FOF..Fast!

["Steph Teeter" <steph@endurance.net>]

I did my first SE ride with Khruschev this weekend. Wow. The FOF is
really a VERY nice ride -  well marked, the trail is pretty and a gas
to ride. Almost all 2-track trail, flat, but plenty challenging. It's a very
sandy course - and lots of it was deep and rutted by ATV's - plus tree
roots that you can't really see. I would say this was a fairly 'technical'
course - there were some places where you could just cruise, but for
the most part you have to pay close attention and constantly be rating
and guiding the horse (and ducking tree limbs and wayward branches).

My goal for the ride was to top-10 (50 miles) if I could, but not take any
risks yet.
It's his first ride of the season, and I haven't started working on
peak conditioning yet, just getting legged up and solid. I looked at the
results for the past couple years, winning time about 4 1/2 hrs, 60 minute
spread on the top ten. No problem. (wrong). I rode with Dinah Rojek all
day, she needed a nice big butt (the horse) to plant her hot younger horse
behind
and Khruschev is so steady we figured he'd be a good influence. The start
was very fast! Even Khruschev was hard to control - so I backed off the
pace a little (no risks on this ride) and figured I'd shoot for a 10mph
pace.
We got into the first hold at 16 mi, just as the front runners were leaving
after a 30
minute hold. Uh oh. This was a very fast field of riders! We pretty much
kept
to a 10 mph pace all day, the horses were looking great, Dinah still needed
Khruschev for a road block (her horse, Phoenix is a brother to Hawk - looks
like another good one, but still a little overzealous and she was grateful
for the brakes). Plus I had the bonus of having Dinah's crew, Sue Greenall,
to
help me at the holds too. There were 3 outchecks on this ride, so w/o a crew
it's a difficult ride - getting stuff to 3 different locations, finding the
stuff, setting it up, etc etc - it was Wonderful to have Sue's help.
(thanks!).

At the 3rd check (41 mi) the horses still looked great, a bit faster than
my 10 mph target, feeling pretty confident, and then Sue gave us the bad
news that
the 3 of us going out next were in 9,10 and 11th place. The front runners
went out 30 minutes before us - man, what a tight top-10 race this was!
Nothing like the 60 minute spread the past 2 years. There were 3 other
horses going out a couple minutes behind us, so either we were going to
have to pick up the pace and pass a couple or just relax and not fret
over top-10... The horses looked terrific, Khruschev's pulse was 36 at
the hold .... and only 9 miles to go, so ok ... just a little risk . We left
the
check at a gallop. About 3 miles out we came across Jerry, lying on the
ground. He was hurting, said at that point he figured he'd broken his collar
bone. Irene had tripped over a root in the sand and flipped, throwing
Jerry. He was conscious and coherent and didn't seem to be in danger of
shock. Another 100 miler was with him, the horses were ok.  We stayed
with him a little while, then figured it would be best to keep racing in
and get word to the management. We did the last 9 miles in under 40
minutes -
took a few risks - deep sand, sharp corners - but the horses caught the
fever and didn't slow down. We ended up finishing 8th and 9th - 4 hrs
 22 minutes ride time, and STILL 25 minutes behind the winner. The
10th place rider was just a few minutes behind us - so all top-10 finishers
finished this ride faster than last year's winner! And it really was 50
miles (I carried my GPS).

Jerry was finally brought in - they had a hard time finding him by
truck, since the trail was long way off the road. Carlos and Truman
stayed with him on the trail until Lynn got the truck to him, he was
hurting, but still cracking jokes, and still mostly worried about his
horse (Irene was fine). Truman said Jerry was headed back home
today.

I'm pretty sure Steve Rojek won the 100 (only 2 finishers) but I
don't know what his ride time was. I was feeling pretty thankful
at 50 miles not to be going out on the course again - it really is
a challenging course, the sand is constant and very deep in places.

Thanks to ride management - nice ride! And once again I thoroughly
enjoyed the people. The vet checks were friendly,  well
organized. Great vets (Dane Frazier was head vet) - quick and
effiecient. Beautiful trail, camp, etc. I had to pack up and leave
right after the ride (6am flight out of Orlando the next morning)
so I didn't get to stick around for awards and more visiting.

A good time. I'm back in Idaho for a couple weeks, enjoying the
mountains, the mud and snow aren't too bad, and the air is fresh.
But ... already planning the next ride down there. I do like the trails
and winter weather in Florida. Not as hot as I expected, but I'm
assuming as spring comes, so will the heat and humidity. It's such
a treat to have sand instead of mud...

Steph

p.s. congratulations to Randi Lavikoff - her first ride on her home
grown anglo/arab (she was so worried she didn't sleep at all the
night before)  - 7th and BC on the 35.  And to Ron Lupi whose horse
carried 270 lbs to a very very fast top ten finish and BC. Absolutely
impressive.