Well unlike everyone else who says that they have only bonked a couple of times or how they are usually such good pacers but bonked once, I can attest that I have bonked pretty hard quite a few times.
My "best" bonk ever was at the Mora Vasaloppet in Minnesota. As Pekka Kempi was at the Nagano Olympics helping team Canada I had full run of the team Jeep. And a team gas card. This great responsibility was given to me because I was over 21 and the insurance would cover me. Mark Tierney, Kerry Abols, Ngaire Eskelin and I decided we better drive down to Mora and compete at this fabled race. Hey the winner gets a free trip to nexts years Vasa in Sweden. Pretty cool. Problem for me was that I was really sick and burnt out. My season was already over (I didn't know this at the time) and I was sick again and on this heavy medication that didn't let me sleep. Seems like a good time to do a 58km race eh? To save money we decided to sleep in a school gym for 10 bucks. Smart. I didn't sleep at all but I managed to pee about 50 times during the night. That helped the time pass. The one thing I remember is that the security guy was a repo man and he told me all kinds of stories about waiting in peoples house with a tazer gun. He was pretty strange. Race time. Started pretty good and got with a group that had places 8th-12th. Cruised along there for around 35-40km, then I died. I didn't feel great but the bonk came pretty quick and fierce. This left me with around 15-20km to race in my devastated state. Everyone passed me, especially all the Thunder Bay 40 something warriors. Lots of cute comments. I was actually seeing strange colours and getting lightheaded. About 6km from the finish I stayed at a feed station for a long time, ate and drank until I was stuffed. I finished and got around 150th. Good thing my Grandma drove up for the race to watch me finish. Sad. Ngaire got 3rd in her age group for the 42km classic. I look at her prize, a wooden Swedish hand made horse, all the time and remember that trip. 3 weeks later I did the same thing at the Sibley Ski Tour (50km). Smart.Interesting Reading. . .
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