PREAMBLE -THE ROUTE
OK. It's time to get to work and write down the details of riding our first endurance race! I'd like to start by explaining the set up of the trail a little bit. Most of the ride took place on the property of a logging company. This property known by us as "Stanley" consists of hundreds of miles of rideable trail and roads. The roads vary in size from one large, long road that is wide enough for two-way traffic and can usually be driven by cars, down to narrow snowmobile-type trails.
The ride site is about two miles from "Stanley", so we have to go about 2 miles into the ride to get to Stanley. We leave the ride site, cross the street, duck into the woods and ride the first mile or so on an old railroad bed. The 2nd mile to get into Stanley is on an old county dirt road with an old steel bridge and a big horse farm. This road takes us to the entrance into Stanley. This is the same route when we leave Stanley to get back to the ride site. The finish line was at the end of the railroad bed.
The ride consisted of 3 loops. The first loop (burgundy colour in the picture) took you into Stanley, around a loop to the left, and then deeper into Stanley. This loop was about 19 miles long. The 2nd loop (red loop in the picture)went to "the top" of Stanley and then back again almost to the hold of the first loop. The 3rd loop (green in the picture but hard to see because it overlaps with other loops) wove its way back to the bottom of Stanley and then back to the railroad bed (ie the finish line).
THE START
I started tacking Spirit up, in the dark with a flashlight, at 6am. When I went around the trailer to greet him, he nickeled a very low, long nicker to me. Right away Shelley decided that he was saying. "All right, let 's do this". I concur with Shelley's interpretation. Spirit knows the drill and he enjoys the run.
Shelley, by the way, was my "pit crew". That is a story all in itself! For now, all I will say is that she was amazing, worked like a dog, was brilliant at the task, and if you ever want to solidify a friendship ( or end it!) just pit crew 50 miles for someone!
It was suppose to rain 15 - 25 cm of rain and I could see the mist, and feel a few drops now and then. I hate tacking up in the rain so I worked as fast as I could to get the job done before the downpour began. The ride was scheduled to begin at 7:15 am. I was in the saddle and at the start gate at 7am sharp. I had my helmet light on. It wasn't too dark at the ride site but you could tell it was going to be dark in the woods along the railroad bed At about 7:05 am ride management decided to delay the ride for 15 minutes because it was so dark in the woods, but the riders would not hear of it, so the ride would continue as planned at 7:15 am. All of a sudden I realized I did not have my ride card!. Oh my poor pit crew, it was starting all ready. Shelley was frantically searching the trailer for it, found it at the last second, I shoved it in my raincoat pocket just a I heard TRAIL IS OPEN! Holy smokes what a rush. Nine horses and riders, all trotting/cantering off into the early dawn with sprays of mist framing our exit.
LOOP ONE. (burgundy loop)
Across the road and deep into the darkness we flew. Spirit and I were at about the 4th spot going along the railroad bed (single file only). The helmet light was useful in helping me judge the distance between us and the next horse. As we were cantering along in the excitement ...9 horses in a column...I could see Susan Hovey's mare (can't think of her name) spooking now and again off to the side. Oh god I thought, I hope we don't have a train wreck on the railroad tracks (did not realize the humour in that thought at the time). My heart was pounding. I'm sure I did not even blink my eyes once the entire time we were on the rail bed and man was my mouth dry. It felt like only a few seconds later and we were on the wider road. Horses were now running two and three abreast, passing each other and picking up speed. All of a sudden a lot of the horses started to notice things around them...like the herd of 20 trail horses on the farm beside the road all running to meet us. Out of the corner of my eyes (still haven't blinked) I could see horses in our group, here and there spooking or shying from things along the road. I had no idea how Spirit would react to strange horses spooking. I decided to look straight ahead, keep him looking and riding straight between my hands and legs and to ignore everything else around me. I focused on this like I have never focused on anything in my life before and it seemed to help. Once we turned into the entrance of Stanley, I could feel myself relax, ever so slightly and I think I might have finally blinked. We rode onto a tiny trail, once again single file. We knew there were a few obstacles on this trail and I wasn't comfortable with the speed the riders in front of me were at, so I slowed spirit's canter down and at a few places I even brought him down to a trot. At this point, I knew those new reins were going to be a godsend...even at the beginning of the ride with horses cantering away from him, he was manageable.
I didn't worry too much about horses getting ahead of us because when we came out of the trail I knew we were going to be on Phinney Road. Here's the thing about Phinney...we don't train on it but we ride it in competition in the Mud Run. For as long as I can remember, Spirit has tried to run at top, top speed on Phinney. I have never let him, but there were a few times, early on in our partnership, when he got away from me and until i got things back under control, we blasted up Phinney. So today was going to be Spirit's lucky day: I had it all planned out. I was going to do nothing except ride whatever speed he chose to run up Phinney. Well, it was so funny. He immediately went into gallop mode the second his feet left the ditch and hit Phinney. I could tell he was waiting to be told to slow down and I could feel the pure joy of freedom building and building as he ran faster and faster up that road with no one holding him back! Oh yeah, My Boy had just found his own special little piece of heaven and I was right there with him! The faster he ran, the bigger the smile on my face. This was going to be an amazing day! Oh the smile on my face! It was as huge and as authentic as any smile has ever been!
As we turned left off Phinny and out onto Straight Road, I slowed the boy down to a more manageable speed...didnt want him to wear himself out before we even got started. It didn't take too long and we had passed everyone (maybe not Susan, can't remember). Eventually as we turned up Anthony Road it was just me and Susan. (somewhere around the 4 mile mark on the map). I figured Betty and Rusty had to be somewhere close by, along with the rest of the pack. Oh my, I was having so much fun!
The route took as along Anthony Road and then a sharp left down Pick Road. Before I go too much further into the race, let me tell you about Pick Road. It's a BEAUTIFUL little side road that gets increasingly rustic the further in you go, but it ends at around the bottom of the loop in the picture of the map. You see, up until a week or so ago, there was no loop. There were two trails that were not joined. There was over a quarter of a mile of woods and a brook with really deep banks along it separating the two roads. So how did it end up being a loop? Give Troy Beazley a week's vacation, and anything can happen! He worked his derrière off, 12 hour days on the trail and then well into the wee hours of the morning doing other chores, and he pulled it off! With the help of Todd, Gary, and myself, there is now a beautiful trail through the woods where there was NOTHING. The guys actually cut it wide enough that they were able to drive the ATV through the newly cut trail and push it down even more. Gary and Todd built a bridge over the brook, and eventually...."Beazley Hollow" came to life!
This is a warning....if Troy Beazley ever says to you "we just need to build a little trail to connect...". Run and don't look back! Even better, pry that GPS from his hands and then run!!!
I'm a bit off track here as far as the story of the race goes so I think we will end here for tonight and continue on with loop one in the next story. Happy Trails Everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment