Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Lima- end of day 5

Yay- just had a good chat with Simon. He's made it to Lima in time for the 6 day cut-off. Got in about 7.30pm. 135 miles today.

[That's 1,005 km and 14,325 meters climbing in 5 days.]

Going back to Monday, he said he spent just over an hour in Butte in the shade (sounds like it was pretty hot) & decided to press on to Wise River. He called the Lodge to make a booking & they told him that the kitchen closed at 9pm- pretty good motivator! He got there at 9.03- the kitchen was still open so, hooray, he managed to get a burger & chips. Had a good nights sleep too.

He was able to collect a package that he had sent to himself care of the Post Office in Polaris, so didn't have to make any detours for food on the way to Lima (and enjoyed a can of peaches mmmm). Ran out of water though, so had to scoop some out of a dodgy looking puddle, yay for iodine tabs.

As we were talking he asked me if I knew where any of the others were- I was able to tell him that John Nobile & Geoff Roes had both called in from Lima earlier in the day, but I had checked David Blain's spot position about ten minutes ago and he hadn't moved for a couple of hours. So I went back to look again and he was still there- told Simon that he was on Harrison & Willow Creek Road. Simon was calling me from a service station on Harrison & Bailey- he said there was a cafe & a motel over there, I wonder if he'll find him? Ha!

Simon said that yesterday Jenn had left about 20 minutes before him and it took him about 1.5 hours to catch her up. Wow.

Physically he said he has a pretty darn sore arse, his hands are a bit tingly & his quads are sore as. He sounded a lot happier than last time we spoke though.

He's going to get a good nights sleep, and an early start tomorrow.

Miro saw her first chipmunk today.
Cheers
Sarah

5 comments:

sifter said...

Yay for the chipmunk!

Thanks for the update Sarah! Tama's set things up so these automagically appear on vorb :) :)

I hope you're enjoying you time over there. A little hug for the little one from me please (Miro, I mean...)

J

Oli said...

It sounds like Simon is well on top of things, Sarah. Great to see...

All the best to you all, Oli

Unknown said...

I wonder what the nutritonal value of a chipmunk is if Simon runs short of food. Might be a bit easier to cacth than a bear. Excellent progress. I think my stops in the shade would be some what longer than an hour in that heat. Is Simon doing any night riding?

tandemjim said...

Hi Sarah, Great to read about Simon's progress in the GDR! Sounds like he's finding food & sleep after racing for hours each day. Cheering him on from California (where the air is filled with smoke from forest fires!) Jim & I just got back from Park City, Utah where 400 advocates and trailbuilders were at the World Mountain Bike Summit. There were a couple of Kiwis. We were thinking good thoughts of Simon! -Cathy Haagen-Smit

Mike and Karen said...

Sounds like Simon is doing pretty good. In lots of ways. The updates on here and on the GDR website are awesome.
Give our best wishes to Simon.