MBC 2017 - Stage 2, 3, and 4
My adventure continues. It starts to go downhill from here.
2017.08.14
Stage 2
I knew this was going to be the toughest day out of all. Labelled as the 'Queen Stage', I began to seriously worry whether or not I'd make the cut off time of 10 hours. I woke up with stiff legs but felt ok overall.
I had a bigger breakfast than the morning before and went to the start line feeling a bit more confident. I told the other guys I rode with that I was planning for a slow day.
When we took off I felt better than I thought. I rode in a faster group than the day prior and thought that I was going to have a good day. That quickly changed once I saw the first climb of the day. A large mountain stood in front of us and there was a long line of riders going up. Some struggling to pedal up, while others simply walking the bike up. I tried to go as far as I could pedal up. I decided to save energy for the rest of the day and walked up.
Little did I know that this would be the first of many miles that I would walk on stage 2.
I only took one picture on this day. My body and mind began to break down the rest of the way.
It took me 9 hours to finish this stage. 9 hours on the bike. 9 hours in the sun. 9 hours in the vast, empty steppes of Mongolia.
Without the support of Rob, Shun, Choon, and Dave (from the U.S.), I would not have finished this stage. They pushed me (literally) and motivated me to get up each and every hill. I can't even remember how many hills I went up and over. But what I can recall is how it never ended. As soon as you crested one hill, you saw that there were many, many more that you would have to do until the finish line would appear.
On one of the descents, I crashed. I just lost focus, saw a crevice in the trail a bit too late, went right, saw a rock, then down I went. I was ok. My pride was ok. But my phone wasn't. That wasn't a concern of mine. I hopped back on and continued.
After a certain point, I was dropped by the group up a climb. I don't know why, but I began to tear up. I began to question, 'Am I not strong enough to do this?' I didn't want the answer to be no. I didn't want to give up. I thought about all the people who supported me and I knew I had to fight on. I caught up with my group and we continued on.
At some point in the race we all split. At the last refill station I thought I was done. One of the supporters wanted to double check that I was ok. I must have looked like a ghost. I have no recollection of the rest of the race. I checked out. It was hot. It was brutal.
I checked back in on the last climb of the day. It sucked. I stopped every 100 meters or so up. I began to worry about the time cut off. I put my head down, closed my eyes, and wobbled my way up that last mountain. I saw the finish camp and the rest was history.
I don't know how I managed to finish, but I was proud of myself.
Blood, sweat, and tears. I left it all out there on this day.
Everything changed during the night. My body gave up.
The ice cold shower was an unwelcoming experience for the 2nd day in a row.
I felt like I had a fever. I had chills throughout the night. I couldn't eat much for dinner.
My legs didn't hurt too bad and my fitness felt fine. Something wasn't right. I went to sleep hoping that I'd wake up and feel ok.
2017.08.15
Stage 3
I woke up and felt even worse than I did at night. I slowly made my way to the canteen for breakfast. I still couldn't eat. I tried to stomach what I could then changed into my kit. When I rode to the line, I felt dizzy. I told my group that this probably wasn't going to be my day.
Right as we took off, my day was over. I tried my best to fight through it.
10km later after the first climb of the day, it was done. I let the medic know that I was done.
I left my bike for the sweeper to pick up and hopped in the medic shame train.
I wasn't disappointed. I knew it was the right decision. I don't know how much further I could have made it. Perhaps I could have carried on more. Perhaps I would have eventually felt better. I'll never know because I quit.
Perhaps I regret quitting in hindsight, but in the moment it felt good. I recovered a bit and was able to enjoy the landscape of Mongolia for the first time. I took in the sights and smelled the 'fresh' air. I cheered on the other riders and supported the in any way that I could. Although I was a loser for not finishing, I wouldn't allow myself to be a complete loser.
The ride in the vehicle was great. The pictures and sights that I saw were breathtaking.
We arrived at camp and immediately when I hopped off of the shame train I felt like a loser. I hung my head in shame as I looked for my bag and tent. I thought it was going to be a rough night. It would be the first and only night that we didn't sleep in a Ger and also the only night without a shower.
As it turned out, bathing in the river was better than all the other showers. The water was cold, but not as ice cold as the showers. The flow of the river was strong and it was nice to just lay down and soak it all in.
Even better was the food. Catered by a restaurant located in Ulaan Baatar, Rosewood, we had a feast. Moroccan chicken, couscous, pita bread, and a wonderful soup filled our stomachs. We were even given small apple pies as dessert! It was a huge morale boost.
