My Goethe story

[Cowgirgoof@aol.com]

I arrived at camp about 1pm, and the first people I run into is Howard and 
Truman. They both chorused at the same time, "you're riding??!!". You see, I 
normally photograph endurance rides, and I mostly ride CTR. The funny thing 
is, most endurance riders don't even know I ride, much less that I have over 
3500 miles in competition and 8,000 more in my training journals...
Anyway, after I convinced Howard that it is legal for me to enter an 
endurance ride, I proceeded to find a place to park in a very crowded camp. 
The Goethe State forest has grown quite a bit in the past two years with 
their own well and power. They even had bush hogged out some new parking 
places for trailers, and I ended up in one of those. 
The next morning it was VERY muggy, and it felt like 80 degrees already! I 
was hoping to ride my CTR horse just a tad faster to start preparing him for 
the VA three day 100 in April where it is very mountainous like Old Dominion. 
As we reached the ten mile out point, I was beginning to realize that I had 
not brought enough to drink, and made a serious mistake by not bringing any 
electrolyte type drink with me. I can over-heat pretty easy, and by the end 
of the fifteen mile loop, I knew I was in trouble. I had set up my "crew" 
area near the hose, which just happened to be near Valerie Kanavy' s trailer. 
She was in camp on her second hold for the 50. She was teasing me that some 
of us Florida riders looked a little "peaked" and flushed.  I joked back that 
even though we should be used to it, our bodies just don't expect it in 
December! She could see that I was looking pretty sick, and graciously 
offered me some Ensure and a potassium pill. A nice "rookie" lady named Lisa 
(who mentioned on her last post that she wanted to meet me), went to get me 
some ice water from the registration area. Mike Caudill held my horse so I 
could go to the port-a-john (which at that point I wasn't sure if it was to 
go to the bathroom or puke!). At any rate, I got vetted through, and after 
resting at my trailer for fifteen minutes, I felt good enough to go on. I 
caught up with a rookie rider named Patty Fuchs, and we pretty much offered 
moral support for the last ten miles. (my horse helped hers along, and she 
helped me along). Although I didn't meet my goal of finishing faster than a 
CTR, I realized there sure are a great group of trail riders in any of the 
disciplines!  I will see everybody at the Jennings Boogie behind the camera 
this time!!
Becky Siler