Sunday, March 6, 2016

Race Day, Part 1

Rise and Shine, it's time to race!!

Ooohhhhhhhhhh.... waaaiiitttttt.... I can't walk. I can barely move. WTH is wrong with my ass?! I wiggle out of my sleeping bag and try to look behind me, but can only make out the sharp edges of a bruise. There's still cactus needles buried in me and I'm in crazy pain. I grab my phone and try to take a backwards selfie, but considering I can't manage a normal selfie, I fail miserably. I swallow my pride and ask Sandrine to take a look.

"Oh DAMN.", she says. "ARE YOU OK?!?"

Ummm... no.... but I ask, "How bad is it?" I kinda have an idea it's not good.

"Ahhhhh... well... it's bad."

In Sandrine's lovely French accent, it doesn't sound as horrific as it feels, but as I get dressed, I show off my lovely backside to Shannon. (You know you've really bonded with your teammates when you have no shame in asking them to take a peek at your ass.) Shannon winces and confirms Sandrine's assessment -- it's not good.

I slowly get dressed and join the others for coffee -- because all I can really think about at this point is coffee. I'm not feeling so great...

As everyone starts to wake up, we begin to talk about our race plans, and I have to confess I can barely move, much less ride a race. It's not long before all of the girls have checked out what gorgeous colors my backside has become -- a rainbow of black, blue, purple and magenta. Only Dan, Wil, Eric and Colin are spared the glorious show.

Colin hands me 800 mg of ibuprofen to ease the pain, and we decide that I'm not racing for a while -- if at all. Soon after, we head down to the hub of 24 Hour Town for the pre-race meeting.

It's not a good start to our race...