It could always be worse

Been hitting the dirt a lot lately, no races till cross and cooler temps make it so easy. Missed the last Sundance race and double points, so Kenny overtook me easily for 3^rd in the series, I now have 4^th place in 3 series. Icup, NMBS and Wednesday nighter. Consistency is the key.

Thursday night Lyna and I rode up big water to great western to the Crest over look of the Canyon’s, I big ringed the whole thing, why not? Friday I did an easy spin up to the shoreline and back.

Saturday was the E100, my job was to support Lyna for the 50 milerand be at Aid stations 1 and 2. I got all her food and things ready Friday night, she woke up at like 3:45 to get coffee, granola and head up, I made it up to the first aid station a bit before 8 am, I tried to help out whoever I knew needed it while waiting for Lyna to come through. She made it through at about 2:41, she had emptied her camelback and her gel flask, as I suggested she do, the first couple of hours are key. This bode well for the rest of the race. I put a new bladder in her c-back, put a new flask in her pocket, kissed her and she was off. I hung around a bit more to see if anyone I knew came through, a few did, I then headed to Silver Lake and Deer Valley for the second aid station. BP, Fox and a few other 50 milers and 100kers came through, got BP carbed up and help Adam and Fred and KC and Chris with things, Lyna came through at right under 6.5 hours (the second stage was the toughest climbing wise) She looked pretty good, gave her a bottle with coke in it and a new flak and sent her on her way. More support for those coming through the same feed zone again (it was #2 and 3) and Lyna came through the finish line at 7 hours 50 minutes, good enough for 5^th overall and 3^rd in women 30-39, awesome job.

Sunday the Bull Elk was hosting a BBQ and ride on the bench creek horse trails. BZ and I headed up met up with the Bull Elk, Jen, Shannon and Sherwin (male version). The trail was sweet, lots of rocks, stream crossings, some brutal climbs and hike a bikes, we then hit the DH, sweet, fast, fun and long, somewhere around the 11 mile mark of the 18 mile ride it all went wrong.

I was following Chad and we were getting ready to go into another rocky section. I decided that I wanted more speed to clear the rocks easily, so I started pedaling on the smoother trail section, well this trail has limited bike travel, lots of horses, as a result the trail is thin and slightly SUNKEN, naturally at some point my pedal made contact with something, I am not sure the speed I was carrying, probably over 20 mph, but I went over quicker than Robert Downey Jr. in a pharmacy. It was so quick that next thing I knew I was on the ground. Jen was a bit behind and saw my rear tire jump up and heard the impact, Chad heard the impact and stopped. Well first thing I did was check for broken, Dislocated bones, None, thank god, I was then about to jump up and get back on the bike when I saw my right leg. I was Covered, I mean COVERED with blood, I then looked for the source and then I really freaked out. I saw a gash about an inch and a hlf long, with fat and muscle visible and blood continuing to flow out. –that all occurred within seconds of the crash--- I yelled, screamed, whimpered ‘OH MY GOD’ in such a manner that Chad started running towards me and Jen wondered if she wanted to see why I yelled (she was worried she was going to see my femur sticking out of my leg). I told Chad that I had a really bad cut, I was at that point pinching it together, I truly though I had cut an artery. None of us had any first aid stuff so I pinched it and elevated it, Chad started to go get Shannon (who is a nurse, used to be a trauma nurse). Shannon came back just then. He looked at it and said it was gonna need stitches, but it was going to be ok. Thank god, we were as remote on the trail as we could be. So we fashioned wound dressing out of Jens knee warmer and my arm warmer. We then rode the rest of the way out, to say the least I was a bit tentative on the technical DH after that, and there was a lot of it. We got back to Chad’s condo, Lyna just got there with Ty and Meg, Sherwin took Lyna and I to the Heber ER and 30 minutes later I was all better.

Bz, Bull Elk, Jen and me (going to a bush) a few minutes before the OTB.

I am sore today, wrist, chest and of course knee, but grateful it wasn’t worse, it could have been really bad. Good to have friends there when you need them, and thye didn’t give me too much crap for it.

Below is a picture from Shannon, BZ's will be higher resolution,
BZ's account of the day is far more poetic, read it. take the time for it to load.