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[RC] Yellowhammer 2006 (Part 2 of 2) - April...continued from Part 1Friday's 50 mile ride was on different loops. We would do the entire Orange loop for the first loop. This was a 20 mile loop that would include a 10 minute stop at 12 miles so Otis could watch us trot out. Then back into camp for the first vet check and 50 minute hold. The second loop was the Orange loop again, but a shortened version at 17 miles. The final loop was pink at 13 miles. Pulse was again 64. Back to camp to get some sleep. I checked Tanna and he was better. No more tight hamstring. I set the alarm and got up at 1 AM to walk Tanna and feed him, then back to sleep until 4:15. Start time wasn't until 6:30 on Friday, but I wanted a little extra time to walk Tanna around and loosen him up before the start. When I went up and gave my number to the timers for the start, I trotted Tanna for Otis to watch to make sure he was ready to go out again for the second day. This was nothing special for me, all the riders were required to do it, but I was glad of it since I wanted to be sure Tanna was not still stiff from the day before. The Orange loop followed the same trail as the Blue loop from Thursday for 7.5 miles. After the controlled start, I again found myself riding with Joe and Sarah. This time we also had Sandy Thompson and Betsy Knight with us for a little ways. After awhile, Betsy decided her horse was calm enough and headed down the trail. Tanna bounced around and wanted to follow, but I held him back and we moseyed on along. Soon Sandy also decided to move out and left us. Those of us that place last do not often ride fast. ;-) At the 7.5 mile mark, Joe also headed on down the trail. He wanted to get some good training on his horse to take to the Nationals in a couple of weeks. I was just out to complete our first ever back-to-back 50s and was setting a very conservative pace and walking many of the downhills. Sarah and I rode along. Sometimes she fell back and then would catch up again. We were riding fairly close together when we came to the trot-by. Joe was waiting there, but took off soon after we arrived. There was a nice water crossing there and I dismounted and sponged and ate a granola bar. Becky was nice enough to take my jacket from me as the day had warmed up some and didn't look like it was going to rain anymore. It hadn't rained, but had looked like it might earlier. The LD riders began to over-take us at this point. I hate to admit it, but I had been hoping Otis would say Tanna was off so I could stop. Terrible, I know, but true! But, no, Tanna was clear to go and I remounted and Sarah and I took off up the road. Up and down, up and down. There were funny little jokes on pie plates along this stretch. "What is a turkey's favorite holiday song?" "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas" "What do you get when you cross a turkey with a banjo?" "A turkey that plucks himself!" "Time flies like an arrow" "Fruit flies..." "...like a banana" Very entertaining! Thanks to Mrs. Barnett for writing all those and Susan K and helper (??) who put them out! We got back to camp around 10:30. I vetted through and took my hold at my trailer. Daniel was around somewhere taking pictures, so I was crewing for myself for these rides. Tanna ate some hay and hung around sleeping. I resaddled and headed out. Sarah was hanging out in camp for awhile, so I went out on my own. Back over the Orange loop for the shortened version. About an hour and a half later, Sarah caught up with me again while I was off fiddling with the heart rate monitor. I was using a mohair girth that I haven't used a whole lot, but my usual neoprene girths had started to create girth galls during my 15 mile training rides, so I was using the little-used mohair girth I bought at Hoosier Daddy earlier this season. Anyway, we finished that loop. I thought I was going to pull. I was going very slowly and I thought after my hold, I'd only have a little over 2 hours to finish the last 13 mile loop. That's not a bad pace, really, 6.5 miles per hour, but that's faster than I'd averaged all day, as my first two loops I averaged just over 5 mph. I'd have to really kick it up a notch to make time. I decided to just vet through and decide during the hold. I stopped at the in-timer to get my time into camp. I dismounted and jogged to my trailer and quickly stripped tack and went to the pulse takers. Out time was at 3:20 PM. What? That meant I had 3 hours and 10 minutes after my out time to do 13 miles. How had that happened?? Well, fiddlesticks, I couldn't use THAT as an excuse to quit. I could almost walk the entire way and still make time. I had mistakenly read one of the time fields on my GPS and had thought that was the time of day, when it really was just the time I'd been out on trail for that loop! So I went back to the trailer for my final hold. Tanna ate and ate and drank the entire hold. I think he was thinking I was going