Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Did I mention this was an ultramarathon as well?  Two hundred seventy runners had entered to run the 100-mile course, so alongside the horse camp were camps for the runners, and all the vendors and volunteers there to support the runners were in camp, along with Running Bear Farm, NeighPerSay, and Animal Tacker.  In short, it was a bit more "zooey" than the usual ride camp.

Speaking of zooey, Steve and Dinah Rojek have a pot bellied pig named Mr. T who roams the farm, interacting with the horses, and just generally being social.  This made me raise my eyebrow a bit in concern - what would hyper-reactive Ned think of a pig in his paddock?

Registration and vetting went smoothly down in Rojek's indoor round pen/indoor arena.   With all the vendors and spectators and runners and horses, it was a busy place.  Art King vetted Ned in, and called another vet over to listen to Ned's heart.   This had me a little worried until Art told me why.  Ned's pulse was 24.  As in 6 lub-dubs over 15 seconds.  Leave it to Ned to be unflappable in the face of chaos, and yet have dumped me too many times to count for such remarkable sights in a forest as a rock or a tree stump.

My friend Carla's mare had the tiniest intermittent lameness behind, so we enlisted Michael Beesley (what a great guy!) to come over and check her out.  Sure enough, just a bit of tightness in a hamstring, which he worked on (and promised to work on again at any of the holds if she needed it), and the Miss Dee was back in her usual perfect way.

The start for the 100-mile runners was set for 4 a.m., complete with live music and fireworks.  Sounds like your average endurance ride, yes?   So we were warned to set our alarms and keep an eye on the horses for that event.  More fireworks at 4:30 a.m. or so to kick off the 100-mile riders heading out at 5 a.m.

Then we 50-milers could go back to bed for a nap before our 2 p.m. start time.

This whole "moonlight" thing was new to Ned and me.  Carla and I had kept telling ourselves we'd do a night ride to get ready, but just never quite found the opportunity.  We were armed with glowsticks, but it was odd setting up the vet checks for a ride where you were leaving at the hottest part of the day and planning on needing another clothing layer for the end of the ride.  We kept having to remind ourselves and each other about that.

Given my concern for Ned's potential encounter with the pot-bellied Mr. T, I took him for a handwalk down to the pasture where the little (well, not so little) guy was mingling with three horses.  Immediately, social guy that he is, Mr. T headed right over to say hello.  Ned was enthralled.  Neck arched, nostrils flared, he reached his neck over the two foot stone wall so he could almost touch the pig in the split rail pasture beyond the wall.  Scared?  No.  He was in love.  At one point Ned had his knee on the stone wall, with every intent it seemed, to crawl over to meet his romantic interest.  When he rocked back with intentions to jump, that seemed like a good time to bid farewell to Mr. T.

Now I had a new worry.  If Mr. T was anywhere near the starting line, we'd never get out of camp.

[End of Part Two]