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[RC] Kathy's Story (Parts 1,2,3,4) - John Teeter(A repost of Kathy's views as one ridecamp entry. it became a bit hard to follow ... We're going to try to find time to mix stories and pictures of all of this over the next week - so stay tuned - jt)--------- Part 1: After 9 hours of sleep and eating at a steak house in China Town that didn't have any steak (well, they said they had 2 steaks only, so Becky had one and one went on the table for all of us to eat one little bite) I am better rested and better able to think about what to end this incredible trip with ... Where to start? I forgot to tell you all about the day before the race, when Val, Deb, Tom and I got to the toaster and found the battery dead and had to jump start it in the parking garage...Debbie behind the wheel and Val, Tom and I pushing (along with Stewart Dell who happened to be in the garage at the time) from behind - she took off, roared around the garage twice and then halted in front of us - we were laughing too hard to even get in the car and drive for a few minutes...you should have seen the look on Deb's face as she was roaring around us - very intense! then the morning of the race - last minute grooming, walking the horses, trotting out for our vets and chef, getting on the horses and riding for 30 minutes around the stables waiting for the call to come to the start line....the horses calm and cool and moving freely - then the crew box area with mass confusion and noise - the loud speakers and music, and still the horses were ok with it all - then we moved into the area in front of the gates and all hell broke loose - horses rearing, bucking, lunging - and Flame and Theatric went into panic mode and we bailed off and got the horses out of there - got Tee calmed down again, but Flame was on high alert...so I moved into the starting area with Tee and got on and kept him walking around and thanked god I had double reins on him - then we were led into the gates and out into the field for the start, and although I was supposed to start with Val, I knew I had to get going before I could get control - so whenthe GO came, I was gone...I had John and Cheryl beside me and watched Sonny bucking and running and twisting down the field - with John riding him like he was water skiing - Cheryl right behind him looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there! Reason was being as bad a Sonny - I thankfully had a very strong horse, but he wasn't bucking and twisting or lunging! So there I was at the end of the field, with riderless horses running everywhere, people limping along the trail trying to catch running horses and Jim Bryant Sr. standing there looking at everything - I had Tee stopped off at the side of the trail, waiting for Val - Dr. Bryant asked me if I was ok - I told him yes, I was waiting for Val - so I waited another minute and saw more riderless horses running by - then I told Dr. Bryant I was going to start off at a trot and to tell Val she would catch up to me. And she did, about 4 km down the trail I heard her call my name, and we were offon our 100 mile adventure. I guess people said they saw us cantering along the trail together on that first loop, looking relaxed and they were glad we had our horses (!) - so the first hold: what a disaster. Flame was again on high alert - as John said later, the horses were past the point of thinking there was a tiger in the bushes - the tiger was now on their backside and they were trying to get away! While Flame was standing on two legs again, Theatric said, "oh my god - something must be terrible here" and he was running circles around Tom - dragging him through the lanes and crashing over buckets of water and people...it took us 29 minutes to get his pulse down to 64 - it was horrible - I simply walked away and told everyone I couldn't watch it - I was in the crew box helping Cheryl with her vomiting while my horse was trying to get through the vet gate....When everyone came back to the crew box and said Tee had passed the gate, I was relieved and knew that everything would be good from then on...as a team horse, I had instructions on how to ride each loop - I was the anchor horse, to start more slowly, get Tee settled and then move up each loop (as Tee so usually does) so I had a slower start, and then a longer time in the hold and so I was behind at this point. But I knew Tee would close the gap - and then Becky asked me to go slower on the next loop (2nd loop) because we had lost Cheryl - she was hooked up to IVs and was probably going to have to go to the hospital. So we are down to 3 team members, and I'm still the anchor. So we were to do the second loop at 9mph. Not our usual way to do things, but I kept to the plan and came in right on schedule - Tee was so great on trail - he did everything I asked him to do. We still had 3 team members, and Tee came down quickly and passed the vet gate,and we could increase our speed to 10 mph on the next loop.....We came in exactly at 10mph and Becky cut me loose (so to speak) - I could now take Tee and move him up - we had been consistently passing horses on trail, but now he could hunt and seek (he loves to do that) and I let him - I kept him at 12 mph and we came in to the 3rd gate and passed through without problem More to come...I am being rushed out to get my horse ready for the awards and I have to be mounted, as a completer, for this in team uniform.... Kathy Part 2: The trails were more technical this year, the many turns hard to see with very dim lighting in many places...the arrows that were supposed to have ten LED lights to outline the arrow maybe had two lights on them in many places, so you really had to pay attention to the turns and the signage in the dark. Since