Well it has been a few days since I rode the 2025 Gravel Grinder National Championships 100 miler. The race was held in Greencastle Indiana - about 4.25 hours from home. I guess in other years they had up to 400+ people but due to timing and such this year there were, on race day, 93 entrants. Not sure how many actually showed up as results only showed 36 finishers. I know of at least three that called it a day at the 50 mile point rather than going back out for another lap so maybe others did as well. Was a great course even if it did get a little warm on the second lap - for sure over 85F and when got to car it was 90F - but the good side was it was not as hot as it had been.
Was hoping to have a good ride here even though I knew being this was only my second gravel ride and not having my usual number of long rides I was not as ready as in past races. That said the couple weeks leading up to the race I was not sleeping all that well. Then when I got to the hotel it was one of those older style motels with the door leading to the outside and while older was pretty clean but for me just enough noise that I did not get any sleep - I mean none. So went to the line feeling very tired and sleepy but still hopeful it might pass - it did not. Don’t want this to sound like excuses - I guess they are - but just as something I need to work on. While I know the night before a race sleep is not "as" important but by that if you only get 3 hours and the time leading up to the race is good you will be good. But to go to the line with little sleep for the weeks before hat night's sleep is imortant - well let’s just say don’t do this.
The forecast had been for storms but most help off with a few showers to keep some of the dust down and not leave things muddy. It also made the morning a little muggy but when there was a breeze it was nice. That said this was good as starting at 7:30AM the temps stayed reasonable before we had to start the 2nd lap. The course went out of town about 1.5 miles or so then turned to start some gravel for 2 miles to get to the covered bridge and the start of the 2 approximately 47 mile laps. The course showed on
RideWithGPS as 55% gravel and the rest roads and while it may have been right it seemed a little more gravel than that. This race is not far north from where the Dust Bowl is held but it is hillier out where this race was as Dust Bowl was about 3530Ft in 100 miles while this race was about 5300ft and some steeper hills than at the Dust Bowl. In talking to some they thought this course was easier as less turns as the Dust Bowl has a lot of turns - saw someone say it had 169 - so lots of slowing and accelerating. I think for me and with the gearing on my Orbea the turns are better than the hills. As a marker Geoffrey Chandler who won my AG (65-69) rode about 5:23 at Dust Bowl and I was abbot 13 minutes behind but here was around 5:22 and I was 1:17 behind. So likely sort of comes down to what you are good at.
My plan was to try and hang with the front as long as I could but be smart and not blow up as knew would be hard to want to do the next lap if trashed. Front got strung out even though start was neutral till first turn onto the gravel so when I got there had to make a big push to get onto the back of the group but still not at the front so working hard. When got to the bridge got jammed up as some were over geared and almost had to put a foot down. Once through the bridge it was chase time again and just was putting out more effort than I wanted to. I know being tired affected how I was thinking as know I should have held on longer. In looking at some of the climbing segments they would have lost me but would have been farther forward so maybe catch on flats with a group. Once we hit the first significant climb I was already feeling it so settled in.
Thankfully we slowly got a group together but as seems to happen people do not often work efficiently and take longer pulls than needed rather than short efficient pulls. Then I tend to do the same to not lose time as we slowly caught others and got to a group of maybe 6 at most but was nice to have others around. They did run the 50+ mile race (1 lap) with the 100 miler (2 Laps) so in our group we had maybe an even split of people from both races. The basic way it seems to go for the lap was we hit the hills and I sort of went off the front then they caught up on the downhill. I was not trying to roll off the front on the climbs but as my Orbea’s smallest gear is a 34/32 I have to get the revolutions up - especially on gravel - so as not to bog down and have to get off. Most everyone else had smaller gears so working to spin my bigger gear may not be ideal it works when it does.
We got to the Bridge again at mile 50 and I stopped to refill my water bottles and it was here that our group shrunk drastically. Only 2 of us went on and we lost maybe 3 that were in the 100 and 3 that were in the 50. The one other guy doing the 100 did not stop so I lost time to him and even more as the aid station was right below the bridge so had to walk up the incline to get on in the bridge. Once through I could see the other 100 mile guy ahead and also someone else out there so the chase was on. Did not want to rush it as knew this was going to be a slog of a lap with it starting to get hotter. There was one climb that on the first lap I barely got up as was pretty gravely and almost lost traction but made it up. Thus, was sort of dreading the second time up being more tired and being hotter. Funny part was I saw I was slower it was not by much and made it up with no issue so no worries. Finally caught another rider and was with him for a bit then lost him when had to stop for a moment but caught him again on a climb and then was looking to catch the other guy I had ridden the first lap with. Did catch him at about 20 miles into the second lap only to have him catch me maybe 15 miles later and then he dropped me on the last significant climb and we stayed close but I just could not muster the desire to chase hard.
