Land Run 100

Kelly picked me up at 2am Thursday morning, and 20 hours later we checked in to our hotel in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Our trip was a whirlwind of interstate 40 and all of it's radio station options, a great coffee stop in Little Rock, and finally arriving and crashing hard. Sleep was real nice that night. Friday morning we cruised downtown for coffee, breakfast, and expo exploration! 

Oklahoma sunset outside Tulsa, only a few hours away from Stillwater!

District Bicycles, owned by the race director, was the center of the Land Run party, with the start/finish line right out front and the street adjacent lined with vendor tents, food trucks, and bike happenings. The Salsa crew laid out new 2019 bikes and displayed the chaise lounge that would appear on course the following day.

The chaise and new bikes from Salsa outside District Bicycles

Runners were coming in throughout the morning, these folks were on track to complete the "double", running the 50k course on Friday and then riding 100 mile event on Saturday. Amazing athletes!! We joined in on the WTF group ride that afternoon, what a treat to touch some Oklahoma gravel and ride with a huge group of cool people. 

Sampling of OK gravel.

Early to bed that night for 6am wake up Saturday morning. Egg brekky. 29 degrees outside! Cold fingers putting number plate on and doing tire pump things in the hotel parking lot. My soft cooler full of aid station goodies and on my shoulder, we rode downtown and put our drop bags in the truck and got in the starting gates. 

In line to drop our aid station bags.

Starting line selfie.

Worked our way up and were in the first 100 riders or so. Warm for a while because penguin huddle, then a little shivery cold, but then its five minutes to go!! Caffeine blocks are eaten and adrenaline pumps and a cannon fires and the group blasts into orange sun rays to begin the Land Run 100. 

 Sunrise on the start line.

Starting from downtown Stillwater, everyone quickly started rolling fast and I weaved with the group to try and keep up with Kelly for a little while, and to catch as much draft possible from the lead pack. We hit gravel fast and with that gravel came major bumps and thick rocks and dodging people’s lost bottles and dust mania and epic sunrise glare and thinking “why are you all braking right now???” and one handlebar bump with some guy (sorry!!) and putting so much trust in the people in front of you, just stick to that wheel!! Then the main blob broke away for good and I was in the stringers of small packs rolling along, with random singles and groups zooming by- trying to catch back up to any draft that was ahead. After the first 25 miles these groups started to slim out further, but I was never alone on course. Someone was always in sight and various trains would roll by or I would catch up to a group or person. I rode by myself for a lot of the race, but definitely spent time in random pace lines, and made a few ~20 mile buddies. Other buddies included some very nice, tall people that I could draft for a few minutes at a time before they moved along, which is how I breezed through the few pavement sections and to the aid station. Wow the aid station, with my drop bag containing the best tasting soda I’ve ever had, over a nice conversation with a few volunteers before I put all my trash in their hands and said thank you with my mouth full of pepperoni meat snack. Thank you volunteer nation.

Rolled out of aid feeling great, I felt like I’d gotten there fast and I hadn’t bonked yet.. definitely motivated to keep that going. I ate sushi rice/bacon bites every hour or so from my top tube bag, some shot blocks, and drank a big bottle of Skratch mixed with some protein powder during the first half. I opted for water at the aid station (which was at the halfway point), as the temperature was going up and the dusty roads were making me crave just plain old agua. It did take a few hours to warm up that morning though! During the second hour of the race my hands became gnarled ice claws in the cold headwind, which made shifting interesting.. but by mid morning it had warmed up significantly and my hands were back to life! It was the perfect temperature crescendo for an all day ride, with the high in the mid 50's. 

And these roads though.. Incredible!! This course was at least 90% gravel//red dirt with some random grassy and farm field sections, some "whoa were we just mountain biking for a second?!" moments, some slop fest puddles, one big ole pond puddle, some mud sections that made me real thankful it was a dry year... and the downhills were so fun they made me laugh out loud. My Warbird was set up nice with Teravail Cannonball 35c tires, so the surprise potholes, rock launchers, and huge gravel chunks were easy obstacles. And that one long section of THICK grav at the bottom of a flyer hill toward the end of the day (you know which one I'm talking about) that you sunk down into and plowed through and were squirrelly at first but if you had good rubber it felt like skiing rock pow?? yeah that was good. 

This was an awesome moment with so much positive energy from the Salsa crew. What a fun thing to look forward to during the event!!

Salsa set up an awesome oasis at mile 85ish, with the chaise lounge and so many good vibes from the Salsa crew. This twenty seconds of photo taking and absorbing cheers from everyone on the Salsa squad gave me life before embarking on the last chunk of the race. Which turned out to be a tailwind gift and action packed with some gnarly downhill chutes and passing 50k runners on our way back to Stillwater. The town came into view right around mile 100, on the final stretch - ah sweet smooth pavé - much motivation to cruise in as quickly as I could. As soon as I crossed the finish line I was offered a beer (awesome) but opted for the La Croix (so fancy this event) and then got a solid hug from the director himself. Bobby was an incredible organizer, putting on an epic gravel experience, but he went the extra mile on the finish line - giving every finisher (runners and riders) a bear hug, and a few seconds of his time to sincerely congratulate each individual as soon as they crossed the line. Pretty awesome.

Finish line!

I didn't really establish a real goal for this event, I just wanted to ride steady and have a good time. I was very successful! I had zero negative experiences all day, and impressed myself physically- finishing in 6.5 hours and in the top 20 women. After taking a semi-hiatus this winter to experiment with trail running and for riding alone for 70% of the day, I'd say that's pretty damn good for my first endurance gravel race! Every human interaction during the race was easy and cheery, the day and weather was stellar, my mental never dipped into hangry land, I felt good on the climbs, and I never cramped. This course required constant pedaling over endless rollers and flats, and riding at home is more: climb for a few miles, descend for a few miles, either on mountains or hilly valley roads. During Land Run, you could see the top of every hill, but there were hundreds of them! Looking ahead, you would see tiny color blobs of riders at the top of a series of upward rollers, and you could watch riders steamroll away from you or get bigger as you reined them on on the flatter plateaus and straight sections. It was real neat to ride somewhere so different from home, and at such a great event to boot. Sharing the travel time and experiencing LR in general with my best friend Kelly was so special, and seeing the Salsa crew in random places for events and races is always a treat. If you're ever interested in exploring the dirt road sanctuary in this part of the country, put Land Run on your list. 

Trusty steed for 103 miles!