2023 Hoodoo 500 Ultra Marathon Bike Race

 

A short prelude:

The Hoodoo 500 starts in St. George Utah. The course is a large elongated loop that drops into Arizona for just a bit before heading through some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.

For those who have not seen my race reports on past Hoodoo 500 races, I have used this prelude before.  

I don't know a better way to describe this race other than to quote Planet Ultra, the race organizer. Below is their explanation of this race.

“The most epic and challenging ultra-cycling race, the Hoodoo 500 route passes through or around three National Parks, three National Monuments, and several Utah State Parks. The scenery varies from majestic cliffs and striking red rock hoodoos to aspen and pine forests and high mountain meadows. All the best of Utah’s Color Country!

Geologically speaking, hoodoos are tall, skinny spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins and sedimentary rock.

Mystically speaking, hoodoo means a magical spell; which is what the Hoodoo 500 experience will cast upon you.”

As I have said before, I totally agree with what it says above about this experience casting a spell on you.

  After doing the event for the first time in 2014 as a 60+ division solo racer with a crew, 2015 in the Voyager self-supported division,  2016 in the 2-man team division, 2019 in the 500-mile stage race, 2020 as a Nomad racer, and 2021 in the 2-man stage race,  I was really excited to do it again. 

This would be my 7th Hoodoo 500 finish if I could get through it unscathed. 

Every year at this race I have done a different division. 

I decided to repeat the Nomad division again.

I Know at the age of 71, I could not finish the 500-mile self-supported division which is called Voyager, in a 50-hour time limit. (Did it in 46 hours last time and it almost killed me).

Nomad division is a self-supported race but you do the 300-mile course instead of the 500-mile course. The 300-mile course is done without the loop out to Escalante, Boulder, Boulder Mountain, and returning to Panguitch.

The 300-mile course goes directly to Panguitch without that loop and cuts out some climbing too. The current 500-mile course has a little over 30,000 feet of elevation gain. The 300 miler has around 17,600 feet.

I arrived in St George on Thursday to get a little bit of acclimatization before the race on Saturday morning. It was pretty nice in town when I arrived with a high temperature of only 96 degrees. It was a bit humid with some monsoon moisture in the area. 

Friday morning I watched the start of the Stage Race.

  The Stage Race division lets you do the race in 3 stages with a hotel stay each night. A much easier way to do it but still very, very tough due to the daytime heating and wind which can be more prevalent at the times you usually hit the wind/heat-prone areas.

  After watching the start, I went for an easy ride up to Snow Canyon State Park. I then rode down the course to the finish. It was about a 27-mile loop and I just took it easy. 

  Snow Canyon is just spectacular early in the morning. 

Rolling down Snow Canyon on my pre-ride

Rolling down Snow Canyon on my pre-ride

I returned, then went back to my room and took it easy for a while before going to racer check-in.

  Below is my mug shot taken at racer check-in. 

Part one: Start to Time Station One

97.6 miles. +6,351 feet/ -3,495 feet

Note: Throughout the story, as I always do,  I have hyperlinks with info on the different points of interest on this course for those who are interested. 

We had 3 Nomads and two Voyagers doing the race. 

  The Voyagers were David Hasse and Kevin Bilbee. Two very tough riders with amazing race experience. 

David has done 7 Race Across Americas and has 5 strong finishes at RAAM not to mention course records at other events like Hoodoo. (He set a new Hoodoo 500 course record on the 2023 race) He is a master at self-supported racing.

Kevin finished third in the Pacific Coast Bike Race 750, a self-supported race from Sacramento Ca to San Diego. I believe he also did their 1,500 event from Portland Or to San Diego. Before the 750 race in 2023, he rode from home in Apple Valley, CA to Sacramento before starting the race. Incredible!

 I had two other Nomad racers with me. Brice who I knew from the California Triple Crown events, and one other whom I did not know. 

We started at 5 a.m., a couple of hours before the solo racers and 4 hours before the fast teams.

We had a 6-mile neutralized section for all of us to warm up and the race was full-gas after that. I already was struggling to stay with these younger guys just in the warm-up. It takes me so long to get my second wind now. 

The five self-supported racers

My plan was to just spin more and not push myself too much. It's tough to do when you have rabbits up ahead. It's in your racing nature to want to catch them. LOL!!

I just went at my normal training pace until I felt better. 

This first section is much tougher than it looks on paper. By looking at the profile above, you can see that it is mostly a climb. 