I finished the race in 6:36:26 for 21st OA (20th male) and 2nd in 65-69 AG, well there were only two of us. Had been three entered so not sure if the third person did not show up or DNF’d. Will say Geoffrey who won our age group ended up 4th overall so nailed it. Was interesting to see that once you get to the 60’s the number of riders in an age group goes down. It does depend on the race though as in looking back at last years Dust Bowl where I was 6th in the 60-69 AG there were about 38 people. Again, this was not the race I wanted as should have been faster but just did not feel it today. Yea I was tired, very tired, but was just one of those days where there was a level I could go at and faster just was not happening and that was today. As I like to stress, every race has a positive even if it goes bad and that is it tells you something about yourself that you can build off of. In this case, it let me see that I can finish even when things do not go as planned. As easy as it would have been to skip the last lap I knew I could not as, at least for me, once I do such it is easier the next time. When I ran marathons I only dropped out of two races - one with an injury and one because I was going for a time and was way off and knew I had another race I could do a week or so later. The injury one was a good choice as pushing through an injury may be tough and make one seem bad ass it may not be wise as may affect your future racing. The one I dropped due to not being on pace did pay off as ran a good race a few weeks later. I try and avoid dropping out simply because I am tired and not winning.
Will I do this race next year - well sort of depends as I want to do the
Coast 2 Coast in Michigan that is a 200 mile race that was the same day this year so sort of depends on schedule but Coast 2 Coast is the priority. This is for sure a good place to ride as good gravel and hills - bummer it is so far so as to make it hard to ride much here but may try to do so in the future. Next up was supposed to be the All Roads Challenge in my area but it was canceled so next up will be back in Indiana in the same area for the Dust Bowl 100 the end of July. The plan for the week after this race is a rest week to get sleep and rest as need to be well rested for Dust Bowl and then Gravel Worlds the 22nd-23rd of August. Not too sore at all after this race except my back had an issue after sitting at my desk for a 2 plus hour meeting - yea I ride 100 miles of gravel in the heat and get tired - sit at my desk and hurt my back - go figure.
How about fueling for Gravel Grinder Nats. I went in wanting to try to get 60g per hour so loaded up as follows to have around 300 as was aiming for 5 hours but if slower then not as fast so same amount would be ok - here is fueling plan and what transpired:
Pre-Ride Fueling:
About 1.75 hours before
- Cup of coffee with Cream and Collagen
- 1 Packet of Kodiak Maple Oatmeal W/Cream
- About 30 minutes before:
- UCAN Mocha Gel w/Caffeine
- 1ea Vespa UC
Totals:
- Cals 374
- Protein 23g
- Carbs 74g
- Fat 2.5
Race Fueling
Fueling Carried
- 2ea - 880 mil bottles of water and 70g Goodlife Carbs in each and also 1 Goodlife Electrolytes each (5g carbs) - Ttl 1760ml Water and 150g Carbs
- 1ea - 150ml flask with 60g Goodlife carbs made into a gel
- 1ea 150ml flask with 66g SiS gels
- 2ea Sfuel Zone 5 pouch at 60g carbs each - Ttl 120g
- 2L bladder of plain water
- 3 Vespa UC’s - one every 3 hours
- 2 500ml soft flasks with water and 1 Goodlife Electrolytes each - 1ltr water and 10g carbs
Totals Carried
- Ttl Water - 4.76Ltr
- Ttl Carbs - 298g
So when done I just took note of what was left from what I took on, All I took on during the race was to top up my bottles so added about 1.2ltrs of water so a total of 6ltrs. At end I had 1 bottle left and nothing in the bladder and only took a small swig out of the soft flasks. So took in 4.12 Ltrs of water
As far as carbs I ended up taking in 236g of carbs so for 6.5 hours that was 35.5g/hr.
Likely a little light on electrolytes as only had the two packets in my initial bottles so need to work on that and make sure to take S!Caps if need be as had them but just forgot. I think the carbs I took in were fine based on my effort but if faster need to work to take them in more easily. I did find the Sfuels was a little harsh, strong tasting, if took in too fast. The SiS gels still work the best ingestion wise but would like them to be higher in carbs and am going to try, have not yet, the unflavored
Neversecond gels as they are at 30g each and supposed to be flavorless, which for me is best. Pretty sure the carbs were not an issue based on effort but likely too light on electrolytes and being tired/sleepy just added to that. Pretty sure more carbs will not cover up not enough sleep but not enough electrolytes will exacerbate it.
So as I like to do the following are my “Take-Away’s” and “Plans Based on Take-Aways”:
Take-Away’s
- I really need to work on sleep as while the sleep the night before needs to be better it is not as important as the sleep the week leading up to the race.
- I need to work at being farther forward as got gapped and worked too hard too early to bridge and with as much time as it takes me to warmup using unneeded efforts is not good
- Work to better take in fuel as well as making sure to take in S!Caps if not getting in enough electrolytes fuel wise
- Really need to push through those down moments as they usually pass and I know that normally the second half is usually hard but better mentally.
Plans
- Take the next week easy to work on getting more sleep so no early rides
- Initially had a race i2 weeks after this one but as it was canceled will take it easy the second week but try and get a long ride in on the day the race was to take place
- Need to be careful to get in some rides but make sure easy days are easy
- I think the fueling set up for this race was good but may trade out the SFuels for the Neversecond gels as no flavor will be better
- Make sure the week of Dust Bowl I get plenty of sleep
Well that was long but as I have said before these reports are in some ways more for me as it makes me look at the race. While not all races go as planned you can learn something from all of them and in truth learn more for ones that go not as planned.
Click on images for more information and if you want more info on OFM check out this post:
To order Vespa you can
go here and use coupon code - tkonvalin15 - for 15% off.
