Racing on Fumes While Fuming: The Dakota Five-0 25th Anniversary Edition

This was the 25th anniversary of the Dakota Five-0, a race through the Black Hills above Spearfish, SD. A town not much unlike Salida. Small town vibes, huge MTB culture. We've been going to this event since 2006 and we've never had an issue with bikes getting stolen. 

Until now. 

So many racers from NE including 17 juniors. Way to go NE NICA!

This event is more than a race. It's a family reunion of sorts for Ryan and I. So many of our bike friends meet there to race, ride, tour and support. (That last thing is pretty darn important, I gotta say). We love this race for all that it stands for and for what folks sign up to do. It's hard. So when some A-hole decides to steal our joy, it's more than just taking our bikes. It's taking all the work we did to get to this point and making it for nothing. It's taking away a part of our hope for what the weekend could hold. I know it's just bike racing. In the big picture, nobody was hurt and bikes can be replaced but it still sucks.

A Thief in the Night

At midnight, roughly four and half hours until our alarm was to go off to get ready for the race, Ryan got up to pee. I heard him talking to someone so when he returned I asked who he was talking to. "Some dude was behind the van so I asked him what he was doing. He moved along". 

"Now I gotta pee."  So I get up within 30 seconds and when I step out the first thing I look for is my bike. It's gone. So are all the other bikes that were hanging on the bike rack. 

The scene of the crime.

"WHERE'S MY BIKE?! WHERE'S MY BIKE? WHERE ARE ALL THE BIKES ON THE RACK? " I'm talking loudly at this point and Ryan bolts back up and throws on his shoes and headlamp and started riding around the campground. He yells for Abbey and EOB to wake up b/c their bikes are missing. I have a sick feeling in my stomach. The campsite is quiet and dimly lit but enough light to see so many bikes sitting unattended. And like ours, not locked up. That was a mistake.

Anyway, Ryan disappears into the dark. Abbey and EOB are up and Eric says he put two of the bikes from the rack behind our picnic table. The other two bikes are safe and locked on Colin's truck. EOB's bike, which was on his stand when he went to bed, was behind our van on the ground. So my Allied and Abbey's TREK Top Fuel, custom everything, is MIA at this point.

We all start wandering the camp ground trying to look at all the bikes, in hopes ours were stashed. Our thoughts went immediately to the creek so I started looking along the creek as much as I can. I run into EOB who said Abbey called 911 and that Ryan is following some guy who was on foot. Then we see them both at the entrance of the campsite. Ryan is interrogating him about what he was doing up 4 hours before a race. "Looking for my bike" he said. "So are we. What kind of bike?"

"A TREK"

"TREK what"? asked Ryan.

The guy had no answer and claimed he didn't know. So we felt like this was our thief. I asked him to just tell us where our bikes were. He said he didn't know what we were talking about. For someone who'd just "had his bike stolen" he sure didn't act as upset as we were.

"Then stay here so when the police come, you can file a report about your stolen bike with us", said Ryan. But the dude wasn't having it. He just kept walking around the campsite. Not running. Not fleeing but just walking. But it didn't take much for us to lose him in the dark. Then the police showed up. Maybe 3 cops, including a sheriff were at the scene in 10 minutes asking what we knew, what we saw.

Maybe within another twenty minutes, one of them came back asking if one of our bikes was red. That's the color of my bike. They found it just outside the back of the campground's boundary fence, on the side of the road. We were optimistic that Abbey's was close by. 

Another 20 minutes passes and the officer returns with my bike but no info on Abbey's. Our hearts and heads are pounding. I feel terrible about getting my bike and not Abbey's. It was her college graduation gift, with hand-built wheels and a custom head badge. It was also her work bike. She uses it to teach and coach kids at Northstar. It's more than a form of recreation. She uses it for work. Fucker! 

The officer stays with us and we give him our info and he said he'd be in contact. By now it's probably 1 a.m. Abbey, her boyfriend Charlie and I are in a daze. Ryan and EOB decide to go to where my bike was found and look around some more. I finally go to the bathroom. When I come back out Abbey is excited, telling me Ryan and her dad found the guy asleep against a tree where my bike was. They tried to catch him but he ran up into the forest. Ryan called the police again and for a while there were lights up in the forest and cop cars in the camp ground. But, it was all for not. No guy and no bike. By the time I layed back down it was about 2am. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night. Not that it really mattered, figuring I'd be out looking for Abbey's bike anyway.