I ride with no headlight, even though I had one on my helmet as a precaution, I kept my little LED flashlite handy to shine on the signs as I approached them - many riders got lost on the green loop (5th loop) and ended up doing 5km of the trail over again because they missed a major turn - all of the Portugese team lost over 25 minutes due to this mis-turn. I was lucky because Judith, at the road crew point, told me to be careful about the turn - to go straight and not turn left at one intersection, and so I was able to navigate it successfully - I saved a rider from Oman when I saw him make the incorrect turn - and we ended up riding togetherfor the rest of the loop - along with a rider from Argentina who consistently made wrong turns - we were hollering at her the whole rest of that loop - she would willy-nilly go off to the right or left, and not follow markers at all...the poor guy from Oman kept shouting, "hello!" to get her attention, she would come back to us, then gallop off, and the next thing we would see her coming at us from either the right or the left, totally not where she should have been. I told the guy from Oman that I thought she was color blind!anyway, we came into the hold together, and he shook my hand and thanked me for saving him at that crucial turn...I think he later rode with Val on the next loop.At one point on the trail I came upon the King at a water stop - his horse would not drink and he was trying to get it to stay there - Theatric was gulping water down, and I hadn't noticed who the rider was at that moment, so when the rider came over to the water tub where Theatric was drinking, I looked up and saw that it was the King - I smiled and bowed at him, and his horse drank with Theatric, then I continued on trail alone.The green loop was the darkest and most technical loop - right into the jungle and had some hills! I did have to use my head lamp in the jungle - it was so darned dark! But Theatric cruised up and over the 4 hills at a canter. He is an amazing horse in the dark. Nothing fazes him, he is focused and doesn't look right or left...there were tons of camoflauged military men stationed at points on the trail where someone might "cut" trail...but in the dark and in green/black clothing, you didn't see them until you were passing them...and they had no lights at all...just dark figures on the side of the trail. Theatric never even looked at any of them - sometimes I would say "hi" but mostly I didn't see them until I was just beside them or just passing them.The lightning strike that knocked out the power at the venue and had everyone in shock because so many people were actually hit by the lightning or received shocks from standing in the water - Meg and Jan's horses were affected by the lightning and both horses fell down and riders came off....Jan is all beat up and bruised from her fall, lost her eyeglasses and is still reeling from her near death experience. Val and I saw the lightning all around us - it was so bright it literally lit up the sky like a spot light....but we were far enough out on trail that we didn't get the rain that the venue received, and so didn't get shocked.I'll have to do more of this later, it's now time to get ready for the gala dinner ....I will write more when I get back from that...we leave tomorrow morning at 8:00 am to catch our flights - I said my goodbye to Theatric this afternoon - I won't see him now for almost two weeks, what with his delayed flights (the horses don't leave here until the 13th, then are in Amsterdam until the 17th, then a week in quarantine in New York) - It was hard to say goodbye to him this afernoon - he's done so much for Tom, Debbie and me this trip...Kathy ---- here we are in Kuala Lumpur, and we have a couple of hours to kill before our flight to Hong Kong. Tom, Kathleen Crandell, Cheryl Dell and Dwayne Brown have all gone off to catch an express into KL to see some of the city - and I wanted to try to finish this up before I lose the moment of the day.... Part 3 - More of the Story Although loop 5 was the technical loop and the worst lighting for riders (green led lights do not show up when placed next to red and blue lights or when next to yellow lights) Theatric and I made up more time on that loop - it's the loop I rode with rider #88 from Oman - I caught him from going off trail when the loop turned in on itself and the arrow had no lights on it that worked...the only way I knew to go straight was because Judith had warned me at the road crew stop to watch for that place in the trail. Val was just minutes behind me, and I thought she would catch me and come in with me, but I never saw her again. There was some panic when I had come into the road stop and people were asking me where Val was - Flavia had been told Val had caught up to me. So they were convinced Val was lost on trail. She was not. Meg and Jan were about 15 minutes ahead of me and Tee pulsed in fairly quickly. We got back to the crew box, and Becky told me that we were probably going to lose Meg - the mare was off. So now it's Jan, Kathy and Val - we were closing the gap on Jan, and Tee could do his thing now. As Becky said, it was Tee's turn to have fun. So we went out on the 6th loop at a canter, and never looked back. We passed a couple of riders and I had an ESPN helicopter following me the whole loop, and I was convinced that someone very important must be just behind me! The helicopter buzzed us a couple of times, and when I looked up I could see the camera crew leaning out of the side door of the copter. Cool. So on we cantered, and Tee wasn't interested in stopping at the water stops - he was on a mission. I should note that the water stops were every 4 km and not only were there at least 6 huge tanks for drinking at each