The HellKaat Hundie is a 100 mile gravel road race which begins and ends in Dorr, Michigan. The race was previously sponsored by a local bike shop called 3rd Coast Cycles in Hudsonville, but had recently moved to 5 Lakes Brewing Company in Dorr because 3rd Coast Cycles had gone out of business. Proceeds from the race have always gone to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I had done the 50 mile option, the HellKitten Fiddie, last year, and I had won the women’s master’s division, so I was really looking forward to the race again. This year, however, I had decided to go big and do the 100 miler, not only because I thought it was a fun course, but also because I was training for Dirty Kanza on June 3rd.
Marc had broken his hip the previous fall, and he opted not to race, so I hitched a ride with our friends Kelly and Austin. Since the race was 100 miles, it was scheduled to start early, at 8:00 am. Since Michigan is on Eastern time, that meant that it would be starting 7:00 am our time, and I had to meet Kelly at his car in town at 3:45 am!
I put my bike and gear in the back of my Kia Soul on Saturday morning, April 22nd, and headed into Valparaiso to meet Kelly and Austin at the Ironwood parking lot. Both of them were on time, and both seemed to be way too wide awake for 3:45 am! We loaded the bikes onto Kelly’s Excursion with Marc’s borrowed bike rack, and off we went.
The ride to Dorr was uneventful, and I was excited to see the blue sky as the sun came up. It was predicted to be cold at the race start, 38 degrees, with the sun warming things up to the 60’s by noon. We talked about how that was going to make it difficult to know how to dress. In the end, we all opted to wear our jackets and just unzip if it got too hot. I did find myself wishing that races could be held in decent weather. Most gravel road races are held in the early spring or late fall, so cold, wind, and rain are usually the norm.
It was cold as we pulled into the 5 Lakes Brewing parking lot around 7:15 am to pick up our race packets. I had ordered some HellKaat Hundie socks for $15 to help benefit JDR, and they should have been with my racing number plate, but they weren’t. Luckily, I had the receipt on my phone and I showed the woman behind the table, and she gave me a pair of socks. The registration went very smoothly, and we were back to the car within 5 or 10 minutes.
As we walked back to the car we saw three other friends, Dave, Mark and Chris, had arrived. Austin and I got ready and rode around the rear parking lot of the brewing company to scope out the course. The starting/finish line was in a very strange location as it was in the back of the parking lot, and at first I wasn’t sure where it was. There were a few orange cones and a small tent to mark it, but it would have been easy to miss. Certainly anyone driving by on the street would have no idea a race was going on. This was in stark contrast to other races with their taped off finish lines with overhead banners. There would certainly be no fanfare or cowbells ringing at this finish line!
Austin and I rode behind the parking lot, where we immediately hit gravel after turning right out of the lot. The gravel was washboard, sandy, and rocky. I didn’t think anything of it, because the course was 100 miles and would probably be a mix of surfaces.
Soon, it was time to start and we all lined up. I had some crazy notion that I was going to be able to stay with Austin (who was racing a singlespeed), Kelly, and Dave (who were both on fatbikes) at least for a little while. I turned to Austin and Dave and asked them to give me a thumbs up. Austin put his finger up his nose and I snapped a picture.
The race was supposed to start at 8:00 am, but we finally rolled out at 8:06 am. I managed to stay behind Austin until the 50 milers turned off from the 100 milers, which I think was about 20 miles into the race. I hadn’t been checking my Garmin, so I wasn’t sure. Most of the pack that I was with turned right, and the 100 milers kept going straight. Austin had gotten a lead, and I just tried to stay focused on keeping his bright orange helmet and yellow jacket in sight. Soon, I lost sight of him as he went over a hill. When I came up over the hill, suddenly there was no one! I thought there were riders in the distance, so I kept going straight. Soon, the course dead ended at a highway. I had foolishly not loaded the course on my Garmin, so I frantically fished around in my pocket for the queue sheet. I checked the sheet and found that I had gone several miles off course, so I had to turn around. It turned out that the group in front of me had turned right after the hill and I had gone straight. By the time I had gotten back on course, I was all alone.
After I had gotten off course, I found it very hard to stay motivated. The roads were sandy and rocky, and it seemed that I was eternally treading rocks and sand up hills or steady inclines. There were no fast, fun or rolling sections. There was farm traffic that kept stirring up dust, and it seemed like the stench of manure and oil fields was endless. I found myself continually putting my buff over my mouth. This was not the same course as last year, and it certainly wasn’t fun!
I pulled into the first checkpoint at around mile 48 and I saw several girls sitting down, stretching their legs. A man with a pony tail pulled in behind me and the woman sitting at the table said “that’s the last of the men”. Great. I knew I was near the end of the pack, which of course I should have known since I went miles off course. I went into the convenience store to use the bathroom. When I got back, the woman at the table asked if she could ride my bike and try out the seat, as she had been wanting a new seat. I said “sure” as I thought “why not? I’m almost dead last anyway!”
After I got back on the bike, the man who had pulled in behind me at the checkpoint stayed with me for awhile. We soon came across the two girls and another one, who had a flat tire. They waved us on and said they were fine. I found out later these were three young girls on singlespeeds from Chicago who were also training for Kanza.
The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. The countryside was not pretty, it smelled, the roads were not fast gravel, and I felt like I was crawling. I found myself seriously wishing I had someone to ride with to motivate me, and I found myself envying those three girls, who obviously promised each other they’d stay together. At about mile 72 I became confused because I passed an intersection that wasn’t marked. I turned around and went back, then checked my queue sheet, then was relieved that I was on course.
At about mile 96 one of the girls came up from behind me. She said that she was suffering and just wanted to get it over with, so she told the girls she was with that she was sprinting to the finish. She said that she was training for Kanza, and I told her I was too. She said “I can’t believe Kanza is going to be this times two!” I told her I couldn’t believe how bad this 100 miles was making me feel, and she said “Not every day can be a good day on the bike”. That made me feel so much better! She ended up passing me and finishing in front of me by less than a minute.
I managed to come across the finish line at 7:59. I was just thankful I had managed to finish under 8 hours, considering I had gone off course. When I have a bad race, I usually say that I’ll never do it again. But then I usually end up doing it again! Would I do this course again? Probably. It’s for a great cause, and sometimes it’s just good to get your butt kicked on the bike.