HooDoo you think you are?

"Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self." -GAO XINGJIAN

But what happens when that dream becomes reality? Certainly, living the dream has to make life more real. Or at least it will make life seem more real. Why not chase your dreams and find out for sure? I'll certainly try!

Some time in the spring of 2007, I first heard of a new race coming up that summer; the HooDoo 500. For some reason, the name of the race was calling out to me. The allure of riding through the hoodoo country of southern Utah was a siren call that could not be ignored for long. Last year though, I did not think that I was ready for it. I had only done two doubles, and nothing longer. Surely a quintuple century would take a bit more training and preparation than that! So I talked myself out of trying for the inaugural iteration of the event.

Coming into 2008, I only had a few goals in cycling: to do more than 3 doubles and to go faster than my record at the Eastern Sierra. Early on, I focused more on speed; spending time on the track, and just generally trying to get faster. By the time early March came around, I was way behind on my mileage for the year. And then something miraculous happened: I met Joan, and suddenly I found the inspiration that I needed to go for some of the crazier events in ultra cycling. The Devil Mountain Double, the Central Coast Double, the Davis Double, and the Eastern Sierra Double all went well. I even beat my best time at the ESD by nearly an hour. And then Joan and I did the triple century option at the LA Grand Tour. Suddenly, I thought I might have what it would take to go for something longer. Naturally, I came back to going for the HooDoo 500. Finally, I worked up the courage and dropped my entry in the mail. No more excuses!

Coming into the race, my only goal was to finish within the time limit. To even do that would require some sort of super-human effort compared to anything else I have ever done!

Soon enough, I found myself at 5:00 PM on a Thursday loading my bike into a rental van and getting ready to head out. My dad had picked me up at work, and then we went off to pick Joan up at her place. With the van loaded to its gills, we headed out of town. Past San Luis Reservoir and through Bakersfield, we drove into the night, making it to the Motel 6 in Mojave to rest for the night. In the morning, we continued on through the desert of California, Nevada and Arizona before finally reaching Saint George early in the afternoon.

After getting ice and water, we checked into the Motel 6 and then Joan and I headed out for dinner at Benja Thai. Would you believe that there is actually a rather good Thai place in a town like Saint George? There Pad Thai wasn't great, but the Panang Curry was right up there in quality with the better places I've been to here in the Bay Area. And the atmosphere is also rather nice.

After dinner, we headed off to check-in and the pre-race meeting. And after not long, we were heading off to sleep. And for once I got a decent night's rest the night before an event! Even so, the alarm went off far too early (5:30). And then I was running through the shower, and changing for the start of the race at 7:00.

The 48 hours that followed were a bit of a blur, and there's no way that I could even hope to get everything in the proper order. So I won't really try to do that. I'll just go through some of the thoughts that flittered through my mind, and some of of the scenery that I rode through.

Once the race was on, most of the people took off. One guy even turned to me and said, "What's their hurry?" Good question! We still had 513 miles to go! I certainly wasn't about to go rushing off and run myself into the ground. I set off on my own pace, and figured that the miles would take care of themselves.

After leaving Saint George, the route goes up through Washington and down through Hurricane. From there down into Arizona, on some of the nicest roads you could hope to ride. One bit of scenery that impressed me along this section was the series of sandstone cliffs that seem to mark the Utah-Arizona border. It's almost like the cliffs are there to keep outsiders out of Utah. You can see why the area wasn't heavily settled until the Mormon's settled around the Great Salt Lake. It must have been quite imposing, even compared to the desert of northern Arizona! From Fredonia, the route turns north towards Kanab (Time Station #1, 82.2 miles- 12:26 PM (5:26 race time)). From here it's a long steady climb up into the heart of "color country". You really could not ask for a better place to be riding on a beautiful afternoon in September. The colors in the cliffs are a spectacular background for riding.

After passing through the town of Hatch, the route turns east on state route 12 through Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon (time station #2 154.2 miles, 18:43, 11:43 race time). The scenery just seemed to get better and better along the course, and Red Canyon just might be the most spectacular place I've ever ridden through. Or is that just me beginning to feel the 145 miles I had already ridden?

After a fast descent through the edge of Bryce Canyon, we headed through the towns of Tropic and Escalante. Once past Escalante, the first major climb of the race begins. And it seems to go on forever! Once my support vehicle caught back up to me (fortunately, right at sunset so I didn't have to ride illegally at night without lights!) I mounted my lights and started the drudgery of riding at night. Riding with a car immediately behind you take a bit of getting used to. But it is made easier if you know and trust completely the person doing the driving!

At night, my speed was nowhere near what it was during the day. I kept having to stop in order to refresh my motivation to continue. I had to consume mass quantities of Mountain Dew and chips just to stay awake. The caffeine helped me stay awake, but I felt a bit like a zombie while actually riding. . After what seemed like days, I finally made it to the top of the mountain, at 9600 feet. I was thoroughly exhausted by this point, and it was 4:10 AM (21:10 into the race!). I started the descent, but realized rather quickly that I needed to stop and rest for a little bit. At 4:50, I was in the front seat of the van, and asked Joan and dad to wake me up at 5:30. It only seemed like a few minutes, but it would have to be enough to keep me going for quite a few more miles! By 6:00, I was back on my bike and blasting downhill towards Torrey, where we stopped at a gas station just before sunrise.

