- Location: Boyne City, MI, USA
- Difficulty: 7/10
- Accoms: Campsite @ Charlevoix County Whiting Park, $18.50 / night
It all started in 2020 when a friend I met at a New Year’s party suggested the Michigan Mountain Mayhem (MMM) Spring Classic. “Slots go fast! There’s a 50K, 100K, 160K (mile century) and 200K road race. You can change the ride distance on the race day itself if you’re not ready for the distance you signed up for.” I was intimidated by the amount of elevation, over 10,000ft (if you do the 200k), and having never done over 30 miles on my bike, the idea of the 100K sounded like a fun challenge. The idea of pushing out a metric century and then getting to lie on the grass complaining about how sore I felt sounded,… rewarding. 🙂
TRAINING
I invited J-X to join the event. The more the merrier! Why was I even surprised that he signed up immediately for the 200K without hesitation? Skip 2020, (the event got postponed due to COVID-19, much to my relief), June came and there was no escaping this year. Was I ready? To be honest, no. In 2020 I came up with some sort of a biking plan on increasing my distance gradually, but after all the races got cancelled I slacked off on riding, and the months leading up to June I was busy travelling and wasn’t pushing any crazy distance or speed, at most I did a 35 mile Kensington-Island lake loop once..
Top Cycling Routes near Plymouth/Ann Arbor:
Huron-River Drive out to Zeeb Loop
Kensington-Island Lake Loop
Chelsea-Waterloo Loop
RACE DAY
We booked a campsite in Boyne City at Charlevoix County Whiting Park for $18.50 a night, there were hot showers and a beautiful view of Lake Charlevoix with swimming access. (The water was super clear!) Cyclists could also camp at the High School for free, however I think the campsite amentities were worth it.
We woke up at around 07:50 or so, picked up our packets at around 08:15, took some time to get our gear ready and ended up starting at 09:00. Most people were already gone by then, except a couple of students who ended up dropping out because of a drivetrain problem. We rolled out happy, following the very clearly marked arrows. Some stretches didn’t have any markings, but that just meant that you keep following the road. Turns you were supposed to make were marked out. We finally made it to the first rest stop after 20 miles, of course with some deadly hill climbs. I seriously questioned if I could even keep going on. Luckily the second rest stop was only around 11 miles away. They started packing the tent up when we were about to leave, as we were the last of the cyclists. I felt bad since I severely slowed J-X down and he had another 150K or so to cover. It was time to split and I wished him good luck as he sprinted up some crazy looking hills. The other cyclists we met said ‘he should be fine’ and that got me worrying… I followed the other 100Kers down some nice gradual flats at an easy cruising speed, maybe I could keep this pace up if there weren’t any more hills! They eventually left me at the town of for a quick stop at Shorts for some beer. It was a very cute town but I was determined to make it to the next rest stop.
After what seemed like forever again, I finally turned into a lakeview where the third rest stop was in sight under a nice shady pavillion. Not that the weather was too hot, it was a nice cool 80s, but the benches there were nice to lie on. There was even string cheese at this stop, and a fancier spread of ham and pickle samplers. (We didn’t get any of these good snacks at the other stops. We were also promised with nutella on the race description, but neither that nor peanut butter were found anywhere). I grabbed another double brownie bar and filled my bottle with the Heed drink, and decided to keep heading on at a slow steady pace. At this point my legs were pretty sore, I ate for the sake of comforting my numb body. There was a stretch of farmlands and fields with a constant hill climb, and I finally decided to eat some of the Heed huckleberry jam, I believe that gave me some strength to keep powering through. I cycled as far as I could push for and eventually gave up when I couldn’t see the end of another crazy hill. I felt pretty weak at this point, and took another quick break on some grass. At this point, the people doing the mile century started passing me. I bumped into an old friend and had a quick chat for a bit. Everyone passing expressed concerned, and I told them I was taking it easy for a bit. When I continued on my way, a nice lady who also decided to stop laughed and said ‘We decided to copy you!’ I told her I wished I could stop again but it would be too soon. The highlight of my ride was when I made it up another countless hill and some guy living up there told me that it was all downhill from there. He wasn’t totally wrong, there were some very fun descents, J-X managed to get a top speed of 28.4mi/hr at a Strava segment called “Del Mason downhill”.
At my fourth rest stop I was pretty much in silence. This one had a nicer bathroom, but the same snacks. No more string cheese. I had a banana and lay on the grass for quite a while. I saw the two cyclists that stopped for beer and chatted with them for a bit. It was a nice stop by the lake but I could barely move. It was only about 10 more miles but it was time to face ‘THE WALL’. The impossible climb I have heard about multiple times. Once I turned out of the town, the road was all uphill. It started from a gradual incline and suddenly got way too steep. Once I saw other people dismounting their bikes I did not resist to follow suit. I don’t know which muscle I would have used to pedal this, I was pretty much riding at my lowest gear and still feeling exhausted. If people tell you the wall is the last climb, they are wrong. The road back lasted forever, there were a couple more hills and I was swearing at each hill that it would be the last one I would ride up ever again. Low and behold, I eventually turned back into Boyne City and the finish line was in sight. There was a food tent for racers with tacos and salad, beer and drinks had to be bought. I can still barely believe I had rode for 6 hours. That was my first 107K, and the impressive part was the 4,566 ft of elevation!
I felt way too exhausted during the race to process the amount of time on the bike, and all I could do was look forward to the next rest stop.
I lay down on the grass in front of a nice little beach. The temperatures started getting cold and windy and I got worried J-X would miss the food by the time he finished. Of course he did amazing and rolled in at around 18:30. He rode a total of 125 miles with 7,060 ft elevation in 9 hours, and probably faster if I didn’t slow him down! (One of his rest stops were closed after the split, and he didn’t have water or food for a good 60 miles or so. Lucky he got some string cheese at one of the 200K stops.)
CAMPSITE
We decided to spend some time chilling at the camp site on Sunday. We made IndoMee and eggs, and spent some time on my paddleboard out on the lake. We were way too sore and tired to swim, so we just floated around for a bit before driving back home. The campsite was amazing, the showers and restrooms were clean, and hot water was plenty. Potable well water from a pump for drinking was also available. Other than the noisy and drunk but very friendly neighbours, we also met a cute old couple on a Mercedez sprinter van. We were probably the only people using just a tent. I would totally come back here just for the campsite and beautiful lake access!
Doing the MMM was a pretty big achievement for me this year. I could have definitely trained harder and done the race with better conditioning, but I guess this is a first of many experiences for me as I improve in recreational endurance cycling. I am definitely still drawn to the idea of ‘bikepacking’; and whether I’d do such a distance with such elevation again, I’ll have to let my body rest first..