Note: this post is about my first-ever Dirty Kanza 200 experience on June 4, 2016.
Read Part II – Prep / Training
Part III – Friday
Read Part VI – Hitting The Wall
Read Part VII – Checkpoint Two
Read Part VIII – Checkpoint Three
The day before the race was a blur. So many loose ends. Started with a phone call when I flared on Gregg. I’ll gloss over the details (to spare the victims) but can assure you there were heroics on this day.
Somehow Kelly and I managed to make it to the riders meeting in Emporia by 5pm.
What? The 200 mile race is actually 206 miles?
which made us kind of thirsty…
Mulready’s gave us a warm welcome after the 5p riders meeting
Had a nice dinner at Bruff’s and off for the last bit of preparations. We’d heard it was the best steakhouse in town and my KC strip did not disappoint. Something said during dinner, hung in the air for me. Once upon a time, one of us ordered steak the night before a big race and suffered GI distress because of it.
“That won’t happen to me,” I confidently stated.
Somewhere while dotting all those i’s and crossing them t’s I forgot about getting a good nights sleep. It was well past midnight before I laid and two hours past that before the sleep.
Disappointed. I had a 25 miler plotted that would have taken the edge off. It went out and back along the DK routes. A hard lesson learned. Arrive two days early. Do the prep on Thursday. Leave Friday for some R&R.
Next Post: Part IV – Starting Line
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