#21
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Race Report
On May 2, 8:46*pm, Bob Schwartz
wrote: But it's been an eventful year and sometimes courage shows up in ways that aren't very obvious. Bob Schwartz Fred Bob, That was a good story. It wasn't always easy to read. I can only try to imagine how much less easy it was to live. Thanks for writing it. Even though we are a bunch of unfeeling robot monsters around here with little to offer in the way of support I would rather hear these things than not know. Best of luck to you and your daughter. Ben |
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#22
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Race Report
Fredmaster of Brainerd wrote:
Even though we are a bunch of unfeeling robot monsters around here with little to offer in the way of support I would rather hear these things than not know. One of Frederika Walker's fb friends described us as "mean spirited name calling old grumps". Hey I'm not that old. |
#23
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Race Report
Bob Schwartz wrote:
There is a local time trial that has been part of my early season program for many years. 16 miles, gentle rollers, always windy. When my daughter was 7 it became her first non-kids race. We have an mtb tandem that dates to the 1980s. It's a real beast but it was fairly simple to adapt it to a stokid, all it took was a pair of crank shorteners. We didn't produce a great time, but she had fun. We rode the tandem for many years, but a couple of years ago she decided she wanted to ride solo. One of those land- marks of parenting. I rode my race and then turned around to reverse the course back to her. I remember finding her at the half way point. She rode it in, and was very pleased with her age category winning time. Even though she was the only one entered in it. Last year she had a new road bike, and was discovering the fun and efficiency of narrow tires on pavement. She came into the race with pretty good form. She had had a decent ski season. She was in the middle of the Middle School results at the state championships, better at freestyle than diagonal stride. She won her division at the Rib Lake (I am not making this up) Hinder Binder, so named because of it's date just before the American Birkebeiner. The time trial's traditional date was in late April. Looking back that would have been the time we first went to the clinic to get the swelling in her neck looked at. They ran some tests that didn't show anything. The swelling was her lymphatic system, but that by itself didn't mean anything. This year we were back on the tandem. She hasn't ridden on her own since June of last year. Her balance isn't that good and her leg strength is still coming back. So we've been riding the tandem. A couple of days ago I asked if she wanted to do the race. We've been doing it for years, she wanted to go. She hasn't ridden since June. There are things that you might think are obvious, but they didn't figure it out until they pulled out a lymph node and looked at it. By then she was showing some fatigue. Not obviously, but I noticed. We would ride trails and I suspected her energy was dropping. She's lost a lot of weight in the last year. Steroids will do that. Not all steroids make you bigger. Cortico steroids have the opposite effect, they break down muscles and make you smaller. So she's smaller this year, and has lost a lot of muscle mass. She tells me she doesn't really care about our time. It's windy. It's always windy at this race. We start with a head wind and it's slow going. We make the first turn and at about the 5 mile mark she asks me if we can coast on the downhills. "My butt hurts" is what she tells me. This is no idle complaint. Like I said, she's lost a lot of muscle mass. One of the jokes we tell is that her gluteous maximus is now a minimus. As a practical matter this means she doesn't sit on a bicycle the same way she used to. Like years ago with the crank shorteners I've adapted the bike. Bumps are a very real problem, and I added a shock fork and a gel seat cover. The bike is old enough that it has a 1 inch steerer, and the fork could have only happened through ebay. It helps some, but it isn't made for a tandem. So it doesn't have a lot of travel left, especially once the fat guy gets on the front. But it helps some. The gel seat cover helps more. But even so it isn't enough and I coast on the downhills. Eventually we hit the tail wind and I alternate between winding it up and coasting. Because of the tail wind there are spots where we can coast downhill and not lose so much speed. At one point I ask her how her butt is doing, there's nothing we can do about it is what she tells me. There are many times when I've wished I could suffer through whatever she was suffering through and save her the discomfort. It doesn't work that way though. But today I can do what I can to make the finish line happen faster. There was