50k), Ken managed to get a blood clot in his lower leg from the 80+ miles of unforgiving pounding of the rocky trails around Syllamo. So Ken was, at least for a day, I think, questionable for the LBL 24 hr Challenge next week. His foot and lower leg looked kind of like a football minus the leather, and the seams, I guess.... I have always heard that canines have a high threshold of pain tolerance. I think Ken is part Poodle.
Here's the foot pic:
Making matters worse, I was doing some carpentry type work about two weeks ago and was in the baseball catcher's squat position, and I had been that way for a few hours working in a small space, and I turned while squatting and felt an "Uh-oh" pain in my right knee. It turned out to be more than an annoyance, and I thought it best to play it safe and keep off of it despite needing to continue training for the upcoming race(s), but I have stayed off of my feet to let it heal. I have been able to ride the mountain bike though at least so that's good. Oh well, what's a guy supposed to do? It is almost never the wrong decision to let something heal longer than probably necessary rather than risk re-injury by getting back on it too soon. I'll be well rested for LBL.
So the field is shaping up to be a dandy once again. Some top notch teams coming in. It won't take very many more teams to enter the race to match last year's racer participation total which I think was about 210.
Race should be able to be followed on Internet via Checkpoint Tracker somewhat "live" but that has been, on more than one occasion, a disappointment. Having helped put this race on in 2009, I saw how difficult it is to keep Checkpoint Tracker updated. It takes alot of time and alot of volunteers to make it work (and good internet connections in remote locations), and when emergencies and other duties come up like picking up teams in the middle of the night who are lost or injured, a race director quickly finds he can only do so much at once. Here's to hoping everyone can get updates at home.
It's gonna be good. Like really, really good.
Oh, and one final thing. Marc has some back issues so instead of waiting to see if he could get clearance to race, we made the decision to try to find a replacement, and lo and behold, who have we found to join us for this race but none other than Lullel Hickman himself from Downhill Bikes. Couldn't do any better than that. That's for bailing us out Lullel! Looking foward to racing with you, but we'll sure miss Marc.
Post by Bryan Greaser
