Part of this trail was familiar since the Champagne and Fireworks endurance and ride and tie events took place in this area. My ride and tie career began in the late 90s and I remember thinking that running these trails, along with the River crossing, was not easy. I now understood because although the redwood canopy is magnificent the trails go up and down and up and down. This was a tough ½ marathon. Tony was heading back as I was approaching the aid station turnaround and he was whining. The thought occurred to me that I might be able to catch him. That thought stayed with me until after the second water and Highway 9 crossing. May be a mile and a half to 2 miles from the finish, a head of me on the trail was a red shirt. I immediately perked up and quickened my pace. I was zeroing in on that red shirt. I knew I was in a good position to catch that red shirt. Well, I did catch that person with the red shirt. To my dismay, it was not Tony. Shucks! I wanted to catch him.
From Tony: He wasn't even close!! Frank told me at the beginning of the year to beat him I had to be at least our age difference in time in front of him. Lets just say it was that and a little more!!
From Tony: He wasn't even close!! Frank told me at the beginning of the year to beat him I had to be at least our age difference in time in front of him. Lets just say it was that and a little more!!
Tony and I arrived in Santa Cruz Saturday around dinnertime. Our host was Steve Shaw from the running, ride and tie, and endurance world. Being a good host, he made us dinner. George Hall came over and greeted us. The four of us went down to the beach which is minutes from Steve’s house. Then we returned to Steve’s for more stories.
Steve is now into hunting with his birds. He did have time to tell us about his second-place finish on Tevis and the circumstances around losing the lead just a few miles from the finish. You will have to read my book to find out the rest. He also told us about the De Angelo and the double De Angelo story from ride and tie.
In ride and tie there is a rider and a runner along with the horse. So the team consists of three athletes two male and one equine. In the sport, the rider goes a certain distance, dismounts, and ties the horse’s lead rope to a sturdy shrub or tree and then continues running. The runner, who is a distance behind the horse, reaches the animal unties the lead rope, mounts and rides until he catches up with the lead runner. So this is the overview that you have to picture in your mind. Imagine the lead person dismounting, tying, and running ahead. Now, the second team member reaches the horse, unties, and mounts the animal. Then, this second person all of a sudden dismounts, ties, and starts running toward the lead person. The only thing that’s wrong with this picture is that now the horse is tied to a tree while its human team members is off running away from the horse. The entire team has to cross the finish line. You can’t leave your horse behind. This mistake is called the De Angelo. The double De Angelo is when that same person makes this mistake twice in the same race. I will not mention the names of those people in order to protect the innocent.
After saying goodbye to Steve, Tony and I proceed home. The subject of medals came in the conversation. We started talking about ice cream and concluded that if we had a choice between a gold medal and ice cream we would choose ice cream. Neither one of us had to think about that choice. The prize was clear. So we decided why not both the gold medal and ice cream have. Therefore, we stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way home.
0 comments:
Post a Comment