Dam to Dam - September 8, 2024
Dam to Dam - September 8, 2024
The 15th annual Dam to Dam has come and gone. I am very happy to have been part of it. The ride is not without its faults, and the
day was not perfect, but it was overall a great ride.
Wabash, IN is sort of in the middle of no where up in Northern
Indiana. North of Kokomo and east of
Peru and not far from Miami and Mexico. Yes,
I know that sounds like a lot of different geography, but those are all towns
around Wabash. If you happened to drive
from Terre Haute to Wabash like we did, then you have gone through Brazil,
however, Brazil isn’t close to Wabash.
Wabash is probably three times the size of Colusa, CA which is
where last year’s main ride took place. So compared to where we did our century ride
last year, we were in a boom metropolis.
I liked Wabash, it was a quant little town. The Hampton Inn where we stayed was super
nice. Everyone was friendly. Even the former junky we almost ran over when
I accidentally drove onto the bike trail was great. He even blessed us, which I think helped on
the ride a little bit, but we will get to that.
The Dam to Dam ride is super well organized. I give them a lot of points for having gear
at the packet pick, because I scored a pair of arm warmers there that I might have
died without. They had a nice breakfast
spread, although I didn’t partake because I have my breakfast I eat each morning. They had a chiropractor there for stretching
tips. Everyone was friendly and excited
you were there. They served a good lunch
post-race as well.
Points must be given for route marking (that is once you
fully understand where the route goes).
All through the ride it was never in doubt which route you needed to
take, and that is important because when it comes to routes the Dam to Dam
doesn’t mess around. It offers 7
different routes.
7 Routes! Dios Mio
that is a lot. I really think that is
the most routes I have ever seen on one day of rides and I think it is
fantastic. It allows riders of all skill
levels to be included. I really do think
that is awesome. The routes were 15
miles, 30 miles, 50 miles, 62 miles, 100 miles, and 150 miles.
David and I were there to do the Metric Century or the 62-mile
route. I realized last year I like 60–80-mile
rides. 100 Miles is a little too much
for my butt to take. The 62-mile route
pretty much followed the 50, 80, 100, and 150 routes. However, at like mile 58 you cut-off to head
back into Wabash. The 80, 100, and 150’ers
go up north of the county and ride around there. Word on the street that riding is very boring. Now, I say word on the street, it is more of
word from the parking lot, and what another rider told me. What I can say 100% for sure is the routes were
amazingly marked. As, I think I
previously stated crystal clear where to go and what route to go one.
SAG stops for me were perfect. They had clean restrooms, friendly people,
and good snacks. Some people (maybe a Beaver)
thought they were spaced out a little far about apart, and when I stop and
think about it, having a SAG stop 7 miles from the end of the metric century
probably not the best place for one, but three stops over 60 miles is about
what I would expect.
Where I would start taking points off is there was no queue
sheet. There was no written turn by turn
routing of the ride. That is frustrating
for me. I would like to know where I am
leaving from and where I am going.
Especially, when I have never ridden there before. The map itself was ok. It is way too busy because of the 7 routes
they are covering in one map. In
hindsight, I am more ok with this than I was the night before but only because
of how well the routes were marked. This
caused some undo stress though as we discuss the other reason points must come
off.
Don’t just let
anyone talk to riders. Make sure the
person who is talking to them knows what they are talking about. As we were looking over the route on Saturday
night one of the people volunteering for the race started talking to us about
the route. He and his companion were chatting
us up. When they really got my attention
is when they talked about the major climb in the first five miles. The Big Switch Back Climb they called and how
people they had been training with were really mad because they weren’t told
about this climb.
The guy implies we will be taken a road to Lagro (which is
where the climb it). He points us the
way we would go. So, we went and try to
find it. There is no hill between Wabash
and Lagro, or no hill of note. We keep
driving in a circle in an area we don’t know.
Arguing about how we should find the hill. At one point I turn off the road and end up
driving on a bike path, I didn’t know at the time it was a bike path, and that
is when we met the former junky, turned preacher, and were God blessed.
So, we didn’t find the hill.
As we drove back to Wabash, I said to David well this can’t be as bad as
what we have done in the past, Del Valle, Manning, Cross, and Carroll over 580,
right? I mean look around there is just
no where that goes up that much around here.
Again concurrence. I felt a
little better and we went and got ready for the ride. I will circle back to why this is points off,
but I have feeling you might know where I am going with this.
Sunday morning in Wabash was cold. I mean it was seeing your breath, wishing you
had long pants and long fingered gloves cold.
It was so glad I bought arm warmers at check in last night kind of cold. I think they said at 6 a.m. it was 41. It was not warm at start time, and this made the
first 20 miles or so tough because your fingers felt like they were frozen. Everything else was fine, but my fingers and
feet suffered. I mentioned to David before we left, I should
go in and buy a long finger pair of gloves.
