Suffering and Determination at CORE4 Gravel
A couple weekends ago I spent a few hours volunteering at a local gravel bike race. I stood with one or two other people under a tent on the side of a gravel road and every few minutes when riders approached we pointed them off the gravel road and into the apple orchard for the last mile of their race.
Our tent stood a the crest of a massive hill. The riders were finishing either a 110 or 50 mile race. As we told people “just one mile to go!” I wondered just how much to tell them about what that last mile held: relief with a short dive into the orchard but then the final climb, steep on a cyclocross-style course up the grassy hill to the finish. It seemed almost sadistic at the end of an 8 hour (or more) bike race. Based on the defeated look on the faces of most of the riders after finishing that gravel ramp to our tent it seemed best to let them feel a sense of relief for a brief moment. Or, if it looked like they could handle it, give them a heads up with “Just one more hill to go!”
Why do people choose to bike 110 miles on a hot August day in Iowa?
In my experience with endurance challenges, be it a race you signed up for or a something you’re undertaking alone, the appeal could be boiled down to a couple thoughts1:
The process of improving to the point where something that seemed impossible is now manageable, even if still scary
Having an experience with yourself and with the world around you, and sometimes your community, in a very focused way
There was a marked difference if those early 100 mile finishers compared to the end of the 50 milers who were finishing at the same time. Some flew up the hill to the orchard at a shocking pace for someone who had been riding all day. Some had all but given up on pedaling up the climb and walked their bike. From my shady spot on the side of the road both looked equally triumphant.
This is, of course, far from an exhaustive list.