stop, there were ice tanks and ineach tank were scoops (plastic pots with handles) and the water crew all had drinking water for the horses and bullets of water for the horses...mind you, these were not our road crews, these were non-english speaking Malaysians, Indians, Pakestanies and others who were tending those stops and probably did not even know about horses! but they never failed to hand you scoops of water to pour on the horses as you were letting them drink, and handing us cool water to drink - popping the caps off the water for you so you didn't even have to twist them off yourself! and later in the ride there were hoses that they handed you as you sat on top of your horse, and you hosed them off yourself as they drank water. Wendy later told me that someone from the States had emailed her and said they had watched me canter the 6th loop - and that ESPN quit their live coverage of the race after following me - they then focused on the finish line and the top ten finishers.Into the last hold, and still no Val - we pulsed right down, and we had only 6 miles to go. I did that 10 mile loop in about 45 minutes. My crew and USA contingency cautioned me to get the completion, and ride smart - Tee was ready to get it done. So we cantered out of the last gate onto the course to do it. Jan was only about 10 minutes ahead of me and Val was just about 15 minutes behind me. I lightly dosed Tee with elytes for that last loop, and off we went.You have to understand that Tee was doing this without any other horses for the past 2 loops...we came upon other horses on that last loop, but they were on different loops then us, so he really did it alone. I was shooting for a 9:00 am finish, and Tee was still strong and we trotted and cantered into the final stretch, with cheering and photos being taken and Tom yelling "Kathy Brunjes, Over Here" and we just plain old trotted into the vet gate and it was time to get the completion. Tee pulsed quickly down to 60, but Jim and Todd wanted to be sure, since it was a one-shot deal. I didn't find out until later that Jan had been eliminated at the finish, so we were still on a very big high....Tom, Jim and I took Tee into the vet gate, he passed the pulse and his trot looked terrific, and his CRI passed, and then the 3 vet vote, which they do at these events, was taken. As Tee was trotting down the lane, I was excited and I guess I was swishing my hips to his trot - and I heard one of the 3 vet panel snicker, and I looked over and he was laughing at me! The vets stood off to the side, each wrote down something, and Ian Williams held up his thumb to indicate that Tee had passed and we had done it. We had our completion. Then they told me about Jan, and it was heartbreaking to hear that. But we were also excited for Tee and all the hard work the crews had gone through all night - with the rain, the lightning strike, the crazy horses, exhaustion and stress with Cheryl being sick and Meg going out and then Jan being eliminated at the finish. We waited for Val to come in and get her completion and then Flavia and I walked the horses back to their stable and got them hosed off and bedded down...we poulticed their legs and gave them something to eat and waited until the mandatory 2 hour post ride safety check and then ran some fluids (yes, all you guys out there that gave me grief for making the statement that we had given the horses fluids on arrival in Terengganu....we gave fluid POST ride too....and boy did the horses look terrific for doing so!!!) and we were off to bed.More to come later, and I finish up our story and the Gala event on Sunday night. Kathy Part 4: Still in Kuala Lumpur and still trying to catch up on this story...Sunday morning we had the prize giving ceremony at the start/ finish line - Becky had been told it was unmounted, but with horses, but as we were leaving the hotel to go to the stables we found out that it was MOUNTED and we had to rush to get the horses cleaned and unpoulticed. Dwayne had Tee's legs all cleaned and completely bathed by the time I got to the stables. So we got all saddles and ready to go, and it started raining. Then word came that the ceremony would be without horses and moved indoors to the Marquee - so we unsaddled, gave the horses more food and got in our cars and took off to the large tent - scrambling going on in the tent to get tables set up, microphones, big backdrops of posters, etc - and it was to start at 10:30 now, instead of 9:30 to give the OC time to set things up. Then it stopped raining, and the Chefs were called to a meeting, and Becky game back laughing and saying the ceremony was back on and we had to get the horses and ride in.....we thought she was joking...but no - big rush by all the countries with finishing horses to get back to the stables and get mounted and back in 30 minutes. So, saddled up, Val and I, and we walked the horses down to the venue...both horses trotting soundly and energetically. We entered the crew box area and both horses went into high alert...oh, no - this is where those tigers were biting their butts just a day ago! we kept Tee and Flame off to the side, where the vet gate had been, while all the other countries were milling around inside the crewing area. Lots of flags, lots of noise, lots of clapping - so we kept the two horses in the vet gate area walking and trotting in circles...And Tom was standing by with two lead ropes to help us if we got into trouble...both horses were just so full of life! The call came for the line up to go into the press area right outside the in-gate - order of finish, last first. Val and I went in together when they called our numbers and names, and our horses high trotted around to their place in line. After the completed horses were in the designated area, we