Have you ever seen an episode of the History channels 'The Swamp People' ? Well try to imagine crossing that with La Bamba and Scarface, and then filming the whole outfit in the Silver Acres retirement complex with added flashback scenes at the Walmart... and you got Florida. Oh wait, throw in a more than healthy blend of Southern hospitality and an all to lethal dose of Nascar and Mickey Mouse on Oxycontin too.
Ok that may sound a little crass, for the Florida that I got to know, but I don't drive a Mercedes or bet on racing horses.
The other scene in Florida though, is long distance bike racing, the Sebring 12/24 Hour to be exact. And this year the turn out of 'big name' Ultra riders would be stellar featuring many huge distance records not only being broken, but DESTROYED, featuring the 500 mile marker being beaten 4 times this year in under 24 hours, compared with only 3 times ever in the races history.
And a New 12 Hour \Record for Standard bike set at over 270 miles !... do the math.
Backtrack to Thursday. Kailee and I get an easy ride to YYC from brother #1 for our 9:30 departure. Get to Orlando, smell the ocean air, receive our luggage in good order and pickup our rental car unit, a 2012 Hyundai Sante Fe with about 5000km on it. We leave town, head south, and stop for a nice meal in some warm sleepy place surrounded by weeping willows and vine wrapped trees. White ducks are outside a tiny picket fence next to the patio of our restaurant, and patrons toss little pieces of bread and fries out to the little honking beggars.As we finish our meal in an aura nicer than a typical rocky mountain summer evening, the sun is going down fast. We board the rental unit again and hit the #4 going south towards Sebring.
Ya, ok, its getting dark and there's no moon but the drive is relatively easy, roads are bare and dry and other than a couple small deer we don't see anything of concern... not even a glimpse of a night prowling gator (I just wanted to see a gator).
We go by one of the many road side County type places with a gas bar and a MacD's or Popeyes or whatever on the SR 27. And up to this point ... lets just say people drive really really fast. On average people were passing me at 20 mph over the posted limit.
We approach a somewhat dimly lit intersection, we're in the middle of 3 lanes traffic with a lane to the far right for turning. The light goes red and we come down to stop as a Sherrif pulls up on our right and he stops at his red right hand turn light. As he starts to make his turn I notice tiredly that the light is now obviously green, I hit the accelerator.
BOOM ! .. our car explodes, the airbags explode.. Kailee screams. our vehicle bucks like a wild bronk and all I see is a flash of light, smoke and pain. The Hyundia is still in drive and crawling forward... I pull to the right and shut the car off as smoke is spewing from the front end. We've been in an accident./ but how .. ?
A Cadillac CTS, driven by some guy ( an older than dirt senior ) ran the red light. They were approaching from the south bound lane on the far other side of the meridian, more than 4 lanes over from me, and across a curb... when our light turned green. So instead of stopping or preparing to stop at the yellow, the one and only best witness, (the sheriff) said it looked like he had sped up to run the red rather than slow down to make the yellow.. possibly assuming that I had seen him plain and simple. Rather than the reality that my attention was drawn simply to the sheriff himself, and then our green signaled go light. Normally I would have checked the other lane by force of habit from driving in Calgary but to no excuse do I have for why I did not this time, regardless, I had the legal right of way.
So as we are there in our smashed up car the first thing I do is access the scene, "are we ok or in continued danger ?"... as the Sheriff pulls up with lights on immediately. I do my best to comfort Kailee and assure her that we are ok, as in not crippled or suffering from life threatening injuries, we cough out the dust of the airbag explosions. We feel hurt, our necks, our chests and seatbelt contact areas. The other driver must have been going very fast... we simply sit in our car in shock unable to move, the Sheriff comes over to our car and insists he must help other people as I let him know we are relatively O.K.. About 10 minutes later there are a lot more sirens happening.
