Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Off down the road for what was probably the "fastest" section of trail.  Fourteen miles, methinks it was, of nearly all dirt road to the next vet check.  This just hummed along.  Ned was in power trot mode, allowing Miss Dee to come up front to take him past exceptionally frightening things like mailboxes.   Another great part of this ride was that just about every horse place along trail had water tanks out for us.  So there were lots of opportunities to stop and get your horse a drink despite the fact that there wasn't a lot of easy-to-get-to water on trail.

After one of these stops, I managed to sneak electrolytes into Ned via syringe, since it was a longer loop and probably the warmest and sunniest part of the trail.   I do PnWs in feed at vet checks, but this was a bit of Enduramax, ProBis and ProCMC.   I had the advantage of the element of surprise, snuck it into the corner of his lips while mounted, pushed the plunger, and voila, the deed was done.  

Into the next hold, where once again, it took a bit of time for Ned to pulse down.  He looked like he wanted to pee, but didn't, but all of his vet parameters were As and he ate in his usual don't-raise-the-head way.  Short hold, 30 minutes, and we were occupied by getting our glow sticks attached and glowing.  Michael worked on Miss Dee's hamstring a bit again, and offered to take our crewing stuff back to camp in his car.  Did I mention he was a great guy?

It was almost dusk as we headed back out on trail.  The wooded trails were quite dim, but the roads were still fairly bright.  We made time where we could, knowing we'd end up slowing down in the pitch dark.   Here we began to pass runners more frequently, awe-inspired by THEIR endurance and mental toughness.  Some were walking, some were jogging and chuckling with a run partner, many were limping.  All at least raised a hand when we greeted them.  One gave the international hitch-hiking signal.  I offered him Ned's behind but said I couldn't promise just how long he'd last.   One duo agreed to race us back to camp for a beer.  At this point they were over 75 miles, I believe.  Incredible.

By now, the glow sticks were actually glowing, and beginning to be the real visual marker of where to head next.  We got a bit confused by some "Xs" on trail that were for earlier trail, but right on our trail back; we reminded ourselves to simply follow the glow sticks and were fine from then on.  It was interesting that the horses seemed to see just fine - the best evidence of that was that Ned spooked in darkness at all the same silly things that he would spook at during the day.

We caught up with Ellen Tully and rode together for a bit.  Even found a nice grassy area where the horses (and ahem, some of the riders) could have a pee.  Was relieved when Ned stretched out and peed for approximately three weeks.

Ned seemed to look forward to catching up to the runners, and I swear HE was looking for the next glow stick at this point.  Carla was feeling a tiny bit seasick from the glowsticks and riding in the darkness.  We both ate a few more bites from a PowerBar, realizing we hadn't done so well in the eating department ourselves, and with a few Vitamin I tabs (aka ibuprofen) we both perked up.  Still the horses were trotting right along the roads.

[End of Part Four]