stood in the hot sun for one hour while they awarded the bronze, silver and gold individual and team medals. then the BC award, and we were still there - thankfully the horses were just standing there watching the whole thing and being totally bored. We were baking - sweat was rolling down my back just sitting there - Val was hysterical! Her comments and observations are priceless! anyway, just as we were getting ready to leave the area, we are told all completions had to do a victory lap around the area...we had to ride in through the in-gate, ride around the crewing area, then go out through the out-gate and canter (or trot) around the press areawhere all the spectators were. Ok then, some action! then the winner would do her own victory lap. Our horses went off like a shot...what a show Tee and Flame put on! and then we were walking back to the stables. and it was over.We spent the rest of yesterday packing our trunks and cleaning/disinfecting everything, relabeling boxes, etc. and making plans for care of our horses since almost all of us were leaving Monday morning for return flights. Most of the Canadians will still be there, so there will be bodies to care for the horses. Deb, Tom and I left the stables around 4pm; I gave Tee a huge hug and kiss and told him how wonderful he is, and said I wouldn't see him again for two weeks - by the time they leave KT (the 13th) and then don't leave Amsterdam until the 17th, then are in quarantine for 7 days in New York/Miami, LAX - it will be over two weeks. I was tired, and it was emotional to leave him in a foreign country for so long without being there with him. He just kept eating his hay and didn't seem to be concerned at all that I was all weepy. Just goes to show you.We got back to the htoel shortly after 5 and had to start packing our luggage and get ready for the gala. The buses were picking us up at 7:00 to get to the stadium where the big dinner and entertainment were being held. Everyone piled into buses, some driving themselves so they could leave earlier - Cheryl was out of the hospital and she wanted to attend for a little while, so Jerry, Martha, Stewart and Cheryl came by car. I had visited with Cheryl earlier right after getting back to the hotel, and she was in better spirits but still so pale - Everyone was dressed in batik outfits and looked really smart. Val had bought a really beautiful deep purple scarf with lots of sparkle on it, and wore it with her suede outfit - Flavia was brilliant in her beautiful new pink blouse and the men! talk about peacocks! almost everyone had purchased a batik shirt and they were all so colorful - made us women look like pidgeons next to the men!!!! We dined on salmon and chicken and Wendy had smuggled in a bottle of wine, so we all had a sip of that pre- dinner. After the King and Queen arrived, and the meal was over, the Gala started with a Malaysian Fashion Show (no fooling - a real fashion show with real models...can you imagine? at an endurance event???) then one of Malaysia's top female artists (as Todd Holbrook commented, it was the Dolly Parton of Malaysia - in more ways then one!) and then the top artist for the evening - a Grammy award singer from the US - Marcy Gray (ok, so I had no ideawho she was, but evidently she is one of the Queen's favorite artists, and dedicated a song to the Queen) - most of us didn't know who she was, but as she got into her songs, we started to recognize some of them - and that lasted until after 11:30 pm. The King and Queen left, then the Prime Minister left, and then we all could leave....and got back to the hotel after midnight to finish our marathon packing - got 3 hours of sleep, and now here we are at the airport in KL after leaving Terengganu at 10 this morning. Dewayne got to see and feed all the horses early this morning before he got to the airport and reported that all were happy and eating before he left.There are so many things I'm sure I've forgotten to mention - like the flooded garage at the hotel where the little toaster cars could hardly drive through because the water was so high - or that hardly any of the toilets worked in our hotel at the Permai Inn or that anytime I plugged in my coffee maker in my room I blew all the power, or that I never had TV, although every room had flat screens with supposed full cable - some rooms had movies, some had ESPN, some had Malaysian soap operas (really, I have never seen such over acted soaps - or such poor acting!), but none of us ever had the whole monty for television!! or that Becky backed into a tree in our parking area in front of the stables and dented the rental truck - which wasn't an OC truck, but some local guy's truck! or that there also was a mysterious dent in the FRONT of the truck, too - that wasn't there when we got it...but I guess I'll remember those things in bits and pieces as my sleep isrestored. that's it for now - I'm running out of time on prepurchased wireless minutes....hi to everyone back home - and thank you for all your support and concerns - your well wishes and congratulations. Becky, Jim, Tony and Todd were outstanding leaders for us - our road crews were stellar - our grooms and crews were working in high gear and we could never say enough good about any of them - everyone pitched in and helped when they had an extra minute - even the grooms for the Japanese, when they were eliminated early on, were taking our saddles and sponging our horses and lending a hand always....the Canadians were great to be with and work with, and it truly was an international event. We renewed old friendships and made new ones...which is part of this whole international experience afterall....Kathy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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