For the second year in row, we’ve made our way up to Matthews, Indiana for the final National Enduro of the year. It is usually held on a Saturday which makes it even more attractive.
We had a full row signed up this year which was going to be nice. All 5 of us knew each other and my Son was excited to get to ride with everyone at the same time. Jesse, Trey, Bo, Philip and me were all signed up for Row 48.
All was good until the first weekend of September and then our plans started to unravel. I came down with a fever, headache, and all sorts of stuff. This was Labor Day weekend and unfortunately I couldn’t get into my Doctor until the day after the Holiday. At that time, my Doctor thought I had a flare up of something he’d treated me for in the past. So I started on some familiar antibiotics. Five days later, I was in really bad shape, couldn’t kick the fever and was in and out of the Emergency Room. It wasn’t until the following Wednesday that they realized how bad off I was and sent me to the Hospital. After a couple nights there I was starting to improve so they sent me home with an IV for medications and some different antibiotics. They still had no test results that said what I had or what was going on. But, they suspected something tick-borne or maybe a rare form of Hepatitis (not A, B, or C).
To make a long story short, they finally figured out that I had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Ehrlichia, both of which are closely related. See the wiki links below for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_mountain_spotted_fever
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrlichia
I’m slowly improving each day. Now have the IV out but I haven’t had a beer in nearly a month and of course I had to sit out on the Enduro this weekend. So we’re down to only 4 people on our row. But wait, there is more!
Two weeks before the Enduro, Bo called and said they’d moved him to a swing shift at work and that unfortunately he had to work that weekend. So now our row is down to 3 on row 48. Not good.
Philip, Jesse, and Trey (left to right)
In the end, that is where it stayed, 3 racers on row 48, but they did place another racer on that row so there were 4 taking off each time. That made it a bit nicer for everyone. I was able to see them coming out after Test #1 and run to the gas stop after Test #2. I got to the gas stop early and ended up waiting nearly 45 minutes before Trey got there. Philip was a good 6-7 minutes behind him and Jesse was even farther back. Trey decided not to eat but we topped off his gas. Philip at a little bit and we banged on his radiator guard a bit and then we was off to the next test.
Here’s a link to some footage from the helmet camera that Philip was wearing. This is the very first part of Test #1:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kentanness?feature=mhee#p/u/0/WiojfG54iyE
Jesse had a tough time with one of the big slick logs in Test #2 and tweaked his knee badly. As a result, we loaded up his bike after that test and took him and his machine back to the trailer. We was doing fine and having a good time until that happened.
Trey made it back to the truck after Test #4, at something and headed off to the start of Test #5. He was only 1 minute late so he was pleased! Philip on the other hand was about 35 minutes behind Trey and was soaked to the skin! He quickly decided he was done for the day and was disappointed in himself. Jesse and I told him he’d done well for the no more than he’s ridden in the past two years. Philip had a smile on his face. He went into it all not knowing what to expect and for the most part, he really liked being challenged. He’s a very capable and skilled rider, he just needs a bit more practice and conditioning.
Upland Enduro (Sections 1 & 2)
We packed up and hit the road while Trey stayed behind to see how he’d done and to find out about the overall. Trey did well with an 11th place finish in Senior B and he called to let us know that Bobbitt had wrapped up the 2011 National Enduro Title. It was a good day for all!
See you on the trail!