Reality Check

After being all excited to find my name at the top of the list on National Mileage, I thought I'd better go back and see what past records are.

In the past five years, most winners of the National Mileage award had 2000+ miles. Only one had a little over 1800 miles.

Well. That's not about to happen for us this year. It's only Hoss's third competition year. I'm not prepared to try to get to that many rides this year. I've already selected our rides for the year, and it's double my goal for the year as is.

Add to that, due to this past weekend's Eastern Mojave Scenic ride, at least two riders have surpassed our mileage once those results post to AERC. What has happened nationally, I don't know. Other riders may have already out done us and I won't know it until those results post.

Still, it's fun to be "in the running," as it were. No, we're not going to win this year. We may not even win next year. But I know we can win, we'll just have to do a whole lot more miles. I might have gone to Eastern Mojave if it weren't so close to Hoss's first 100 miler. Once he's completed a 100 mile ride, I'll probably be more willing to do multi-day rides closer to 100 mile events. It will depend on his performance and how he feels about it afterward.

We're supposed to go to Twenty Mule Team this weekend for our first 100 mile ride. I'm not at all sure we'll make it. It's not Hoss, it's me. I'm still getting my butt kicked pretty hard by this bronchitis/pneumonia thing. I had chest x-rays done today. I should find out later for sure what is going on.

Three days into treatment, I don't feel appreciably better. I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll feel like I'm on the mend. What I'm worried about is I'm not getting the right treatment for the condition I actually have. We'll see. I really, really do not want to have to withdraw from this ride. It really is our only chance this year to do a 100 mile ride.

These days, 100 mile rides are few and far between. It seems I'll have to do a great deal of driving in order to get many 100 mile rides in during Hoss's endurance career. I really wish more managers would put them on, but I understand the dilemma. The 100 mile rider seems to be a dying breed, with the exception of the International riders. International riders want to ride 100 mile events that are sanctioned by the International body, and tend to skip the ones that are strictly AERC sanctioned events. This leaves those of us who want to ride 100 mile rides but have no interest in International competition with few choices for 100 mile rides.

So, I really am holding out to the last minute to make the final decision whether we go to Twenty Mule Team or not. I surely hope I can make it. At this point, I'll take better than I am now and just go!

Oh, and on another note, Mom was checked out and released from the hospital. No new damage on the CT scan. With any luck, this too shall pass and we won't have any further scares.