|
| |
"England's" Point of View!
My original team dropped out two weeks before the race – it was the
SWEAR organizers and they had post-race stuff to do. So my first big thank you is to
Leiza, Corey, and Jim for hooking me up with a new team. I raced with a couple of really
experienced guys: Steve is training for the Beast, and Erica would have been doing it with
him but had work (military) commitments. Their joint resume of races completed and won was
awesome. Steve was flying in from Washington D.C. and Erica from Germany, she had work in
Austin first. In Germany, the current average temperature is 30, bear this in mind.
So we got to the race, survived the kayak leg, the wind was so strong it threw me out of
the boat! If anyone found a single-use camera floating around, it’s mine! We were
placed in the upper half of the pack and going well.
The land nav was pretty straight forward and we had no trouble knocking off the first 6
checkpoints and jogging a fair bit in between. Then it got HOT. Really HOT. REALLY HOT.
Erica was used to 30 degrees, not 104 degrees, and she suffered badly and was sick several
times.
That was when it turned from a race to a recovery. Steve and I realized it was over and we
had to get her in. Of course, she denied this, but was not in a position to make
decisions. We picked up two other teams on our way in with a least one team member being
sick. We got to TCP #2 and got a ride in with Nancy, Leiza’s mum, and River,
Leiza’s 5 yo boy, and a couple of his friends. A huge thanks to Nancy for the ride
and to River who made Erica laugh by telling Nancy not to drive on the cactus flowers
"cos they’re priddy". He is really cute!
Back in at the rather busy medical tent, we soon got Erica cooled off and feeling better.
Thanks to everyone there, they had a lot to do that day, with 2 ending up in the hospital.
I mooched around for a while, caught up with old friends and generally relaxed. Hollie,
Bill, and Patrick came in to transition to their bikes so I helped them get sorted. Bill
had a puncture, so I gave him my bike (at least IT completed the course!). They headed out
at 7:15 p.m. for what should have been a 2 hour ride.
It took more than two hours, a lot more. It got dark, they had no lights, we thought
(actually , Hollie had a head torch but we didn’t realize this). Other teams came in
and hadn’t seen them. It turned out that they had got through the cut-off just before
Leiza had been able to turn them back. The time ticks by, we are getting worried. I am
hanging out with the race volunteers by now as everyone else is either asleep or gone
home.
This race was made really special for me by the volunteers. The whole community got
involved. I think they mostly thought we were mad, but they were so friendly and helpful.
It was nice to see familiar faces like Lee (Torbett) on the course, but the diversity of
the other volunteers was great.
By this time, probably gone midnight, there are 2/3 trucks out and a few people looking
for the lost team. Back at the transition area, we get a call from Corey as her truck is
stuck in the mud. So I go out with Nancy in her truck with another couple of guys in an
SUV and Levi, a 17 yo lad, in his jeep. Theory being, if one gets stuck, there are enough
of us to get help / get the others out.
Now Nancy is a grandmother, and probably on the other side of 50, but heck, she can drive.
If I hadn’t been so worried about my friends, I would have been having a blast. We
took a round-about route to Corey, in the hope of finding Hollie, Bill, and Patrick, but
no luck. When I say round-about, I mean it too, we went along trails and tracks I would
never have thought we could get down. It was really exciting.
We get to one spot were the SUV wouldn’t get through so we leave it and carry on with
Levi in his jeep revving behind us. That boy was awesome, for one so young he has really
got a good head, hew as still thinking straight and going well at 3 a.m. when we found
Corey and Leiza in their truck. They had found Hollie, Bill, and Patrick safe and well.
What a relief. All that then remained was to get the stuck truck out, which was no mean
feat, with a narrow trail and a drop of 10’ to the creek immediately below. Again,
Levi was a star, helping keep Nancy from putting her truck in the creek as she hauled (in
reverse) Corey’s truck out.
Eventually, we all get back in, Jim and Lee are picked up on route, have a quick scavenge
of the BBQ left-overs and then sleep.
Even though my team didn’t finish, this race will always be a great memory for me,
especially if / when I move home to England. The people and especially the volunteers were
great. And hurtling around in Nancy’s truck in the dead of night to a fortunately
safe rescue was more than enough adventure for me.
Thank you everyone involved. -Sarah Brown (An Englishwoman masquarading as a Texas) |
|
