LOTOJA 2010....It Wasn't Pretty, But He Finished

Here are the bikes all loaded up on the support vehicle. (Rob's, Shawn's and Danny's.) And the reflection of Shawn in his yellow jersey.

It's looking like beautiful weather for biking.

The car all labeled and official looking.

Rob and Shawn rode for Team Firestorm - in honor of our friend, Ben Jacobsen who is currently fighting cancer and wishes he could be riding, too.

Meanwhile, the kids and I went to Bear Lake to stay Friday night, with plans to meet up with the riders later. Amazingly, in the morning the air was actually colder than the water and so the whole lake was steaming. It looked really cool.

As always, we all just love this place. Everyone can find some happiness when we're here. (Unfortunately, Peter's happiness was not in having his picture taken, but in roaming around instead.)

Danny and Troy in Preston at Feed Zone 1. (Thanks so much for driving support, Troy!)

The riders in Preston. Shawn, Danny and Rob.

This is the feed zone in Alpine, where we met up with them. (We had passed them on the road and cheered loudly, of course.) Rob, looking good with just 47 miles to go.

Here's Shawn before his trouble started.

Trying to get some fuel, but needing to sit down. Already, not ideal.

Faking an "I feel great" photo with the kids.

And here's where it all starts going bad. As soon as he walked off by himself like this, I knew it wasn't good. Here's the start of his puke fest. (Don't worry no photos of the actual puking.)
Already not looking great in this photo. Getting ready to ride off with Rob. At this point I was already worried. He clearly wasn't feeling well and now had no fuel in him to push through to the end. I said to Rob, "get him to the end."
A photo with Danny Allen, as well. Initially, Rob and Shawn were worried about how he would do. He's 15 and this is his first attempt at anything like this. Turns out he did just fine.
We drove ahead and stopped and waited to cheer them on. First, I saw them stopped at a port-a-potty....for a long time. I guess Shawn was taking a little power nap and trying to find the will to keep going. When we saw him again, he was not looking well. Eventually, Rob came in to the finish - alone. That was not good because I knew he had planned to stay with Shawn. Rob said Shawn sent him ahead and Rob told Troy to go back and get him because he was only going about 4 miles on hour and wasn't going to make it. I knew he would be so frustrated if he didn't finish #5. Every time I talked to Troy on the phone, he told me Shawn was still pedaling. I think Rob was amazed. And when he actually crossed the finish line after throwing up all along the way, we were all amazed. He essentially crossed and the EMT's took over. He was shivering uncontrollably and was just gray.
Eventually, they moved him into the ambulance for a possible IV and to try to warm him up.

He finally decided to try to make it out to the car and back to the hotel. He continued to throw up until about 10:00 when he finally fell asleep. (I think the total was about 11 times in 8 or so hours.) At about 1:15, he woke up and took a few sips of his sprite and then asked me where his vanilla frosty was. He was starving and finished his frosty, some fries and some cheeseburger, then wanted more frosty. (Apparently, that was soothing to his acid-burned throat and mouth.) More sleep, and he was fine. Maybe down on weight a little, but otherwise, just fine. No idea what set him off, but so glad that he was able to finish. I am so proud of him and amazed at his ability to keep pushing himself physically to finish the race. I'm positive I would have climbed into the support vehicle.

Now he's earned his 5 year medal and we can all take a break from LOTOJA training (At least for a couple of years.) And he still wears this badge of honor until he can scrub it off.
Congratulations to Rob, Shawn, and Danny and everyone else who rode in and finished this race (Scott, Laurel, Julie, to name a few.) After driving along most of the course, I have a whole new respect for everyone who accomplishes this feat. You are all crazy but amazing, too.

(Shawn, I am sorry that I have no photos to document the portion of the race where you were "riding like 2 men" and feeling good, but I know it happened.)