My leg of this relay was a stretch of Hwy 491 between Tohatchi and Yahtahey. The event raises money and awareness for Special Olympics.

This road used to be Hwy 666 and I was wondering if this was going to be hell, but concluded pretty quick that if it was, it was freezing over. The forecast was for heavy wind, highs in the upper 60s, and a 40% chance of rain.

What we got was heavy wind and rain that eventually turned to snow.

I met up with the San Juan County group fairly close to the county line, and found cold, damp, officers who were having difficulty riding into heavy headwinds.

I drove support for awhile until my turn came up.

When I got on the bike it was still raining. I was starting to wonder if my mountain bike would have been more suitable for the bad weather, but concluded that the road bike was going to get through it quicker. I was able to draft some off the lead escort vehicle so the wind wasn't as bad. The water turned to sleet, which started stinging, and then I noticed it was snowing.

I remember seeing some cattle gathered along the fence line and assumed they had to be thinking "this guy is crazy".

I was just happy to be back on the bike. One month earlier I had been hospitalized with rhabdo, and had only been given the ok to start riding again a couple of days prior to the event.

After about 5.5 miles I was soaked, my hands and feet numb, the snow was starting to stick, my glasses were fogging and my section of the relay was over...but it had been a really great ride.

I put it to a vote to see if everyone wanted to continue on and was given a unanimous YES. My group showed a lot of heart and spirit and finished bringing the torch into Gallup.

In some ways it was more of a warm-up: Took off as many wet clothes as I could, replaced them with dry ones, turned up the heat in the cruiser, and picked up a hot chai. I felt better right away.


The weather. Being sidelined by rhabdomialysis for a month probably didn't help either.


As region coordinator it wouldn't be fair to give an evaluation, but I do enjoy making it possible for an amazing group of athletes to compete in their games.