#13 Mile 415

A dead abandoned trophy truck was up at an angle on the side of the course. Dark. Nobody around. Erie. 5 miles passed. 10% of the way back to the van. Pain. I scoot off the trail of a truck. I get my front wheel over a hard ball off pointy leaves. It gets under my skid plate and I get stuck on it as it unweights my rear tire. Man, that is one tough plant! I have to get off the bike to lift it off the plant and get unstuck.

I can’t see well. Go slow. Dust. Another light from behind. He’s close and coming in fast. I get off the side, but drop my bike. Damn it! Another dust storm as he passes. I get going. Slow. Dust. After a few minutes, it starts to get thinner. Go a bit faster. Whoa! I fall into an 18” deep slot – a rut from the last rain. I’m down, the bike and me laying across the course in the dark. The bike is on my leg. I look back and see lights coming. Are you kidding?! Worst case scenario!

I reach up and push the switch of my auxiliary light on my helmet. It turns on. I push it again and it starts flashing. Then I make the other one flash, and I point my helmet backwards, twisting my neck so these super bright lights flash right at him. I struggle to get up. He sees me, thank God. He pulls over to the left and roars past before I can fully straighten up. More dust. Can’t see.

How am I supposed to race when I can’t see and they keep coming making more dust?!!!

Tanner was thinking the same thing.

Rocks. My neck is really hurting. Not a sharp pain in one spot, but a regional pain from between my shoulder blades up to the base of my skull. I felt like there was a 90 degree angle in my neck that should not be there. I couldn’t breathe.

I’m in a race. I can’t stop. Forward. But I have to stop. Forward. I have to…I pull off the course by 50 feet between the shrubs and boulders. I turn my bike off and the lights off. I just need a minute.

I get off the bike. God knows what time it is. It’s pitch black. It hurts to stand. I need support. I sit. I need to support my head. I laid down on the gravel, a tumbleweed in front of my face. Relief with my helmet on the ground. I reached into my pocket in the dark and pulled out an energy gel. I had not had any caffeine yet. I was saving that for as late as I could. I didn’t want to be on the rollercoaster. But now I needed it. I sucked it down. It was good. I could just lay there all night. I could have fallen asleep right there.  

“I have to get up.” When I pulled my helmet from contact with the ground, it felt like I had a ball in my throat.  My neck wasn’t right.

I remounted. My bike was not in a good spot. It was pointing downhill and I couldn’t go straight due to brush and the terrain. I tried to push the bike backwards uphill. I got it around halfway, and thought I’d spin the tire to pivot it. I got it around. A truck went by. In getting on the course, I had to go over some rocks…I fumble and go down, awkwardly into a thorny tree. I hoped this was my low point and I was glad nobody was there to see it…

Get up. Pick the bike up. Get on the course. Get going. Forward. Mile 385. 390. An eternity later, 395. 400. Coming down out of the mountains. Good. 400. Thank God for caffeine. Ohhh, going back up. Rocks. 405. Going down. Van at 415. Keep going.

Around 415, there was a flat area and all the teams met their drivers there. I rode through all the rigs, looking for my van and crew. I passed many of them. Did I miss mine? Finally! There they are!  

I pulled in. I had survived the 125 miles of rocks at night. It can only get easier from here, I thought. It was about midnight. It was also 36 degrees and windy here. The crew was frozen. My speech wasn’t working well, nor was the part of my brain that drove it. I managed to tell them how I was, and answered their questions. They asked me if I wanted to sit in the back of the truck and warm up. I did.  

I wanted to lay down across the seats to get the weight off my head. I was so tired. I had been riding for 18 hours, 12 of that injured. “Wake me up in 30 minutes, OK?” I asked. “OK” I heard back. 

They didn’t…