St George is around 2,800 feet above sea level and is the lowest point on the course. On this stage, we were climbing to the small town of Orderville which is at 5,250 feet on the East fork of the Virgin River.  

It was really nice early on with temps in the 70's. As the sun came up I had a slight headwind all the way to the turn off of the highway.

Once to the town of Hurricane, it seriously starts climbing until you get into Arizona where it levels some. Carrying all the extra weight in my bags, I was already starting to hurt in my back and legs. 

Heading toward the town of Hurricane just before sunrise

Heading into Arizona

I also hydrated like crazy the week before and on the drive up to the race since this race is so so arid with high altitude. I felt like it didn't work that well or just didn't stick because I was already feeling slight dehydration symptoms. 

I was running dry on water so I stopped in the Northern Arizona town of Colorado City.

I found a nice new convenience store right along the highway which I hadn't seen in past years on the event. It was great. 

This little town has quite a history and has been in a number of documentaries based on that history. They are trying to reinvent themselves and change their image.

I was so happy to get off the highway at the next turn. It was not too far from Colorado City and still in Arizona.

The next stretch which goes from Arizona Hwy 389 to Utah Highway 89, is just spectacular. 

It goes through The Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. A really beautiful area.

The whole section is mostly a gradual climb which seems never ending but not too tough until a few miles from Hwy 89. Then there is a really nice descent. 

It was near the end of this section that the first solo racer passed me. It was none other than my Adobo Velo club brother Caleb Sprayberry. He was flying and looked really strong. This was his first attempt at Hoodoo 500 and he ended up finishing as the first place solo racer. 

He had started two hours after me and passed me at around mile 87. He was flying!

Heading into the State Park. It was beautiful!

It was getting pretty warm on this road, so I stopped a few times to take a break. I could see cumulus clouds forming in the distance and hoped I would get some cloud cover or light rain to cool me off. Desert rain is rather pleasant when you are hot as long as it's not too hard. 

Wow....did I love that descent at the end of the park. 

Heading toward Utah 89 leaving the Sand Dunes State Park. One of the most beautiful stretches of the race.

I made it to Hwy 89 and had a blazing fast descent with almost no highway traffic for miles. It then flattened out until I reached Mount Carmel Junction the town of Orderville and Time Station One. 

Once I arrived, I dug into my drop bag for a couple of Ensure Plus drinks to take with me plus some other food morsels. I had an ice-cold Coke which really perked me up. I was starting to feel a little crampy so I did not want to eat too much. 

I sat there for about 20 minutes before heading out.

Part 2: Time Station One to Time Station 2, Panguitch.

46.8 miles. +2,853 feet/ -1,721 feet 

 

This next section turned out to be the toughest of the whole race for me!

As I have gotten older, I have not tolerated the heat as well and I seem to have a hard time making my hydration stick. I was using Tailwind Nutritions Endurance Fuel which has worked very well for me as an energy and electrolyte source. It is higher in sodium than other drinks. 

I must have gotten behind on the first leg of the race and once that happens, things can go downhill fast. 

I felt fine and recovered from the first leg of the race until the next long climb. If you look at the above elevation profile, it is a long steady climb for close to 19 miles. 

There are two main grades on this climb and they are not too steep. The steepest grades are at most 6-7%.

The problem was this: The temperature on the road was about 90 degrees and it was unusually humid for the area due to the monsoon which had been around for a few weeks due to hurricane/tropical storm Hilary. I also had a tailwind so there was "dead air", which meant I had no cooling.

About halfway up the first long grade, I started to get some minor cramps so I just spun very easily in a low gear. It got progressively worse until I was about 2/3 of the way to the summit where it became full-blown cramps in my hamstrings, inner thigh, and quads. I almost fell off the bike trying to clip out of my pedals since my feet were also cramped. I also had full-blown hot foot. It was not fun!

I stretched my legs for about 20 minutes by the side of the road and was contemplating walking up so I would at least be moving forward and not losing so much time. 

I decided to just try and ride it in a very low gear.

I spun my way for about another mile and then I saw something.

I was in bad shape at that point considering I was not even 1/3 of the way through the race distance.

I looked up ahead and I saw one of the solo racers crew van parked in a turn-out. 

I stopped. He asked if I was okay and I said no. I asked him if he had any type of salt tablets or anything with massive amounts of sodium which I knew I needed. 

