Vuelta El Salvador

Sunday, March 30, 2006

Today was hard. It was especially hard for me as I’ve been pissing out my backside for over 24 hours now. I think I may have amoebic dysentery from something I ate, though I’m having a hard time to thinking of what it was.

Yesterday the prologue went ok, even though I had to crap my diaper about 100 meters from the start ramp. It was only 5km but it seemed like 100km. Apparently I ended up 21^st, though I know that the results are skewered due to bad timing and really bad officiating. I thought that I was going to throw up after the prologue and I started to black out, sat down in the truck and then felt a little better. I was really worried that I was getting a fever and as soon as I got back to the Indes I was sure my head was going to explode from heat while I was crapping my brains out on the toilet. The one thing that the Indes has going for it is that the wall is about 10 inches from the front edge of the toilet so I could rest my head against the cool tiles.

Today was overcast and crappy when we left the hotel. The sky was hung with deep grey clouds that looked like they could drop rain. We rolled down the hill form the Indes, avoiding the tumulos (speed bumps) that were placed every 300 meters or so to slow traffic on a road that felt like it was paved in the 50’s. Down into traffic and over to the MultiPlaza mall where the start and sign in was, where we waited for the team truck to show. We had some last minute things to get together, like radios, water, food, etc, all the usual things. I felt like ass as I had an antibiotic shot from Dr. Julio that morning, but hopefully could get through and not lose too much time. It was a 100km on the prologue course, so round and round we would go. I was only worried about the one downhill turn that was off camber and dusty and sure enough, some guy stacked it on the first lap, along with some other guys at other random times. The crashes made no sense as they would just happen to guys on their own, except for one guy who took a digger into one of the roundabout’s curbs, chest first. That was a bad one.

I came off with about 6 to go. I had no power in my legs anymore and was generally fecked, so I pulled the rip cord, put out the chute and waited to get lapped. What are you going to do? Some days are good and some not so good. I finished up and immediately started to drink as I felt very under the weather. Back at the Indes I sat on the throne for a while, drank some recovery mix, ate a sandwich and promptly passed out. There’s always another stage, right?