Day 3
So we got to HS6 around 10am having had an awful start to the morning. From here we got our first 2 really good horses. They were totally different, mine was another little chestnut who had a tolt gait so was really comfortable and was fit as anything so just ran and ran. He will always stand out for me because he was the first one I rode that was really different! Jeanette had a big bay who she loved because he felt like a horse. It’s hard to explain but when you’re riding these tiny ponies and you then ride a taller horse the longer strides just feel so comfortable!
This was a long leg, 40km, and really picturesque. It started off high, peaking at 1,850m, and then came down to flat plains as we came to HS7 so should have been lovely but this is where the knee pain really started to kick in. Also within the last 10km of the leg my hastily fixed fenders from day 1 broke again. So when I got to HS7 I started to have a look at making a more suitable repair. The herders were always really interested in our kit as they used nothing like it and many had never seen anything like it before. As I took the fender off my stirrup to make the repair they took the fender from me, got heavy duty needle and thread and fixed it for me. They did a far better job than I would have done, just brilliant!
HS7 to HS8 was another long leg, 37km. We had good horses and kicked on as fast as we could but with the pain in our knees getting worse that was not as quick as we would have liked. We had wanted to get to HS9 by the end of the day and catch up with the rest of the pack, but it was 5.30 by the time we reached HS8. We couldn’t camp out between HS8 and HS9 as there was no water and with a riding deadline of 8pm we couldn’t see how we could get to the next station in time. We were the last 2 in the race, the only ones at the station as some other riders had taken a carry forward to HS9 and ridden on to HS10. We were 2 stations behind the rest of the race and the support team had planned to close down the station that night. Really they wanted us to take a carry forward to HS9 but we managed to convince them to let us stay on the proviso that we completed 4 stations the next day. We agreed that if we didn’t, and were still 2 stations behind the rest of the pack, we’d take a carry forward the following night. So with just the 2 of us at the station it was a real luxury to get a whole ger to ourselves. We bedded down as night fell around 9pm (we didn’t know this would be the earliest night we would get for the rest of the race…) ready for an early start the next day, we had been given an extra hour so were starting at 5:30am.
Just a quick mention to the medical team at this point. When we arrived at the station there was an injured rider. We didn’t know the ins and outs of what had happened, but Flash was there and had broken her collar bone and wasn’t in a great way. The evacuation was impressive, they loaded her into the 4×4 and drove off to meet the ambulance. Whilst we hoped never to be in that situation it put your mind at ease seeing how it was all done.
Day 4
So this was our first 4 leg day… We left HS8 at 5:30am on a great pair of horses which we had picked the night before, or rather asked the herders/team to pick us a good pair. Sunrise was just before 6am and we were riding east so it was a beautiful morning.
We’d been making pretty good time and there was a long flat stretch in the middle. About 10km from the end I suddenly got an excruciating pain in my right groin muscle. It completely cramped up to the point where I had to get off and try and stretch it out for 15 mins… Why is it always when you’re going well something goes wrong? It eased off enough for me to get back on and we carried on slightly more slowly for to HS9.
Once we arrived and my horse was vetted in I left the team to pick me a horse while I went to see Andrei the medic at the station. He helped me stretch out my groin muscle and showed me some stretches to do. From this point stretching in between each station was a must… So when I came out my horse was tacked up, a liver chestnut stallion. Jeanette also had a chestnut stallion… They were beautiful and so powerful. There’d been a bit of a warning to be careful about picking the stallions but I hadn’t really had any involvement so just got on and off we went. And boy did we go! A little disconcerting as the ground was uneven to put it nicely and a trot (or even steady canter) was not some thing I was able to control at this point… We flew through this leg. It turned out that canter was the most comfortable pace for both our knees and these two liked to canter so that’s what we did, canter walk, canter walk and as little trot as possible.
