The Death Ride

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip

That started from fine Markleeville, aboard our two-wheeled ships.

Coach Jim was a mighty biking man, so strong and brave and kind,

His Death Riders rode out that day for a fifteen hour grind,

 A fifteen hour grind.

The weather started getting hot, with mountains to be crossed,

                If not for the courage of the fearless Team,

The Death Ride would be lost, the Death Ride would be lost.

Now this is the tale of the Death Riders, who rode for a long, long time.

They had to make the best of things, it was an uphill climb.

Coach Jim and all the mentors too, they did their very best,

                To make the riders comfortable, as they rode upon this quest.

With no motors, no beer, no pillowed seats, not a single luxury,

                They rode for cancer research, as noble as can be.

As noble as can be.

Welcome back, my friends. So all these months later, the ride has finally happened. I attempted something I never thought I could do. The Death Ride. Let’s recap:

·         129 miles.

·         15,000 vertical feet of climbing.

·         Five passes in the Sierra Mountains, all above 8000 feet.

·         It must be completed between 5am and 8pm.

·         One in three people who start don’t finish.

·         I finished the whole thing.

My rider number, showing stickers for finishing
all five mountain passes

I have to stop here and just let that sink in for a minute. I FINISHED it. And more than just finishing, I felt great when I was done! Tired, sure, and abused from the simple wear and tear of that much continuous time in the saddle. But I wasn’t destroyed the way I expected to be; the way I saw so many others who gave up physically or mentally along the ride. Honestly, after some of the season’s training rides, the Death Ride itself almost felt like cheating.

The Death Ride is no mean thing. It’s an astonishingly long, grueling torture devised to break cyclists into their constituent parts. Looking back on it, I think I’m still in shock. I did what? How? Who?

Well, here’s the quick details. I initially tried writing out all of my experiences on this ride, but before I got halfway I was already at ten pages of exposition. The editor in me finally kicked in. Rather than bore you to sleep, I’m going to write this out in presentation style. Enjoy!

The time cutoff signs were everywhere.

Good Morning, Markleeville!

Statistics:

·         Alarm Rang: 2:30am

·         Sleep achieved: Approximately 2 hours.

·         Sleep desired: A whole lot more than that.

·         Temperature: About 50 degrees.

·         Ride Start: 5:00am.

Favorite Moments:

·         Our ride groups met at Turtle Rock Park shortly before 5am. The crescent moon hung beautiful and bright in the sky, with Mars following nearby. The stars were bright pinholes of light scattered across the sky in a way I never get to see in the Bay Area.

Mountain Pass #1: Monitor (front side)

Sunrise across the Monitor valley.

Statistics:

·         8.1 miles uphill, 2656’ of vertical

·         Cutoff 10:00 am, made the cutoff at 7:00 am, 3 hours to spare.

·         Max altitude 8,314’

·         Temperature was over 70 degrees by the time I was over the top.

Strategy:

·         Go slow. Save energy for later in the day. So I climbed at somewhat less than 5mph.

·         Drink lots of water. I made sure I was out by the time I got to the top.

·         All I had to do was survive the Death Ride. I wasn’t looking to place first. I was looking to complete it, whatever that took. Slow pace, good hydration.

Worst Moments:

·         The ride food at the rest stop was the worst I’ve seen at any major cycling event. Our own Team SAGs generously laid out incredible spreads all season long. I was used to feeding on roast boar, quail eggs, grapes peeled by soft-skinned maidens, and all manner of delicious, hallucination-induced pleasures. This rest stop, like all at the Death Ride, was filled with ancient potato chips, waterlogged potato bits, stale bread, gruel, and a variety of chemicals outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

I was still all smiles at this point in the ride.

Favorite Moments:

·         Watching the sunrise slice its way across the barren mountains, a knife-edge illuminating the stark bunches of chaparral huddled against ever-increasing desolation.

·         My friend Ben caught up to me partway up the hill, hanging out and chatting. He wasn’t on our Death Ride team, I thought it was neat that he even found me in the pack.

·         Descending the far side, into the barren Nevada desert, slaloming around slower bicyclists like it was an Olympic downhill.

Mountain Pass #2: Monitor (back side)

Statistics: 

Climbers to the right, descenders to the left.

·         9.5 miles uphill, 3261’ of vertical

·         Cutoff 11:00 am, made the cutoff at 9:30 am, 1.5 hours to spare.

·         Max altitude 8,314’

·         Average climbing speed 4.7mph

Strategy:

·         The backside of Monitor was a return climb up the descent I’d just made. It was barren, long, and exposed to the Sun. I kept it slow and steady, drinking all the water I could along the way.

