Dang, i usually type up my posts in Word and then paste them into Blogger to finish them. I think i'll go back to that going forward, since my cohutta post went up half finished. :-( Meh.
Anyway, where I left off on the last post, I was waiting for Andy to finish, starting to get worried. I finally went and changed, and he still hadn't come in. They did the podium for the 65 milers, during which I paid no attention to anything, even though my teammate Joe won the singlespeed race, and still he hadn't come in.
And then, a race volunteer came and said "Ms. Applegate?" (cue foreboding music). "Apparently your husband crashed pretty bad out there." Agh! Andy doesn't crash! WTF! but the volunteer didn't know anything else, and just as soon as he said "I'm not sure where he is", he added on "oh wait, there he is", and there was Andy, standing at the finish line talking to some friends. My brain didn't even have enough time to freak out, which is pretty good, given my ridiculously active imagination....
You know those nasty gravel downhills that were giving me the heebie jeebies? Well, at mile 72 Andy was in about 15th place bombing down one, and his rear wheel fishtailed. As he corrected it, his front wheel went sideways and he high sided his bike, thudding to the ground at about 35 mph. Apparently he hit so hard he just lay in the middle of the road in shock for about 5 minutes (sounds familiar), then once he got to the side of the road he spent another 10 minutes fighting nausea (again, familiar.) Frankly I can't believe he was able to finish. But I guess that's just stubborn ol' Andy, so against the notion of quitting that not even being thrown violently to the ground will stop him.
He was incredibly lucky though - nothing broken, just some scrapes and cuts, and of course sore all over. And, since he was no longer in race mode, he was able to see the fresh water bottle on the side of the trail that had a crisp $20 bill in it as he entered the last 10 miles of single track. He was very proud of his $20. "I got $20!" he said proudly, thrusting it into my hand. Thank you Trailhead Bicycles!
But after he let his guard done at the finish line, the shock of the impact caught up with him and he lay on the ground in the fetal position, refusing water and bevvies because they weren't cold enough. It was a rough rest of the day, for sure. Socializing was eliminated from the itinerary, as my main concern was making sure he was okay. Thank goodness we were just a 2.5 hour drive from home!
The end result of all of this was that I had to learn how to drive the Sprinter (the Meowmobile), as Andy lay in the back recovering. It shouldn't be such a big deal, but that thing is long, and my day to day car is a little compact (the Smurfmobile). I never want to own a bigger vehicle. There was a lot of talking to myself as we wound our way through the twisty gorge that passes through the Nantahala region, and some irritated drivers cursing the grandma in front of them (I imagine), but we made it through safe and sound.
All in all, a pretty good weekend, actually. Crashing sucks, but it's always a good day when you don't break anything! Plus, no rain. Or thunder, or lightning, or hail, all of which occurred during last year's edition. Andy still managed 43rd out of a cajillion riders on the day, which frankly is pretty impressive. Me? I didn't even bother to check results since I was certain I had done atrociously. Proof positive that I am not really a bike racer anymore. The funny thing is, it meant that I missed my podium, as apparently I was 5th!
Due to worrying about Andy, I didn't snag any photos, even though I walked around with that dang camera in my hand. There are some cool photos here, though. If you were a participant you should buy some!
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