Bumble Bee Flew Again

By Crew chief ‘worker bee’ Mavis Irwin.  

            I rode solo in the Furnace Creek 508 last year and surely want to ride it again and again.  I however judged it wise to sit out riding the 25^th anniversary Furnace Creek version due to graduate school.  None the less, I wanted to volunteer so I would not miss out on the special event.  Well, I gave my crewing promise to Anna Catharina, who we all call “Cat,” even though she was uncertain that she could race due to job changes and moving back to Europe after living in USA for ten years.  She was so uncertain that I took the initiative to buy myself an airplane ticket so I could just show up and join a random crew team if it would come down to that.

            One day in August, I phoned Cat and asked her if she was still thinking about 508.  She mumbled about the move back to Europe costing thousands.  After a moment of silence, I thought to myself, “Cat better get her ass out there.”  So, I told her it may be her last time.  That was all it took. 

            Bumble Bee was going to fly again.  (Bumble Bee is Cat’s totem, which she picked for her 2001 version of 508 and will beher personal totem forever.)  Cat asked me to be crew chief and I gladly agreed.  Throughout September, I meticulously planned the trip and Cat rounded up two other crew members.  I probably should have been worried about three strangers working together for the rider we all know in our different lives.  We got a non-cycling cowboy from Washington (John), an economics professor from Arizona (David), and a Physiology graduate student from Utah (myself).  Unfortunately, all I worried about was making Bumble Bee logos and shirts particularly to make our adventure an extremely special one.  Being Bumble Bee, it was a  no brainer for me to iron on “Queen” on Cat’s shirt and “Worker” on the crew team’s shirts.  There is nothing like a few good laughs, especially when knowing the nature of bees.    

            Since I got my ticket before knowing for whom I could volunteer my time, David drove from Arizona and picked me up on the way.  Cat and John flew in from Washington and rented a van and borrowed a bicycle from Kerry Ryan, Actionsports, Bakersfield (who has helped her with equipment and training ever since the start of her ultracycling career in 2001.)  We all met at the starting line with only two hours to spare for setting up the van and organizing everything.  Having each detail I could think of planned out for four people coming from four different directions did wonders in the given time. 

            I spent hours on the details of everything, so I claimed the back of van as my “territory.”  This way, one person would know where everything was and could get to it within minutes.  John and David were assigned to driving, navigation and verbal communication with the rider.  I could have done those communications directly if it was not for the fact that I am deaf and have only recently received a cochlear implant. The last thing we wanted was to make the rider riding 508 miles non-stop interpret a beginner speaker with a vocabulary skills of a toddler. 

            Despite this unique situation, our communication system was nearly flawless.  John and David would pick up what Cat wanted from us and write them down for me.  I did everything from cleaning, preparing food, repairs, and helping with navigation.  Yes, it was nearly flawless because once David wrote a 1 AM order from Cat, “handwipe peanut butter and jam.”  David’s handwriting was somewhat spidery and I thought he said “hand wrap peanut butter and jam.”  I made a nice peanut butter and jam wrap exactly the way Cat likes them and handed it out to Cat.  Cat immediately unrolled the wrap, thinking it was the handwipe she received to wipe off her handlebars which were sticky from a previous sandwich, and smeared the jam all over her handlebars.  I had to clean up about two spoonfuls of jam when we switched bicycles.  We surely will do better next time! 

            When I rode last year, my crew complained afterwards that I needed to learn to slow down when getting handoffs.  This was because we were fumbling food all over the roads (and I apparently refused to slow down.)  Cat was no different.  She didn’t edge off her 20 mph average throughout the first day and we had a hard time finding hilltops that would slow her down enough.  So, I was pushed into doing sprints for the first time in ten years.  Say, I didn’t know I could still kind of run fast!  None the less, I am no Olympic sprinter, so it did help to employ the leaning thing the moment Cat started touching the food or bottle so she would have a few hundredth seconds more time to grasp it before I had to let go.  I nearly fell flat on my face before getting the hang of the leaning technique.  It however didn’t take me long to be able to hand off food and bottles running slightly downhill.  (Of course, Cat wasn’t the only one with sore muscles at the finish line.)  Mental note to self:  Have at least one person who can run fast on the crew for the roadside hand offs.

The only real problem with the hand offs was that the first day was cold and Cat didn’t want to take her Endurolyte pills every hour.  I ended up force-feeding her Endurolytes by adding them to her drinks.  Her drinks may have tasted bad, but that was her punishment for skipping her doses!  I also kept track of the calories she ate. Oh how she got crappy about taking suffient amounts of calories per hour after about 300 miles of hard riding.  (Partly due to a slightly upset stomach—she didn’t vomit for 32 hours like I did last year.)  Since she wasn’t vomiting, I force-fed her the best I could until she got so sick of eating that even her Belgian fiance’s text messages couldn’t persuade her to eat. 

            Despite our problems getting her to consume 250-300 calories per hour and swallow the pills directly, our efforts paid off with a sub-30 hour finish.  This is a feat only a few have accomplished.  Cat may not say this one out loud, but she did want to not only be first among the women, but be in the top five overall.  Cat was right in the mix from start to finish.  We moved up places from 10^th to finishing 3^rd overall.  At one point, she was 2^nd when she passed Chris “Ram” Ragsdale on a climb.  She talked to Chris for a while, then asked us to give him 400 mg of caffeine pills (equals to two cup of coffee), which we gladly did.  Chris later re-claimed 2^nd.  Hey…nothing beats the spirit of cheering and even helping out our rivals!

I was so overwhelmed at the finish I couldn’t say anything to anybody until after I got my bath and a bit of rest.   Crewing for a soloist is definitely harder than riding the 508 solo and I can’t express in words how proud I am of Cat and our crew team, who are no longer strangers to each other. 

Foot note by Bumble Bee.

Seven years ago my life changed direction. I had been ‘halfway tricked’ into an ultra cycling race after a year of road riding, and had no idea about the journey upon which I was about to embark on. I rode the FC 508, and had a wonderful time, and found the most wonderful, diverse group of friends that I could imagine. This friendship circle was so valuable to me, that I found myself redirecting my life, and instead of going back to Europe after I had completed my Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine, I launched myself into a PhD, in order to stay in the US and keep biking. Now Seven years later, I tie up this wonderful time of my life with another FC 508. I am returning to Belgium where I grew up (yes, despite being Swedish I grew up in Belgium ), to be united with my fiancée. As I race, getting cheered and supported by all my friends along the road, getting hugged and congratulated at the finish line in Twenty-Nine Palms, talking, race chatting with friends, sharing… I realize, the heart of ultra cycling is friendship and love. Let us never forget that. The ultra cycling family is my family.. a place where I feel that I actually belong. I am not a stranger, a spectator, or a foreigner. I am a family member accepted and loved for who I am. As I write this, I have tears in my eyes, and I want to say to all my ultra friends, THANK YOU!