AUTUMN RUN. Loop One, Continued

Before I continue on with the story of loop one, I need to add an important disclaimer..this is MY story...MY memory .... Whether or not it is completely accurate, I have no idea. As a matter of fact, I am sure the facts become even more inaccurate as each day passes. That's just the way it is!

Also, before we saunter further into loop 1,I'd like to post a few pictures of the start that I found on Facebook. There will be better quality pictures coming when we get Cathy's photos but these do a great job of capturing the essence of an early dawn start:

Ok, so on with loop one. As Susan and I are running (well our horses actually) up Anthony Road, (should have marked the map better...somewhere mist past the #4) Spirit and I settle into a nice pace and once again I realize that I am really thirsty. I had tried to get at my camelpak before this but the pace was just too fast. This time though I managed to reach the mouthpiece and tried to suck back a big drink only to realize that the darn thing wasn't working. Seriously? 50 miles to go and no camelpak? All of a sudden I was also starting to realize that I was feeling really warm...too warm. I had on a raincoat but it wasnt raining, it was hot! So I devised a plan and tried to remove camelpak and jacket so I could throw it to Shelley as I trotted by. I got everything off but couldn't hang on to it, so I eventually dropped it. Why are all these details so important? Because, if you remember from the first post, my rider card was in the pocket...I had forgot about that little detail and did not remember until about two miles before hitting the first hold. I grabbed a gateraid out of my saddle pack and worked st drinking it down so I could get a fresh, full one as I passed Shelley at the only spot I was going to see her for the first 20 mile....Pick Road.

As I approached Pick Road, I could see two or three trucks and people all about. I needed to get Shelley's attention and I didn't want to stop ( we had decided that I would only stop at the "fly by" if there was a tack issue), so I started hollering as loud as I could "WATER, WATER". I could see lots of quizzical faces and body postures, then the next thing I knew there was someone jogging beside me as I was trotting along, It was Shelley! A water in one hand and a gateraid in the other. I slowed Spirit down just a notch, and Shelley passed me that gateraid like a professional relay racer passing along the baton!

Left hand turn for Spirit and I onto Pick Road and right back up into the canter again! Now, according to the pre-ride plan nestled snug in my brain, I was going to bring Spirit down to a strong trot along Pick road. That was the plan. However, it was clear to me that Susan was not planning on coming down to anything closely resembling a trot. Oh oh, here I was about 6 miles into the race, neck-in-neck for first place. I knew if I trotted, I would be kissing first place goodbye. But what about the old argument "ride your own ride"? Well, I realized at that moment that "ride your own ride" does not necessarily mean "ride the ride you planned." I checked into the situation....I had total control of my horse....my horse felt fit as a fiddle...the canter was extremely comfortable (at this point) and seemed effortless for both horse and rider. Was I willing to give up any chance of winning only six miles in with a scenario like this? No, non, No Way.

A few minutes went by and then Susan pointed to my GPS watch and asked me "what is that contraption saying. Can you tell how far we've gone?" I looked down at the watch but couldn't understand the data...looked like it was saying four miles? "No, I can't quite read it", I replied. I looked over at her as I spoke, and she gave me this "look". (liar). Oh oh I thought, we don't know each other very well and she thinks I'm lying! Oh dear. Eventually, we came upon a big mess of mud. "Oh Susan, I said, I remember from marking trails with Troy, that this mud is at about mile seven". I think she believed me and eventually realized that I really could not read that damn GPS. Troy and I had taken a picture of the mud a few days earlier as one of our examples of varying road conditions so I will try to find it and stick it in here.

Another few miles flew by and then we took a sharp right hand turn off of Pick Road and onto Tomcod Road. This "road" is even more rustic than Pick and I love it. We were cantering along and all was lovely. Still smiling that big ol smile, sky's were threatening rain, but so far, nothing. Susan rides with a strap of sleigh bells attached to her saddle (scare away bears) and we were rhythmical moving along to the loud but pleasant jingle, jingle of the bells.

All of a sudden, there was the sound of another jingle bell and it did not match the same pitch or rhythm as Susan's. What could that be? We were 10 miles into the ride, in the middle of nowhere, far ahead of the rest of the pack....or so I thought. "jingle, jingle....here comes Betty riding Hooley! Seriously? Damn! This is not the first time Betty has shown up from nowhere behind me. The last time was our distance ride in Prince Edward Island (not an endurance ride) and that time, after a few miles, she left me in her dust. Grrrrr.