He said no but he did have some pickle juice!!

Halleluiah!!

Pickle juice is a miraculous thing for cramps and has saved me before. 

He gave me a couple small swigs of the juice, I hung there for a bit and talked, then headed back out. 

Well....I noticed right away that my cramps were completely gone. My legs still felt a little weak but I had no problem pushing up the final hill to Highway 14 which marked the summit. 

It was crazy!! I felt rejuvenated as I went over the top. I now had a tailwind and a long gradual descent with a few kicker bumps to get to checkpoint 2 in Panguitch.

I could see that there were big storms up in the mountains above Panguitch in the direction of Cedar Breaks where I was headed. At this point, I would have welcomed some rain. (I do much better in colder weather).

I also now had some cloud cover and I cooled off nicely on the descent. 

This is where it made a turn. The wind totally changed and now was coming from my front left and became a strong crossing headwind. I could see that the wind switch was blowing the storms now to my right and to the east. It was clearing up in the mountains on the course. 

Looking toward Red Canyon from Hwy 89

I made it to Panguitch a little before 5 p.m. just under 150 miles into the race. 

My friend Tony who was the time station captain, asked me if I got rained on. I said no....I got cooked in the heat and was hoping for rain!!

He said it had been raining really hard not that long before I got there. Go figure.

Tony the Time Station captain

Tony is a legend amongt fixed gear ultra-racing. He is the only person to ever do Race Across the West on a fixed gear in the 60+ category and only the second to do the race fixed. He also did the 1,000-kilometer Race Across Oregon in 2020. That race has over 45,000 feet of elevation gain. Just amazing. I was on his support crew. The story about that race is HERE.

I took about a 45-minute break to recover in Panguitch before heading out for one epic climb, the climb to Cedar Breaks.

Part 3: Panguitch to Time Station 3, Cedar City 

64.5 miles  +4,864 ft/ -5,779 ft

I didn't feel like getting back on the bike but knew that I would recover and feel better if I just took it easy on the first couple of climbs out of town. 

The climb out of Panguitch starts off pretty steep at just under 10% plus the town is at an elevation 6,624 feet above sea level. Those first kickers are really tough but I surprisingly did really well and was able to maintain about 7mph on them.

Not long before this race and knowing that I was going to be carrying so much weight, I decided to put an 11-42 rear cassette on the bike. I could almost climb a tree with that thing as it was more like mountain bike gearing. It really helped while climbing carrying so much extra weight in gear. I was slower on the climbs but able to save some energy.

After those first kickers leaving town, the climbs are not quite as steep, but the altitude makes them seem much worse due to the lack of oxygen as you go up in elevation to just about 11,000 feet above sea level. 

My breathing seemed fine but I just could not get any power in my legs. 

I had not done any altitude training this year as I had for my past 6 races at Hoodoo. I would usually ride my bike to Big Bear Lake about 140 miles from my home, stay and train in Big Bear for a day, and then ride back home. It has worked well for me in years past. 

In 2016, I rode up to Big Bear with my friend Victor taking Angeles Crest Hwy most of the way, then up to Crestline before traversing over to Big Bear. That year the ride out had between 19-20,000 feet of elevation gain. It was a tough day but oh so worth it.  

I just took it easy, stopping a few times to take pictures along the way, until I reached Panguitch Lake. 

The sun was about 45 minutes from setting and it was spectacular. Only a few clouds in the sky.

Panguitch Lake Utah

I took about a 10-minute break by the lake and took the above picture, before starting the really tough section of the climb, to Cedar Breaks Summit.

From the lake, there were now no forgiving restful flat sections. It is all up up up and at a very high altitude. IT WAS TOUGH!!

It was now dusk and just magical out. The climb to the summit just seemed to take forever but was uneventful other than me having to stop countless times to stretch my aching back.

To put this climb in perspective you have to look at how long it takes for a "non-climber", aging cyclist, like myself. 

I started the climb a little before 6 p.m. and reached the summit at just about 10 p.m. If the climb had not been just so beautiful, I would have cracked. I was pushing myself and fighting the urge to take long rests so I could make the time cut-off. I was not concerned about setting any records but I at least wanted to finish.

Almost to the summit

In retrospect, I could only imagine how much faster I could have done the climb if I hadn't carried everything but the kitchen sink with me. It turned out I did not need all the gear and survival stuff. I was still in shorts and a jersey with no base layer. 

