As a special treat this blog post will include ACTUAL photos of the Butte 100. And to pull this off I decided, not a good decision really, to ride the course again the next day. I stopped a few times and asked a ninja rider if I could get a photo of her riding the course. So these images should “look” authentic.

The plan was to go real easy and combined with my new thermogenesis training I expected to light it up in the waning moments of the race to pick off stragglers. What happened? Well the opposite really … well mostly. I did go easy as planned. In fact I stopped half way for a pint of vanilla ice cream, although slightly “soft”. And I did light it up near mile 60.  Then I died.

The course was fantastic. The first 50 included some great trails in the Pipestone area. It was the best first half course ever … kudos to the organizers.  At the 50 mile mark my plan was working. I felt superb. I had ice cream and was ready to rock and roll, or to light it up as I said earlier. 

The second half was the usual steep climbing death fest. When I tried to rock and roll I got fried, probably due to a extra long leg without water and the lack of nutrition. My new thermogenesis training has left me with 0 hunger urges.  This is bad.  You can not do the Butte 100 without eating. I tried to do the entire thing on a single ice cream feed and three bites of sweet potato.  And it was me, the endurance racer, being picked of at the end of the race. I finally did break out the Carbo Rocket, which I should of done starting at mile 50. The result was a grreat little surge that helped me enjoy the last 20 miles. Mile 70 to 80 … a meltdown I want to forget. But overall I did feel great which was my goal. To go slow and enjoy … for once.  The result 9th place.