“So, against my better judgment the morning of March 11th , I reluctantly got out of the car, into drizzling rain, to join countless others in my pursuit of getting a hug from Bobby at the finish line at LR100. I had been watching the weather all week, and thanks to a great new boss (I literally started a new job that Monday) I was able to make the drive down, although I had to drive from Stillwater to OK City the next morning to make an 11am flight to Atlanta for a business trip the following day. Had the flight not been booked, I don’t know if I would have made the trek down from Denver, having watched the weather forecast all week, and watched as it continued to get worse.

Once I was out of the car, I figured, well I am here might as well git ‘er done. Luckily, I had packed lots of Gore-Tex, enough to have a dry jacket, jersey, and gloves in my drop bag. At the last moment I had also thrown in my Gore-Tex Sidis, which saved my feet, although I still couldn’t feel them after the first 2 hours.

It was tough. I lost it between miles 70-80 due to the unending mud. I finished DK200 a few years back, in the super muddy year, so didn’t think it could be worse than that. It was. I told OK what I thought of her, and even screamed out curse words that I made up. Luckily NOBODY was around, as they would have thought I was crazy. At mile 99 my rear derailleur sheared off, but guess what!?!?!? I GOT THIS!

I had a spare hangar, and I know how to fix one. Unfortunately, my fingers didn’t work as they were numb.\u00a0 As luck would have it, I did this right near someone, my new friend Pete, who was fixing a flat. He helped me make my bike a SS, which lasted a few miles, then the chain stopped moving. I ran the last 4 miles in, in the dark, with Pete who stayed with me as he had a light. I didn’t bring mine because HOW could I be out there for THAT long? HAHAHA! Famous last words.

I crossed the finish line, got my hug and grabbed a beer. They had pushed back podiums and holy cow, I won my category! When they said there was only a single finisher in my category I started jumping up and down screaming “that’s me!” I knew because I had crossed the line about 20 minutes earlier. Mind you, I am not the fastest, but I rode a smart race, and made smart clothing choices.

I found out the next day that only 165 people finished, and I was 110, so I am super proud of that one. Now I can chalk that one up as the hardest race I have ever done, and I have done a lot of them. So when I am out suffering again, I will say to myself, remember when you lost it at mile 70 in LR100 and thought it would never end? Ya got this!”

-Mindy H.