Here we are at HS10 just about to be vetted in, and stretching. It looks like I’m having some sort of zen moment but I think that was just me trying to breathe through the pain of the stretch I’d just finished… The family at HS10 were lovely, we sat and had some dumplings for lunch and then carried on. HS10 to HS11 was a flat leg that we made good time, the horses were great and just carried us through. At HS11 we were really limited on horses, there were only 3 or 4 left on the line. I picked a horse that was wearing the herders tack. In my mind the herders picked themselves good horses so hopefully this one should be good. I named him Shadow because he was afraid of his own shadow… This was probably one of the hardest legs of the whole race. It was first time we had ridden a fourth leg in a day, we’d been riding since 5:30am, we were exhausted and were in a lot of pain. Jeanette’s horse was not a leader so had to follow mine, and as I said mine was afraid of his own shadow. He was quick and he was fit but the shying was not good for my groin muscles especially when the shy was in canter…
We got into HS12 at 8:08 so incurred a 16 min time penalty for the next day, but we had caught everyone up which was a great feeling. What was also really nice was that everyone was pleased to see you. And here a special thanks to Will, an Aussie we’d got to know at start camp. It was always really nice to see a smiling face telling you how well you’d done to get there, and being pleased to see you. Somehow it helped the pain of the day dissipate a little. They say that the derby is like a new family and it really is. People look out for each other, wish each other well and cheer each other up.
Day 5
So here’s the thing with day 5, I can’t really remember a lot of it… The first leg is a complete blur, I have almost no recollection of it at all… What I know about day 5 was that it was the worst day of the race, the pain was excruciating, I’m pretty sure the first horses weren’t great, and I only think this because we only did 3 stations on day 5.
What I remember about HS12 to HS13 was that you came down from the hills, crossed a plain and could see the stations from way out, but it never seemed like it got any closer… We spent quite a lot of time at HS13, with Andrei again, poor guy became a bit like our personal medic as we were at the back of the field! He strapped up our knees and ankles, applied Deep Freeze, the ice version of Deep Heat and my new favourite pain reliever… And then we set off for HS14. I had a pretty uncontrollable start to this leg so Jeanette had to point me in the right direction and then I just went until I could stop and then waited for her to catch up. We also crossed the half way point on this leg to Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer, curtesy of Jeanette’s Spotify.
HS14 I will never forget, it was a nightmare! As we arrived a number of other riders were having their horses tacked up and they all seemed to be loopy! The vets said the station was a nightmare with horses in bad condition and, whilst I didn’t see it other riders were saying that herders had been drunk… Just utter chaos and we were running out of time to get to the next station. We were told there were only 2 horses left, they tacked mine up and it went loopy, the herder got on and nearly it bucked to the point where the herder was almost bucked off. It was too late in the day and I was in too much pain to be getting on that one, so I asked them to find me a different horse. We explained that we were both in a lot of pain, Jeanette’s ankle was causing her a lot of problems and that we couldn’t ride anything that wild at this point in the day. We were totally demoralised and on the verge of getting a carry forward if they couldn’t find us any horses. At this point we could see no way of getting to the end of the race without a carry forward. We’d managed 4 legs the previous day but had had an extra hours riding, if we completed this leg we’d only managed 3 today and the only way to get to the end was another two days of 4 legs. It just didn’t seem possible.
And then Louise stepped in. She’d had a message from Katy at HQ about how much support we were getting on Twitter and how proud of us everyone was back home. That we shouldn’t feel like we were the back of the race as we weren’t because so many people had had carry forwards and that we were really ‘doing the derby’. Without Louise I have no doubt that we’d have been getting a lift to the next station.
Miraculously after a bit of negotiation between the herders and the Mongolians in the support team they found us two horses. Mine they’d originally said we couldn’t ride because it was a bucker. It wasn’t, it was just unfit which is why I imagine that the herders didn’t went us riding him. We had to comment on our horses when we got off them and I guess they knew that he would struggle to make the full distance and that would reflect badly on them. So off we went of HS15, and it wasn’t an easy leg. 39km through the mountains peaking at nearly 1,900m. It was beautiful though and even in the state we were in we did manage to stop and take a moment for the views, it would have been nicer to take longer but we were running out of time.
We made it to the station at 8:28 so with nearly an hours time penalty. This however would be added to our finish time and thankfully we wouldn’t have to wait in the morning. HS15 was more like a tourist camp, it even had sit down toilets, and until you’ve done something like this you can’t begin to imagine how much of a luxury the simple things like sitting down to go to the loo are… To put it into context, toilets were a hole in the ground and by the end of this race your legs are so tired that once you’ve crouched getting up is a real struggle…
Not only that but it was close to a town, so one of the interpreters and a driver went to buy crisps and snickers and drinks so we had a real feast at about 11pm. A fabulous end to a horrendous day!
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