Race Day

At 4:30 the alarm went off. I was a complete zombie. I sat at the start line feeling like I had gauze behind my eyes. I could have laid down right then and there. We decided to race because we had our bikes and Eric didn't want three people's races cancelled. We should be grateful and ride our bikes, is what Ryan said. Though I wasn't in that kind of mood, I decided to put the mood I was in to good use. 

So to all of those on the course who I was short with or not as polite, I'm sorry. I was racing angry for sure. I only wanted to rip legs off, even if it meant those if other racers instead of the asshole who took our bikes. 

I had a great start and I could see Ryan towards the front up the first part of Tinton Road. I maintained and jumped into the soggy single track behind a train that later I discovered was being lead by a NE junior female. It was pretty cool to see that! I made sure I gave all those kids props when I went by them! I made it to Aid 2 in 3:30 after climbing the shit out of Dakota Ridge, letting the boys fall as I passed them. A much needed assist at Aid 2 to swap bottles and grab a couple of cookies was choice in getting me going again. I didn't have much of a goal other than come in under 6 hours and beat my 2023 result.

The two hours after Aid 2 went as well as I could've hoped because I wasn't just riding for myself. This anger thing was working, so I went with it, riding for Abbey and Eric. For April (who couldn't be with us due to knee surgery), for Larry who used to do this event but no longer can race singletrack.

When I left Ballpark heading up, up, up, it was like I had a hand on my back. No other way to explain it. I said allowed, "Ok, Dad, let's take this home". As most know, my dad passed away this past spring, my mom last fall. I thanked them many times over the race where I came out of a sketchy situation. But as I rode up that last big effort, a lump was in my throat but I was like, "Not now, Dad. I need to breath"! In those last hilly miles I passed two women. Then, once on the Tinton Trail, I found another gear. Year after year, I am usually suffering hard by this point, my stomach refusing anything. But not this year. All-time tacky dirt begged me to go faster, even standing up climbs and out of corners. Many years back when I was the overall women's leader, I caught up with my friend, Larry Kitner, on this same stretch and I have a great memory of him and I racing down Tinton together (until he totally dropped me on the road). I was channeling that moment as I attacked this whole segment. I didn't see one person on the trail so having all of that to myself was the highlight of the race. As I popped out to the road, I had a slight chance of getting in by 5:30 and that gave me all the extra energy I needed and crossed the line at 5:28–first in my age and 12th woman overall. It's been quite a while since I visited that top step. I've been in the mix certainly, but the top step has eluded me for years. It felt awesome and was finally not angry (because I was too tired!).

Is it possible to have gratitude while feeling angry? I think it takes a bit of compartmentalizing. I know this seems an overly dramatic description of my race experience but I needed something to get my ass to the start line and to give a big middle finger to the bike thief. I wasn't going to let a sorry excuse for a human be my excuse for not doing my best. Instead, I thought of my friends and family, whose hands I felt on my back for absolutely every mile.

Our bike family.

A little side story

This event is spearheaded (pun intended) by Perry and Kristi Jewett. This was the 25 anniversary of the event and being a former promoter along with my significant other, I understand this was a huge accomplishment and I wanted to thank them in some way. So I had a large banner printed and along with Ryan, we walked the camp ground getting racers and anyone else to sign the banner. I then put it up outside registration and again outside a bathroom in the campground. My hope was that I'd get on the podium so it could be presented to Perry and Kristi. Well needless to say, it all went as planned and with Ryan stealing the mic from Perry, the 50+ women's podium got to present them with the banner along with loud cheers of hundreds of athletes and their families.

It was such a fun moment. It's my hope that this small gesture lets these two people know what affect their event has had on others and how grateful we are that they've kept it going for so long. Next year will be twenty years since the first time I raced it. It was smaller then but still a party with a bike race attached to it. That's how I've always explained this race to anyone who's never heard of it. It's a ultimate celebration of our sport.

Thank you Perry & Kristi for 25 Years of beers, cheers and tears (and bacon) at the FIVE-0!
From all the Joes, Bros, Who-knows & the Jens, Femmes and Remember-whens.