that look like raspberries. End of ride reward: switching from Ibuprofen to Vicodin.
Best moment of the day–other than finishing–was after I’d passed one neighbor for about the 8th time, as he was out doing yardwork.
Him: How far are you riding that thing today?
Me: 100 miles!
Him: Just around the neighborhood?
Me: That’s the idea.
Him: (Pause) Dumb idea.
Me: Yep.
As Noodle said in her 2009 Nowhere video, I completely underestimated the “sheer vehemence of the suckage”. This might be a “one and done” for me, and future years I’ll sponsor someone on two wheels and a set of rollers.
– Tom B, Issaquah, WA
Comments (26)
05.12.2010 | 2:00 pm
I’ve been planning on doing this since I read the race reports from last year and it’s been my training goal all spring. After testing out my fluid trainer, I realized I couldn’t do it with the resistance off and really go much faster, and if I tried to do it with the resistance unit engaged, I’d never make it. So I picked a short course on the road. I should mention, I’ve never done a century ride and this was my longest single-ride day ever. I’m 48 and in the 2nd year of being back in love with road biking.
Once the site of Richmond Kaiser Yard No. 3, this one-time shipyard is now the home of the Red Oak Victory museum ship and mostly is the new home of Honda. Ships unload new Hondas and off they go to this giant lot. I picked this area because there’s just about no traffic and all the blacktop has very recently been resurfaced. It also has one of the loveliest views of the SF Bay. ….and wind.
I came down with a cold two days before the 100 MON, and it was a miracle that I was able to wake up and ride on saturday.
My wife Michele acted as Race Director, Team Car Driver, Podium Girl and Soigneur. Got started about 10:00 and finished about 6:30 30 or 31 laps later. Longshoremen were driving Hondas from the lot to train cars, so they must have been amused seeing me go round and round all day.
I also had 5 geese sitting by the side of the road to play the role of race fans. The worst part of the race was right around the 50 mile marker because I was thinking oh no I’ve got to do this 50 all over again. The wind steadily increased as the day went by but I was going mostly north & south and the wind was blowing out of the west so I was able to take advantage of the tail winds when I had them. Once I hit the 70 mile mark, I was sure I’d make it, and when I hit 90 miles I was so stoked I was able to gas it again.
Armed with all the good stuff from Clif and with the Carbo-Rocket in my water bottles, I took advice from many of your posts and brought turkey sandwiches as well. Every 5 laps I stopped to just get off the bike and eat a Shot-Blok or part of a Clif Bar and at every 10 laps I stopped and ate a sandwich. I also brought along my regular GU and Accelerade.
At the end, I put on my 100 MON t-shirt and popped open a bottle of bubbly. I was also surprised with a supremely cool trophy Michele secretly had made (good thing I finished).
I was totally happy to finish. I hope everyone had as good a time doing this as I did. Just wanted to say thanks again. You are a very inspiring person. Now that I’ve acheived this goal, I can set another higher one.
– Eric L, El Cerrito, CA
PS: Want more? Read Robert J’s report — 100 Miles of Nowhere, Baltimore Edition — here.
Comments (10)
05.12.2010 | 1:00 pm
Beautiful but chilly 47 degrees as I rode down to the Seattle Burke-Gilman stage to meet my cycling buddy, Jessica, for our 100 MON. Jessica had never done a century and she may not be my buddy after this one.
Our route ran along a 1.15 mile section of the Burke-Gilman Trail near Metropolitan Market. Other than Metropolitan Market’s excellent pink elephant sugar cookies and clean bathroom, the routing may have been suspect (and all my fault).
Early going was great at 6AM with the trail empty, but soon the mini-peletons, runners, walkers, and pretty much everyone in Seattle was out on the first truly beautiful day this year despite the cold. After 8 AM, we had many moving roadblocks including a dude walking his dog while riding a skateboard. The trail was in decent condition for this time of year, but coming to a dead stop to turn around every 2 miles was brutal.
The weather warmed up later in the day, but that just lead to good sweat and a helluva show for folks seeing me in the white jersey. We had get some great support and even Kamala himself was out for the ride, complete with TWO livestrong bracelets.
Jessica’s mom showed up to say hi. Around Miles 30 and 90, a couple of other buddies I know joined up to spin a few laps. Superstar status goes to Jessica’s pal, Shane, for riding 35 miles with Jess after I started flagging and fell behind.
Jessica climbed atop the podium in the Women’s Burke-Gilman Division in about 7 hours of riding time (best not to ask about total time); I followed up to top the Men’s Division around 7:30. Medals to be awarded at a banquet this week.
Awesome event! But next year on the trainer with movies!
– Mike S, Seattle
PS: Check out the video — it’s awesome!
