More stories....
* The guy from Mexico I met in the registration line, who had a hip replacement a year ago, who was very interested in the recumbent concept, and kept asking questions in very broken English... He was attempting his first (I think) solo 500 miler, in the 48 hour division, that started 6PM Thursday... I knew he was struggling with it along the way, and he and his wife were sitting there eating pancakes at 8AM on Saturday in the church hall, and I asked him "Are you done? Finished? No mas?" He shook his head, and held up six fingers... and went back out onto the course, intending to finish six more laps. I saw him again at about 2:45, coming in for a break -- his wife had put ice cubes into plastic baggies, and he was taking his shoes and socks off, putting his feet down onto the bags of ice, letting out an audible "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............" His lap times at this point were an hour and a half, and he had two laps to go... I saw him come across the line again at about 4:20, and shouted "UNA MAS!!!" and he shouted the same thing back... At about 5:25, I saw his wife sitting near the finish line, and stopped to talk with her a bit -- at this time in the competition, the 20-mile time trialers had been riding the course, so he had obviously had riders zipping past him during his last lap, so I figured he would be in a lot faster than an hour and a half -- sure enough, suddenly there he was coming up the last section, and his wife uttered a cry of disbelief -- I think he did the last lap in about an hour and ten...
* Terry Pickl and his mechanical meltdowns... With all the trouble Terry has had with his bikes, was it any surprise that it reared its head again? Somewhere during his third (second?) lap, apparently his rear brake slipped out of alignment, and was rubbing the tire sidewall every time he used it -- which eventually blew the tire, and Terry was out of the race. I know his riding partner wasn't very happy about this, and various people somehow found a new tire Saturday morning, and we assisted Terry in getting his machine going. It probably took over an hour for Terry to finally get the bike functional again, but he was back in bidness. His partner came in, and we gave him the good news -- because it had taken his partner about TWO HOURS to finish that previous lap. And together, somehow they banged out 280 miles...
* The lime and gas/oil trucks were much friendlier this year -- I think it was because Dan D. had people giving them food....
Hey, whatever works....
* The guy from Wisconsin (?) who I met before it all started, who said he hadn't done a practice lap, but didn't think it would be too difficult, because "these hills aren't so bad..." he dropped out on Friday from heat exhaustion after 200 miles, realizing the error of his ways. However, he went back out on Saturday, and knocked out an additional 100 miles!!!
* LSR guy Bryan Gibbon from Waco, who was riding his Corsa in the 12 hour, after having it for only three weeks and about 40 miles, converting from a DF. He just kept cruising slowly past, lap after lap, and I never saw his head move once. I happened to be at the finish line when he came in at the end, and I went over and grabbed his bike to stabilize it for him. He could barely move his neck, and when he tried to get off the bike, his thigh immediately cramped up... so my timing was good, to be there to help. He knocked out 160 miles!!!!
* Bud Baker trying to defect to the "Dr. Fart" team, by acclamation... "Good job!"
Pages: 
TTTT (Read 7960 times)
