A Tumultuous Month of May

 

Things seemingly started off well, with great weather for the Greensfelder Challenge mtb race. Eli and I started fast (you know this, man!) but neither of us finished as well as we wanted. We both had a bad day. My day got worse when I got home, as I developed a really awful stomach ache and I felt quite bad.

But we couldn't let such things bother us, as we had a Mother's Day ride to go on with Deanna and her bestie the next day. Strangely, I was left as backmarker for most of the ride. But Mrs K enjoyed the day out, and that was the important thing.

I came home from work about noon on Monday and had to lay in bed for the next couple days. By Wednesday, really unable to eat or drink for 3 days and down 6 pounds from my pre-race weight, I had to do something. 

After a bit of back and forth with the blood testing folks, I got in late on Wednesday for a blood test. 

Thursday, after determining that it was, in fact, another bout of pancreatitis, I went for a blood transfusion. Ok, not really. Some IV fluids generally always do the trick to bring me back out of the pain cave. Only, it didn't really do it's thing like it has in the past. I was still very weak and tired to the point of disorientation, which is not normally a symptom that I have when I get an attack. 

I don't think I would have been so stressed about it if I wasn't fearing missing out on one of our favorite events of the year: Wolf Creek. I didn't want to let my teammates down, and I didn't want to let Mrs K and Eli down, either. I made the event and mustered up enough energy for 5 laps. My team didn't win, despite the Herculean efforts by JR and Party Guy. But both Deanna's team and Eli's team won their classes! I'm so proud of them!

This week, eating better and feeling better, I got back on the bikes and things improved. Until a suspension part for my bike clearly didn't hold up to it's 15nm torque setting. Shoulda stopped at 12.

Despite the efforts of my pancreas and my bike to stop me, I made it to Forest City on Sunday for a couple laps. Ironically, I snapped this photo around 11am when I had finished...

...and getting into the car I had a text that Eli had crashed and hurt himself. He WAS wearing his helmet.

But he won't be wearing this one again. He suffered a pretty stiff concussion, as well as some deep cuts around his face and rashing on his shoulders. I won't show those to you, but needless to say we were very worried and are happy that he'll be alright. 

June will be better, I just know it.

Sometimes you gotta get outta town

I've been lucky enough to get some real off-road time lately. Between riding and racing with Eli and the Wheels UP XC team, I've hit the dirt quite a bit. But there is always the alure to riding someplace different, someplace out of the ordinary. When Matt from Loki Events put it out there that he wanted to have a pre-ride at Wolf Creek trails in Poplar Bluff, that tickled just the right amount of fancy. Deanna and I were more than happy to take the trip and put in a couple laps before the endurance race is held there on the 20th. 

A cool group showed up and we did one lap as a smooth recon.  All left turns except that one right.  Got it! After that, everyone did another lap at their own pace. Myself, I wanted to hammer a fast lap. Like clockwork, the Missouri skies got angry and poured rain on me for just a couple minutes about 3 miles in. Enough to put a sheen on the rocks and splatter my clean South Side kit. But it was fine. The course holds water really well and I turned in a respectable race-ready lap time. 

Great course, can't wait for the 20th! And great Mexican food afterward.