Back from the Hotter N' Hell

[Righteousbabe]

First, I would like to say that I am sorry to hear so many were not able to complete the 100 miles at HHH because they closed Hell's Gate early. I know what it is like to train all summer for that ride and not be able to complete it because some outside source prevented you from completing it. The HHH of 2004 was to be my first century, and my rear derailer cracked at mile 50. I was heartbroken.

But in defense of the ride organizers, they made the right decision to close Hell's Gate when they did. A cycling trainer who I have trained with in the past knows some of the ride organizers. HHH actually keeps statistics of past rides (such as time of day, temperature, heat index, number of injuries, etc.) and can make some correlations based on past data. They knew at the rate they were going, the ride volunteers and the Wichita Falls medical staff (doctors, nurses, EMS) would be overwhelmed and they would not be able to respond in a way to ensure rider safety. Even with closing Hell's Gate early, the EMS, rest stop medical staff, and hospital staff were overwhelmed on Saturday. I know we sign a waiver, but the ride organizers need to protect themselves...but most of all, they are there to protect us from ourselves (http://www.hh100.org/index.php?optio...sk=view&id=77).

I did complete the 100 mile ride, and the last 40 miles were brutal. I did the first 60 miles in 3.5 hours, and then I did the last 40 miles in 3.5 hours. The last 40 miles (after Hell's Gate) is always the hardest. You turn into the wind every year and you fight it all the way back into Wichita Falls. Many riders do not anticipate this...and when the temperature reaches 105 (heat indices 107-111)...you are asking for problems. I saw EMS everywhere, and the MASH tents at each of the rest stops where full of people laying down (a lot of them with IVs hooked up). I had friends who were out there, who are much stronger riders than I am, who ended up underneath those MASH tents cramped up and with heat exhaustion. When you ran across a shady tree out there (which is rare in that part of Texas), there were riders laying down underneath them. I heard at one point, the SAG wagons were 2 hours behind picking people up. I know that every SAG wagon that passed by me was stacked with bikes. Some people just pulled over to the side of the road and either rested their heads on their handbars in agony, or started to just walk their bikes. So the ride organizers knew, based on available resources in the Wichita Falls area, what they were capable of and when they needed to close the 100 mile route. One of my friends was one of the last people to make it through Hell's Gate, and he completed the ride in just under 9 hours. I was waiting at the finish line for 2 hours worried sick about him.

So I hope everyone can understand why the ride organizers did what they did, and maybe put this all in perspective. Having done this ride 4 times, I had a pretty good idea what I needed to do to ensure that I finished. Train hard in the heat all summer, hydrate days before HHH, and keep your own pace (do not try to ride with people who are faster than you are). Having had one bad HHH experience underneath my belt (2004 incident), I also have decided not to do the mass start (did it once...do not need to do it again) to ensure that I get on the road promptly at 7:00 am. I also only stopped at a rest stop once between the start and Burkburnett (Hell's Gate). While it is relatively cool and you still have your legs, book it to Hell's Gate. Then after you get there, you can take it easy with your pace, and stop at the rest stops regularly.

[Righteousbabe]

Just found this on http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=223213




This from the Dallas Morning News cycling Blog:

Before 10 a.m., riders filled only a few cots in the emergency medical tent at the finish line. By the afternoon, riders crowded the more than 40-cot tent, said Dr. Keith Williamson, the ride's medical director. At 11 a.m., riders staggered in with that "1,000-mile stare," he said. By 1 p.m. they were being carried in.


"It was simply the hottest Hotter 'N Hell. The hottest ever," Dr. Williamson said.

Sixteen people went to the emergency room; nine for trauma and seven for heat-related or other ailments. Nobody went to the intensive care unit and only two or three were admitted to the hospital. It's usually 10 to 15. Dr. Williamson gives credit to his medical staff for doing its best to stabilize people at the finish line.

Several folks received IV treatments of hypertonic saline. That's a method employed by only a few other athletic events worldwide, such as the Boston Marathon.
Even though they kept folks out of the ER, that doesn't mean they had an easy job. Dr. Williamson said he saw some of the worst cases ever. One man went into seizures, and the doctor said he recorded a few riders with a core temperature of 106 degrees. (That's the point where tissue starts to break down and leads to heat stroke.)
"I have never seen that before at the Hotter 'N Hell," he said.
Dr. Williamson also shed more light on how he measured the heat's danger. He used a combination of the following:
- Dry bulb temperature. This is what most people commonly refer to as the air temperature.
- Wet bulb temperature, or humidity.
- Globe temperature. This is a black metal ball that measures radiant heat to figure out how much heat is being generated by the sun's rays and absorbed.
Those combined figures read 84 at 10 a.m. Dr. Williamson said the American College of Sports Medicine advises against letting anyone compete outside after that figure reaches 85. When he advised crews to close Hell's Gate at 11 a.m., that figure was 89.
Dr. Williamson, who has ridden the HHH himself 10 times, said he understood why people were upset, especially those who believed they would have fared well.
"Some people absolutely would have been OK, but the vast majority of people would not have been. We could have had significant casualties," he said.
Those final 20 miles are hotter and harder, mostly because of that south headwind, and that performance decline always shows up in the time splits, he said.
And if you need just one more reason to believe it was really, really hot, consider the Texas Christian University medical researchers who were studying conditions of people suffering heat-related problems. It was so hot that their instruments stopped working and had to be 'revived' in an ice chest.

