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Conquering Marji Part 2 - Breaking Barriers –The Marji Gesick 200 bike

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Conquering Marji Part 2 - Breaking Barriers - Marji Gesick 200 bike

Find your limits.  Destroy them.  That’s one of the defining mottos for 906 Adventure Team and notorious Marji Gesick. The epiphany I had mid-race was that my fear was the biggest challenge of completing the Marji Gesick 200.

I expected to have a $2 bill at the finish line but I was short-changed. Life is not fair.

Jerimiah Bishop has stated that the Marji Gesick 100 is the single day hardest bike race in North America.  I wondered by doubling the distance with the out-and-back course of the 200 and having two days to finish the event, does that make the 200 harder or easier?  The only way to find the answer is to show up on the starting line.

Since 2019, I’ve pushed to expand my limits, largely due to the event I have done for the past three years on the same day as Marji, the Baby Barkley, aka the Barkley Fall Classic.  Both Laz and Todd have a desire to push the edge of human potential.  Because of Todd, I got back into ultras.  Because of Laz, I have gone farther distances and into the unknown – learning to navigate and setting multi-day Fastest Known Times (FKTs).  Although I knew I’d miss the Barkley Family, I had to return to the Marji when I had the opportunity for expanding my limits in the 200.  And the cherry on top is that by bumping up to the 200, I’d double my prize purse from 2019 (or at least I so thought)!

Mindset

With the expectation I’d be riding solo (since I’d be so far behind the field - see my pre-race blog post for details), I was prepared and didn’t mind riding by myself.  In fact, it eased my anxiety not worrying if my lack of technical bike handling would slow someone’s momentum and force them off their bike on a rideable feature.

I could feel the anxiety riding in a group.  In addition, there were several early descents where I had both wheels locked up skidding hoping I’d regain control before I rammed into a rock, root, or tree.  The intensity of each descent would not be sustainable.  Since scouting over Labor Day weekend on the trails, it had been dry; however, if this was the culprit, I feared how loose it would be on my return trip after several hundred riders ripped up the trail.  Luckily as I relaxed, I didn’t have this problem later on.

I ended up riding most of the race solo under the most bizarre circumstances.  Even after leaving Jackson Park just three hours into the race, I somehow lost the pack, that is I accidentally dropped them on Deer Shit.  Then, the unimaginable happened: the lone remaining rider rolled behind me to announce he’d be leaving me to stop for a coffee.  I couldn’t believe my ears.  It was noon, are there really coffee addicts that must stop for a coffee in the middle of the day in a race?   I ended up riding until dark by myself with the only time I saw any other riders was a rider lying in the middle of the non-technical snowmobile trail with a broken collarbone and someone waiting with him (more details in the following blog post).  At dark, I finally caught up to two riders.  Literally seconds after making contact, they both randomly stopped.  I can’t make this up! (I’d later learn out one rider was having problems turning his headlamp on.)  So then my conspiracy theory continued to build…did the guy with the broken collarbone feel me catching up and since there weren’t any coffee shops nearby, he orchestrated a way to break your collarbone instead of riding with me? 

Risk management

I found the limits of my bike shoes…and I destroyed them!

Risk management was my motto of the day(s).  In fact, I expressed it out loud dozens of times during the race and silently even more frequently as I justified dismounting time and time again.  I likely dismounted hundreds of times, and to prove it I wore out my brand new cleats that I broke in just for the event…well before the finish line.  But I managed finishing Marji without a drop of blood!

Most of my falls were embarrassingly during the hike-a-bike.  After my second near fall on an uphill where I tried to save myself by grabbing a tree, I decided it would probably just be safer and expend less energy to fall. Each time I ended up with road rash as I wrapped myself around a tree…if only the trees could talk!

Setup modifications

The dropper post was invaluable but between fearing the grit from the rain would seize it up and worrying my thumb may get too sore to activate it later in the race, I didn’t use it as much mid-race as I could have.  Regardless, I was far less fatigued than when I scouted the trails a few weeks earlier without a dropper post.

Changing the handlebar grips last minute was helpful and I only had a slight tingling in my right pinky for a few days.  This is much better than my 2012 Wausau24 experience of having two numb fingers for months on an old hardtail.  So after that experience, I was conscientious about changing my hand position, especially when I was hike-a-biking and shaking my hands when possible.

Fueling strategy

Staging my food takes up a large portion of my bedroom the week of races.

Despite a lot of ultra running experience under my belt, I knew that I may gravitate towards different fuel on this effort.  On my unsupported running FKTs, I chose the most calorie dense foods.  During long runs and adventure races when I don’t navigate I often eat foods to stave off boredom, such as individual M&Ms, peanuts, or gummies.  Since I don’t have good balance on a bike and don’t trust myself to ride without hands, granola bars and cookies in pre-opened packages that I could slide a mouthful in at a time was the way to go.  During my pre-race scouting, I noted stretches that had non-technical double track and roads where I could quickly refuel. 

I usually consume about half my calories as liquids for ultra runs, so I planned to consume 500 liquid calories contained in two bottles on my bike frame every few hours.  My goal was to have my bottles empty each time I met my crew.

