SO YOU'RE SAYING I'VE GOT A CHANCE?
PERHAPS THE GREATEST LESSON OF AN EPIC EVENT IS TO TAKE IT MILE BY MILE. Shtuff happens. Whether it happens at mile 2 or mile 92 matters not. Our response is all that matters.
At the original 12 Hours of Big Bear, I started catching up to the leaders on the long downhill.
It was the first lap.
We were all fresh.
I'd been dropped, but I was back.
Hellyeah boys, I'm here... was all I was thinking.
Poof! tsss... tsss... tsss... tsss... a dawgawn flat tire, and now all I was thinking was...
Hell!
I noted the time. Fixed the flat in 2 minutes, flat.
We still had 11 hours and 35 minutes of racing. I stuck to my pace, about 50 minutes per lap.
By the 11th hour, first place Matt Oran had lapped me and figured no one could match his 12 laps. He pulled out and watched.
Second place, also pulled over having completed 11 laps. Like Matt, he figured no one could catch.
At 11 hours 5 minutes, I pitted. 11 laps done. Surfergirl told me the situation. Poured to packs of table salt into my mouth and sent me off.
We'd started at 7am. Most of the mountain was now dark, the sunsetting on the other side. Nobody else as on the course because they'd done the calculation and figured they couldn't get back by 7pm.
Could I make it back by 7pm and complete 12 laps, securing 2nd place? Everything hurt. Cramps came and went.
It was just me and DuranDuran, Hungry Like A Wolf... strangely serene.
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God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference
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Riding that fateful downhill for the 12th time, doing all the mental math, knowing it was going to be very, very close... I knew something else,
if I'd hesitated when it all went sideways, or given up hope, I never would have made it to this moment... in a beautiful forest,
this beautiful, quiet moment, completely satisfied I'd done all I could do.
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I crossed the line at 6:58PM, and collapsed. Numero dos.
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Less than 20 smackers, delivered to your door... yes, both bottles.
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166 lbs
Core day with Coach Loran
7.5 hours sleep
https://www.strava.com/activities/3399691968