Farmer’s Daughter Gravel Grinder – 8.15.21

After almost 2 years, the Farmer’s Daughter Gravel Grinder, the premier gravel event for Upstate, NY was finally happening!  Jordan was supposed to ride with me but decided he wasn’t ready (he had knee surgery in March) so my friend Aubrey took his place. The two of us set a goal to finish the entire 65 miles.  Each of the previous times I’ve ridden this I’ve bailed after 40 miles. But not this time, we were committed!

Canceled in 2020 for obvious reasons, the 2021 event was postponed from May to August. This would give me ample time to prepare for the long distance and intimidating elevation. It also helped that I had a bike fitting this past spring and upgraded some components to make it easier for me do those big climbs.

The weather was perfect: not too hot or humid. The conditions were just right to attempt the full course. We started promptly at 9am at the back of the pack. I tried to pace myself knowing that I’d have to ride for 7+ hours.

We hit the first singletrack portion (my favorite section of the ride) where I immediately lost my sunglasses after I tried stashing them in my bib’s side pocket. At about mile 30 I had my one and only crash trying to ride over a large drainage pipe on the second singletrack section of the ride. Oops. I forgot I wasn’t on a full suspension mountain bike. I stopped briefly to adjust my crooked front wheel and put my chain back on. After riding out of the woods, we arrived at the second aid station where I tried to eat a pesto and mozzarella sandwich. It was good but I just couldn’t stomach it. We ate some cookies, refilled our water and continued on the course. This was the point where I’ve bailed twice so far, opting to head back to the start instead of continuing on. But not this year–this was the year we were going to finish.

I knew the key to finishing the whole 65 mile route was to make sure I consumed enough calories and fluids to get through it. I felt like I was eating constantly. The climbs were grueling and it never felt like my legs could catch a break. Overall I felt pretty good. My legs felt strong, but my lower back started bothering me almost immediately, probably due to my saddle. My usual Ergon saddle broke a week before the ride, so I had to replace it with my mountain bike saddle, the Specialized Mimic. This saddle gets rave reviews and is great on my mountain bike, but did not work for me on this ride. I was cursing it the whole time.

Slowly but surely the miles ticked by and eventually I finished the last huge hill–the climb up to Beebe Hill State Forest. It was a doozey, but the descent down the fire road was incredible. Surpassing 50 miles on my bike computer was an nice sight–I was riding into uncharted territory! At mile 59 we hit some more grassy singletrack through a beautiful field at Ooms Conservation Area at golden hour, but I couldn’t really enjoy it because I was hitting the wall.  I was ready to be done.

I just kept pedaling. I repeated the mantra “YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS” to get me through the grueling climbs. It worked. 66 miles and nine hours after starting, I finished.

To my surprise, the volunteers were still serving the food (tacos!) and beer (Chatham Brewing!) I was elated! I had spent the whole ride convinced that everything would be packed up and gone by the time I finished. But it was not. I was thrilled.

I can’t say I’m in a huge rush to do the full course again. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. This ride is where I discovered my love for riding gravel. In 2018 I sold my road bike and bought a gravel-specific bike so I could do it, and 3 years later I can say I finally finished it. And that feels good.