Worst Moments:

·         Getting passed by tons of people on the climb. It was on this climb that I had the first hints that maybe I was going too slow for this ride.
·        Getting gnawed on by some giant insect that attached itself to my calf and gorged on a couple pounds of blood before dropping away. I still have a welt!

·         At the top, just before the descent, my right pedal clip stopped working. I finally got it to go again, but for the rest of the ride I had to jump on that pedal to clip in and it was quite difficult to unclip at stops.

Favorite Moments:

·         Most of the way up, there was a really nice turnout. More than a few cyclists had stopped there and were taking pictures back down into the valley from whence we came, and I hazarded a glance over my shoulder. Behind me, the road snaked down the side of the desolate mountain for miles, a ribbon of black that faded into the far horizon. And the entire way, I could see the train of bicycles, shrinking away like ants, at last melting into the black.

·         The descent back down the front side of Monitor was fantastically fun. The road is wide and by this time I was so far back in the ride pack that nobody was climbing in the opposite lane. I hopped into that lane, tucked in, and descended for all I was worth. At best, I crossed over 51 mph, rushing past cyclists who not long before had passed me on the climb.

Mountain Pass #3: Ebbetts (front side)

By the time I made this lake on Ebbetts, I didn't have
the presence of mind to jump in like he did.

Statistics:

·         10.6 miles uphill, 2837’ of vertical

·         Cutoff 1:30 pm, made the cutoff at 12:15 pm, 1.25 hours to spare.

·         Max altitude 8,736’

·         Average climbing speed 4.2mph

·         Temperature around 90 degrees

Strategy:

·         I continued slow and steady. Ebbetts is the toughest hill. In places my speed dropped to 3.5 mph.

·         Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. More than on any other hill, this one required the most mental effort to get through.

·         Keep shifting the body, don’t let any one part get too sore or too tired.

Worst Moments:

·         I mentally lost it on this hill. The last half hour was a blur of pain and agony. Somehow I’d managed to keep riding, keep pushing. But when I finally made it to the top, I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t unclip. I almost hit the line handlers at the top. When I finally pulled over, every thought was a four-letter curse. It took me minutes to calm down and put myself back together.

·         Physically, I hit a couple of low points on this hill. For the first time, I was dealing with severe hot foot, as my toes felt completely jammed in the cycling shoes. My butt was aching unconscionably. My shoulders were sore and it was getting too hot.

Favorite Moments:



The stop I couldn't stop at. Sorry all!

·         Ebbetts is my favorite of the mountains on the Death Ride. It’s just beautiful. The road is a tough but scenic climb, with cliffs, sharp switchbacks and an incredibly beautiful valley to climb through. The sound of running water, the sight of waterfalls and lakes, flying hawks: these were the accompaniments that our silent cycles had.

·         In the lower reaches of the climb, the locals had setup viewing stations. I counted three observing stations – one, at the site of a former brothel, was staffed by a half dozen women in tropical garb, cheering on all the riders. The next two were manned by a diverse congregation of folks who seemed to take joy at pointing at the riders, laughing and raising beers to us as if to say, “better you than me, suckers!”

·         Joseph handing me a freezing-cold V8 at the top, when I couldn’t even form whole sentences. It was a Godsend. Thank you, Joseph!

Mountain Pass #4: Ebbetts (back side)

Statistics:

I know it's not a ride picture, but my hat was being
attacked by mini-domos. Aren't they cute?

·         5.7 miles uphill, 1724’ of vertical

·         Cutoff 3:00 pm, made the cutoff at 2:00 pm, 1 hour to spare.

·         Max altitude 8,736’

·         Average climbing speed 4.1mph

·         Temperature around 90 degrees

Strategy:

·         It had now been truly impressed upon me that I was running out of time. I was going too slow. Still, I didn’t significantly pick up the pace. I was getting tired and I didn’t want to risk blowing myself out on this hill.

·         I spent a chunk of recovery time at the rest stop at the bottom before this climb. I decided to blow through the rest stop at the top this time, skipping it just to make tracks for the lunch stop at the bottom on the other side.

Worst Moments:

·         None really on this hill. I did have to stop once while climbing. It was the first time that day I became so tired to make that a necessity.

Favorite Moments:

·         This is a pretty climb as well. My favorite moments were just looking out across the valley, the green trees here so much more verdant than Monitor, and realizing how lucky I was to be alive in the open, quiet air of the mountain.

·         Coming down front side of Ebbetts, by total descending time was 10 minutes, 42 seconds. At altitude camp I had made the same descent in 10:36, which (as of this writing) is the #2 women’s time on Strava. Not so bad, and apparently I’m pretty consistently reckless on that descent. =D

The Critical Cutoffs: Woodsford and Pickett’s Junction

Best cold shower ever.

