By Jeff Dieffenbach

It's been on the order of a decade since gravel entered my bloodstream. A few years after that, I took possession of a gravel bike, selling my road bike to cover a second set of wheels I'd mount up with road tires on the rare occasions that tarmac beckoned. At about that time, the Unbound Gravel 200 (then called Dirty Kanza) took up full-time residence on my radar screen.

I decided that I'd use the occasion of my 60th birthday to give it a go in 2024. As a planner/overthinker extraordinaire, I wanted an advance peek at the lay of the (Emporia KS) land. That peek back at the end of May/beginning of June also afforded me the opportunity to put in 10+ hours of volunteer time to let me bypass next year's lottery and gain automatic entry. This blog post shares what I learned.