Well, I had my second Ride and Tie race today. This one was in Descanso, CA: about 35 miles East of San Diego, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. High temperature today was in the low 90s. This was another 15-mile race, but tougher than the one I did in April for two reasons: it was a lot hotter today than in April, and the course was more difficult - greater elevation change, more difficult terrain, and so on.

There were four teams in the 15-mile race, and we won!

Now, there's a bit of an explanation to go with that. One of the teams started late. (The man's a lunatic around horses, and apparently cannot keep track of time, either.) We started off in the lead - I cantered Miss Cocoa ahead of everyone else so that I wouldn't have to tie her in traffic, but after about five miles we were dead last. That's right: even the team that started late had passed us.

However, the lunatic's team was pulled because they overrode their horse and it didn't pass its vet check. (Apparently this happens a lot with them.) The team that was in third place was also disqualified, although I do not know why. The first place team had an odd situation: one of the runners got off course and didn't realize it, and got hopelessly lost. Her teammate tied their horse at a ride-through checkpoint at about the 10-mile mark and ran the last five miles, not realizing that her partner was lost. The first runner finally flagged down a truck to get a lift back to the base camp, then the two of them had to hike back five miles to get their horse.

So, it was a race of attrition, but a win's a win, right?

 

Yup. You won just like Kubica did in Montreal.

Congrats!

 

Good job, sounds like you ran a smart race. I do however question how the word smart can be used if a horse owner is involved.

 

Congrats, bill. Was Marlena there?

 

She was part of our crew. There was one vet check at about 7.5 miles, so they were there with water, Gatorade, fruit, hay, and so on. They also met us at the finish line and mainly took care of Miss Cocoa. I think that the crews frequently don't get the credit they deserve: we'd never finish a race without them and ours did an awesome job.

I felt bad for the team where the runner got lost. They were definitely the best in the race and deserved better. As we were coming in at the finish they were just starting to hike back to get their horse; I wish we could have helped them somehow (especially because only one would get to ride the horse back: one was going to hike an extra ten miles beyond the race length!).