Tuesday, April 12, 2005
It was not over yet!
Dragging ass: When you are thirsty, sweating profusely, and unable to ride, instead pushing your own as well as your team mate's bikes up the umpteenth loose gravel fire road under a windless sky and a blazing sun. Meanwhile, your team mate is bonking badly from a combination of mineral imbalance, low blood sugar levels, and the high temperature of the afternoon, walking on the layer of gravel debris just like you are - in cycling shoes - only with the help of makeshift trekking poles fashioned from tree branches. Did i mention the heat?
Exhaustion. Utter and unadulterated, but not complete - yet. There seems to be no other moment where I could have felt lower in spirit during the race. I stop walking, my head leaning against the handlebar of one of the two bikes I am pushing up the hill under a scorching sun. Taking a mouthful of warm, plastic-tasting water from one of the warm bike bottles, I weigh our progress. We are off the map with less than four km to the finish line, as per course instructions. Yet each curve, once cleared, reveals the gravel road inclined mockingly upward, with no end in sight.
“Come on, Qi Xiang!”
Carry on.
Exhaustion. Utter and unadulterated, but not complete - yet. There seems to be no other moment where I could have felt lower in spirit during the race. I stop walking, my head leaning against the handlebar of one of the two bikes I am pushing up the hill under a scorching sun. Taking a mouthful of warm, plastic-tasting water from one of the warm bike bottles, I weigh our progress. We are off the map with less than four km to the finish line, as per course instructions. Yet each curve, once cleared, reveals the gravel road inclined mockingly upward, with no end in sight.
“Come on, Qi Xiang!”
Carry on.
