Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Note: if you missed part 1, it did show up in the archives. It didn't show
up in my inbox for some reason.

SABBATH
I slept fairly well. It wasn't too hot at night and since I was tired from
the day before, I slept soundly. I certainly was glad I had Sabbath to rest,
though. I couldn't have imagined trying to do a 50 after that traveling and
the being stuck ordeal.

We're going to have to be more careful about where we park in the future.
Yeah, yeah, 4x4 would have been nice, but we needed a dually and dually 4x4s
are more expensive. We were lucky to be able to get the dually at an
affordable price. So we just have to be careful in the future.

I listened to the horses coming and going for about an hour before getting
up to get Tanna's breakfast. Wow, only 8 AM. Thought it'd be later. I went
outside and fixed his feed. I stood around offering him carrots and watching
the horses. From where we parked, we could see the horses leaving camp, then
taking off down the trail parallel to the camp road. Finally, after about 45
minutes, I gave Tanna the beet pulp and went back into the camper.

We spent the morning leisurely getting our own breakfast, loading up a cart
with empty water containers and hiking the 1/4 one way to fill them up,
checking my email (laptop and cell phone), walking the dog around, and
asking when I could check in for Sunday's ride.

Around 1 PM or so, I decided to saddle up and take Tanna for a look at the
starting stretch of the ride (which was also the last stretch for all
riders). I used his Tacky Tack pad instead of his woolback pad, which I was
saving for the 50. I also used a new girth I'd just gotten. A very soft
neoprene girth. I think this new girth will become my standard girth, but
since I'd never used it on a training ride, I wasn't about to try it on his
first 50. I was sticking with what had worked so far.

I was wearing light stretch cotton Dockers and decided not to change into
riding tights. After all, I was just going out for 45 minutes or so for a
mostly walking ride. Hah. I guess Tanna didn't get the message when I told
him that.

He was totally full of himself, but controllable. We wandered to the start
of the trail and I asked him to pick up an easy trot. He did, shaking his
head, asking for more rein to go faster. No way. I could feel my dockers
already rubbing the insides of my knees. I had him walk for awhile, then let
him canter out, stretching. He loved it. Ears up, alert, happy. We turned
back to go back to camp after 2 miles. My knees were killing me already. I
really should have taken the time to change into riding tights. I had seen a
few riders that were in the race, headed back towards camp. Tanna was ok
with them passing him, although he asked to turn around and follow them, he
was ok.

As I headed back, I was overtaken by a pair of racers going into camp. Tanna
pitched an absolute fit when I pulled him to the side of the trail to let
them pass unobstructed and then wouldn't let him chase them. I turned him up
an unmarked trail while I pulled my gloves on. I sure didn't need to rip up
my hands like my knees were being ripped up. When we got back on the trail,
I let him pick up a trot to get rid of some of the excess energy. He wasn't
thrilled with that slow speed, but he liked it better than walking.

I spotted another two riders heading back to camp. Tanna started to pitch
another fit, so I jumped off and moved him off trail while they passed.
Today would not be a good day to die. I hand-walked him up the trail for a
few minutes before I felt he was safe enough to remount. Then I let him trot
until we came into sight of them. They were at the finish line, getting
their time written on their vet cards. Daniel was hanging out at the finish
line talking to the volunteers that gave out the time to the riders.
Together we headed into camp near the vet check instead of going all the way
back to our trailer. I walked Tanna through some scary camp stuff. He did
nicely and settled down after a few minutes.

We went back to the trailer and unsaddled him, sponged him off, getting the
muddy, sweat off from around his saddle and girth areas. Then we took him up
to get checked in and vetted in.  I gave my name to Vicki, the ride manager,
and she asked for Tanna's paperwork. I stared at her blankly for a minute
and then said, "OH, his coggins and health certificate." Arg. I'd left it at
the camper! Sigh. "I'll be back." So we did the 1/2 mile round trip to get
the papers.

After getting my vet card, we weighed Tanna on a scales set up near the vet
check area. 752 pounds. I really thought he weighed more than that! Guess
not. We went through to vet in. Stan Eichelberger was the vet for my vet in.
I think the only thing he said to me was "Here's your ticket to ride." Well,
at least we vetted in ok. I was hoping for a bit more encouragement or
something considering this was my first 50 and Tanna's first 50 and I'd said
it was a first for both of us.

At the ride meeting, there was some confusion about the last loop for the
50s and 2-day 100s. First loop was the orange loop. 15 miles. Then back to
camp for a vet check and a 40 minute hold. Second loop was the purple loop.
A different 15 miles, then back to camp for an hour hold. Third loop was the
yellow loop. A 10 mile loop to be done twice. After doing the first 10
miles, a rider was to come back to the vet check, pulse down to 60 and then
could go back out again. There was some confusion about who to go to for the
pulse down. On Saturday, several people went to Nancy Gooch, the timer, and
got their pulse down, and went. That was what was understood, but at
Saturday night's ride meeting, Stan said no, the riders were to go to the
VET. The VET would check the pulse and then have the horse trotted out to
check gait. THEN they could go. And any riders that did it differently did
it wrong. Ok, so we'll remember that.

We got back to our camper and Daniel worked on the GPS units I'd be taking
with me. Two GPS units. The Geko that would be strapped to my upper left arm
and the Garmin V that would be in a padded cell phone case on my hip pack's
belt.

I laid out everything I could think of that I would need in the morning.
Saddle, pad, girth, heart rate monitor (HRM), aloe gel for the HRM
electrodes to get them working first thing in the morning, desitin for the
backs of his heels to protect them from sand and water rubbing, brush,
breast collar, 2 1-liter bottles (one with water, one with weak gatorade),
fly spray, fly lotion, and then all my stuff.

We set the alarm for 4:15 EDT. Start time was 6:15 AM.


(to be continued)

April
Nashville, TN


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