Protein has become my silver bullet in recent years for long efforts.  Therefore, I consumed a boatload of protein during the event.  I estimated that I took a bottle with 60 grams of protein 12 times in a day-and-a-half.  Yes, that math says I drank nearly ten times the recommended daily dose of protein.  And my legs (and arms) felt no fatigue over that time.

Caffeine has been shown to improve reaction time by 10%, endurance by 2-5%, and power by 3-8%, with the ideal dose about 300-500mg.  I simply took caffeine during night sections to proactively stay alert and gain an edge.  Since I normally don’t consume any caffeine, I tend to err on the side of caution, so I usually don’t take caffeine more than I think is necessary.

I intentionally chose not to wear a pack.  Even though there was potential of bottles rattling out of the cages (which never did), I saw several advantages of no pack which proved useful during the event:  1) less back fatigue, since I used to get a sore back on long rides and especially since I hadn’t conditioned my body for long rides 2) heat dissipation, which was vital for day 2 when temperatures approached record highs in the mid-80s, and 3) less opportunity for getting clammy and cold overnight. 

Unique considerations

Diligently reviewing my pre-race checklist at the hotel the night before the race.

As I dove into preparations for the event, I made considerations for things unique to this event.  First, I needed to find shoes suitable for hike-a-biking.  Folks on the Marji Gesick Talk Facebook group estimated they hiked upwards of ten miles and even recommended running shoes.  I considered using my running shoes and Power Grips I use for all adventure races, but opted to dig up my first pair of bike shoes out of the attic.  After sitting for 12 years, I dumped out mouse poop and squeezed them on like one of Cinderella’s stepsisters.  Over this time, my feet had splayed with my running shoes going up 2 sizes.  In the same box was the receipt from the shoes that I bought in 2012 that replaced them and quickly decided not to spend a boatload on a pair of shoes and figured I could make these work.

The high degree of technicality gave me an advantage over most bikers with my strength being on foot for all the hike-a-bike sections.  Unfortunately, as I rode with Kristy McBride, I was brought back to the reality that a good rider is capable of riding almost all the features and I was not one of them.  But Kristy is in a class of her own, even when you throw her into the entire mix with the men.

Listening to every podcast I could find on Marji, many riders noticed fatigue in their upper body limiting them more than their legs.  I noticed slight soreness in my triceps and am thankful for my double poling workouts on rollerskis and biweekly strength sessions.  I was pleasantly surprised that my husband’s old Timex watch that is too big for my wrist (this is my only watch for the past year since I’ve been procrastinating investing into a smartwatch) took until about 30 hours before it had rattled so much that it was bruising my wrist. 

I made a Labor Day weekend trip to pre-ride the course where I learned how to use my Garmin. My previously longest ride of the summer had only been 4 ½ hours, so I built up my confidence with about 26 hours in the saddle over four days.  (Well, not quite, since I did a ton of hike-a-bike, where I came to the sobering conclusion that I didn’t have any speed advantage on foot since I was barely moving as I lugged my bike up punchy climbs or clutched my brake levers so my bike wouldn’t become a runaway train on the descents).  Despite pre-riding the entire course in the forward direction (except the private properties) and plus a bit of the course backwards, I had only covered a little over half the distance I’d be covering in a single go!  That means rather than breaking up rides, I would be on course almost a full day longer during the event, without any sleep, a sobering conclusion!  To boost my confidence, I studied my 2019 MG100 run splits to ensure I could cover the course within the cutoff time.

As I scouted, I often noted the lack of free trail.  Upon returning to the “hard” trails back home, I amused myself at how easy they were as I danced up hills and rode seamlessly over rocks and roots.  Weeks later, I couldn’t believe how little I had to brake while riding technical sections…a stark contrast to the constant white knuckling at Marji.  Marji definitely grew me as a rider…after the Marji I had no problems riding a local black diamond trail that I concluded earlier in the summer I wouldn’t bother going on again after struggling and walking most of the trail.

After scouting, I wondered if I should just hike-a-bike the entire Scary Trail rather than bother get on and off my bike.  Ironically, during the Marji I intentionally stayed off my bike to avoid crashing on a wooden bridge on Scary Trail, (forgetting I was in my backup pair of bike shoes not suitable for hiking) I slipped on the wooden bridge and had my hardest fall of the event.  Immediately, I heard someone asking if I was ok.  I told the 3rd place 100 mile runner I was ok and he had a front row seat to a great show. 

Race mode

My husband calls me “putt-putt” because I only have one speed mountain biking, slow whether I’m going for an hour or all day.  And this summer a lot of my mountain biking was with the kids, so I didn’t get any faster.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that despite starting a two day race, I had speed.  Since my last (and only) bike races were in 2012 and 2018, I didn’t have any relevant data points.  I’ve raced very little in the past couple of years.  In fact, I was blown away at my foot speed in my last running race, exactly a year ago, the Barkley Fall Classic.  Since this event falls on the same day as the Marji Gesick, I’ve had to pick one or the other each year.  This year with the Marji Gesick offering the 200, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity which was amazing in every way.  For a detailed breakdown of the race, check out my following blog post.

Thank you to Todd and the entire 906 Adventure Team for what you do inside and outside of the 906 area code.  You have changed my trajectory, empowering me to take on new challenges.  I look forward to chasing a buckle in 2029.

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