Marji 2024. Best Bonk Ever!

 The pain has faded enough that I can say the race was amazing. It was a great time. I felt I was as ready as I could be. I had trained diligently and felt I had the mental part dialed. 

I was ready to carry my bike across the finish line at 25 hours with a fractured leg. I figured that was worst case scenario, so anything better then that would be a victory. 

The first 20 or so miles were easy and light, fun was being had. I got to see most of group 11 and that was awesome. Once we left Jackson park the first time is when the race would really start. We immediately went down two flights of concrete steps and my bike made an awful noise. I decided  it was still rolling so “out of sight, out of mind”. This would be the first mistake of the day. The noise continued on technical decents and then soon it quieted and turned into an odd rubbing noise. I stopped to investigate and found that I had lost a bolt in my suspension bolt from my rear triangle. Nothing to stress about. I’ve got 856 zip ties with me and a roll of duct tape. No damage was done so I’ll fix it. I put 5 zip ties on it, but 3 immediately broke. So two were hanging on good. I text a picture to my Mudslingers Endurance Coaching Kristen Wade and she replied “Al Wade will meet you at the next road crossing and figure something out”. Whew good news. I slowly rolled into the next road crossing. Felt like it took about an hour.Al was rite there at the trail opening waiting for me. I sat in the shade eating and drinking and worry free because I had 100% confidence Al would handle it. And if not, then we walk, tons of other bad ass athletes are out there running, I can walk for a day. Al took every bolt out of their van until he came up with a small allen bolt through the cassette side, over sized nut used as a spacer, and tightened with a captured nut. The Allen head was only a hair away from the cassette. You can’t even see the space I between. But it operated perfectly. That took an hour but I was well recovered and ready to rip. 

I headed back into the trail, it was getting pretty technical and chunky. Mostly hike and bike. I then started getting passed by the 100 mile race leaders. That was cool to see those guys gaining speed up the stuff I was hiking. It’s about 2:30 now, been racing since 8. An hour or two later I caught up with Rick, Miguel and Erin on some pavement. Erin had taken a tumble and was covered in red dirt and had some blood on her face. Looked cool as fuck. They were going to take a long stop on a side street where Melissa was waiting with food and chairs. I decided to press on thinking my support crew was justtttttt around the corner, and I’d recover there. 

Mistake number 2 for the day. I missed my crew and not having gps, I had no idea where I was. After riding for 2 more hours without eating I realized I had missed them and would just meet at Jackson park the second time. I knew I was messing up and cruising for a bonk but I just wanted to get to Jackson park and sit against a tree for a while. 

I got to Jackson park at 5:30. Grabbed a Reese’s from the chaos station and tried to lick it. No go, food isn’t going to stay down anymore. No problem, adapt and over come. I sat for an hour and drank a whole 24 oz Powerade. I was feeling great. Grabbed a pocket grilled cheese and headed into the last 18 miles at 6:15. I was passed shortly on a technical ascent; that I was walking, by a guy riding it……. At this point in the race if someone passes you riding their bike… they are badass 100 milers. So I let him pass and he hops off to walk a particular rooty section. …. That’s odd. So he asks what I’m racing, I tell him the 50, then I say “you a 100 mile guy”?. He says no 200!!!😮. I’m like holy shit your amazing can I offer you anything?? He declined and we proceeded to ride and chat until the last aid station (suicude bowl road). This was his second 200 mile Marji, he completed the last one when he was 55. This year he was 60. He hadn’t slept in 40 hours and never stopped more than 20 minutes. He was awesome. We talked about my training and my future plans and that I was going to race the 200 with him in 5 years. …… no idea what his name was 😂. But that was awesome. 

I got to suicude bowl road and saw my support team. The pain cave was creeping in and the bonk was inevitable. I had about 12 miles left. But also probably 2500 feet of elevation. But I’ve bonked at Mohican before and made it 15 miles so we’ve been here. We trained for this. Ain’t no thang. 

I pressed on and the bonk came. Hard. The terrain was insane, it was dark now and I was crawling up the climbs and usually the downhills were huge rolling rocks I wasn’t willing to risk riding. Luckily shortly after that we got out of that trail system and it seemed to be more of rocky washed out atv roads. Much easier to hike and bike than the rocks. About this time the only thing I could consume was water but it made me very nauseous. Shortly after this I started dry heaving uncontrollably. And nothing came out. My heart rate felt like it was over 200 and I had bad cramps. 

