The sun comes up slowly in Baja, and after running the night's sky right off the west side of the peninsula, I could finally see where I was heading even though I wasn't sure it was right. The day came and went without much incident. Then my hands began to get the best of me. At times I couldn't feel them and ended up devising new ways to roll my thumb throttle using the bottom knuckle under my thumb. The second night of racing was when my body really realized I hadn't slept in over 36 hours. As I pulled into my next pit where the guys from Georgia were waiting, I made a cast out of electrical tape over my glove and liner to give my thumb a break, and even though it was a crude roadside invention, it did the job and helped relieve some of my pain.
So I started back down the trail. I'm churning along and all of a sudden there are two H1 Hummers coming back along the trail directly at me. They claimed the trail ahead had so much silt that it had become impassable. Well, the only thing I could think was I couldn't turn back now. With my mind made up, I pushed on and was able to crisscross the silt beds without any trouble. Having got through the silt beds, I caught a glimpse of some kind of civilization and thought, "Man, did I really make it?"
Just then another racer in a VW Bug turned upside down across the trail. I thought, "How am I going to get past this right here at the end of the race?" That's when a few other racers pulled up, and we all worked together and turned the buggy over and off the trail. The lights were calling me, and at the last checkpoint on the course, a man told me it's only 10 more miles to the finish. Man, it felt like an eternity as I descended into the ledges and off that last mountain range. The lights and sounds of La Paz, Mexico, were a welcomed experience, and as I crossed the finish line, all the miles behind me began to set in. I thought about the countless small things that led to the biggest achievement in my racing career. It was a hard battle, but I proved something to myself and to all my competitors. That if your heart is in it, your mind and body will follow. And to top it all off, it's an experience that I'll never forget.