The sleeping situation was less than ideal. We slept in military-styled tents on an uneven surface. Since I didn't finish riding, I had more than enough energy and air in my lungs to blow up my mattress for the night. We were placed on a slight incline. In the middle of the night I woke up due to cold feet (literally). It turns out that I had slid down the slope and my legs were poking out from underneath the tent. I found the humor in the situation and had a little laugh. It turns out that Mashu experienced a similar situation as well.
It was also the first night that I had to use the toilet during the middle of the night. They made make-shift outhouses near our tents. By near I mean quite far, especially in the dark at night. I got out my torch and made the lonely cold walk. When I sat down on the seat over the hole, I laughed. This is a strange experience. Here I am sitting over a hole at 1am in the dark in Mongolia. I finished up and stumbled my way back to my tent trying to make as little noise as possible so as not to disturb my tentmates.
For what it's worth, my ride from Stage 3
2017.08.15
Stage 4
I woke up to the sound of horses neighing. It sounded like they were right outside of the tent. They weren't that close, but they were just across the jeep road. I felt great. Well, sort of. My back hurt a little from the uneven ground and I was a little cold. But what could have been better than waking up in the Mongolian wilderness next to a pack of wild horses? The answer on that morning was nothing. It was this sense of freedom and being surrounded by nature that gave me energy on this day.
The food, again catered by Rosewood, was the best breakfast we had as well. Warm oats, eggs, sausages, potatoes, and toast. It sounds like a simple meal and simple it was. But the heartiness of it felt right in the stomach.
Right before the start I realized I didn't know where my helmet was. I left it with my bike when I abandoned the previous day. I asked one of the race directors Roberto if he knew. He didn't, but he made efforts to locate it for me. Thanks to him, my helmet was found and I was ready to go.
This was a strange day. I got dropped very quickly from any group and found myself towards the back. I wasn't having a good morning. My ass hurt like crazy and the first 10km or so was over an extremely rocky terrain. I was having a miserable time. I dismounted and got really angry at my hard tail bike. I wished in that moment I had some full squish. I got back on and just managed to hammer the rest of the way.
The first refill station came sooner than I thought. It was a pleasant surprise and it brought my mood up. It's here that I'd like to acknowledge the Spanish support crew who cheered me on like crazy. I learned a new word out of it, animo. And fight on I did. It was a great feeling to have people support you when continuing on seems impossible.
After the refill station I found myself back into the treeless valleys of Mongolia. Somehow this was comforting. I knew there would be no more rocks. I knew my ass could have a brief moment of rest.
I spent the next 6 or so hours alone. All of my rides in Japan have been solo. But this was different. I was truly alone. It was a strange experience, a strange feeling to be alone. It was scary, yet enlightening. I had time to talk to myself. I had time to learn about myself. Random thoughts crept through my head. I thought about various places in Japan, various places in Hawaii. My mind was at work too keep the focus off of the pain.
Then the clouds rolled in. The thunder boomed. The rain came. I only had a light rain jacket that is useless in anything other than a light sprinkle.
I became soaked. The rain came down harder and harder. It was freezing cold. I'm even convinced that for a moment, the rain had turned into hail. The hail stung my skin. I couldn't feel my hands, couldn't feel my feet. It was awful. The entire trail had flooded. I couldn't see in front of me, I couldn't see anything. The water splashed into my face. I swallowed some of it. It was bad.
I thought I could die. If the rain didn't stop, would I make it? If I stop now and hide under my emergency blanket, would I survive?
I looked at my HR and saw it was relatively low, at 148bpm. I knew that to stay warm, I'd have to burn a match here. I ramped it up to 165, back to tempo. I hammered through the rain, passed another rider and before I knew it, I had covered a lot of ground and escaped the rain.
It became hot again and I eventually came across a group comprised of the tough Swedish riders. One of their riders had fallen. I stayed with them for a bit just to make sure that they would be ok. They were tough, of course they were ok. We rode on and I locked into a tempo that saw me drop them before we even rode 1 km together.
The rest of the ride remains a blur. I remember coming to the last refill station. He instructed that there were only 28km left of flat trails left. 28km sounded like 1km in my mind by that point. I took off. Passed a few more riders and before I knew it, saw the Ger camp for the day in the distance. My hours alone were finally coming to an end.
I felt good coming into the camp for that night. The facilities looked modern and the Ger was nice. Again, the showers were ice cold. At this point it wasn't even a problem. The food however, wasn't so great. I ate lunch. Mystery meat and mystery meat soup. My guess would be that the mystery meat was mutton. I was so hungry that it tasted just fine at the moment. As night and dinner approached, my stomach disagreed with the taste.
The clouds followed us to the new Ger camp and it rained throughout the night. It wasn't the only liquid that was passing through. So was the stuff coming out of my body. Throughout that night, I visited the toilet at least 8 times. It wasn't pleasant. I couldn't sleep well, my stomach hurt. It was a bad night. Add to all this, our Ger in particular leaked. A few things got wet and we had some unwelcome friends throughout the night.