I wish I had. My fingers were so
cold, I couldn’t tell if I was shifting or not because I didn’t have feeling in
them. Luckly, there was not a ton of
shifting that had to be done.
Well, except for that one spot. You know the major switch back, ziggiee-zaggy,
climb to the top of the world. Btw in
the first 20 miles going up here was the only time my hands weren’t feeling
like they were going to fall off. There
is an up at mile 5.6 or so. Maybe it is
my training. Maybe it is the fact I live
in southern Indiana now, and that I used to live in NorCal, but this was not a
BIG climb. It was an up. I went to granny gear because I thought there
was going to be more climb once we got to the blind corner, so I wanted to save
the energy. I would compare it to
climbing Stinky Cheese here but not as steep or as bad. There was a time in my life where that thing might
have broken me, but yesterday was not that day.
I felt good at the top and I keep on going wondering why I had worried
so much.
We rode at a good clip yesterday on the ride. I felt strong. Maybe it was because it was cool? Maybe it is because I have a great cycle
coach who prepared me for this ride well.
Could have been my trainers help, working me out on days I don’t ride? Maybe I just put in the work? Most likely it was all of the above. I was in a great headspace all day long riding
my ride. Did I feel bad at times I knew
David was not riding as hard as he could because he had to stay back with me,
ya at time, but I was grateful he was there and even though I gave him shit
about not pedaling at times, it was better than him taking off and leaving me.
The first SAG strop was in between miles 21 and 22. To my genuine horror it was in a church. If I wanted to warm up and go to bathroom I
was going to have to cross the threshold.
A self-confessed pagan as myself would it be possible? Would there be a smiting? No, none of that happened, I was able to go
in and use the rest room and warm up my frozen hands and feet. I have no doubt it was the blessing from the
recovering junkie the night before that kept David and I safe in the house of the
holy, or maybe we aren’t as bad as we like to think. Of course, despite my initial thought of
leaning my bike up against the rock that held the cross, but realized some might
find that offensive, so I chose a nearby bush instead. Plus, I had this image in my head of the town’s
folks running me out with torches and pitch forks like I was Frankenstein. Finally, I wouldn’t be offensive to the church
or cross itself even if I make jokes about it.
The second SAG stop was at a house. They had the cleanest porta-potties I had ever
seen. They also were serving hotdogs,
and they had a lemonade stand. The lemonade
stand was manned by a little boy, and two girls that were younger than
him. I will call the girl pink gloves because
she had pink gloves on and blondie, because she was blonde. I felt like I had to take a cup of lemonade
even though I really didn’t want one. I
wanted them to feel appreciated for helping.
So, when I said yes and they both handed me one, I took them both and said
I was double fisting. They giggled. Pink gloves walked off, I am not sure I saw
her again, but I kept bumping into blondie.
She told me her dog’s name. She
said she had some chicken too. I asked if they were laying eggs, and she said they
were not. They were still babies. Blondie
was handing out a lot of lemonade, but someone turned her down and she looked
sad. So, I told her I would take the glass. I did and I drank it. I told her it was very good. She said it was just the mix, I said it was
still good and I thanked her for her support.
I met up with David and we were talking, and pink gloves came over and
asked David if he wanted a glass of Lemonade and he said no he had already had
one. She looked at me and I said no, I already
had two. That is when Blondie chimed in “Nut’un
you have had three!” I don’t know why it
was so freaking funny, but it was, and she was right, I had three glasses because
I took to the first time. Then the photographer
was taking her picture, and I overheard her tell the photographer that yes, she
was giving out a lot of lemonade but that guy over there in the red had three
glasses. Again, we laughed. She wasn’t going to let me get away with
saying I hadn’t had three glasses. It
was great though to see her face light up when another group of 20 or so riders
came up and she had more people to give lemonade to.
Wabash and the Damns were a nice place to ride. The weather after the first stop was
perfect. It was nice and cool and that
made me feel good. Had I been dressed appropriately;
I would say the entire day was perfect.
Toward the end of the ride my left hip started to stiffen up. Once, we stopped to tighten up David’s seat,
I stepped off the bike and I hurt my foot.
I just stepped off the bike wrong and had as sharp pain but that went
away. Honestly, I think it is the best I
have felt on a ride. I felt good. I was not upset about anything. I mean was I super happy the 62 miles ended
up being 64+? No, but I felt good enough,
that a few more miles didn’t kill me.
Again, I could complain that we were supposed to climb 1300 feet and I
climbed closer to 1900, but I felt strong.
Although again being super candid I had, had enough of the rollers by
mile 63. I think you can only go up and
down so many times.
I feel fantastic today too.
I am not sore. I got a great
sleep last night. All and all, I could
not be happier with how my event went.
Now, it is on to find the next challenge!
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