What's in a Mile

Riding around sitting on a bag of ice when it is 109 degrees apparently brings some relief.  As does ice dropped down the jacket with a wet LD shirt, a few ice cubes to chew on, and the rest of the bag across your lap.  “Best $5 I ever spent!” said Kirsten.  Leg 1 brought an awesome sunset on the Pacific coast, and texts coming to me that said, “palm trees,” and later “ocotillo.” In addition to her hydration system, she was choking down V8 with an applesauce chaser to boost the liquids.  Friends who are following along have been chatting me this week as the miles went on.  When asked if she had a cooling vest, and I described the motorcyclist A/C – ice solution, the reply was, “Nah, nope.  I need a cooled vehicle and an Arnold palmer in the cup holder.”  Amen brother.  There’s a favorite saying of runners as they head into the heat – “It’s not sweat, it’s liquid awesome.”  This group is drenched in awesome.  

On Tuesday, I got the story of what we call a “rally pause.”  Kirsten was riding along when all of I-10 came to a complete stop.  She saw a police vehicle coming back down the wrong way and she thought, “Well something is definitely up.”  After a bit, she rode up the shoulder to the front, where a border patrol vehicle had the road blocked.  Behind him all across the road – wildfire.  The smoke was billowing and everyone was just waiting.  She spoke to the officer who agreed that it was going to take a while, and suggested she ride down (the wrong way) on the off ramp to re-route on secondary roads.  About that time, two other (non-Iron Butt) riders came up and the three of them headed off the highway.  After a few miles on the detour, they came to a railroad crossing…complete with a very long train.  Cars to the horizon in both directions.  So, another pause, which led to a conversation with the other riders.  They had thought her bike was a police bike on the highway, so rode up and followed along.   Then they realized it wasn’t a police bike, but still “really cool.”  Some pictures were taken.  One of the riders had done a Saddle Sore and said he’d look up the IBR.   Once the train cleared, they rode about 20 more miles in a detour, ending up back on I-10.  Which they, literally, had to themselves as everyone else was still back behind the fire.  A nod and a wave and off they went on their separate ways.

By Thursday afternoon, I was watching the SPOTs on the public site line up for the parade southbound along I-69 from Ft. Wayne to Checkpoint 1 in Carmel, IN.  There was another group lined up coming in from Dayton, while a cluster was wrestling their way through the maddening traffic around Chicago. On my view of Kirsten’s SPOT, she had just crossed her outbound track from home, made a loop de loop and landed at the Checkpoint for some much needed rest…and air conditioning.

You can see the standings from Checkpoint 1 on the IBR site.  Kirsten didn’t leave any points at the scoring table – always an awesome thing when you work so hard to get ‘em.  And they were up at 4 a.m. Friday for the Leg 2 bonus pack with a side of breakfast.  The target for most riders has been a Pac-man sweep through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic gobbling up states and boni on their way to Checkpoint 2. 

Later today, we’ll see the riders converge again in formation to land in Huntsville, AL.  Penalty points begin at 8:00 p.m.  Several riders already appear to be circling the location in the South, where days of rain in the Northeast have turned back to sun and heat.  Leg 2 this weekend was short – but I expect the miles to be impressive.  Kirsten rode through Friday night and maxed out her rest bonus last night.  With the mental clock ticking down in her head, every mile brings her closer to a bonus and eventually the checkpoint.  This is the point that riders have to put away the miles gone and focus forward.  Leg 3 traditionally brings new choices and challenges that can lead to make-or-break routing.  There are miles to go before they rest their wheels back at Rally-HQ Provo.  As they turn bloodshot eyes westward, we’ll see the field start out in the morning with visions of bonuses dancing in their heads.  Heads up everyone.