Statistics:
       ·         13.7 miles into the wind to Woodsford

·         Woodsford Cutoff 4:00 pm, made the cutoff at 3:40 pm, 20 minutes to spare.

·         Pickett’s Junction Cutoff 5:15 pm, made the cutoff at 4:30 pm, 45 minutes to spare

Strategy:

·         The clock was well and truly against us. At the top of Ebbetts I calculated how far we had to go to make it by 4:00, and realized we pretty much had to skip every rest stop between here and there and simply push.

·         Thirst, hunger and tiredness no longer mattered. If we lost to the clock, we were out of the race.  

Worst Moments:

·         The moment of panic realizing how under the gun I was. It was one thing to fight physical or mental fatigue, I’ve trained all season for that. I was mentally prepared to have a mechanical or physical illness keep me from completing. But to lose to the ticking clock, simply because I didn’t push fast enough earlier in the ride? That was completely unacceptable. There was some sheer panic at the thought that being conservative might’ve cost me the whole season of training, and it took every bit of mental focus I could muster to push myself through that and keep performing, to make the Woodsford cutoff and the Pickett’s cutoff beyond.

·         About a mile short of Pickett’s my hot foot became so bad I had to stop for a few minutes and take off my shoes. My feet literally couldn’t pedal anymore, every stroke was making me cry out.

Beth and Laura. Great to see you, Laura!

Favorite Moments:

·         Making it to Woodsford was a palpable relief. The Grim Reaper himself was hanging out and gave us all high-fives as we rode in.

·         Walking my bike through the cold shower at Woodsford.

·         Drinking a small stack of chilled cans of V8.

·         Realizing once we’d made Pickett’s we could practically walk our bikes to the top of Carson and make the final cutoff time there. As long as my body or bike didn’t give out, this ride was in the bag!

·         Running into a pair of old ride friends at Pickett’s! Laura and Bob, go Team!

Mountain Pass #5: Carson

Climbing up Carson.

Statistics:

·         8.8 miles final uphill push from Pickett’s, 1671’ of vertical

·         Cutoff 8:00 pm, made the cutoff at 6:30 pm, 1.5 hour to spare.

·         Max altitude 8,574’

·         Average climbing speed 4.5 mph

·         Temperatures back down to the 70’s.

·         Made it back down to the car by 7:45pm, with nearly 13 hours of saddle time on the day.

Strategy:

·         On this last mountain, all I had to do was finish. I passed a number of folks who were blown out, heads hung on their bikes or lying on the side of the road, insensible. They had bonked. Not us!

·         Slow and steady, slow and steady.

·         Stop whenever necessary. Time was on our side now. So I stopped about three different times, just to rest by butt, my feet, and to stretch my back.

Autographing the Finishers' sign.

Favorite Moments:

·         The cheering folks who said “only one and a half miles to the summit!”

·         Seeing the last turn before the summit

·         Reaching the final check-in point and getting to put my autograph on the finishers’ sign.

·         The thirty-minute long descent back down this very long mountain.

Worst Moments:

·         Being slightly too late to get the promised ice cream bar at the top. That, at least, would’ve made up for the lack of good ride food the rest of the day.

In Conclusion

Approaching the finish line.

The Death Ride was an incredible experience and one I’m glad to have had. For me, however, it was anticlimactic. Several of the rides we did in training had felt significantly harder and pushed me further than the Death Ride required. Indeed, afterward several of us joked that we didn’t need Death Ride finisher jerseys, we instead needed shirts that say “I survived Death Ride Training”.

My ability to finish the Death Ride was never in question. My ability to finish it in time, however, was. Even knowing that, I definitely underestimated the time pressure part of the ride equation. I’m just glad I was with a group that helped me finish it out just under the wire, especially considering that not everyone on our team was able to finish.

Will I ever do the Death Ride again? I certainly hope not. I learned an awful lot about myself, my strengths and my limitations. I think I need some time to mull that over. Plus I’d like to think I’m not so much of a slow learner that I need a repeated lesson anytime soon. =D


The sun was setting on one tired lady.

No, for now I’m taking a well-earned rest. I do have a ride scheduled to climb up Mt. Shasta in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I’ll head out for a little 75-mile loop. Compared to what I’ve been doing, this is really not a big deal. Later this year, I plan on riding the Tucson Century. That should be a piece of cake by comparison to what I’ve been through.

And in other, important news - our Team raised over $120,000 for cancer research this season! That even exceeded our goal! Thanks to all who contributed and helped us bring cures one step closer to reality.

So to wrap up with the wrapping up - Thank you all for riding along with me through this season! It’s been fun. Now that I’m all trained up, I imagine I’ll have to record some sort of cycling experience here from time to time. Stay tuned to see what thrills the future holds!


The whole team, post-ride picture. Coach Jim (that mighty biking man) is front and center in black.