Ok chill out. We trained. We’re not quitting, we’re gunna finish. We’ve got like 10 more hours to finish. So I went off the trail, turned off my lights and laid on my back. Heart rate lowered and I kept dripping water in my mouth then spitting it out because I couldn’t swallow. It felt great though. About 30 minutes later I got up and headed out. I then got to the last checkpoint and sat against a tree to really take my time putting this token in my pack. About 8 more riders appeared and did the same thing. We then start hearing bear/cougar growling noises. At first it could have been real but then I realized it was on a loop and I could smell smoke. We were close to the lake party and they had a fire and definitely a speaker playing bear noises. The other riders were freaking out. I wasn’t able to talk but I felt good that I was still there enough mentally to know there was no bear. 

We then rolled into the lake party shortly after. I stayed about 10 minutes and got two sips of coke to stay in. They told me 12 more miles. …. Fuck. Slight panic. Press on. I continued my hiking and every time I saw a turn off trail I would take it about 50 feet and lay down for a while dripping water in my mouth…… I found I had to hide from the other riders because they were so kind and generous; they would all ask me stuff and offer stuff and I couldn’t talk well so it was easier to not be seen. I knew I was fine, this was just my new process. Gotta lay down, lower the heart and wet my mouth. Then we could make another climb or two then repeat. 

It was around 10 o clock now and I used my last tiny bit of dexterity/energy to send my support crew an update: I’m good. After midnight finish. 

I knew that was the last communication I’d be able to correctly muster up. I was close to that not being able to spell and shaking phase of the bonk and anymore weird misspelled messages would just worry them. 

I continued on repeating my resting strategy and enjoying looking at the stars and listening to the conversations of passing  riders.around this time during one of my rests I was passed by coach Carey Lowery. She was cruising fast and smashing a climb. I yelled out coach Carey and attempted a marriage proposal but the words didn’t connect 😂. 

Shortly after a guy passed me and said I had 5 miles left and briefly explained the terrain. It was rough but doable. Those riders took off and I meandered along. I came up on a runner who was wincing with every step and wouldn’t lift his head up. I passed him and then needed a break at the top of the next climb, I sat down to rest. That runner made his way up to me. He sat down next to me and I saw Tara’s 906 bib! Are you Nick?? He said yeah. 

Nick ran the 373 mile crusher in July and was now under 5 miles away from finishing the 100 mile Marji run. This guys a fuckin legend. 

I offered him anything I had. He laughed and declined. We introduced ourselves and proceeded on. 

I now would pass nick, make a climb and a descent and then lay down until he passed me. I’d then get up and pass him and whisper something like “love you nick, see you soon” he’d mutter a half chuckle and we repeated this for a while. He was an inspiration 

Then came a long downhill and I had lost him for good. I then made it up to some devil lady on the top of a hill offering candy but saying “how’s your Marji experience” and “only 5 miles left” . I was praying this was just a mean spirited rotten lady who was lying through her teeth and we did not have 5 more miles. 

A bit after this I popped out into a road and had a false sense of hope maybe that lady was jasper knob and this was the road with houses I see in the videos that goes to the finish. 

That was short lived as I immediately turned onto Jasper road and saw an arrow going into the woods. Well shucks here’s jasper knob. I sat down 3 times on the hike up jasper knob. The tank was way past empty. I got to the top and got my sour apple dum dum. Rested for a long time and then slowly rode downhill to the finish. Since I was all wet from sweat and had nothing in my body I was shivering uncontrollably on the downhills. So I took it slow and didn’t mind everyone passing me to finish. 

I rolled across the finish at 1:16ish. Told my mom and my sister (my support crew) that I couldn’t talk. I’m fine. It’s a process. I was greeted by my coach Al who had fixed my bike! That was great. I mustered up a smile for a picture. Then fist bumped coach Kristen, Took a picture with my green dot. Reminded Todd that I was the guy who used the hashtags #whostodd and #neverheardofher and he had replied to that with “you better fucking finish”. He remembered me and smiled congratulated me and gave me a fist bump. 

I now was reminded that my knee hurts really bad. That flared up a few hours back. So I limped to the car and we drove back to the air bnb. Stopped once and dry heaved for a while on the side of the road. Made it to the air bnb and pretty much crawled to the shower, washed a little, dry heaved a bunch. And made it to bed. 

Slept 5 hours and drank a bottle of water and I felt much better. The 10 hour drive home was a breeze because i was the passenger and it didn’t involve my bike 😂. After 17 hours pushing that thing, a10 car ride was blissful. 

I burned 9800 calories and lost 9 pounds. I had 13 hours 6 minutes moving time and 17 hours 16 minutes elapsed time. I spent a lot of time laying on the ground. 

All in all it was amazing. I loved it. 

Long story but amazing experience. Highly recommend

I can’t thank my wife and family enough for supporting me and my absolutely incredible coaching. They had me sofa king prepared there wasn’t a chance I wasn’t going to finish. Also the shenanigans crew with the chaos station and the pre Marji meeting and all the support crew stops, just unbelievably great people. 

And group 11, you know who you are. Best friends for life!