Dirty Kanza 200 2011, Emporia, Kansas, USA

At the finish around 3am with unknown missouri man and Phil Ellsworth

Ari and Mark

My BMC after 215 miles of gravel

Some of the long hills in the Flint Hills area

Lots of double track

Early morning before the Sun went nuts

Nebraska crew. I was to finish with Aaron, third from Left. Thank you Aaron

Mark and Ari at 3rd checkpoint. Awesome Jim crewing

Second checkpoint. Very hot, nasty cramps. Turkey and cheese sandwiches, cokes, Tums, and 5 pickles with pickle juice cured it. I was really motivated to not give up. No matter what.

Ari, Jay and Mark at the start

Jay at checkpoint 2. "you are in a lot of pain"

Ari and Mark checkpoint 1

Checkpoint 2 my legs felt like they had been through a meat grinder

I wanted to put up a post sooner but it just became impossible. After completing the ride and having Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to recover it is just today that I am feeling better. I had a lot of muscle pain, my throat was destroyed, bad sunburn, and a real bad rear end.
Our trip there was fantastic. I had the Wife, my 8 year old girl and the 18 boy as my crew. We also met up with riding buddies Mark and Jay and there crew.
Race meeting was on Friday and the race started on Saturday at 6 a.m. We rode all day in the 100 degree heat. Made the first checkpoint at mile 58 and had already gone through about 180 oz of water. Then made it to the halfway at mile 100. I neglected to drink as much and cramped. Then on to mile 160 and I was feeling really good. That's after going through a storm, complete with lightning, hail, strong winds and no place to hide. Made it to checkpoint 3 around 930 pm and then took off to finish the 200 miles. Rode a strong race, and finished up at 215 am with Aaron from the Nebraska crew. Out of 290 starters only 65 finished. I was in 55th position and in the mens open I finished in 36th place. I have so much more to say about all this put it is just not coming out. Maybe in the future I will be able to put it in words. It was truly amazing and I must say that I slayed a lot of demons and rode as hard as a could. Good organization on our part, bikes were perfect, hydration was awesome. Thanks to my family for dealing with this and to good friends Mark, Jay, Jill and Jim for being so awesome. Dirty Kanza was a great event and I hope to participate again.
best,

Ari

Link to Dirty Kanza photos on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20897064@N02/sets/72157626926001964/