Within 15 minutes Firetrucks are on scene, and then an emergency helicopter is landing in the 4 lane intersection. One of the passengers in the other car is being airlifted, but only after a Jaws of Life extraction from the car.
Kailee and I spend the next 4 hours dealing with the situation as best we can, providing as much information as possible. I call my Insurance company, my lawyer, the Rental car company. I reach an Ultra friend at the same hotel down in Sebring who drives up and helps us with our expensive cargo of racing bikes and equipment. All while this is happening Kailee reassures me she is refusing to go to the hospital (I can't blame her after her experiences with the Calgary area healthcare system). Myself I'm more concerned about my precious Bianchi than my whiplash or totaled rental car, obviously I'm in shock and not thinking straight but what else could I do ? I'm an experienced first aider and I know I have some injuries that can't be helped by sitting in a Florida emergency room for 5 hours.
So Larry my buddy, does the 100km drive and comes and gets us in his Chevy and takes us back down to our prebooked hotel in Sebring, what a guy, what a friend.
Friday morning I wake up feeling paralyzed, Kailee is pretty bruised up too but we are alive and thankful for wearing our seatbelts, I'd never been in a real collision before but will forever remember this lesson. I have several frustrating phone calls to make to companies that survive on Teleprompts instead of human beings, etc etc. Meet the lawyer, continue Comms with the police, go to a hospital finally but leave after a long wait. So then go to Walmart and shop for a 24 Hour Ultra Marathon bike race, all this after cabbing over to Budget for a new Rental car. What a day, what a trip so far... how could things be any worse and yet I still want to compete even as I fell so destroyed, on the eve of the first 2012 Ultra World Cup event.
... Kailee registers happily and is quite excited and nervous to ride... me, not so much. I just don't have it in me anymore and am still suffering the pangs of a near death experience, with the life of my most beloved next to me in a motorvehicle. How would I explain this to her Mom, or her Dad... I continue to feel terrible for exposing her to such risks. The crash... what happened to those seniors ? How many thousands will I owe for this ? Do I have real underlying injuries I should have paid more attention to ? All these questions run through my mind as I mix bottles and build my Bianchi for race day. I'm 'Twentyfour Hour drafting' event rider # 139.
The race start was pretty cool. Under a cover of heavy Atlantic fog over 200 riders leave the start gates of Sebring International raceway and cross the timing pad for three laps of the 3.7 mile world famous race course, where the likes of auto racing fans like Al Capone once visited.
The course is fast and greasy and an added hazard of these 'Bachetta bikes, recumbents and low profile trike bike designs are making this race feel more like a gimic to me already, than a serious RAAM style competition. "Slam" someone slides out in a corner behind me, and I just stick to the front of the pack which is pretty easy for a guy with actual road race experience. The pace is averaging 40-42 km/hr driven by 5-6 other riders besides me. I know I'm a player here but there's plenty of time to let that shine through later, even if it is February in Canada and many of these guys have great Gunder tanned legs and arms. 2011, Twelve Hour Ultra World Cup Champ Kurt Searvogel is racing. John Shlitter, decades old veteran and multiple Ultra Record holder, Paul Carpenter 2009 UMCA Ultra World Cup Series Champ, Larry Ide 'cross State' Record holder for Illinios and serious hardcore mofo... etc etc. ( A some chicks too that are tougher than Cypress Hill leather.)
After the initial 3 laps our Peleton heads out onto the 'Long Loop', where once returning to the track we will have finished 100 miles. The main groupeto I'm in is about 30 riders of 12 and 24 hour participants, sweet. I'm sucking wheel like an ABA sprinter and just conserving energy while eating some bar and drinking some water... and fk man my neck is sore.
The pace starts to really get the slinky effect going, these Tri Nerd based athletes don't have a clue how to make a successful fast paced peleton really roll. Some guy who knows this is yelling at the front 5-6 guys, "10 second pulls", I'm like "F that dude, go ahead." You can measure the strength of many of these guys intensity as they go to the front of the pace line and we fly along at 50 km/hr for minutes at a time, but why ? I don't get it. They pull off their hero pull and the next rider simply relaxes, the whole peleton has to brake and we bunch up again, 'slinky effect'. This goes on for about 80km, or at least to the turn around of the long loop.
