Hotter 'N Hell 100

The Hotter 'N Hell 100 was Saturday and even though I think that I have done some difficult things in the past year of races nothing compares to Saturday's grueling event. Although it wasn't hotter than Hell the temperature did peak at 97 degrees.

Here is my review of the ride, at least from my view point.

We drove in Friday night and arrived to where we were going to camp for the night a little after 10:00. I have never seen so many tents set up on every available patch of grass in front of an agricultural center, once you stepped inside you knew why everyone was camping outside (there was a distinct aroma of livestock). Luckily the night was fairly cool so sleeping wasn't quite as brutal as it could have been on a Texas August night. The alarm went off at 5:45 and we commenced the pre-ride preparation, mainly meaning waiting in line to use the bathroom. The ride started at 7:00am with an army band playing The National Anthem and a 4 plane fly by and then the cannon fire to officially start the race (which scared the hell out of me). The first 30 miles Kati and I stuck together and had a rather good pace going. Around mile 30 Kati said I could take off if I wanted to so I did just that. My intention was to stop at Hell's Gate and wait up for her so that we could finish the ride together. My assumption was that Hell's Gate was going to be this big hoorah since that is the spot that you have to make it to within a certain time limit in order to be able to finish the ride. I was so wrong. Not only was there no rest stop that I saw, there was a sign with an arrow saying Hell's Gate this way and by the time you realized that you had been led astray it was too late to turn around and go back, so I didn't end up taking my first rest stop until mile 70. I waited there for Kati, ate some orange slices, bananas and refilled my water. Just as I was getting on my bike Kati goes zooming by so now I have to play chase for the next couple of miles to catch up. We did end of riding the remaining 25 miles together, which I don't know about her, but I really needed the company and motivation. In the last 20 miles we had to stop twice and eat something, that is the main lesson from this ordeal, keep eating. At the second rest stop, at mile 80, we ate more oranges, more bananas and some of those generic super market peanut butter cookies, which normally I really don’t like but I have had them a number of times at races and there is nothing better when you are dog tired and hungry. After the second rest stop we got another 15 miles and had to stop again to eat or I was going to hit my nutritional breaking point. If you are keeping up with the math on this you will see that we stopped at mile 95 of a 102 mile ride, not one of my finer moments. In the end we finished together hand in hand, and made our way to the oasis that was a fire hose spraying in the distance to cool off and be soaked by something other than our sweat. Our final finishing time was around five and a half hours of actual peddle time.

I always tell Kati that she will have to ask me the day after a race if I had a good time but now that it has been a few days and I have a had a good night sleep I can say that I would like to do this again next year. I have learned a lot about myself and my limits, and hopefully learned how to surpass those limits in the future.