Ready to Rok

A busy weekend ahead for me. My friend Jake talked me into sending in a postcard for his gravel race, the Ragnarok 105. I did a couple gravel races last fall and really enjoyed them. What threw a wrench in to matters is that soon after I sent in my postcard I received a "save the date" card for my friend Sam's wedding, on the same day. So the theme tomorrow will be timing.

I already figured that I won't have time to finish the entire race, so my plan is to make it to the second checkpoint at Lake City and drop out there. In years past this has been around the 85 mile mark, which means at the absolute slowest I need to maintain a 14 mph average if I want to make it to the wedding on time. I figure I will need a little over 2 hours to get from the race to the wedding, plus a little extra time to change and shower. Fortunately stopping home isn't too out of the way so I should be able to make that happen, although I plan to bring an extra water bottle, soap, and a towel with in case I end up crunched for time.

The 14 mph average should be attainable, since both of my gravel races so far I've held a 16 mph average, but there are several factors that could make this more difficult.

1. Rain - Which is almost guaranteed tomorrow for some or all of the race. Both of my races before have been in dry conditions, allowing for some easy drafting, visibility, and better traction. Also gear stays dry, light, and easily accessible, and cue sheets stay dry.
2. Peanut butter - Not the food, the condition that gravel can take on when it gets a nice dousing of rain such as what tonight and tomorrow has on offer. The roads get soft, slick, and very slow, and the mud sticks to your bike and everything else it hits.
3. Wind - Dropping out at Lake City means I get to all of the headwind sections of the course and stop before getting the nice tailwind blow home.
4. Springtime - Both of my previous races were in the fall, which means I had an entire summer to get used to being on the bike, now I've had only a few short weeks.

That said, the gravel roads around Red Wing are really great, and if I can see through the mud and rain well enough there are some great views on offer. Plus, if I ever start to question my sanity, I can just remember that the pro peloton will be over racing Paris-Roubaix, which sounds much worse than this race, and that my other race option for this weekend was to do a 50 mile run that started at Midnight.

I'm looking forward to an action packed day tomorrow. Epic gravel racing conditions, a fun wedding with lots of friends, food, and probably dancing. Also, this Sunday is Palm Sunday, maybe my favorite Sunday of the church year. As a kid I just loved playing with the palm branches, now I love the celebratory feel of the day. A preview of a victorious Jesus that is easier to comprehend than the eternal implications of the Easter victory. Also a reminder that earthly victories are fleeting as the Palm Sunday victory leads to holy week and apparent defeat on Good Friday.