a 7 month period where she hit the emergency room a whole bunch of times, and maybe 2 of those 7 months were spent in the hospital. A lot of the time there isn't a hell of a lot you can do except drive her to the ER and be the information portal about all the **** that is going on with her and who they need to consult with at Mayo about it. I remember when she had been in the hospital for two weeks and they suggested a transfer to Mayo because her immune system had flatlined and they suspected some stuff that I googled and thought, holy ****. So in a sense it felt comforting in this case to be able to do something involving intense physical effort that would help. When we finish I know she wants off the bike right away, so I drop her off at the registration area. I'm thinking she'll head inside where the tables and chairs are, but she ambles over to a patch of grass and that's where she lands. I head over to the car and load everything up. When I get back she hasn't moved. I grab her under her armpits and heave and she is able to head inside where the food is. She says we need to go out later and look for her butt, she thinks it fell off. We are the only tandem entered so we win our division. She has some peculiarities to her gait and as she walks up to get her award the presenter asks if her legs are sore. It isn't really the time to explain about neurological side effects from the treatment, so she just nods yes, sore legs. Her hair started growing back and while it is still quite short it is long enough to pass as something intentional. This race is full of people we see once a year so most don't see anything amiss. Just short hair and sore legs. But it's been an eventful year and sometimes courage shows up in ways that aren't very obvious. Bob Schwartz Very moving, and courageous--both of you. As someone with a 13-year old daughter, I can only imagine myself in your place. My thoughts and prayers for a complete recovery. Steve |
#24
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"Betty Munro" wrote in message ... Fredmaster of Brainerd wrote: Even though we are a bunch of unfeeling robot monsters around here with little to offer in the way of support I would rather hear these things than not know. One of Frederika Walker's fb friends described us as "mean spirited name calling old grumps". Hey I'm not that old. Dumbass - Which friend was that? thanks, Grump. presented by Mean Spirited. |
#25
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In article ,
Bob Schwartz wrote: Best wishes. -- Michael Press |
#26
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Even jackasses like me appreciate a good story about love, courage and
acceptance of those things that are out of each of ours control and then laughing in their face and telling them '**** you, I win, I ride' Nice RBR post Bob |
#27
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Race Report
Bob Schwartz wrote in
: snip Will Robert be working up the power output numbers for you? -- Bill Fred Somebody had to give an rbr response |
#28
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Fredmaster of Brainerd wrote:
Even though we are a bunch of unfeeling robot monsters around here with little to offer in the way of support I would rather hear these things than not know. Betty Munro wrote: One of Frederika Walker's fb friends described us as "mean spirited name calling old grumps". Hey I'm not that old. F. Kurgan Gringioni wrote: Which friend was that? thanks, Grump. presented by Mean Spirited. No one I recognize as posting he http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100000379061306 |
#29
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Race Report
Betty Munro wrote:
No one I recognize as posting he Hey dumbass, keep it separate. |
#30
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Race Report
On 5/2/2010 10:46 PM, Bob Schwartz wrote:
There is a local time trial that has been part of my early season program for many years. 16 miles, gentle rollers, always windy. When my daughter was 7 it became her first non-kids race. We have an mtb tandem that dates to the 1980s. It's a real beast but it was fairly simple to adapt it to a stokid, all it took was a pair of crank shorteners. We didn't produce a great time, but she had fun. We rode the tandem for many years, but a couple of years ago she decided she wanted to ride solo. One of those land- marks of parenting. I rode my race and then turned around to reverse the course back to her. I remember finding her at the half way point. She rode it in, and was very pleased with her age category winning time. Even though she was the only one entered in it. Last year she had a new road bike, and was discovering the fun and efficiency of narrow tires on pavement. She came into the race with pretty good form. She had had a decent ski season. She was in the middle of the Middle School results at the state championships, better at freestyle than diagonal