Volunteering At The Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra

Old DX gas station in Murray. Iowa.

 5:00am Saturday, October 24th, 2020: The alarm goes off on my iPhone and I jump up out of bed, careful not to awake Mrs. Guitar Ted, but not quiet enough for Minka The Cat. She accompanies me downstairs where I immediately feed the ravenous creature its breakfast. Then I get to making my own meal before getting kitted out to do my turn at the Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra. This event, in its fifth year, happens to be down South of me about a three hour drive away. So, I have to be quick about things to be able to hit the road by 6:00am or earlier, if I can. My turn to serve starts at 10:00am, but they wanted me to show up by 9:30am. 

My destination is Murray, Iowa, a small village West of Osceola, Iowa on US 34. Wikipedia says the population, as of 2010, was 756 people. Hmm.....I'd believe it if it was less than that. Anyway, I'd never been there, or even heard of the village, until my assignment was given via e-mail to me from Race Director, Sarah Cooper. I was to be paired up with another of the RD's, Dori, and the lead at the checkpoint was Amanda. I knew Dori and Sarah from Trans Iowa, but I had never met Amanda before. 

The Spotted Horse is a 150 mile or 200 mile event which had been modified this year due to COVID-19, and was run (kind of) concurrently with the postponed from April Iowa Wind And Rock, the 300+ mile event which was strongly influenced by Trans Iowa. I wasn't sure what to expect, since these sorts of gravel ultras are hard to train for and what with 2020 being what it has been, I wasn't even going to venture any guesses as to what the attendance might be. Added to this was the fact that it was forecast to be raw, cold, and grey for the weekend, and I wasn't thinking this was a recipe for a large turnout. But who knows?

Some Murray, Iowa flavor. I don't know how smaller villages like this hang on these days.

Besides a public school and a Casey's convenience store, this was the best maintained building in town.

I arrived a half an hour early, you know, like a good Mid-Western boy should, and sat around getting the stink-eye from locals gathering at the public area we were to set up the checkpoint at. They were gathering with their elementary school aged children for a bit of a soccer game. I have to say that I was duly impressed by the turnout. There must have been 30 children of various ages running amok at one point. Anyway, me being an outsider with non-Clarke County plates, well, I was a stranger and therefore to be suspected of.....well, I'd rather not guess what. I'm sure it wasn't 'good'. 

The forlorn streets were mostly devoid of activity, with the exception of a stray cat and dog.

I had my picture made with (From L-R) Dori, Steve, myself, and Sarah. (Image taken by Amanda)

Not long after I arrived a silver VW sedan with a bike rack turned around the corner up the street from me. Ah! The 'bike people' are arriving! It was Dori. We said our hellos and got to setting up the checkpoint. Dori is one of the RD's of the Spotted Horse and a very inspirational person to be around. Not long after this, Amanda arrived, and we were ready to go. Then Steve and Sarah, the other RD's of the event, arrived and we had a few more folks stop by as well, including the couple from Bottom Bracket Biking and Lisa, who was banged up and recovering from a bicycle accident earlier this year. 

This is always my favorite part of events like this where you get to chat for a time with folks you only see at gravel events. It's where the term, "Gravel Family" comes from, and it's a big reason why the grassroots gravel scene is so popular. 

Siphamandia Simelane came in second to Checkpoint #1

Dori's self-described "bitchy notes" for the riders at the checkpoint

As volunteers we were instructed to be wearing masks and to have riders take off water bottle tops, hand the bottles to us, and we would fill them from the spigot. This worked marvelously well, and all riders I helped were very compliant with the protocols. Other than this small inconvenience, this was basically like any other aid station/checkpoint experience I have had. 

The first riders did not show up until the stroke of ten o'clock, so we had about a half an hour of chatting freely with Steve and Sarah before they had to move along and get up the road. I found out that the situation in the Iowa Wind And Rock event had caused everyone to fall away until one was left standing- or riding, in this case. It was, no surprise to me, Greg Gleason. The two-time Trans Iowa winner was riding IWAR single speed, and some of the stories shared by Steve and Sarah concerning Greg's performance were fun to hear about. 

The situation with some of the other riders was also shared with me, which was very kind of them, and of course, told in confidence. I wouldn't say anything, but they never asked me not to. That sort of trust is rare. I appreciated their confidence greatly and always will. Anyway, Greg ended up winning and being the only finisher. Amazing! 

We were graced by a visit from the Burger King. Who knew that he lived in Murray Iowa? Crazy!

Past Spotted Horse events have been noted for their derailleur-destroying conditions. Many single speeders showed up this year as a result.

As I said, the first two riders we saw come in showed up at the stroke of 10;00am. By this time the soccer brigade had cleared out and left the forlorn streets of Murray, Iowa to us bike freaks. We went about our business, seeing cyclists come in pairs every so often, until we heard a train blow its lonesome call. A big freight train, by the sounds of it, and I was wondering, along with the others, if it was holding up some of the rider's progress to our position. 

As the rumble of the iron wheels faded we saw a slug of riders headed our way, the biggest pack we would see all morning, and sure enough, they related to us that the train had caused them all to bunch back together. We moved quickly as we could from rider to rider to service their needs and one by one they eventually all made their way back on down the road. 

Amanda was our leader and record keeper. It was great to get to know her during my time there.

A few riders getting ready to head out to checkpoint #2.

Eventually riders stopped trickling in. 11:30am came and went with no further activity. Technically speaking, we were to be done then, but we all agreed to stay on until noon to make sure no straggler was left behind. As the noon hour approached we packed up most everything and I said goodbye to Dori and Amanda, the only two left there, and made my way back home. 

While turn out wasn't spectacular for either event, everyone was stoked to be there and riding. I saw a lot of happy faces and it was good to be out doing something kind of normal for once. Oh......yeah. This is the first time I've traveled out of town for anything social since before the pandemic. It was odd, but not weird. If that makes any sense. I had a bit of anxiety about it, but overall, I am okay. I think the event was done right and we were safe, as far as you can be. 

Anyway, besides that I was very glad to be giving back to the gravel community again in a bit different role than I have before. I might have to do this volunteering thing again someday. It was pretty fun.