I was fully prepared for those big thunderstorms and low temps though, because I know what this course can throw at you. Better safe than sorry.

The 500-mile stage racers who started on Friday, had massive flash flooding and hail the first afternoon and evening. People were freezing with 38-degree temps going over Boulder Mountian in the 500-mile solo race Saturday night.

For me on the climb out of Panguitch? In the 60's and 70's the whole way up with a 50-degree descent off the mountain. 

I now had a very steep and technical descent to the town of Parowan. 

It was downright scary in the dark and I was glad I had good disk brakes!

It is a very long descent with about 4,500 feet of elevation loss in about 14 miles. In daylight, I could have crushed this descent as I am a very good descender. 

This time I just wanted to be safe. 

I now had a vest on and arm warmers. That was it. It got pretty chilly and in the low 50s on the way down but I could feel it slowly warming up. It was still enough to numb my hands. That coupled with the hard braking on the way down made it pretty painful! It was not a fun descent in the dark.

Once I reached the small town of Parowan, I made a left turn and paralleled Interstate 15 all the way to Cedar City and Time Station 3. It was a great section of recovery from that tough climb and descent section. I was toast when I reached the time station at a really nice gas station and convenience store.

I arrived at Time Station 3 at 11:53 p.m.  I stocked up on enough water for the last 89 miles and ate a high-calorie pastry along with a 350-calorie Ensure Plus drink. I filled my Camelbak and bottles, took about a 15-minute break, and was off.

Part 4:  Cedar City to Time Station 4, Snow Canyon 

74.1 miles       +2,921 ft / -4,487 ft

I got some pretty interesting looks from people at the convenience store at those late hours. The workers in the store were great. They obviously knew about the race because of the others who had come through and Planet Ultra, I'm sure had let them know that their place was a Time Station. (If the Time Station is not manned, we are required to text-in our arrival time to race headquarters. We all had GPS trackers with us but the race organizers wanted to see and record the actual time splits.)

I now zig-zagged through Cedar City a little before making the turn toward the town of Newcastle.

This stretch just seemed never-ending at night.

 It was relatively flat with a tailwind for a change before the start of the climb from the valley that Cedar City sits in. It is about a 1,000-foot climb but seems much worse and just seems to take forever in the dark. The road is really nice and smooth now.

After saying hello to many deer grazing by the side of the road, I reached the summit. 

After a very nice and cautious descent, (many deer), I made it to Newcastle.

 

I made the left turn toward the town of Enterprise and now had a headwind as I took it easy in my aero bars to the next town. 

I was dreading the final large climb on this race. 

It is a 5-mile climb and pretty challenging late in the race. Like the last time I did the race solo, I stopped countless times to stretch my back and shoulders. It was my upper body that was giving me trouble. Not my legs. I seemed to have plenty of power in the legs, but I just did not have the upper body strength. Must be an age thing. 

Well, I made it to the top and now had a great descent to the town of Veyo which is famous for its pie shop, Veyo Pies. 

There were a couple of little hills in there but I felt great now knowing I only had one more hill before the final time station. 

As I was descending on the final long climb to Veyo, I hit a small desert tortoise on the road.  It was in its shell and grazed off my front wheel then hit me in the foot. It hurt like hell and I thought for sure I would have a large bump and bruise in the morning. It was fine but could have been bad if I had hit it at a different angle. 

I left Veyo, crossed a big bridge, and then started the final climb. It was not too bad but seemed longer when tired.

Over the top, I went and then I just coasted the descent to the turn at Time Station 4 at Snow Canyon. Woo-hoo almost done. 

I called race headquarters to notify them I was at the final check and heading down to the finish so they knew I was coming. 

It was now first light and I would not be descending in total darkness, in case there were more tortoises. LOL!

Part 5: Finish

14.4 miles · +205 ft / -1,709 ft

It was twilight and the descent down the canyon was spectacular. I flew down as best I could trying to stay within the 25 mph speed limit but it was tough not to get over 30. 

I made it out of the canyon and to the finish fairly quickly but not as fast as I did it the day before the race when I pre-rode the finish. 

I rode to the finish at about 7 a.m. with a race time of just over 26 hours for the 300 miles.

I was happy to be done. 

Thank you Planet Ultra for another great Hoodoo race.

Thanks to my wife Ginny and daughters Cherisse and Nicole for putting up with my craziness. 

A huge congrats to my fellow racers who conquered this very tough race course. 

Finished!