Assault on Liberty Mountain

Races haven't been simple this week. After the fiasco that ensued at Waid Park last Sunday, one had to wonder what could possibly go wrong on Saturday. I made it a point to stay positive all week (hence the 5 days of silly blog posts). I made it a point to be enthusiastic when I got up Saturday and sure enough I was in good mood when I arrived at Camp Hydaway. I quickly found my friends from the 'Burg all set up in their pirate tent, and wandered down to registration to get my number (lucky #213). HA! Soon I would make a few trips up and down from the parking area with my clothes, my bike, my drinks etc - same stuff every race.

I was really enjoying the company of my 'Burg friends - Jess had bought me Little Miss Sunshine and Little Miss Naughty (see picture from last night's blog post) as a gag gift, so I told them that I would be sure pose with them post race. Anyway, I wandered off to pre-ride the start of the singletrack. I remembered there being some weirdness on the inital parts of the trail, so I wanted to be able to get around that safely. For my sanity's sake, I needed a good start after my 8-second buckoff at Waid. Eventually race time came, and we all gathered around Kenny for the pre-race announcements. He walked by me and said, "stop looking so nervous, you'll be ok." I really like Kenny and respect him a great deal, so his encouragement helped. I finally was warm enough to take off my arm warmers. As we waited to start our race, we were all kind of laughing and joking about stuff. Kristen and I decided that we were just going to ride together all day. Gina chimed in that she would do the same. None of us knew the 4th chick and ultimate winner of our group. She's a Lynchburg local and rides Candlers frequently, so congrats to her.

As the race began we started out in grass (boo!) and rode past the spectators, I celebrated at 8 seconds knowing that I wouldn't be flipping over for a crowd today. We went up the hill towards the parking lot then back through some gravel and down to the singletrack. I was 2nd or 3rd into the woods. We wound our way onto the course and at the log thing that's right in the normal line, Gina and Kristen went towards it. I knew there was a go around so I got out in front. The local chick followed me. On we went. It was great for a while then the fast, beginner men started to catch us. I can't remember when the local chick got out in front, but when she did she was pretty much gone. Oh well, the three of us had said we were staying together, so we did. We got to the top of a long uphill - I think we all walked parts of it, crossed over a small field when Gina says, "oh no, I have a flat and I don't know how to fix it." I said, "ok, pull over we'll fix it." So the three of us stopped. I was able to get the tire off fairly quickly, and thought I checked the inside of it pretty good, but when we went to inflate the tube it wouldn't hold air. Off the tire went again. Kristen found a thorn in the tire, removed it then we stuffed another tube in. We had some CO2 issues before abandoning that idea for my frame pump. Soon I had her tire reinflated and wheel back on the bike. We were off again. Now we were behind most of the beginners and definitely the back of all of the long course racers (Ex/Pro, SS, Clydesdale and Sports).

We would eventually race our way past a few of the novice people before the course split. I know that we all took turns riding in front. I was having a ball and really enjoying the day. There were some strange parts on the course. There was a lot of challenging terrain and were some absolutely fun parts. I rode most of the bridges. I had to walk more than a few times on some of the uphills and even on a couple of downhill switchbacks. I was happy with my efforts. We wound our way up and down and across the face of the mountain. I really enjoyed this trail called Alternate Flight Plan. I actually pulled away from the others a bit on the downhill part of it, but when time came to climb back out of it, the others caught back up. That was fine with me since we had agreed to stick together. Somewhere along the way I again got in front of the others and was headed down a long, straight singletrack when my right handlebar clipped a tree jerking the bike out from under me. I literally leapfrogged the handlebars, landed on one foot skipped then ran about 20 feet down the trail to keep from falling. I laughed as I turned around to see my bike laying across the trail with the handlebars going the wrong way. I remembered G & K would be on the way, so I ran back up and got it before they came along! TOO FUNNY! Shortly after this my legs got really tired going up a hill so I simply laid down to my left on the ground which was even with my hip. I stayed there long enough to let them get by.

I remember coming out of the woods where the big berm is and being behind G & K. Then not seeing any pink ribbons or my pals got me worried. I continued on, caught Gina. We found Kristen at the next fireroad waiting on us. This was the coolest ride!!! Riding on Candlers is weird because you can hear the traffic on 460 pretty much the entire time, so as we were riding along on the eastern edge of the course we hear this roar, then screeching tires then a very loud impact. We were like oh my God! It was frightening to hear! Soon after we heard firetrucks and ambulances responding. Wow. It wasn't long after that that this race became very unimportant.

As we were cruising along, we actually caught a sport male rider who seemed to be having some issues. We asked if he was ok and he said he was. We stopped a few minutes later to have some Gels and a short break. After we got rolling again, Kristen was in front, Gina 2nd and I was bringing up the rear. I saw Kristen going around a turn then I saw a swarm of bees - they nailed Gina who screamed in pain. I flew by her yelling at her to ride because they were swarming her. She was in tears, but I kept yelling at her to come on and get away from them. Once she got rolling we went up the trail a bit and stopped to make sure she was ok. It looked like they only stung her once which surprised me from what I witnessed. We used some water from Kristen's waterbottle to cool the stinging and continued. I think we were on "A Walk in the Park." We crossed over a road and started down a singletrack. Kristen in front, me 2nd and Gina in the back. I heard Gina say something, but I didn't understand her, so I stopped. I heard her say, "Jen, help me I don't feel good." Kristen had stopped on down the trail, so I called to her tha Gina was in trouble. I ran back up the trail with my bike to find Gina on the ground sobbing.

