kyrgyzstan
I participated in the Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia in August 2019. This brutal bikepacking ultra featured a 1,100 mile course with 85,000 feet of climbing, almost entirely on dirt roads. After training intensely for several months, I was hit by a car in San Francisco two months before the race, and I started in much worse shape than I would have hoped. That, in combination with some mechanical issues and 36 hours of food poisoning led me to scratch about halfway through. Still, I had an incredible experience and cannot say enough words about the kindness of the people and the beauty of the landscape.