No April Fools: East Texas Showdown (April 1, 2022)

May 13, 20225 min read

Rider & Words by: Stephanie Hall

380 miles of East Texas finest roads, 60% gravel, 40% road.

I marked East Texas Showdown as a good intro to ultra-racing prior to going head-f***ing-first in June to Unbound XL. While the event is advertised as a bikepacking race, the distance could be looked at as either a long gravel ride or a bikepacking event. I chose the first. My goal was to complete the 380 miles in 36 hours. Resupplies on this route are plentiful, so going light was fairly easy. I tried my best to not ‘pack my fears’ but still ended up carrying an emergency bivy.

I stayed at a BnB outside of Point Blank, TX with friends Caitlin, Alicia, Kyle, and Hannah the night before the start. There was tons of energy, nervousness, and excitement. Alicia, Kyle, and Hannah all had done the event just six months prior so I took comfort in having them there to answer any last minute questions.

Before we knew it our alarms were going off to get ready, pack our bikes, and off we went.

Photo Credit: Maxwell Johnston (IG: @mt.johnston8)

The first 58 miles or so rolled like any old gravel ride with friends. With favorable conditions, and wheels to follow, the pace was relatively spicy for the distance at hand. Alex and I stopped for water in Lovelady. Carrying only 3 bottles I knew I would potentially need to stop more than others. We chased Hannah for the next 30 miles to the next stop. At the Dollar General, I grabbed a salty snack and Red Bull. It felt “early,” but also exciting how fast the first 90 miles flew by! Hannah had already gathered what she needed and was off. Seth DuBois and Patrick (Race Director) were at the Dollar General interviewing us and asking us questions.

Alex, Reed, and I rolled together for many miles. The type of gravel roads seemed to change fast enough to not get bored, and there were only a few miles of riverbed and sand. Alex and I rolled into Grapeland at 118 miles. Among snacks, I got a slice of cheesecake. On my training rides, I found that 200k is often the golden mileage that I can talk others into. At this moment it really hit me that we were only about 30% done.

Riding into the sunset was a special place. It was just Alex and me at that time. I was excited to get out of the heat, ride into the night, and honestly feeling pretty good overall. This photo was snapped in Elkhart, TX about mile 160.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Hall

All roads lead to Whataburger at this point.

Hannah and Jim rejoined us just a few miles before Whataburger. I think it’s safe to say that 200 miles in, no one was feeling good at this point. Hannah gave me a good laugh stating that she “Just wanted to see if she could keep up with me.”

Food did not go down easy. It was 10:30pm, and Whataburger does not start serving breakfast until 11pm so the promise of breakfast tacos was out of the picture. I ordered two large fries and a salad. Before we left, we ordered two tacos to go. Tacos are very important. While we were at the Whataburder, Seth DuBois had come in with his camera. However, instead of pointing it at us, he just asked if we were okay. We must have looked terrible because he didn’t even get any shots.

Hannah, Jim, Alex, and I rolled off. We started to slowly loose Alex. Hannah was also starting to get tired. I was absolutely loving the night riding. We saw a few snakes, racoons, and skunks, but with a few pals by my side any fear of other night creatures was erased. Our next formal stop was Mission Tejas where we were only able to refill our water. By this time we had already lost Alex for good. Hannah turned to me, and stated that “this had been fun, but she’d need to lay down now.” Jim and I rolled off, into the wee hours, with a quick rain shower. It wasn’t necessarily cold, but it wasn’t warm either. With temperatures starting to drop into the 50's with rain, I was sure glad to still be moving.

About mile 270, I noticed I could no longer really eat or drink anything. I told Jim to go on with out me I needed to lay down. I cried for a few minutes. I knew that if I couldn’t stomach food anymore, the ride was over. Especially being a type 1 diabetic, riding without the ability to fuel was simply a no go. I used my emergency bivy and hot hand and crawled in on the side of the road. Slept with my helmet on for about 30 minutes.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Hall

I woke up to first light of the morning with only 100 miles left. The first truck I saw called out “she’s 12 miles up!” referring to Ashley Carelock, women’s first place. The locals loved dot tracking this event. They would give race updates or tell me when the last person the saw was. You could tell they were genuinely curious about what could possibly make someone do something like ride their bike 380 miles.

I stopped often, these last 100 miles, trying to stay cool and mitigate saddle sores. I was just overall tired. I found it difficult to do any two things at once (ie. eat and ride). One of the most sadistic parts of Patrick’s route is that riders go past the Bullet Grill (Start/finish) in Point Blank, TX and ride another 40 miles.

I fondly call this 40-mile section the "Death Loop."

Photo Credit: Maxwell Johnston (IG: @mt.johnston8)

I saw Eric House for a little on death loop before stopping to cool off and address a slow flat. I added CO2 with 7 miles to go. By this time, many of my friends and other riders were texting me where I was at or how I was doing (SPOT device had stopped tracking but they knew I was close). As I felt like I was inching my way towards the finish in the last 40 miles. I thought quite a while about hugging all my friends. Sure enough, Caitlin, Alex, Alicia, and Kyle were all at the finish to greet me.

I found out later that Reed dropped out at Crockett, TX, and Alex on day 2. Kyle got heat exhaustion on day 1 and dropped out at a post office before Jacksonville, TX. Hannah absolutely crushed it. She passed me about 50 miles to the finish while I was snacking. When she greeted me at the finish she said “if I knew you were right there, I would have waited for you” I turned to Hannah and laughed saying “that’s not how racing works”.

What a fine adventure my friends.

Onward to the next one, Unbound XL, now quickly approaching.