I’ve taken exactly one economics course in my life. If the fog of time isn’t too thick, I recall two theories that account for value. These theories posit value as being either (A) intrinsic or (B) subjective. That is to say that commodities are valuable in and of themselves and that value can be established objectively by the market. Or things hold value because we as individuals say they do, markets be damned. Now for this premise to work for we the Velominati, I’m going to ask you to accept that pain is a commodity. I don’t think it will be too hard for us to get there. We budget the time in our weeks so that we can get more of it, we bank it in our guns to be spent at a later date, when we’ve got enough saved up we happily share it with other riders (Trickle-down Pain-o-nomics if you will), and when we’re running short on it we feel poor. For all intents and purposes, we seek pain out like a Wall Street broker looking for the next Microsoft IPO.
When I consider pain from position A – pain is intrinsically valuable and that value can be set by market forces – I think of myself riding the first half of The Heck of The North. You see, for the first half of the day I was riding with the front group. This group of twenty or so riders was dipping into the pain stores not as individuals, but as a collective. The demand for pain was being driven up by the entire group on the snowmobile trail sections of the race.* Analogous to its namesake, The Hell of the North, selections are made at The Heck not on the road (in this case, gravel roads) but on several difficult sections of sno-go trail which require the rider to be practiced, skilled, familiar, and in possession of The V. The riders that do well in this race are really fast at riding technically on a course that they’ve ridden before. They have a pretty good idea of who’s going to go, certainly know exactly where, and can react accordingly. I had prepared adequately for all of these factors, I thought.
It was on the third section of trail when the value of the pain I was “buying” shifted from being market-driven to the subjective side of the equation I called position B above. To put it in simple terms – I was dropped like The Rainbow Turd. Until then I was riding comfortably in the tete de la course (as was the case after the first sections of trail) or working hard to get back to the front after realizing that my trail riding skills weren’t as honed as other in the group. We hit a section fast and I was positioned perfectly in the top 4 when my front wheel slid out in soft gravel. Then, 100 meters up the trail, I was forced to dismount on steep, boulder strewn double track after falling off my line. After the disappointment of seeing the lead group ride up the trail wore of, I was left with a choice – to keep riding hard (albeit out of contention) and see how the day turned out or not.** So I took a long-needed piss and started riding hard. I figured sooner or later I’d reel some other dropees back in, which turned out to be the case.
I felt pain but it was the good kind of pain, familiar and sweet. Pain that I knew would pay dividends, pain that, once deposited in the First National Bank of The Guns, could be withdrawn, with interest, at a later date. And even though I was shopping alone now as opposed to with twenty other dudes, I knew I had no choice but to keep buying because walking out of the Pain-Mart would have left my cupboards empty at the end of the day. I wanted a full pantry. This pain still had value but only to me. I was shopping for myself after the mid-way point of the race.
At the end of the race I could say I learned a lot and felt good about how the day went. On the one hand, I contributed, at least for a while, to the market and even though the dividends weren’t as high for me as they were for others, I came away ahead of where I feared. On the other hand, during the second half of the race, I was able to set my own terms and finish with even more pain in the First National Bank of The Guns than when I started the day. Which leads me to conclude that ultimately, pain’s value lies both in its intrinsic and subjective nature and the beauty of pain is that it is free to any of us who are willing to take it. By placing value on pain we recognize that there is plenty of it laying around for the taking because so many other people do what they can to avoid it. In this sense, it is our demand for it, not the abundant supply, that gives it value. In accepting pain as a commodity we see hardship, fear, doubt, and discomfort as resources to be accepted, conquered, oppressed and embraced respectively all the while knowing that the more we buy the wealthier we’ll be in the long run. The Heck of the North (as well as other gravel races like The Almanzo) create the ideal circumstances for harvesting the commodity of pain.*** These gravel races provide opportunities to both enter the market and set the value yourself. In either case, the organizers, riders, and routes provide ample amounts a valuable pain. Go shopping.
Here are some cool videos making their way around about these two races.
Almanzo Video. Look for the ALAN.
HOTN Video. Look for the guy drinking.
*For those of you who may not know what snowmobiles trails are (let alone snowmobiles), the state of Minnesota maintains a vast network of groomed trails for snowmobile enthusiasts in the winter. During the non-winter months these trails are a mix of grasses (both short and tall), bouldery gravel, swamp and muskeg, double track, and Precambrian granite. They are unmaintained in the summer except for clearing the occasional downed tree.
** The truth is, I was really only left with one option, ‘not’ was not a viable option. A day or two previously I had received the single-most awesome pep-talk ever from Frank over voxer. Had I not had his loud Dutch, two-beer buzz voice screaming at me from within to “KILL IT” I may have actually considered the ‘not’ option. BTW, if anyone can tell me how to save and upload voxer messages I’d be happy to share this inspirational rant with you good people.
***It has been suggested in some quarters that riding gravel is up to 20% harder (rolling resistance) than riding tarmac. If this is indeed the case, we reap much more value given the same distance and time on the road.
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It's a shame something like HOTN must be reduced to an economics metaphor and a celebration of pain. Lets forget about the fact that this is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and the event is held at a time of the year when that beauty is at its peak. Lets not think about the fact that it was a perfect day for a ride. We can ignore a lot of good people that were involved, especially the organizer and his cadre of volunteers. There were no trophies and no points. Times were established a few prizes handed out but the most any could take away from something like HOTN is the satisfaction of having finished and some bragging rights over beer at the apres event soiree.