I was instantly worried. I asked if she had ever been stung before, "yes." Have you had a reaction before, "no." My thought was "oh shit, we're in trouble." I told Kristen to go and find the first person with a phone to call for help. Meanwhile, I was trying to calm Gina and keep her from panicking. It was not a good scene. I'd say she went through about 12 different symptoms right there in front of me. The sport male rider came along and asked if everything was ok, I told him no and for him to tell anyone he saw that we needed help. I'll omit the details of what my poor friend was going through, but I pretty much felt helpless. All I could do was be supportive and encourag her to stay calm. At one point as we waited, I started to think we were in a really bad spot to be found and for her to be "rescued." I walked back up to the road that we had crossed to see where it went. I was met with a sign I didn't want to see, "Dead End Road." All I could think is "this fucking sucks. We're 5 miles in on single track, I have no phone. I really have no idea where the roads are or where they go."

At this point, I'd say it's been 40 minutes since Gina got stung, I decided we needed to get to a more accessible spot. I was trying to remember where the trail went. I figured if we went towards the finish line - logic would lead searchers or whoever to come the shortest distance to find us. We were at mile 12.75 when we stopped. I urged Gina, well rather I told her to get up and walk. So I took both bikes and lead the way. As we walked along, I started talking about random stuff to try to take her mind of her body's signs that trouble was looming. At one point, Gina said, "my head is itching, why is my head itching." I knew very well why it was, but I wasn't going to tell her that she had hives. I simply told her, "oh you just need bath. Your head is sweaty." I had already noticed that she was breaking out before we started walking, but there's no way I wanted her to panic again. We walked a half of a mile to the clearing of the power lines.

As we neared the area, I could hear a 4 wheeler so I started to yell. Well the rider didn't shut the motor off so there was no need to yell - they wouldn't hear me. (NOTE TO RESCUERS, YOU HAVE TO SHUT THE ENGINE OFF OCCASSIONALLY TO LISTEN FOR YOUR VICTIM). I trudged on up, set the bikes against the sign posts while Gina sat back down on the trail. I looked at the map trying to figure out what to do next. By now the sound of the 4 wheeler was gone in the distance. I walked about 10 feet down each of the fireroads up there to see what I could see - nothing. I was really starting to worry now. I figured her legs were splotchy, she was itching and had already said it was hard to breathe. I was not looking forward to this progressing. Gina kept telling me to go on and leave her that someone would find her. I was like, "absolutely not." I wasn't about to leave her! I kept looking around and would glance back to make sure her breathing wasn't labored. I looked down the power line to see the best sight of the day. The Lynchburg Fire and EMS Gator was about a quarter mile away coming along the power line. I started jumping up and down and waving hoping like hell they could see me. I watched as the went down the hill then up then disappeared down again. I was like, "please see me, don't turn." I kept waving - they ascended the nearest hill and one of them finally waved back. I love me some firefighters, but I've never been happier in my life to see two firemen. I went to them and gave them a quick assessment of what had happened. They immediately went to Gina, confirmed what I already knew. They radioed back that they needed a Medic truck then began to figure out how they would get back out. They offered me a ride out, but I declined saying that I wanted to try to finish the race. I thanked them, helped them load Gina's bike and equipment. I wished Gina well and told her I'd check on her then I went on my way. Looking at my GPS, I think about and hour and twenty minutes elapsed from the time Gina got stung until the time I got back on course. It didn't matter, I'd stop again if someone is in trouble. That's the way it should be.

After this I really didn't care anymore about this race. I was intent on getting off of the trails safely. As I wound my way across the hillside, I ran into Mr 4 wheeler. He asked if I was the one who got stung. I said, "no the fire/EMS people have her." I bid him farewell and continued on. At some point, I got to yet another road where there were two course workers - they asked about Gina and offered me water. I was good for now. I asked for directions - they sent me on my way. At one point, it sure felt like I went in a circle, but as it turns out I didn't. Eventually I got to the point where I could see the Lake and the Camp, so I was very relieved that I would soon be finished.

I made a turn onto a pink/blue ribbon'ed trail and hoped that it wasn't the outgoing course. I encountered the Sport Male rider again only this time some Nimrod in a red shirt was like you're going the wrong way. Instead of trusting my instincts that I was actually right, I turned around and followed him. I ended up finishing the wrong way and not even on course, but after 4 plus hours on a bike I was frankly sick of riding. As I neared the "finish" line there was course tape everywhere for that stupid movie, so I rode with my hands raised, "where's the finish line?" I heard someone say why are you coming this direction? I was like, "someone told me to go this way." I was like "WTF?" I simply started riding near the stupid movie production - I heard some other smart ass say something like, "wow, you just finished?" I was like, "you haven't got a clue buddy" and kept riding. I rode for a few minutes before turning back around. I heard Kenny saying, "Jen, you're done, I've given you a time." I looked at Kenny, Warren, Cliff, Allen, Susan and a few others who by now had gathered and said, "you know at this point, it doesn't really matter. It's been a long day. It doesn't matter."

In the end, I just wanted to finish. That's what I did. Of course, does it count that I didn't cross a "finish line?" It was a great day with friends, and I'm glad I was in the right spot at the right time. Gina did have to go to the ER where she was treated and released. I spoke to her husband last night who reported that she still had some hives, but was feeling much better. All is well that ends well.

As of right now, I'm completely undecided on the Poor Mountain Hill Climb. The last two races have been mentally taxing and I don't know that I have the enthusiasm for that. I'll have to get back to you. Meanwhile, I'm going to do some totally, non-bike related stuff now. Have a great Sunday.

:)