After resting a bit there, and getting some fresh coffee from the cafe next to the gas station; I hit the road again. At this point, I began leap-frogging with another rider named Leslie. It seemed that every time I stopped for the next few hours, she would pass me. The weather that morning was quite cold, and I was facing a headwind for much of the time. Fortunately, the wind died down shortly after I passed through Loa, and the going got a little less disheartening (Time Station 4 (285.1 miles, 8:38 AM, 25:38 at the Snuggle Inn in Loa)). After leaving town, there are a series of climbs (desert rollers!) before a nice fast descent into Koosharem.

From that town, it's a gradual downhill down past Otter Creek Reservoir, and through some lovely country to the town of Panguitch (Time Station 5, 375.0, 16:18, 33:18. This is also where I learned that half of the riders had dropped out. So it was a bit encouraging to know that I at least was still going!). This section is where I had the most problems with food and water. I just could not seem to find anything appetizing. And I just sort of suffered my way through.

After Panguitch the course begins a daunting climb up to 10620 feet above Cedar Breaks. The first part of he climb was rather hot, as the wind had died down once I left town. The suffer-fest continued! Yet somehow, I managed to keep climbing. Once Joan and Dad caught up with me, they followed behind me for the rest of the daylight hours. It did help to have them back there. Just knowing that someone was with me, even if not riding along by my side, seemed to help with the mental aspect of the ride. The most amazing thing was that the altitude did not seem to affect me at all. Perhaps this was due to the gradual ascent from 2500 feet to 10000+. Whatever it was, it is good to know that my body can still climb on the bike after 400 miles in the saddle!

As the climb wore on and day turned to night, the temperature returned to really cold. It must have dropped down into the 40s and perhaps into the upper 30s, as I was beginning to get cold even while going uphill. Fortunately, Joan really knows how to encourage me; and I was able to keep going. She even started blasting my favorite band from the CD player in the van to keep me going. It sure helped to be rocking out to The Proclaimers while suffering on my bike! Eventually I reached the top and was now faced with a long descent into Cedar City. This was by far the coldest part of the ride, and I had to stop a few times to warm myself up in the warm air from the van's heater. This whole area looks like a place well worth visiting in the daytime. Even riding under a nearly full moon, I could tell that the surround scenery was amazing!

At this point I also got to ride through a controlled burn along the side of the highway. This certainly didn't help my already irritated eyes! But I made it through and down to the time station in Cedar City (TS 6, 433.9, 22:56, 39:56). From here, the route looked easy on the elevation profile at least!

After leaving Cedar City, I was fairly surprised while stopped to see Josh and his support vehicle go by. I had no idea that he was even anywhere near me on the course. I hadn't seen them since Loa! This gave me something to chase on the long mellow climb to the west. This one really did seem to go on forever. I know I stopped a few times to make sure that the climb actually had a summit! Eventually it did end, and I then started a series of fast descents over desert rollers and through Newcastle and Enterprise. The last climb of the ride came along and for once, the climbing wasn't all that bad. Knowing that it was the last major climb helped a lot, and after it was done; everything else just kind of blended together. Eventually we came to the entrance to Snow Canyon State Park, which was where my support crew had to leave me and continue into Saint George (TS 7, 503.9, 5:28, 46:28).

Despite delirium from sleep deprivation and an incredibly sore body, I managed to find my way back even though I took a couple of wrong turns along the way. I was absolutely ecstatic when I saw the sign for the Best Western Abbey Inn. It was finally over!

After I finished and got congratulated by all of the race staff that was still around, we headed back to the Motel 6 to shower and rest a bit before the post-race banquet. It was good to eat some real food and talk to some of the other racers. It sure is amazing what some people can do! The winner's time of 30:59 was nearly 16 hours faster than mine. But he still congratulated me on finishing. And for me, that was all I had hoped for! My final time was 47:41, a mere 19 minutes before the cutoff. But how many people even have the audacity to dream of riding 519 mountainous miles inside of 48 hours?

The drive home is a bit of a blur to me, as I slept for at least half of it. I'm simply amazed that Joan was able to do so much driving on so little sleep. I only hope that I can be half of the crewperson when she does the Furnace Creek 508 that she was for me! There's no way that I could have done this rather without Joan or my dad. Someday I may try the voyager division, but I am certainly not ready for that yet!

So dream a little dream. And then go for it!

More pictures!

http://www.joangrant.com/hoodoo08.html
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/Fueco/HooDoo%20500-%202008/

Full race report:
http://www.planetultra.com/Hoodoo500/2008Webcast/index.htm

Course Map (zoom in and out with the bar at the upper left: it works just like Google Maps!):
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2225427