At the turn around is a big garbage can that the racers must drop a Numbered poker chip into so signal that they went to the turn around, sort of honor system style. I'm the first rider out of the corner with the cone and then I decide to pull some watts out, why not. I have essentially attacked in a feed zone, but these guys deserve it. Nearly twenty of the riders out here so far have been getting a free ride and now I would let them know that the winner of the Race Across the West and record holder at the Tejas 500 was in the house. After about 20 km the group is getting back together, minus 5-6 riders. Some guys blast through to pull again, well over 40 km/.hr... wtf ? Are these guys on Spanish steaks ? haha. they're so dead I think to myself. They're riding like they're Jure Robic or something... with their hairy legs and triathlon/ mutual fund jerseys.
I stay near the front as the slinky effect happens a few too many times once again and its pissing me off. You see as the riders all bunch up on the 'slow down' of the slinky they veer out onto the road, and even into the oncoming lane of traffic.. or preventing a safe passage of the motorists behind us who just want to go on their morning way. I attack.
I'm off the front riding a pace that is all my own, not ridiculous, but my target pace, 36km/hr. I manage to make huge gains from the chase as each sandy corner causes mayhem in the Bachetta/ Aero bar crowd who have to brake to safely make it. I get close to the Track on the return as the fastest only riders in the 12/24 have again reeled my in, but now there group is only about 10 riders, the selection has been made. A group of 4-5 standard bike guys like me and 4-5 Bachettas including the one blonde girl Jackie, with her ponytails waving in the wind about 12" off the deck.
I have no Support at my vehicle but need to do a Re-fuel, as I have to stop, get the keys, pop the hatch, exchange my bottles and gather some food... I lose the lead peleton who are all fully supported by family or friends doing easy Race Syle Feed Zone hand offs. I then spend the next 5 hours by myself out on the Short Loop in a virtual No Mans land of peninsula wind. Never catching the lead group again on the 22km (11 mile) loop, and never being caught by anyone else in the race. Big Kurt the 12 Hour World Champ is up the road with several now 'New record holders' and they are driving a never before seen race pace. As for me though I'm still well on plan for a 500 mile twenty four hour with the first of five centuries completed in 4 hours:20 minutes.
It wasn't until the near 10th hour mark that I was eventually lapped on the short course by Kurt and the Drafting Group leaders. My self support style race costs me many many minutes each time I had to stop and all could do was look forward to my coming Support from Kailee when she would complete her 12 Hour and then come out to assist me with my race too (what a trooper!)
Unfortunately I started to feel the effects of my battered body around the 10 hour of the race. I was getting some pain in my crotch area that was just brutal. Which didn't make any sense because I've been practising a special massage on that area for about, I don't know, 18 years.
But my neck, my back, everything, even my mind still freshly full of the trauma of Thursday night was now working against me. I had reached a near personal best ride mark with 300km in 8:20, the 400km in 11:35... but to continue on to 800km was getting to be a much bigger task than I envisioned for a February in the Rocky Mountains. My knees were getting a familiar pain(going too hard too early in the season) and no doubts the car crash was demoralizing me to no end. Although my average speed and current mileage would have put me on par to win a 500 mile title and a New course record at Sebring, I pulled out of the race at the 500 kilometer mark.
And I don't feel bad about that.
I want to send a huge thanks to Larry Ide and Kurt Searvogel for assistance the night of the accident. And an even bigger thanks and congratulations to Kailee who completed her 12 Hour challenge and not only won 1st in her Age Group, but set a New UMCA Course record for Sebring at 190 miles, self supported, in February.
The big story for me though, was the Hand Cycle Para athlete who raced 170 miles on hand cranks.
