Death Race For Life Project Sponsored By Long Trail Brewing: The Hotel Of My Dreams...The Bad Ones

Project Summary

I am dedicating February through July 2010 to my passion for endurance sports and an effort to help the Lance Armstrong Foundation fight cancer. Between March and June I will undertake a bicycle racing tour of multi-day stage races in the western United States. I’ll be racing in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and California. I’ll spend the winter training in Colorado and New Mexico. My tour will serve as conditioning for a final test – the Death Race. On June 24 I will join 99 other selected athletes in Pittsfield, Vermont for the 2010 Death Race.

The Death Race, loosely defined as an “adventure race” is a 24-hour slog that blurs the line between challenge and absurdity. The race consists of an unknown number of tasks spread out over a mountainous course with an unspecified finish line. The route and sampling of mental and physical challenges are also unknown. Previous races have included wood chopping, swimming, running, cycling, mud crawls, memorization tasks, fire building, weight caries, waterfall climbing, and more. The race boasts a 10% finishing rate. The international field of contestants includes ex-special forces, ultra-marathoners, Iron Men, and athletes from other disciplines. You can see the New York Times video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtMFKpOYqo

My tour will benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation by raising money through direct donations and pledged donations per mile that I ride during the tour. In this blog you can find more information about the tour, my training, my connection to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, donations, and my motivation for starting this project.

Thanks for visiting the blog and supporting my project!

Cully Cavness

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Hotel Of My Dreams...The Bad Ones

I arrived in St. George, Utah on Friday evening after spending Thursday with a friend in Salt Lake. St. George is in the Southwestern corner of Utah, which is a beautiful area of redrock canyons, arroyos, and big vistas. This is my favorite part of the country, and I am looking forward to my first big weekend of racing (last weekend I did a couple time trials in Denver with pretty decent results).

Upon arriving in St. George, I picked up my race packet at the local bike shop, then loosened up my legs with a few laps around the criterium course - a 1 mile, four turn loop. As the sun set, I headed into town to find a motel. In the name of frugality, I selected the $21 per night Cliff Motel. Foolish. I walked into my room, and immediately wondered if the doorway was actually a portal to Haiti. The walls appeared to have been shelled or machine-gunned, then doused in sewage to allow for copious mold growth. I did not dare sleep in the bed, which was stained by what I can only assume was the residue of numerous instances of prostitution.

I woke up coughing at 4:30 AM. I think the mold spores in the air aggravated my bronchitis, for which I just ended a course of antibiotics. Also, may right eye was pretty swollen, perhaps the result of bed bug bites (I look hilarious right now). Drearily, I waddled to my car for the remainder of the night, gladly exchanging the freezing cold for clean air. Needless to say, I woke up rearing to go and ready to crush my early morning timetrial… Actually I got 26 out of 32. Whoops.

The promoter cancelled the afternoon race, a criterium, due to hail and blasting winds. A man-sized tumbleweed smashed me in the face while was taking a corner in my warmup! Before the hail arrived, I watched racers in the Masters field narrowly avoid crashes while swerving through the litter and ragweed balls delivered by the southern wind. The cancellation gave me enough daylight to find a non-molding hotel, proper dinner, and comfortable bed. I’m looking forward to some real rest and tomorrow’s 40 mile road race through Zion National Park. Wish me luck!