Kris' Blog #11

November 24, 2012

Now, I gotta let you guys know something about me. I am very high strung. I mean it, I have to blow off energy pretty much all day long to get a full night worth of sleep. And I haven’t been blowing off enough of that steam. 

So after going to bed at 2am I’m back up at 6:30am and hop in the shower. By 7:30 we were out the door and I was on the lookout to get Shawn something good for breakfast. 

After a quick sit down and my Belgian waffles(strategic breakfast on my part – Roger DeCoster is Belgian and the most winningest Team Manager of Motocross EVER!) So it only seemed natural to try and get some of the magic and use it as part of my managerial duties.

We got to the track and I was worried about Tech Inspection and Rider Inspection.  So I sent Shawn to the Lodge to make sure everything was on the up and up. After teching his helmet, and telling me to settle my horses, we pulled the sled out of the trailer for the first time and ran it up on the trackstand.

A few minor adjustments and torquing down the primary clutch(Which by the way it was spot on – my arm has a pretty calibrated torque wrench built right in)

Shawn gets his gear on and we head to the first practice of the day. There’s about 60+ guys trying to qualify for the Pro-Lite class and practice is split into 3 sessions. 

Shawn is a funny guy sometimes. Like in staging, he refuses to start his own sled….instead I have to start it for him, multiple times! Racers nowadays….

The track is absolutely brutal out there, there is no doubling or tripling sections, and everyone thinks it’s a damn race out there. Just beating themselves to a pulp and running bumper to bumper the entire way around the track. I told Shawn to practice some starts and find someone to ride behind and get a feel for the machine and the snow conditions. Speaking of, we are racing on man-made snow. Which is sugary and like sand. Not optimal conditions at all. But it is what it is and we gotta race on what’s there.

About lap 4 or 5 Shawn pulls off into the starting line area/Mechanics area and immediately I know something is wrong. Shawn holds his body and slowly sits down on the snow. He’s out of breathe and I can’t get a word out of him. 

Now I’m not entirely sure what happened but Shawn either got a ski or a front bumper to the back. The good news is that it was the opposite side from his injury this past spring. The bad news was the golf ball of nerves and muscle building in his lower back.

I grab the sled and Shawn crawls on the back. I drive us thru the pits and back to the trailer. 

Immediately I put him in the trailer and put the cot on the floor. We take off his gear and I try to get Shawn stretched out. I search high and low for our Medicine Cache and finally find something that might help Shawn get thru the initial first few hours of this injury.

Once Shawn is settled down a bit I run back into Staging and check on when our first Heat Race is. We have roughly an hour to figure out how bad Shawn is feeling. All the while our buddy B. Plewes who is back at home watching via the online stream and texting me with updates. 

Shawn is jacked up though. I call it a day and decide that Shawn will not race. 

Instead, I want to get him back to the Hotel and get some ice and then some heat on his back. I tried massaging the knot out of his back and while I did get it to loosen up and move a bit, the golfball was still there.

So we make it back to the Hotel after swinging by Wal-Mart and getting some sweet Minnesota Viking shorts I will proudly wear from now on. We hit the waterpark and lemme tell you, If I was 4-10 years old again I would have been in HEAVEN. Seriously I want to bring all of my nieces and nephews to the waterpark and have them enjoy what I know they would!

Shawn is feeling somewhat better, his back is loose and he’s moving around in the water fairly well. Racing looks promising for tomorrow.