Let’s review the tally, for those of you who are just joining us:

Britt
– Currently suffering from a mysterious illness that has resulted in racing TABR with fevers, vertigo, and stabbing body-wide pain amongst other symptoms.
– Stopped taking all allergy meds just weeks before the race began, in a desperate bid to find the source of the problem (note: it wasn’t the meds.)
– Due to this, now has whole body hives and itching all the time and is carrying a couple pounds of anti-itch lotion 
– Also now has uncontrolled seasonal allergies (itchy eyes, runny nose, asthma)
– Injured knee fighting in headwinds like an idiot, can no longer walk normally
– Raw butt from blister bandage glue
– Terrible insomnia
– Likes to whine

Chris
– Is awesome
– Claims to still feel completely normal at this point in the race.
– Can consume a whole pizza in one sitting

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Day 5 was a bit of a non-starter.  

Despite ending the day yesterday with hopes for another 150-200 mile day, I knew as soon as I woke up that it wasn’t going to happen.  I felt hungover from the previous day and couldn’t wake myself up. The worst part is that as soon as I got on my bike, I realized my knees were going to be a big problem today. Instead of rushing out for a big day, we decided to head to Safeway to pick up breakfast and figure out a new strategy.  It was only half a mile down the road, but it was painful to ride there.

We set up at a small table next to the in-store Starbucks, and ordered some drinks.  While they were made, we both ran/limped around looking for breakfast burritos and snacks.  Afterwards, I checked the weather report. In drastic contrast to yesterday, a cold front was moving in and snow producing storms would threaten us throughout the day.  According to the Epic Ride Weather app, we’d probably be facing more headwinds today. I checked trackleaders, and it did look like we still had some competition around.  Daniel and Brad had ridden out of town a bit earlier in the morning, but Rolf and Kevin were still at their motel. After some deliberation, we decided to shoot for Cambridge, which was only 110 miles away.  That would allow me to really pedal lightly and rehab my knee while I was moving. We debated about all the strategies I could use to help my knees, and somehow in the process ended up checking out two more times for a grand total of four.  After a whopping hour, we finally left the store with compression wraps, tiger balm, cooling spray, and a new bottle of tylenol in hand. We were pretty sure our bank was going to freeze our card because we were spending all our time and money on Safeway.

I felt so torn between my head and my heart this morning.  My heart still wanted to race, but my head didn’t know how careful I needed to be in order to preserve myself.  The back half of the first week claims a lot of victims in this race, so I knew I needed to tread carefully. I was shocked to find out that fellow Seattle racer Kyle Noyce had just dropped out this morning due to knee pain, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.   That being said, I hated this pattern we were developing of good days followed by short days. I wanted to do better, so I forced myself to head out on the road again.  

We raised my saddle slightly and left town after a quick test around the parking lot.  However, two miles down the road I already knew I was in trouble. That spot above my left knee was really hurting, and it definitely wasn’t the usual morning knee stiffness.  I didn’t know what I had done to it, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Kyle. I knew he was a stronger and more experienced rider than us, and suddenly I felt very vulnerable. We parked on the side of the road for several minutes while I debated about whether to stay or go.  Suddenly, Kevin appeared on the road behind us. He tried to convince us to come along with him to Richland, which was only 40 miles away. “Just limp along, come on,” he said. I assured him that I wasn’t scratching, but I was worried I’d injure myself further if I got back on the road right away.  We took a photo of the three of us together, and then I limped right back into town. We’d rest my knee here in Baker City for the day, and head out tomorrow.    

It’s possible that what I did was too drastic, and if you haven’t noticed yet the theme here is that I’m always questioning my decisions.  Successful ultracyclists find their limits and then operate right on the edge of them, but I didn’t think I could handle that right now. I was juggling so many issues at once, and it would be so easy to fall right off a cliff metaphorically speaking.  If it had been a nice day outside, things might have been different. I was really worried I’d have to push harder than I wanted to with the wind and the sleet, and I knew I probably wouldn’t be good about stopping to ice my knees when it was so cold and wet.

We decided to return to the same hotel we had just checked out from.  We set up in a new room, and I went straight into a nice long bath. If I was going to take a day off, I was going to do it right!  Afterwards I chatted with Kyle about his race while I elevated and iced my knees. He could certainly have limped to the finish line even with his knee issues, but he had already toured the Transamerica Trail and didn’t want to do it again unless he could fully race it.  We talked about his experience racing with a kid back home, and about taking advantage of the ample climbing opportunities in our home playground of Washington state.  

I called around town to see if I could find a last minute physical therapy appointment.  After exhausting all my options in that regard, I let myself fall asleep for 45 minutes. I didn’t want to sleep too much today and risk another night of insomnia, but it seemed like it would be a wasted opportunity to not rest at all today.  While I was asleep, Chris ran a few errands. He stopped by another store to look for our favorite brand of kinesio tape, and visited the post office to drop off our camping gear. Yes – just like last year, we were sending home our sleeping bags and pads.  Last time we did it to ease Chris’s achilles issues on our Pacific Coast trip, and this time we were doing it to take a small load off of my knees. Plus, let’s face it, I’m a princess who is destined to sleep in hotels. With all I’ve been dealing with, I think I deserve a chance at a decent night’s sleep every night.

Kymberly stopped by our motel for a chat in the afternoon.  She was thinking of quitting her job in order to be able to finish the race, since she was stuck with a 3 week vacation time limit.  Apparently, before the race she had put considerable effort into asking for additional leave but her company would not budge even an inch.  She seemed really determined to keep going as long as she could, and was cutting back her mileage in order to stay within her limits a little more.  I was impressed that she hadn’t given up despite the fact that the race had gone much differently than she expected. She was impressed at how calm I was feeling about my current situation despite all our challenges.  I shrugged, and said that this didn’t feel much harder than daily life had been in the last year.  

I took a test ride around the parking lot in the afternoon, and didn’t immediately experience knee pain.  That meant my icing and elevation had worked! I gingerly walked to Subway with Chris for some high class dinner, and was relieved to find that despite some pain I wasn’t limping anymore.  I was a little worried that the pain would be greater in the morning again after stiffening up overnight, but I’d do my best to continue icing it tonight and tomorrow morning. The best part is that Chris had found a massage roller earlier, so I periodically used it on my stiff quad muscles just in case they were contributing to the tendon issues.  

At some point, we moved to a THIRD room in the El Dorado Inn, because a clown car of teenagers showed up and moved in directly below us to loudly and rudely ruin our night.  Dang kids, get off our lawn!! After arriving at the final room, I did my best to pack up for tomorrow so that we could hit the road quickly. We set some extra subway sandwiches in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow, and then got into bed.  

Before turning the lights out, we spent a good hour making voice recordings to recount our first 5 days on the road, knowing that I was going to be interested in writing about our experiences later.  We both agreed that our main priority was to finish if we could, but above all just to enjoy this experience as much as possible. So far – our mission had been more than accomplished, and for that I was thankful.  We decided to intentionally take several low mileage days until I was feeling a little stronger. We just had to get over the hump, and hopefully grow into some additional strength. We had a lot going on already just in the first few days, but we were still kicking.  We talked about how it felt to be so far back in the pack. What does it say about us, that all these people are stronger than us? I recognized that this would be a good growth opportunity for me. I had to stop caring about what other people think, and learn to lean a little harder into my intuition.  I fell asleep that night dreaming of mountains and sunny days.