stride. She won her division at the Rib Lake (I am not making this up) Hinder Binder, so named because of it's date just before the American Birkebeiner. The time trial's traditional date was in late April. Looking back that would have been the time we first went to the clinic to get the swelling in her neck looked at. They ran some tests that didn't show anything. The swelling was her lymphatic system, but that by itself didn't mean anything. This year we were back on the tandem. She hasn't ridden on her own since June of last year. Her balance isn't that good and her leg strength is still coming back. So we've been riding the tandem. A couple of days ago I asked if she wanted to do the race. We've been doing it for years, she wanted to go. She hasn't ridden since June. There are things that you might think are obvious, but they didn't figure it out until they pulled out a lymph node and looked at it. By then she was showing some fatigue. Not obviously, but I noticed. We would ride trails and I suspected her energy was dropping. She's lost a lot of weight in the last year. Steroids will do that. Not all steroids make you bigger. Cortico steroids have the opposite effect, they break down muscles and make you smaller. So she's smaller this year, and has lost a lot of muscle mass. She tells me she doesn't really care about our time. It's windy. It's always windy at this race. We start with a head wind and it's slow going. We make the first turn and at about the 5 mile mark she asks me if we can coast on the downhills. "My butt hurts" is what she tells me. This is no idle complaint. Like I said, she's lost a lot of muscle mass. One of the jokes we tell is that her gluteous maximus is now a minimus. As a practical matter this means she doesn't sit on a bicycle the same way she used to. Like years ago with the crank shorteners I've adapted the bike. Bumps are a very real problem, and I added a shock fork and a gel seat cover. The bike is old enough that it has a 1 inch steerer, and the fork could have only happened through ebay. It helps some, but it isn't made for a tandem. So it doesn't have a lot of travel left, especially once the fat guy gets on the front. But it helps some. The gel seat cover helps more. But even so it isn't enough and I coast on the downhills. Eventually we hit the tail wind and I alternate between winding it up and coasting. Because of the tail wind there are spots where we can coast downhill and not lose so much speed. At one point I ask her how her butt is doing, there's nothing we can do about it is what she tells me. There are many times when I've wished I could suffer through whatever she was suffering through and save her the discomfort. It doesn't work that way though. But today I can do what I can to make the finish line happen faster. There was a 7 month period where she hit the emergency room a whole bunch of times, and maybe 2 of those 7 months were spent in the hospital. A lot of the time there isn't a hell of a lot you can do except drive her to the ER and be the information portal about all the **** that is going on with her and who they need to consult with at Mayo about it. I remember when she had been in the hospital for two weeks and they suggested a transfer to Mayo because her immune system had flatlined and they suspected some stuff that I googled and thought, holy ****. So in a sense it felt comforting in this case to be able to do something involving intense physical effort that would help. When we finish I know she wants off the bike right away, so I drop her off at the registration area. I'm thinking she'll head inside where the tables and chairs are, but she ambles over to a patch of grass and that's where she lands. I head over to the car and load everything up. When I get back she hasn't moved. I grab her under her armpits and heave and she is able to head inside where the food is. She says we need to go out later and look for her butt, she thinks it fell off. We are the only tandem entered so we win our division. She has some peculiarities to her gait and as she walks up to get her award the presenter asks if her legs are sore. It isn't really the time to explain about neurological side effects from the treatment, so she just nods yes, sore legs. Her hair started growing back and while it is still quite short it is long enough to pass as something intentional. This race is full of people we see once a year so most don't see anything amiss. Just short hair and sore legs. But it's been an eventful year and sometimes courage shows up in ways that aren't very obvious. Bob Schwartz Another race report. We went for a ski about this time three years ago. She had been doing short races for middle schoolers all season so she didn't have a lot of experience with longer distances. This day we wound up skiing for a couple of hours, and covered a lot of ground. We live not far from the site of the North American Birkebeiner. This is a massive 50km ski