Another Adventure Race

Warning: I got a little long-winded with this post and also a little gory. Read on if you don't mind!

Dave and I have gotten ourselves quite attached to adventure racing. We did one last Saturday with our friend Mic. We were feeling pretty confident after winning the last two races we did.

This race started out with a short (maybe a mile) run to the canoe portion. Since I'm slow, we got to the canoes last. Everyone else had started carrying their canoes to the river. So we followed them. Dave and Mic, being the strong guys they are, started running with our canoe. I followed behind with the three paddles and the crate that I sit on in the canoe. After awhile, Dave starts questioning out loud whether we are going the right way because we are going uphill. By this time, we have passed everyone and are in first place. But Mic says, "I hear a road, not a river!" So we decide we need to turn around and go back the way we came. Which puts us in last place! So then Dave and Mic decide to put the canoe up above their heads and start running past everyone again. We arrived at the river in first place!

So we started paddling towards the first checkpoint, but we found #2. Oops. On our way back to #1, everyone passed us, so we were in last place again. While we were at #1, Mic got out of the boat to push us out of the trees and the canoe tipped. I fell out and got soaked! The rest of the paddle was insignificant after that.

When we got on our bikes, we were going really fast and ended up passing a bunch of teams. Then we did a short orienteering course and ended up with the top teams by the time we got back to our bikes.

One part of the biking section was where they "hobbled" one of the bikes on each team and that rider had to be "towed" 5 miles to the next volunteer who would release the hobbled rider. Basically, they put zip ties on my pedals so they wouldn't move. Dave has a bungee cord connected to the back of his bike that hooks on to a hook on the front of my bike. Dave and I are used to towing because we do it often during races so we can stay together. But I'm not used to not pedaling. It's hard to start and keep your balance when you aren't pedaling.

Well we made it to the volunteer who was going to cut the zip ties with Dave pulling me and Mic pushing me up the hills. We saw the volunteer in a parking lot but we had to go through two big metal posts to get to him. As I was following Dave through the posts, he saw a car out of the corner of his eye. Instead of yelling Stop! to me, he yelled Unhook! but as I reached down to unhook, I was thrown off balance and my handlebars hit the post. My bike went down and I went flying. I survived the fall with a long list of bumps and bruises which I will chronicle later but the worst thing at the time was my wrist. I knew it was hurt but was afraid to say too much to Dave and afraid that if I didn't jump up and get back on my bike, the pain would overtake me and I would want to quit. So after a short period of being fussed over, off we went.

I should mention here that before I crashed, we were in first place again! But the four teams right behind us passed us up so we followed along to the last two checkpoints. Dave kept saying, "Can you make it another 15 minutes?" In actuality, we were on our bikes, on trails, for about an hour and a half. I could barely shift with my right hand and I must admit I cried a bit. But we finally made it to the finish!

Here's a list of my injuries (which I am posting here only because I know someday I will look back, when this is all a distant memory, and I will laugh at how banged up I was:)

1. Two big scratches on my right knee

2. A tire burn on my right knee (My pants have a hole in them now)

3. Multiple bruises on both knees

4. A big scratch on my right shoulder

5. Too many to count abrasions on my right elbow, wrist and hand. This is in spite of wearing a long sleeved shirt and biking gloves.

6. A scratch and puncture wound on my chin that seeped blood for the whole day. I always point this out to people who ask me if I wear a helmet. I always wear a helmet when I ride, but it does me no good when I land on my chin!

7. A sore right wrist and elbow

8. My favorite- I was all calmed down after my crash and happened to look at my left hand. What I saw took my breath away. The middle fingernail was bent completely backwards and stayed like that! I quickly swiped it down with my other hand and then looked up at Mic and said, "did you see that?" He was like, "Yeah, I was waiting for you to notice it." Ahhhh! That was yucky!

Dave and I were discussing two things on the drive home. First, how blessed I was, even though I was banged up. I mean I could have knocked some teeth out or worse! Second, should we go straight to the ER to have my wrist looked at? Or wait and maybe have to go the next day? Well I didn't really think anything could be broken so I decided to wait. But by the next morning when I was crying in the shower because I couldn't squeeze the shampoo bottle, Dave was asking if we were going now or later.

I decided to wait until after church. Dave called his parents and asked if they would come pick up the kids since they were coming to town anyway (thanks, Dave and Sue!) and we went straight to the ER.

The doctor had good news. No fracture was evident in my wrist or hand BUT he thought he saw something in my upper arm, above my elbow. So following protocol, he had to put a hard cast from my fingers up to my armpit! I hated that thing. It made my arm go numb and tingly and I couldn't sleep. By the time I got to ORA for my appt. the next morning, I was begging to have it off!

Well the doctor at ORA also didn't see any fractures, but because of my symptoms, he expected there might be a fifth metacarpal fracture or a radial head fracture. (Hand and elbow) I concur sir. So he wanted to put a cast back on me (would be above my elbow but not into my armpit) and then re x-ray me in two weeks. Because of my experience the night before, I begged him not to put me in a cast. He said he would consider it if I promised to be good and not bike and also wear a sling to protect it. I said, "No problem!" He also said that if this was all a memory in a few days, no pain and full range-of-motion back, I didn't even need to come back to the next appt. He was not thinking it was broken.

As of now, I'm feeling better, but not 100% so I will be going back to have it re x-rayed. I'm hoping it's not broken but who knows?

P.S. We placed third out of sixteen teams:) Not bad after having been last and then first and then last and then first....

And check out the article in the Dixon newspaper about the race!