It was a long night. I knew the outlook for the following morning wasn't looking bright. If the clouds remained overhead, it indeed was not going to be a bright morning.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger (K. Clarkson, 2011)
2017.08.14
Stage 2
I knew this was going to be the toughest day out of all. Labelled as the 'Queen Stage', I began to seriously worry whether or not I'd make the cut off time of 10 hours. I woke up with stiff legs but felt ok overall.
I had a bigger breakfast than the morning before and went to the start line feeling a bit more confident. I told the other guys I rode with that I was planning for a slow day.
 |
| at the start of stage 2 |
Little did I know that this would be the first of many miles that I would walk on stage 2.
 |
| pictures can never capture the true severity of a slope. while this looks flat, believe me, it was not. |
It took me 9 hours to finish this stage. 9 hours on the bike. 9 hours in the sun. 9 hours in the vast, empty steppes of Mongolia.
Without the support of Rob, Shun, Choon, and Dave (from the U.S.), I would not have finished this stage. They pushed me (literally) and motivated me to get up each and every hill. I can't even remember how many hills I went up and over. But what I can recall is how it never ended. As soon as you crested one hill, you saw that there were many, many more that you would have to do until the finish line would appear.
On one of the descents, I crashed. I just lost focus, saw a crevice in the trail a bit too late, went right, saw a rock, then down I went. I was ok. My pride was ok. But my phone wasn't. That wasn't a concern of mine. I hopped back on and continued.
After a certain point, I was dropped by the group up a climb. I don't know why, but I began to tear up. I began to question, 'Am I not strong enough to do this?' I didn't want the answer to be no. I didn't want to give up. I thought about all the people who supported me and I knew I had to fight on. I caught up with my group and we continued on.
At some point in the race we all split. At the last refill station I thought I was done. One of the supporters wanted to double check that I was ok. I must have looked like a ghost. I have no recollection of the rest of the race. I checked out. It was hot. It was brutal.
I checked back in on the last climb of the day. It sucked. I stopped every 100 meters or so up. I began to worry about the time cut off. I put my head down, closed my eyes, and wobbled my way up that last mountain. I saw the finish camp and the rest was history.
I don't know how I managed to finish, but I was proud of myself.
Blood, sweat, and tears. I left it all out there on this day.
Everything changed during the night. My body gave up.
The ice cold shower was an unwelcoming experience for the 2nd day in a row.
I felt like I had a fever. I had chills throughout the night. I couldn't eat much for dinner.
My legs didn't hurt too bad and my fitness felt fine. Something wasn't right. I went to sleep hoping that I'd wake up and feel ok.
2017.08.15
Stage 3
I woke up and felt even worse than I did at night. I slowly made my way to the canteen for breakfast. I still couldn't eat. I tried to stomach what I could then changed into my kit. When I rode to the line, I felt dizzy. I told my group that this probably wasn't going to be my day.
Right as we took off, my day was over. I tried my best to fight through it.
10km later after the first climb of the day, it was done. I let the medic know that I was done.
I left my bike for the sweeper to pick up and hopped in the medic shame train.
I wasn't disappointed. I knew it was the right decision. I don't know how much further I could have made it. Perhaps I could have carried on more. Perhaps I would have eventually felt better. I'll never know because I quit.
Perhaps I regret quitting in hindsight, but in the moment it felt good. I recovered a bit and was able to enjoy the landscape of Mongolia for the first time. I took in the sights and smelled the 'fresh' air. I cheered on the other riders and supported the in any way that I could. Although I was a loser for not finishing, I wouldn't allow myself to be a complete loser.
The ride in the vehicle was great. The pictures and sights that I saw were breathtaking.
We arrived at camp and immediately when I hopped off of the shame train I felt like a loser. I hung my head in shame as I looked for my bag and tent. I thought it was going to be a rough night. It would be the first and only night that we didn't sleep in a Ger and also the only night without a shower.
As it turned out, bathing in the river was better than all the other showers. The water was cold, but not as ice cold as the showers. The flow of the river was strong and it was nice to just lay down and soak it all in.
Even better was the food. Catered by a restaurant located in Ulaan Baatar, Rosewood, we had a feast. Moroccan chicken, couscous, pita bread, and a wonderful soup filled our stomachs. We were even given small apple pies as dessert! It was a huge morale boost.
 |
| our campsite from afar |
 |
| finish line and organizer tents |
 |
| campsite in the middle of nowhere |
 |
| a few of the many vehicles that support us |
 |
| a wonderful dinner that i still dream about |
The sleeping situation was less than ideal. We slept in military-styled tents on an uneven surface. Since I didn't finish riding, I had more than enough energy and air in my lungs to blow up my mattress for the night. We were placed on a slight incline. In the middle of the night I woke up due to cold feet (literally). It turns out that I had slid down the slope and my legs were poking out from underneath the tent. I found the humor in the situation and had a little laugh. It turns out that Mashu experienced a similar situation as well.