I could hear her saying something to Susan but with all the jingling and now the odd little "jangle" from Betty's lone little bell, I could not hear what they were saying. I told them what I knew about the trail, that there was a part coming up where we would have to walk and a good water hole on the other side of Beazley Hollow" where I planned on stopping to offer Spirit a drink. We cantered on, it seemed longer than I thought it would before I began to recognize trail markings and realized we would soon be walking our horses through the section of trail blazed by Troy just a few days earlier.

As the road ended and the entrance to the woods (ie Beazley Hollow) approached, Spirt and I were leading the pack. How appropriate, I thought to myself, the first horse to ever step into the trail through Beazley Hollow will be a Beazley! (Kindred Spirit Beazley-Parsons!).

The woods trail was lovely on horseback and well marked. Betty and Susan both complimented the barn for a great job. Gary Parsons and Gary Bottomly were both at the bridge waiting. (they came at it from the road on the other side) in case any rider had trouble on the bridge. We were fine and in no time, we were out of the woods and cantering up the other road towards the first hold.

The next six miles or so to the first hold went along beautifully. I was smiling that big ol smile all the way. Who wouldn't be? For another six lovely miles we cantered along and we trotted along. We tried to get our horses to drink water. None of them seemed to be drinking a lot, but they stood around in the puddles and caught their breath. The riders were enjoying each others company and we were commenting a lot on the weather; the skies suggested rain at any second, but yet..no rain! Before we knew it, we could see the trucks and pit crew for THE FIRST HOLD!!!

FIRST HOLD

As we approached the first hold, I thought to myself, "we have settled into the easiest 19 miles I have ever ridden" and in hindsight it still feels that way. I looked down at my gps just before entering the hold and it said that our average was 10 miles per hour. Even with the walking and stopping for water I thought to myself that the gps could actually be accurate. The heart rate monitor was registering sporadically but according to what it was telling me, Spirit's heart rate was 44 ; I don't believe that for a minute, but it might have been 88. Sometimes when he is moving, the monitor gives me a "half read". (just my observation, but it has happened quite frequently)

I have read in a lot of endurance articles that say you should walk your horse into a hold or even get off your horse and walk into the hold. However, when Gary and I were helping at the US national endurance ride last month, no one walked in; everyone trotted in. What to do? In this instance I decided to follow my fellow competitors. Both of them..trotted in, so I did too!

I hit the hold, got off Spirit. We whipped the saddle off of him and started sponging him with water. In a fairly short amount of time, I approached for pulse but as soon as I did I knew it was too soon. I saw his heart rate spike up to 70 just before he was checked. I am usually very conservative when asking for pulse but decided to be more aggressive at this ride. There is no penalty for having a high pulse, except that you have to get to the back of the line. Seeing how there was just three of us, I didn't think the risk was too serious. Spirit pulsed down to the required "60" a minute or two later.

I managed to complicate things unnecessarily by not having my rider card with me, and got a little turned around with the process ...this being my first ever endurance hold and all!! But the volunteers got me sorted out and my first official 30 minute mandatory hold began. Todd and Kathleen were there to help Shelley. Shelley had everything set up and organized. The Schaffers took good care of the Boy and I. Shelley was especially enthusiastic. She decided, at one point, that sponging Spirit was just too slow a process, so she decided to throw a bucket of water over him. And that's just what she did; literally. Yep, the water went right over Spirit and landed ......on me! I was soaked! Not from the rain; from my friend! In no time flat I was really cold and so ducked behind the truck, stripped off the top half and put on dry clothes. Shelley had parked the truck in a manner that allowed me some privacy to do this (although I was suppose to be wet from rain water!)that girl thought of everything.

Shelley and I had a plan regarding when we would tack Spirit up again (with15 minutes remaining) and when I would get back in the saddled again (with 5 minutes left in the hold) and our plan worked like clockwork.

Betty and I were scheduled to leave the hold at the same time and I think Susan was too. If not, she was only seconds behind us. With a few minutes remaining in the hold, we were saddled on our trusty steeds, staring each other down, waiting for the timer to give the go ahead so we could tear on out onto Loop 2. The count down began, 10, 9,8, ...2,1...and away we went! Seventeen miles of glorious trail ahead of us before we would once again have to atone to pulse takers and veterinarian examination. LOOP 2 HERE WE COME!!! .... To be continued!