Comments (5)
05.12.2010 | 12:01 pm
I had a great time with the 100 miles yesterday. My husband “teased” the neighborhood for 5 days with a countdown sign in the front window.
We had a rare gorgeous Seattle spring day. Sunny, warm, and perfect. We had two spinning bikes in front and my husband and some other friends kept me company on the bike. We had a bake sale, and a garage sale, and chatted up the neighbors while I rode. I managed to get my 100 miles done in a searingly fast 8 ¼ hours.
That was the first century I’ve done in my life. Thank heavens I was able to control the resistance… so I didn’t seize up too badly.
I’m already scheming for next year’s route.
In all of this I decided to join your fundraising team and I’m happy to report that as a fledgling member of Team Fatty I’ve already reached my fundraising goal of $3,000. My husband and I volunteer at the Seattle LiveStrong event, so I got my 100 miles done early!
After finishing riding I tried to get a look at the great divide movie. I guess I was too late, maybe it got taken down by 9pm… as I got a 404 file not found message.
Oh well! We’ll look forward to it in the theaters!
– Lesley J, Seattle
PS: While not part of her story, Lesley sent the following hilarious time-lapse photo strip, titled “Ken Takes the Lead.”
Comments (10)
05.12.2010 | 11:00 am
We all need a catalyst to prompt change. I’ve been reading Fatties exploits for quite some time and kept telling myself I should dig out the bike… but never did. I’m not sure why, but the moment I read about the 100 Miles of Nowhere something clicked and I signed up that day. The ridiculousness, the personal challenge, and a great cause all came together as an awesome goal. So after 13+ years of not really riding a bike, I got started. My ride – a straight up, old school, 1994 hardtail XC Jamis Diablo mountain bike. Fast forward through 7 weeks of slow, painful training and it’s race day!
The course was a half-mile loop around my block. I figured that if I threw a clot, at least I’d be close to home and neighbors who might call 911. Up early, ate a decent pre-ride meal, and got my aid station ready with the swag from the ride package.
Just because I like to make things complicated, I decided to catch a cold a few days prior. I loaded up with various drugs and throat lozenges and set off. First lap and I realized (after 7 years of living here) that our block actually has a slope! The backside of each lap would be slightly uphill. Hmmm.
For the first 20 miles I was a rock star. I contemplated mtb racing in the masters division. 16 mph average speed thanks to the downhill. I don’t know why I thought this would be so hard. And then boom – all of a sudden I had to shift down to the middle chain ring. My brother-in-law showed up to ride a few miles with me to show support. He was riding a beach cruiser and I was struggling to keep up. Not a good sign. A while later his whole family rode over and did a good 4-5 miles with me. Having the support of my niece and nephew riding along is what got me to mile 50.
The halfway mark was a real low point. I started developing tremendous knee pain in both knees and the head cold was just ugly. Riding alone, I settled into a pattern of doing 5 miles, then stopping for nose blowing, water, and a throat lozenge. Every 10 I’d eat a little something. Did I mention that I like to make things complicated? I decided to call up some gusty afternoon winds to negate any benefit of the downhill portion of each lap. Miles 50-70 were spent battling the urge to quit. I cooked up an elaborate plan to crash into the back of a parked car so that it wouldn’t be my fault that I had to abandon. As soon as I reached the three-quarters mark I knew I’d be able to finish. No way was I going to go that far and not complete it. The miles slowly ticked by. It was neat, in an oddly voyeuristic way, to watch my neighborhood routine from beginning to end. I was riding by from the time they picked up their morning papers, doing yard work, washing cars and various projects, afternoon chores, to barbeques starting up and kids being called in for dinner. Interestingly the last 5 miles I felt really good. Maybe it was just the satisfaction of knowing I’d accomplish my goal, but I was able to push aside the knee pain and ride pretty hard. Not quite the early morning pace, but close. The finish was a little anti-climatic. My wife had to leave for a previously scheduled event and all the neighbors must have gone inside for dinner. I rode the last few miles on quiet streets without seeing anyone. When the odometer ticked over to one hundred I simply rode up into my garage and that was that. It’s hard to describe the satisfaction of accomplishing a hard goal. I achieved two things. The first is getting back on the bike – I don’t know why I stopped riding in the first place, but it’s not going to happen again. I’m looking forward to a fun summer of riding the trails. Second, and most important, through the awesome support of friends, family, and co-workers I raised $685 for Livestrong! http://sanjose2010.livestrong.org/ericw A great cause and I can’t thank enough those who donated. Did I suffer a little bit? Yep. However, not nearly as much as folks who are impacted by cancer… so anything we can do to help the cause is a great thing!
Comments (3)
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