It was also the first night that I had to use the toilet during the middle of the night. They made make-shift outhouses near our tents. By near I mean quite far, especially in the dark at night. I got out my torch and made the lonely cold walk. When I sat down on the seat over the hole, I laughed. This is a strange experience. Here I am sitting over a hole at 1am in the dark in Mongolia. I finished up and stumbled my way back to my tent trying to make as little noise as possible so as not to disturb my tentmates.
For what it's worth, my ride from Stage 3
2017.08.15
Stage 4
I woke up to the sound of horses neighing. It sounded like they were right outside of the tent. They weren't that close, but they were just across the jeep road. I felt great. Well, sort of. My back hurt a little from the uneven ground and I was a little cold. But what could have been better than waking up in the Mongolian wilderness next to a pack of wild horses? The answer on that morning was nothing. It was this sense of freedom and being surrounded by nature that gave me energy on this day.
The food, again catered by Rosewood, was the best breakfast we had as well. Warm oats, eggs, sausages, potatoes, and toast. It sounds like a simple meal and simple it was. But the heartiness of it felt right in the stomach.
 |
| our canteen |
 |
| a nice breakfast |
This was a strange day. I got dropped very quickly from any group and found myself towards the back. I wasn't having a good morning. My ass hurt like crazy and the first 10km or so was over an extremely rocky terrain. I was having a miserable time. I dismounted and got really angry at my hard tail bike. I wished in that moment I had some full squish. I got back on and just managed to hammer the rest of the way.
The first refill station came sooner than I thought. It was a pleasant surprise and it brought my mood up. It's here that I'd like to acknowledge the Spanish support crew who cheered me on like crazy. I learned a new word out of it, animo. And fight on I did. It was a great feeling to have people support you when continuing on seems impossible.
After the refill station I found myself back into the treeless valleys of Mongolia. Somehow this was comforting. I knew there would be no more rocks. I knew my ass could have a brief moment of rest.
 |
| alone |
Then the clouds rolled in. The thunder boomed. The rain came. I only had a light rain jacket that is useless in anything other than a light sprinkle.
I became soaked. The rain came down harder and harder. It was freezing cold. I'm even convinced that for a moment, the rain had turned into hail. The hail stung my skin. I couldn't feel my hands, couldn't feel my feet. It was awful. The entire trail had flooded. I couldn't see in front of me, I couldn't see anything. The water splashed into my face. I swallowed some of it. It was bad.
I thought I could die. If the rain didn't stop, would I make it? If I stop now and hide under my emergency blanket, would I survive?
I looked at my HR and saw it was relatively low, at 148bpm. I knew that to stay warm, I'd have to burn a match here. I ramped it up to 165, back to tempo. I hammered through the rain, passed another rider and before I knew it, I had covered a lot of ground and escaped the rain.
 |
| the skies cleared |
 |
| mr. koala got dirty on stage 4 |
It became hot again and I eventually came across a group comprised of the tough Swedish riders. One of their riders had fallen. I stayed with them for a bit just to make sure that they would be ok. They were tough, of course they were ok. We rode on and I locked into a tempo that saw me drop them before we even rode 1 km together.
The rest of the ride remains a blur. I remember coming to the last refill station. He instructed that there were only 28km left of flat trails left. 28km sounded like 1km in my mind by that point. I took off. Passed a few more riders and before I knew it, saw the Ger camp for the day in the distance. My hours alone were finally coming to an end.
I felt good coming into the camp for that night. The facilities looked modern and the Ger was nice. Again, the showers were ice cold. At this point it wasn't even a problem. The food however, wasn't so great. I ate lunch. Mystery meat and mystery meat soup. My guess would be that the mystery meat was mutton. I was so hungry that it tasted just fine at the moment. As night and dinner approached, my stomach disagreed with the taste.
The clouds followed us to the new Ger camp and it rained throughout the night. It wasn't the only liquid that was passing through. So was the stuff coming out of my body. Throughout that night, I visited the toilet at least 8 times. It wasn't pleasant. I couldn't sleep well, my stomach hurt. It was a bad night. Add to all this, our Ger in particular leaked. A few things got wet and we had some unwelcome friends throughout the night.
 |
| leaky roof |
 |
| cheeky frogs seeking shelter |
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