[KSH]

So I hope everyone can understand why the ride organizers did what they did, and maybe put this all in perspective. Having done this ride 4 times, I had a pretty good idea what I needed to do to ensure that I finished. Train hard in the heat all summer, hydrate days before HHH, and keep your own pace (do not try to ride with people who are faster than you are). Having had one bad HHH experience underneath my belt (2004 incident), I also have decided not to do the mass start (did it once...do not need to do it again) to ensure that I get on the road promptly at 7:00 am. I also only stopped at a rest stop once between the start and Burkburnett (Hell's Gate). While it is relatively cool and you still have your legs, book it to Hell's Gate. Then after you get there, you can take it easy with your pace, and stop at the rest stops regularly.

Well, I understand. I mean, there are people out there who haven't been training in 100+ degree heat... and don't understand how to hydrate, etc. for it.

I know Heidi and I really did a great job of staying on top of nutrition (well, I couldn't find food... but otherwise...) and making sure we drank enough and got in the electrolytes (she took some pills even). Neither one of use even felt a twinge of cramps. We just got headaches from... lack of food... I believe.

Personally I'm not too upset about it. If we had pushed harder to get to Hell's Gate, yea, I would be pretty pissed... but we pretty much knew at about mile 52... we weren't going to make the 100 that day. And we were fine with that.

Of course, when they cut off Hell's Gate, they didn't take into account the people who would circle back at the end of the course to make the 100 miles.

Hey, do you miss the mass start? Do you just start earlier and up the road from the start? I need to do that next year to make the 100 miles.

I am also going to hit up a few bikes rallies and ride 50-100 miles on a monthly basis before the HnH next year! I think that's what was lacking in my training this year.

[KSH]

Before 10 a.m., riders filled only a few cots in the emergency medical tent at the finish line. By the afternoon, riders crowded the more than 40-cot tent, said Dr. Keith Williamson, the ride's medical director. At 11 a.m., riders staggered in with that "1,000-mile stare," he said. By 1 p.m. they were being carried in.

That's just nuts. Sure, it was hot... but it was manageable with proper rest stops, ice on the head, cold water, and electrolytes. Are that many people that dense about how to ride and manage yourself in heat?

I do have say... come around mile 65... I had that stare. I was out of it... but I stopped at a store, iced up... cooled off in the AC... got some PowerAid... and once I felt back *together*.... we went on. And even after that, we stopped when we could to keep ourselves feeling good.

[denda]

When you have 11,000+ riders I guess there are that many DENSE people!
I was not feeling the heat, so I was upset. But I understand they were just trying to prevent problems. We did the 100 last year. It was cloudy and cool last year.

[rheidis73]

First, I would like to say that I am sorry to hear so many were not able to complete the 100 miles at HHH because they closed Hell's Gate early. I know what it is like to train all summer for that ride and not be able to complete it because some outside source prevented you from completing it. The HHH of 2004 was to be my first century, and my rear derailer cracked at mile 50. I was heartbroken.

But in defense of the ride organizers, they made the right decision to close Hell's Gate when they did. A cycling trainer who I have trained with in the past knows some of the ride organizers. HHH actually keeps statistics of past rides (such as time of day, temperature, heat index, number of injuries, etc.) and can make some correlations based on past data. They knew at the rate they were going, the ride volunteers and the Wichita Falls medical staff (doctors, nurses, EMS) would be overwhelmed and they would not be able to respond in a way to ensure rider safety. Even with closing Hell's Gate early, the EMS, rest stop medical staff, and hospital staff were overwhelmed on Saturday. I know we sign a waiver, but the ride organizers need to protect themselves...but most of all, they are there to protect us from ourselves (http://www.hh100.org/index.php?optio...sk=view&id=77).

I did complete the 100 mile ride, and the last 40 miles were brutal. I did the first 60 miles in 3.5 hours, and then I did the last 40 miles in 3.5 hours. The last 40 miles (after Hell's Gate) is always the hardest. You turn into the wind every year and you fight it all the way back into Wichita Falls. Many riders do not anticipate this...and when the temperature reaches 105 (heat indices 107-111)...you are asking for problems. I saw EMS everywhere, and the MASH tents at each of the rest stops where full of people laying down (a lot of them with IVs hooked up). I had friends who were out there, who are much stronger riders than I am, who ended up underneath those MASH tents cramped up and with heat exhaustion. When you ran across a shady tree out there (which is rare in that part of Texas), there were riders laying down underneath them. I heard at one point, the SAG wagons were 2 hours behind picking people up. I know that every SAG wagon that passed by me was stacked with bikes. Some people just pulled over to the side of the road and either rested their heads on their handbars in agony, or started to just walk their bikes. So the ride organizers knew, based on available resources in the Wichita Falls area, what they were capable of and when they needed to close the 100 mile route. One of my friends was one of the last people to make it through Hell's Gate, and he completed the ride in just under 9 hours. I was waiting at the finish line for 2 hours worried sick about him.

So I hope everyone can understand why the ride organizers did what they did, and maybe put this all in perspective. Having done this ride 4 times, I had a pretty good idea what I needed to do to ensure that I finished. Train hard in the heat all summer, hydrate days before HHH, and keep your own pace (do not try to ride with people who are faster than you are). Having had one bad HHH experience underneath my belt (2004 incident), I also have decided not to do the mass start (did it once...do not need to do it again) to ensure that I get on the road promptly at 7:00 am. I also only stopped at a rest stop once between the start and Burkburnett (Hell's Gate). While it is relatively cool and you still have your legs, book it to Hell's Gate. Then after you get there, you can take it easy with your pace, and stop at the rest stops regularly.

We did see tons of people that looked like they were really hurting...I wondered when they would be picked up by either sag or ambulence...I think it was a good idea if it was that hot...I believe too, that people do not listen to their bodies and know when it is time to stop.

I mentioned to Karen that I am sure there were not enough resourses for that mass of people and the heat.