marathon with a half distance option called the Korteloppet. It's the ski equivalent of a fred ride. This year they capped registrations at 9400 total. You've got to be pretty fast to win, but most of the entrants are ski freds. The full length race has an age restriction so youth skiers do the Korte. There is a group that offers scholarships to youth skiers to pay for their first Korteloppet. Three years ago I was thinking that my kid might be getting to the point where she could manage the distance. I asked her if she wanted to do it, she said it sounded like fun. I penciled it in for the following February. That was three years ago. Two years she wasn't skiing. Last year she was still recovering, regaining fitness and neurological function. Last fall I asked if she wanted to do the Korteloppet. She said it sounded like fun. I'll tell you how they manage over 9000 race starts, they do it in waves of several hundred skiers at a time at 5 minute intervals. And while the awards are fatty master friendly, the race itself is seeded strictly on performance. If you are a new racer you start in one of the late waves. The waves before you are loaded with people of modest accomplishment that from what I could tell on the downhills can't be bothered to properly prepare their skis. One of my waxing clients weighs less than 90 lbs and when she tells me she was smoking people on downhills I know that there are a lot of people with painfully slow skis. But after all, it's a fred race. The last two waves are where the new entrants are. It's a strange mix of people doing it for the accomplishment and rail thin high school kids rocketing through the geezerheads and freds in the late performance-based waves. That's where my kid and I are. I sent in her scholarship entry first, and didn't get mine in until later. So we're not in the same wave, she's in wave 9, I'm in the ending wave 10. I watch her start, I have no clue where she is. It's total chaos as the gun sounds and hundreds of skiers launch. I'm not completely convinced she is up to the distance. She did an 8K race the weekend before, I asked her if she was up to doing that three times. The answer wasn't full of confidence. There aren't any flats here. http://birkieguide.com/trail-charts/ But she is gone and I head to the start area. The groomed trail is a superhighway at the start. Much like the Tour the Birkie burns a lot of gas and diesel. It takes a lot of Pisten Bully time to groom a lane 30ft wide. My reward for trying to see my kid start is a spot near the rear. So when the gun goes off I see the rail thin kids zoom off while I start working my way up to the front. While the guy that wrote the Birkie Guide describes the course as hilly, the opening Powerline section is a steady climb. And it's groomed as wide as a highway which makes it easy to pass and there are a ton pf people to pass. It isn't very long before I start seeing the tail end of the 9th wave. My plan is to catch up to my kid and ski the race with her. The first feed station is at the end of the Powerlines and I blow through to take advantage of an opportunity to quickly pass a ton of people. Our youth team had a bunch of kids in wave 9 and as I ski I scan the hats, looking for team members. My kid is wearing an old Motorola team jersey because it has pockets. I'm also wearing a cycling jersey. If you carry your own food you aren't dependent on the feed stations. The trail gains approximately 300ft over 5km in this section which is not exactly fatty friendly. The rail thin kids are out of sight for me but about this time I start passing people that started 20 minutes ahead. At 9K the Korteloppet and Birkebeiner trails split. The Korte follows trails back to the start, the Birkie continues on to Hayward. The Korte doesn't have the landmarks that the Birkie does No road crossings, no Bitch Hill. No hills populated by drunk snowmobilers hurling abuse. None of that fun stuff. The Korte trails narrow at this point, and the remainder of the race consists of the fredtastic task of weaving through hundreds of people with dog slow skis. I keep an eye out for my kid, still can't find her. Eventually someone tells us that we are approaching the last hill before the finish. It feels good to be done. Eventually I figure out that I had passed my kid at one of the feed stations that I had blown through. With thousands of people on the trail and many of them milling about at each feed station this is easier to do than I thought. In the end I think this is a good thing for both of us. It was good for both of us to see that she could do just fine on her own. She's regaining her strength, and just like three years ago she can manage the distance. As we talk after the race she says that some day she wants to go all the way to Hayward, all 50km. After what she's been through in the last three years I wouldn't put anything past her. Bob Schwartz |
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