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The Dirty Kanza 200
Yes, the 200 in Dirty Kanza 200 stands for two hundred miles of Central Kansas gravel roads (or worse than gravel). We (Mark Hopkins, Alan Bossert, and I) made a 200-mile loop from Emporia around the Flint Hills of Central Kansas in 17.5 hours. Photos.
We took about 2 hours of eating and resupply breaks, so in all we put away 15.5 hours on the bike cruising about 13 mph, a pretty good clip considering the hills and rough roads we encountered. Not sure how we finished with respect to all the other racers, but I’d say we were middle of the pack by the time we finished at 11:30pm Saturday.
I’m very glad we did this race. Alan signed me up for it back when I was deep in Southern Chile, as we had been planning on doing this one for about a year. As you might know, we’ve all three of us done long races, but none of them solely biking. Chief complaint from this race – saddle sores. I love my Brooks Saddle and felt no bruising from it, but 17 hours of friction down under caused some tender skin to chafe which no amount butt butter could have prevented. Two days post-race and I’m all better. Not like that one dude who made the video where his ass fell off after the race.
So we finished at 11:30pm Saturday and I did actually feel like I could have gone on. We made sure to eat and drink enough throughout the day, which wasn’t too hot, that I felt pretty good aside from my chafage. I had already gone through several ‘bonks’ throughout the day, and was probably on my fifth-wind by the time we reached Emporia. The cool night reinvigorated me, so if they said take a break and finish another 60 miles down the road, I would’ve been game. Doesn’t mean I’m crazy enough to do Trans-Iowa, a 300-mile gravel grinder. To hell with that.
Many thanks to Alan Bossert for pushing this race. A refreshing deviation from our humdrum triathloning, marathoning, and adventure racing. I had a good time, even though we didn’t talk much throughout the day. Was a crapton of riding, though, same distance as it is from Ames to Kansas City, all on bicycle, all gravel…
Honda Civic, Urban Utility Vehicle
So, we didn’t get Tiff a gigantic truck to drive around town, primarily because that would be extremely dangerous for the rest of the world. Instead, we retooled our Civic with a fancy new Thule Roof Rack.
This way we won’t have our bikes slopping around on the trunk-mount rack Tiff bought years ago from Craigslist. Last few times we used the rack I was seriously concerned the rack and all bikes attached to it would fall off the back onto the highway. We were due, and this is a big improvement for us!
Kansas City Triathlon 2012
Alan killed it, his first go at the KC Triathlon, beating long-standing winners the EdHopkins. Good job! Jason had his first triathlon, a sprint distance, great job and we hope you had fun!
Greg, Tiff, Jason, and Mark before the race.
Here’s the results. It was a perfect day for me racing, no wind to kick up the lake, cool and overcast, warm water. I had a great time for once!
Overall Time
Swim
Bike
Run
Smithville Adventure Race 2012
Mark, Alan, Greg, and Jason – the Berryman Witch Project.
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Wow! So nice outside!
Booka!
Running the @#$%& outta him at the Stockdale dog park.
And running the Phil…
The Trolley Trail Run
Blogging while running the trolley. And my phone camera takes awful pictures, especially when in motion…
Thoughts After 3 Weeks Home
Greg’s Thoughts – Definitely a major adjustment coming home again after traveling so long, although not as big a transition as going from the working-world into a ‘travel-lifestyle’, especially into a place such as Iquitos, Peru.
By far for me the biggest change that is most uncomfortable is sitting all day. Same as your body gets sore when you use muscles a different way, my body has been sore from not using them. I hope there won’t be too much time between now and when I can sit comfortably at my desk all day. It is also pretty brutal to be indoors all the time; something about the Sun just energizes a person.
The second big-change I’ve noticed is time-management. While traveling, we were able to do so much every day, and now, it seems I can’t find time to read, to get chores done, to relax… Makes sense, but at first this was really distressing – I just could not get things done quickly enough to satifsfy my own expectations! A good example of this is writing down these thoughts on this blog – something that should not have taken 2 weeks to find the time to do!
Overall though, coming back home has been good. Family, friends, food-options, routine, it all outweighs the negatives of being home, and even the positives of travel.
Tiff’s Thoughts – Two weeks to get this post out has turned into three… we’ll have to come back to add more.
The Trip of a Lifetime
First of all, I hate the phrase “Trip of a Lifetime” when describing our leave to South America. If you’ve said it to me, please I mean no offense and I’m not upset about it. The reason why I don’t like hearing it is because this phrase suggests you only get one trip, like its a “Once in a Lifetime Opportunity” or that I’ve already spent my lifetime on this one and can’t create any more. Anyone who thinks four months away from work is something that can happen only once in a lifetime might be right in our case, might be right in general, but I honestly hope they’re wrong. I want to believe I can create these kinds of opportunities for myself if I need to, if I want to badly enough, if I’m motivated enough to do so. For me, the “Trip of a Lifetime” should occur at least once every five years. I would hate to think or believe there is some overarching rule that disables me in this way.
So, what would I do with future “Trips of My Lifetime“? Go back to South America? Probably not. Well, maybe. I’d go back to go sea kayaking, to visit Antarctica, and to hike around on the Chilean Ice Fields. We only saw a little tiny bit of the Continent, and it is fantastic scenery, but that won’t be enough to bring me back another time. So much of the world (and the US) left to see!
Schwelliott's Adventure 