I am lucky. I am very happy to have only the injuries that I have and not any other injuries that had the potential to be much worse. However, I am also disappointed that I was unable to perform at the Sea Otter Classic, the only national level mountain bike race local to the Monterey Bay Area. It would have been great to have been able to race on my home turf in such a strong field, but sometimes the cookie crumbles (sponsor me Phil Gaimon) in a way that is far from stellar.
I had my training planned to have me at a mid-season peak of fitness, right before a bit of rest leading up to my next peak at California State Championships. The morning of the race, and even the days leading up to toeing the line, my legs felt absolutely incredible. I woke up at 5 am feeling spry - I hopped out of bed, ate breakfast and headed to the race. Once I arrived, I got out of the car and went to warm up. The sensation in my legs was incredible and I felt extremely good. I got a couple sprints in as I pre-rode the race start on Mazda Raceway that exits onto Pilarcitos Canyon Road in Fort Ord and got a general idea of how the first few minutes of the course would be. After warming up, I headed for the start line and got in with the pack. The Cat. 1 15-16 year old were starting with us, the Cat. 1 17-18, for some odd reason. When they called us up to the start line, 100 kids all rushed up to the line, and I ended up sitting third row on the left. I was content with this position, knowing that the full course had 29 miles to make up those spots, and that the start on the wide race track would make that much easier to do so in the first few minutes. As they counted us down to our start, I looked ahead and got ready to get to the front.
A few seconds later, we were off. One hundred reckless teenagers careening down the raceway. Luckily, I was able to get out of mid-pack fairly quickly, and by the time we reached the dirt I was sitting about 15th wheel.
As we crested the hill, the course pointed us down Lookout Ridge, a very dusty fire road where speeds upwards of 45 miles per hour can be seen. The fast descent was sketchy to say the least, but luckily we made it through safely. When we reached the intersection of trail 50, a sweet, flowy single track that winds to the bottom of the road and Barloy Spur Road, a very thin, over-grown "fire road" notorious for its rain ruts, we of course took a left turn onto Barloy Spur Road! I am still unsure why the course would avoid the safe and flowy single track, but that was how the course was set, so myself and 100 other juniors went bombing down the poorly groomed road. Once we reached the bottom, we took a right on a loose gravel turn and made our way down Barloy Canyon Road. The center lane of the road was laden with traffic cones the entire length of the descent. With a lead group of 30 kids all trying to be first wheel by the start of the single track, the descent was extremely sketchy. Due to the large amount of riders, many of us were forced to ride extremely close to the traffic cones. All of a sudden, a Bear Team rider two wheels in front of me plowed into one of the cones as the rest of watched in fear as he slid on the rough pavement.
Realizing that I did not want to end up how the Bear rider did, I tried to move farther over from the cones. Unfortunately, due to the dynamic and movement of the pack, a few seconds later I found myself a bit to close to the line of cones, making contact with one against my will.
Suddenly I found my body hurling through the air at 40 miles per hour, followed by smashing the rough pavement with the right side of my body. I was brought to a stop after sliding a good 15 feet away from where my bike lay. I got up, shocked, and moaned and cried in pain for a minute. At this point, my body was so full of adrenaline that I picked up my bike, put my chain back on and continued riding down the hill - unaware of the extent of my injuries. I headed up the trail climb and passed a couple kids that were at the back of my field. After the trail climb, the course sends the riders onto a bumpy, twisty trail that is usually one of my all time favorites. This time, however, it was not. It was the trail of truth.
Mid-way through the three minute trail, my right wrist began to hurt so badly that I could not properly hold onto the handlebars. I reached the end of the trail and turned onto the gravel road. At this point I had to completely remove my hand from my bars and I realized that I needed to get medical attention as soon as possible. I glanced down and it came to my attention how messed up my body really was. I was missing nearly the entire right side of my bib, along with a very large chunk of skin missing from my elbow. I quickly rushed to wear I knew there were people, and asked for medical attention.
A truck came to retrieve me, and as we were headed up Barloy Canyon Road to reach the medical tent, we spotted the Bear Team rider that had initially crashed, sitting on the side of the road next to his bike. We picked him up and headed to the medical tent as quickly as possible - I now had a friend to cry with! By the time we reached the medical tent, my teeth were chattering (I was not freezing) and my body was twitching uncontrollably. The doctors promptly cut my bib so that they could access the wounds, and cleaned all of the wounds with iodine. A nurse came in and asked me if I wanted morphine, in which I responded a definite yes. The nurse let Hannah come in and sit with me (I was STOKED on that!!!) while they finished up the wound care before sending me to the hospital. The doctors loaded me onto a stretcher and placed me in the ambulance.
Upon my arrival at the Trauma Center at Natividad Hospital in Salinas, I was moved out of the ambulance to room number 8. The doctors came in and x-rayed various parts of my body, including my ribs, chest, pelvis and wrist. Fortunately, everything came out completely unscathed with the exception of a sprained wrist on my right side! Following the x-rays, the doctors picked the gravel and rocks out of my wounds with a tweezer-like tool. They then cleaned out all of my wounds with hydrogen-peroxide soaked rags. I screamed relentlessly the entire length of the cleaning. This 45 minutes very well may have been the most painful 45 minutes of my life. It was honestly unbearable to have tweezers scraping rocks out of my leg and my (new) least favorite liquid soaking my wounds.
Once I was all bandaged up and was finally discharged at around 4 pm, I devoured an
oatmeal raisin cookie that my Dad had brought me and headed home. The following few days have consisted of laying in a chair in my living room, sleeping, and eating basically only greek yogurt, warm cereal and mashed potatoes. Unfortunately while I was in the hospital, I somehow contracted oral thrush. This makes it so that I can hardly swallow anything - I even struggle getting water down painlessly. I've been going on some sweet walks on Marina Beach, where I have been shredding the trails with my feet at walking pace.
However, there is a bright side to this all. I have a season pack-full of racing, and I am only part way through. Once I am back on the bike, my body will be fully recovered from any left over fatigue from the first part of my season and will be ready to give it everything at the later season races, including state and national championships, along with a full calendar of races. To end this race report on a high note, here is a photo of Hannah with her medal at the 2018 Sea Otter Classic Junior Women's Enduro!!!
