Seriously! A minute to spare! Thank God. And thank Andy Kirby and Chris Sakala who kept talking to me as we were watching her Spot tracker NOT updating fast enough. Her bike is coated with bugs. She smells (sorry babe, but you do). And with a half of a banana in her, she’s going through her rally book to pull receipts and get to scoring.
Now that Kirsten’s here, I can tell you part of the anxiety this morning was the reports of additional accidents during the last few hours of this leg. Ken Meese (#1 at end of Leg Two) had a major accident last night. He was out of surgery this morning and doing fine. Another friend of ours crashed just 6 miles from this final checkpoint. She’s fine – gave her a hug this morning. We kept saying that we can’t believe it – 6 miles away! A friend loaned her a bike and she was able to ride in to finish, but it’s frustrating. You plan your ride, you make tough decisions, you take care of yourself and your bike…. and then there’s everything else that happens that you don’t have control over. Every rally has its own bit of luck – good or bad- thrown into the mix.
So, the rest of the day is scoring, shower, sleep, service for the bike, and the final banquet. Will be an interesting evening for sure.
State Tally for Leg Three (48 of 48): Florida (for the capital), Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming (again), Nevada, and California.
State Tally for Leg Two (36 of 48): Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, (District of Columbia), Virginia, West Virginia (again – this time for the capital bonus points), Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
State Tally at End of Leg One (21 of 48): Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
So glad every last smelly bit of KTS made it through safe and sound. Will we see you at Convention? Congrats!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update, Jennifer. I was so hoping that she was able to catch enough green traffic lights to fly in under the bell!
ReplyDeleteBet that was a hard decision to turn east and go through Palmdale OR stay in I5. That could have been a "gotcha" either way ... LA traffic on I5 or risk traffic lights and slower roads.
Take good care of her. She deserves it after the way she performed the last 11 days!
Post a photo of the podium tonight! I know that she'll be up there!
Claye
Great ride Kirsten. I want to thank you so much for letting me tag along. It truly made this a special IBR for me. Thanks. Regardless of your finishing place you are one heck of a rider and someone I am proud to be able to say I have ridden with. GO KIRSTEN!!!
ReplyDeleteKirsten - Awesome, awesome ride!!! We all knew after the IB5K you had something special. Congratulations. You're a helluva rider.
ReplyDeleteHooray!!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! Photo finish indeed!!!! Congratulations on an outstanding first IBR!!!
ReplyDeleteKirsten -- What a triumph. We saw you briefly at the Jacksonville CP and we've been reading your blog daily since. What a great finish and an inspiration to my wife was watching all of you ladies arrive and the checkpoint and prepare yourselves for leg 3. Congrats on your top 10 finish!
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