Thursday 29 August 2019

It's not crazy if we all do it

When you look back on something, it’s weird how quickly you forget the hard parts. The moments that you felt like shit and all the times you cursed yourself for ever attempting something so crazy, it all seems to fade from your memory while the highs remain. Even my ‘I will never do this again!’ doesn’t sound as convincing now as it did a week ago. But don’t worry, for now I am not taking off on another crazy adventure, I need to process this one first.

Because believe me, those moments I mentioned? I definitely had them, a lot of them. Just in case a 70-year old cowboy winning the race makes you think it’s easy, let me tell you: it’s not. I was ready to quit after just one day. I was sick, wet, cold and miserable. Oh and both the horses I rode on the first day were lame. Of course I knew all the things that could go wrong on this race, I watched Erin fall 20 minutes after the startgun fired. I knew that you can’t prepare for everything and that plan’s don’t last long during the Derby. I just didn’t expect my plans to hit me in the face on the first day.

The training days at startcamp helped calm my nerves a little bit. We got to do two practice rides to get used to the horses, test our kit and train with the GPS. I learned that a straight line to the coördinates is hardly ever the right path, Mongolian horses aren’t the crazy, people eating monsters that they had turned into in my head and that you should definitely make sure your stirrup isn’t twisted before you get on. And most of all: luck is a big factor in this race. One of the other riders fell off during training and was suspected to have broken his collarbone. After my injury last year, that was my biggest fear.. I managed to get to the startline in one piece, though I was slightly terrified.


The first part of the first leg went pretty well. My horse didn’t bolt and I didn’t fall off and get trampled at the startline (another one of my fears, don’t judge!). He wasn’t the fastest but he kept up a steady canter and soon we started passing other riders. The first hour is a bit of a blur, I know I rode with different people before finding Ava again. Her horse had bolted from the startline but she was doing well and the two of us continued the first leg with Molly Pearson (USA). That’s when my luck for the day ran out. My horse tripped and ended up being lame. I had to walk almost 10 km into the next station. Thankfully Ava and Molly decided to stay with me.

I barely had time to fill up my hydration pack before we got on fresh horses and bolted out of the first horse station. Literally bolted because my horse was a little excited. We rode through what appeared to me a military training area with fake buildings and abandoned cars everywhere. We had just gotten to a tar road (one of the few tar roads we would see during this race) when I suddenly started feeling really sick. This is where I was happy with the advice Stephanie gave me before the Derby (gross details warning): always throw up on the left side of your horse. Best advice I’ve gotten and already useful on day one.. I can’t recommend it though.
So yeah, add that to the stomach cramps I’d had since startcamp, the pouring rain and the fact that suddenly my excited horse couldn’t seem to go faster than a jog. All in all, this wasn’t going as I had expected. Thankfully the horse seemed alright at a lower pace so we slowly made our way to the second station. I decided to stay the night (it was around 18.30 by then) rather then riding out and camping. Only day one and I was already questioning my sanity for taking on this race.

2 comments:

  1. Your opening line here rang so true for me. I just attempted Tevis for the first time and when I got pulled (after a nasty wreck coming out of Robinson Flat) I said to myself, "Never again." But now the memory has faded and only the high remains and I am already plotting how to get back there one day. What an incredible adventure the Mongol Derby must have been! I'm not sure I'm tough enough to even attempt it, but I loved reading this post <3

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    1. Good to hear I'm not the only one. I would love to try the Tevis as well, it looks great! Sorry to hear you had a wreck, hope you are doing ok now. I guess it's a good thing we forget about the hard parts otherwise I would never leave the house again XD I didn't think I could do it either but if you want to, you should definitely try!

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