@RonFor the same reason you just use the DT cage when riding with one bidon on a bike with two cages. It just looks better. Aesthetics aside, it has practical implication as well I believe. The ST cage on my old bike would hit me in the back but I ride large enough frames to have clearance to the DT cage. That may be different thought for smaller frames.
@itburns
Again, a case of balancing out Rule compliance for the type of riding and course. The camelback was the result of Rule 83 and Rule 32 compromise.
@theChaz Indeed, I think I'm picking up what you're putting down and if so, it's all true. But it's veiled in passive aggression. You must be a Minnesotan as well.
The HOTN site itself (linked to) and the video trailer for the race (linked too) are doing a fantastic job of spreading the good karma, stoke, beauty and community of this event. More power to Jeremy et al for all the work they do.
But HOTN is, after all, a race over a course that's designed to be a challenge. Races on challenging courses hurt and that hurt is as beautiful as the turning leaves on a warm autumn day in Minnesota. Better?
@marko I've no idea about economics but I like the idea that pain is something that can have a value attached to it. Great looking race and I love that bike. Will we be seeing V branded bikes for sale in the gear or bikes sections?
@marko
Thanks for the clarification. Well said.
And some nice guns, too, BTW ;-)
Yes, I'm from MN. In fact I was born and raised in Proctor (just outside Duluth). If you drove up from the cities, you went within 1 mile of the house I grew up in.
My take on the HOTN is that it's a race AND a ride. You made it in just over 6 hours, right? There people on-course for 10. They were not "racing".
I've considered doing HOTN next year. I'd ride it as hard/fast as I can, but go for 6hrs? Forget it. I couldn't ride a paved century in that kinda time, no way on dirt. I'd probably shoot for 7.5 - 8.0 ;-). The thing is, I still love that country enough to not give it up for some pain-fest. If I want pain, I can climb Mt. Evans and save the plane fare.
@Ron
I'm with Ron here - converting a road bike for CX is far from worth the effort because 1. 99.9% of the time it won't work and 2. if somehow it did work it wouldn't be cost effective. If you can live with breaking Rule #58, Ron's suggestion of picking up a cheap CX bike from one of the mail order companies is going to be your least expensive way of getting into racing with a dedicated bike. The absolute cheapest way, however, is to pick up a old mountain bike (most local race series allow mountain bikes as long as you don't run bar ends). Find one on Craigslist in your area that fits you, throw on some mountain pedals/shoes and go race.
@theChaz cheers. You should totally set it as a goal. The training alone is worth it. I actually had to drive south to get to the race which is maybe why the beauty piece wasn't included-I may take it for granted.
Alright, I have calmed down enough to get through the entire article. Nice one, Marko! Really great stuff, especially all the awesome analogies. I've only been riding/racing off-road for a bit but it's amazing to me how something so minor can make or break your deposits/withdrawals for the term. One misjudged line, take a corner too wide and hitting soft dirt or gravel, etc. And there goes the lead group. (I suppose this can happen in road riding too, when you don't close a gap and suddenly you realize you should have closed it and your only option is to dip into your final reserves.) You can train and prep for weeks and then, poof, you bugger one thing and thar she goes. I guess it's better than false starting in the Olympics on too many times and being DQed for four years.
On another note, picked up an old New Yorker the other day to read at lunch . Happened to be an article on Alberto Salazar. Yes, one of them runners, but that guy has nearly killed himself a few times by running so deep into the pain cave. Had his temperature hit 107*F at the Falmouth road race. Also went unconscious for 14 minutes a few years back after a heart attack.
Anyway, the article was about Pain-o-nomics and why/how some people go that deep. The author decided at the age of 13, when going too deep in a cross country race, that pushing that hard wasn't for him.
Which brings us to an interesting point: why do some folks choose to push the V-meter that far? It's never fun, but why do some folks go for it and endure while others say No Fucking Way? Since we're talking economics, I always wonder about how family background relates to athletic accomplishments. Seems that the best athletes tend to come from the more trying situations. Could be they have fewer options to get out and thus try harder, whereas the child from means can say Oh well, I'm going off to college and a job. Or, could be they've learned what it takes to make it from an early age.
Nothing scientific at all here, just ruminating and seeing what others think.
@Marko
Riding the snow mobile trails on road shoes, that's a man. Strong work. I bet running with the bike shouldered was less than awesome, but whenever you were on the bike, I bet it ruled.
Did the Thursday pre-work CX ride with a few locals. Fuck my tits that's fun. I really need to work on my remount. I go all Air Jordan every time, only Jordan doesn't do a little half-skip. My remount is a combination of basketball, hopscotch, and ping-pong. Not a good combination.
Jeff and Nick have these beautiful remounts that (a) leave me behind and (b) don't raise their voice by an octave every time they do it. Interesting.
I would comment on G'rilla's remount, but he's never been in front of me, so I've never seen it! BOOM!
@frank
I thought I would offer a free translation service for any non-Canadian listening to those videos. I picked this up while out in Canada last week:
The "OO" sound is analogous to the "ou" you might hear in real English. And when they say, "stay safe" or "be careful oooot there" I kind of blank out because that doesn't make sense. Nothing I've observed in Cyclocross seem to hold those concepts in any regard.