When my crew woke me up in Ulysses, KS, they hadn’t found anyone that thought the could help with my SI joint and IT band problem. It was still dark and we decided the best thing was to keep trying to make progress. We thought maybe we could find a chiropractor in another town once it was business hours.
I began riding and I certainly wasn’t any better than before my sleep break. I think I made it about 15 miles down the road before I couldn’t get through a pedal stroke. RAAM rules allow a rider to be shuttled somewhere as long as they start riding where they stopped. I was shuttled back to Ulysses and went back to sleep while my crew figured out what to do.
They again got a hold of my doctor. He checked into what doctors were in Ulysses and contacted another D.O. He was able to get the doctor to see me before his scheduled patients so we showed up as the staff was getting there. Unfortunately, even though he was a D.O., he didn’t to manipulative treatment. He really had no clue what to do for me other than giving me a shot so I wouldn’t feel the pain. We decided against that option. He did know a chiropractor in town that my crew hadn’t been able to find in the phone book. He called the chiropractor and arranged an urgent visit.
The chiropractor evaluated me and said that my pelvis had rotated. Most likely it was from the cross-wind and leaning my bike over hour after hour to stay upright. He began adjusting me. He was a little strange and did some chanting but he was doing things that other chiropractors had done so I figured he knew what he was doing.
While this was all taking place, some of the crew were talking and Tom Stormcrowe, who we called Stormy, decided that it was best that he leave the crew and get home. He had diabetes and the crazy hours and bad food was causing blood sugar problems. He felt that was why we had a scary moment the day before. In eastern Colorado he had fallen asleep while driving the follow van. His foot went heavy on the gas and the van came at me at full speed. Fortunately my wife screamed and he swerved and came beside me in the ditch. In my sleep deprived state I don’t think it totally sunk in what had just had just happened but it did enough to freak me out.
After the medical help and the loss of a few hours, I was shuttled back out to where I had stopped riding. My hip felt much better but I had a knot the size of a golf ball in my IT band and it still bothered me. I was however able to make progress although not as fast as I wanted. I had to stop fairly often to stretch.
About dark it started really raining with a lot of lightning. The lightning was to close for comfort but I was less than a mile from a time station where I could get credit for time off the bike so my crew pushed me on. At the time station, I got an unplanned 15 minute nap until the lightning stopped. I then started riding again and rode in the rain for a couple hours.
I wasn’t too happy riding in the rain since I was already dealing with the pain of my leg. I was also going into a head wind and I thought if I let the storm get ahead of me the wind might not be so bad. My crew kept pushing me on because the chiropractor we had seen in the morning and contacted a chiropractor in Pratt, KS. My crew had told the chiropractor in Pratt that it would be at least midnight when we got there. He gave them his cell number and said it didn’t matter when we got there as he lived a couple blocks from his office.
We ended up getting to Pratt at 1:30 AM local time. Pratt is known in the RAAM world for the McDonalds that is always the time station and riders and their crew can order anything and get it free. My crew had gotten me a chicken sandwich minus the sauce at my request. I was doing a mostly liquid diet with some fruit, crackers and pretzels. I was going to off the bike going to the chiropractor so I felt having something more in my stomach would be fine.
The chiropractor spent a while adjusting me. He thought I was going to be alright and that the IT band would take care of itself with everything back in alignment. He refused payment and had brought his camera and just wanted a picture with somebody that would do something like RAAM.
After the chiropractor visit, it was time to get a 30 minute nap in the McDonalds parking lot before continuing to ride. I was only 2 time stations away from a mandatory 2 hour stop in El Dorado, KS.
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Tags: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
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