Heck of the North

This past Saturday was the Heck of the North in Duluth. I had heard good things about it but was never able to make it till this year. I knew that the course was relatively flat but had plenty of challenges along the way. My original plan was to drive up late on Friday and sleep in the car. This got scrapped when I wasn't able to drop the kids off until 8pm. I decided to stay home and just go to sleep early and wake up at 4:15am. This had me a little worried because if anything went awry it could mean missing the race. I packed the car up with everything except my bike so that I could just wake up, grab a couple things and go. I fell asleep early  and got up right on time. I noticed though that I did not plug my phone in knew that it would cause a couple issues. I then grabbed a Monster and hit the road. As I was on 35 I saw a cop pulled over a guy and was giving him the DUI test. I then did a wallet check and realized that I had forgotten mine. I did a quick pros/cons thought and decided to turn around on 36. Now I started to stress a bit about being there by the 7:30 registration deadline. I got home, grabbed my wallet and headed out again. I normally drive fast, but now I made it a point to drive fast. I cruised at 80mph almost the entire way and made it to the lot about 7:20am. I felt relieved and got ready to ride.

The race start was a little warmer than I expected, which was nice so I only wore a long sleeve shirt to keep me warm for a bit. We did about a 2 mile roll out and then the race was on. I was able to stay with the lead pack till about mile 7 where it got too fast for me. At mile 8 there was an eight foot pipe in the middle of the road. Some people choose to walk around it, while others were trying to go over it. I was about to go over when I remembered that the bottom of my shoes are a hardened plastic and would not grip well, and decided to go around. As I was waiting to get across the creek, I saw two people trying to go over fall flat on their face. I was now very happy I didn't try and go over.

Not too long after that we were on to snowmobile trails. I started with a big group of people but they were hopping off of their bikes frequently and messing with my "flow" so I decided to stop and turn my headphones on and let them spread out. This worked pretty well. I caught back up to the group and was able to pass all of them before we exited back onto the gravel.

From there it was a pretty standard ride. Just before the checkpoint the wash boarding in the road that had been sporadically present was now unavoidable. It slowed my pace of 16-17mph to 13-14. After the checkpoint and off the road (I think it is called Drummond) the wash boarding became minimal again. 

We hit another section of snowmobile trail that was a little rocky, but once again a lot of fun. It's always good to break up the monotony of strictly gravel roads. Once we turned back on to gravel I took the opportunity to snap this photo: 

Off in the distance is Lake Superior. I think we had about 20 miles to go at this point.

Making my way to the finish my legs felt good and was decided to push a little harder. I stopped at mile 91 to get some water from some kids cheering us on. It's always nice to get some cold water. Shortly after that I was flagged down by a lady holding a clipboard and almost didn't stop because I thought she wanted me to take a survey. Turns out, there was a power line down up ahead and we needed to be rerouted.

From there I kept a good pace and other than a little walking up Pleasant View finished strong.

My time was 7 hours and 25 minutes, a personal best.

The event was very well organized and I had a great time. Thanks to all the volunteers that make these events so great! The organizers always seem to go above and beyond expectations.