crazy at this point and we just weren't going to stop. We have done a 50 on a Friday and then another 50 on Sunday, but this was our first genuine attempt at back-to-back 50s. Daniel showed up and I got to chat with him while I rested and watched Tanna through the window of the camper. At 3:10, I jumped up and resaddled and headed out on my last loop. The timers asked me where Sarah was. I told them her horse was tied to her trailer so I assumed she'd be along soon. I decided I was going to go ahead and kick up the pace for the last loop. Tanna looked good and had eaten well at the check, so I figured we could do this unless something felt off or wrong. So right out of the vet check, we picked up a very good trot. We had been over this trail in and out of camp several times so I was pretty familiar with the footing by now and asked Tanna to canter quite a bit of it. In no time we were up crossing a gravel road and back into the woods. We paused and Tanna drank from the red mud/clay puddle (orange juice, Tracy called it!) before heading into the rolling single-track trail. Very fun trail, especially at a good pace! I was having a blast and Tanna seemed to be enjoying himself, too. Sarah caught up with us and I told her I wanted to kick up the pace and move out on this loop. So we took turns leading through this loop. I'm sure Sarah and her horse were happy to move out, too! About a mile or two from the finish we came up on another rider. It was Joe! Wow, I thought he was long gone. He was on the ground so we stopped to see what was going on. His horse had a sore back and he had been walking a lot of the loop to save his horse. A trail rider came through and said that the finish timer (Nancy) was getting tired of waiting for us. So we all headed up the hill, Joe still on foot. We continued on that way. A couple times Joe mentioned for us to go around him. I said "No way, Joe, you're not gonna cheat me out of the Turtle award after I worked so hard to go so slow!" We got to the sign "1056 to camp. Run....Run." I had missed the ' mark before. The sign read "1056' to camp. Run....Run." Oh, FEET! Ok, the sign makes sense now. When we were in sight of the finish, I stopped Tanna and let the others go ahead. Daniel was taking pictures and Tanna was dancing and snorting in irritation. When Joe and Sarah crossed the finish line, I let Tanna go and we cantered to the finish line. Whew!!! Again, I finished just after 5 PM. And again, I was 16th place. And once again, I was TURTLE!!! Yay. ;-) I went to the trailer and stripped tack for the last time. I cleaned him up a smidge and left his butt rug on. When I went up to vet in, Joe was vetting out his horse. I asked Daniel to get Tanna's larger navajo-type blanket that would cover his back muscles, too. I had left it on his butt when I went out on the last loop and some good samaritans told me and then got it out of the road for me when it fell off. Daniel went to get it for me. When Tanna trotted out, the vet asked me to trot again as she saw something. So I went again. She said she didn't see it the second time. Joe explained to me later that this meant that Tanna is sore and he worked out of it since it got better the second time out. Good that it wasn't a brewing lameness issue, but still soreness that needed to be addressed. I settled Tanna back in his pen, covered to keep him warm and keep his muscles from cramping from a chill. 20 riders started the 50 and 16 finished. For my second Turtle award, I got a statue of a little turtle on top of a large rock. Very cute. And I got another t-shirt for my completion award. I could have chosen something else for completion, but I had worn my Thursday completion award during the Friday ride and really liked it. What a great ride! I really enjoyed it. I'm very pleased with my horse. He is happily hanging out in his pasture with his buddy and is fine. He has a very slight soreness in his back where I had water bottles in my cantle bag. I, unfortunately, changed the configuration of the bottles and I believe that is the reason for the soreness. Also, on training rides at home, I rarely trained with water bottles. Have to alter that. Thank you so much to Tamra Schoech and Sarah Engsberg for managing this ride. They worked very hard to turn out a very nice ride with nicely marked trails and water and nice awards and the best timers (Nancy Gooch, Samm Bartee, Jim Underwood, Jackie Mitchell) and vets (Otis Schmitt, Ken Marcella, Page Jackson; I know there were 3 others, but I don't know their names. Thanks to them, too!!!) and all the volunteers that made the ride run very smoothly. And thanks to Joe and Sarah for riding with me and encouraging me through mine and Tanna's first back-to-back 50 milers! Congratulations to Otis and Becky!!!! April Nashville, TN -- "It doesn't matter how slowly you go - as long as you don't stop!" - Confucius =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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