Mercy Killing

It's been a while since I've flashed back to 2006 when I did All-A-Muchy on a rigid ss after just being introduced to bikes the year before. It was all about survival. My bike handling skills felt like they reverted to the 2006 non-skills as well.


I thought by having a day or two to digest more words would come. I thought I would be able to put something together to describle the course and the experience. There really are no words. It's something that needs to be experienced. The Maximus made Waway look groomed and Stewart look like an indoor velodrome. It was rough. 10 girls started and only 5 finished (for those of you keeping score that's only a 50% survival rate). I was a mercy killing (pulled) and did not suffer from puss-a-bifadous (DNF). I came to the 30 mile point and the promoter told me that the last 10 miles were now taking anywhere from 1.5 to 2+ hours and I was the lucky one to not have to experience it. I was upset and secretly relieved at the same time. After making my way to the truck and telling Mike I was pulled he also told me I was "lucky" and something about how I would want to quit mountain biking and my spirit would have been forever crushed had I done those last 10 miles. Huh.

We waited for Jane to finish. As soon as she came across the line Mike and I congratulated her on her survival skills and the awesome finish. She asked how I did. Out of blue shivering lips and chattering teeth I could make out, "That's awesome you muh-muh-mm-made it 30 miles. The last 10 miles were the worst. You are so frrr-ffrr-freaking lucky. I have to go get warm now, mate."

It's hard to make out in this horrible cell phone pic but times were so tough Jane felt the need for recovery Cheetos.

Cracker Barrel and ride home conversations mostly revolved around the realization that this experience changed all of our perspectives. Shell shocked. Like the last survivors of a Saw movie we had a bond for just surviving the harrowing experience. If you had asked any of us when we finished if we would ever do another Michaux series race the answer would have been an emphatic "Hell No!" About two hours later we were all talking about checking the schedule to see if we could make it to the next two. It was that brutal.