NGSU Road Race: Mullets, Hypothermia, and Extreme Car Trouble in the Deep South

At 6:00 pm February 27, me and three of my friends set out for North Georgia State University on what was possibly one of the most epic race trips of my life. The race was in Lumpkin County, Georgia (aka the middle of nowhere) and our entire car route was through the Southern Appalachian Mountains. After a few hours of driving through backwoods country roads (we met this fine looking gentleman Jake is posing with somewhere the border of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia) the trouble began. At some point, we realized that we didn’t know where we were and that none of us had cell phone service. While Ally and Kera, the two girls in the front of the car, were discussing this, Ally (the one driving) ran over a huge rock in the road which flattened her tire, and of coarse we had no spare. Since our phones were useless, Kera and Jake had to hitch a ride into town to call a tow truck from a nice young couple we flagged down.

They returned an hour or two later and told us it was on its way. So we waited, and waited, and waited, but it never came. Finally after being stuck on the side of the road for three hours or so, Ally and Jake once again hitched a ride (by the same couple who waited for us the whole time) and were informed that the tow truck driver got lost and went home. Eventually they found a truck which came and picked us up after about 4 hours of sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere (we were informed several times that the horror movie Deliverance was filmed close by). We all had to pile into the back seat of the tow truck which was possibly the most cramped and uncomfortable I have ever been. To make things worse, the tow truck driver kept getting lost, and once we got into town, we couldn’t find our hotel. Finally we made it and got to bed somewhere around 5 am. There was a time trial at 9 the next morning, (well actually 4 hours since we went to bed) but we had no car, no idea where the race was, and it was cold and pouring rain so all of us stayed in bed except Ally who was leaving to race in Europe soon and needed the race to qualify for Nationals. She had to bum a ride and do a time trial (which she won) after sleeping less than three hours. The same guys who drove her to the race drove her all over town to get her tire fixed. When they finally found a place that could do it, they realized that they had forgotten the wheel. After they finally got the tire fixed, Ally decided to change her oil, but exhaustion was obviously taking a toll as she accidentally put transmission fluid in her oil tank and once again had to drive all over town to get it fixed (and I think she got lost doing that too).

After all of this madness, we got up early to race Sunday morning. On the start line (which we nearly missed because we got lost on the way there from the hotel) the weather didn’t look so bad. It was chilly and cloudy but pretty good racing weather and a nice rolling coarse (or would have been nice if conditions hadn’t made it otherwise). I was a little car sick from trying to get ready in the car while driving through twisty hilly roads and the race was pretty miserable for a while. Eventually I recovered and felt ready to race hard. About this time, my chain fell totally off, and I had to stop and put it back on by hand and time trial solo for about eight miles to catch back up to the pack. That’s when the real fun began. The temperature dropped from the low forties to the mid to high thirties, and it started pouring. Imagine going down hill at 40+ miles an hour in 35 degree weather with a thin base layer and riding jersey on in the pouring rain. The race was supposed to be three 16 mile laps but, several people in our race convinced the official in the follow car to shorten it to two. I would have done three, but about this time I was losing feeling in my digits and beginning to shake uncontrollable, so I wasn’t about to complain.  I think it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. With about a mile to go, the race picked up and I found myself slightly off the front with two other riders. Unfortunately, the race officials failed to tell us that the race finish was not on the race loop and we needed to turn off onto another road. The person watching the corner also didn’t seem to realize that the race had been shortened so we missed the turn and had to make a u-turn and catch back on to the back of the pack. I somehow got to the front again, but the finish had a tricky decent before a little climb at the end. I literally had no feeling in my fingers so I couldn’t tell if I was braking or not and almost lost control and crashed going down the hill. This cost me a few spots and I finished the race in seventh. Apparently, the official at the finish line wasn’t informed about the race being shortened and did not like having her authority challenged. She went ballistic. Ally tried to inform her of the situation but ended up getting yelled at. I watched this for about ten seconds before deciding that I was too cold to care. The registration area was in a lodge, thank God, and I grabbed my stuff and headed straight for the bath room. I was soaking wet shaking violently, breathing uncontrollably and felt extremely nauseous. After a few minutes of pacing back and forth and dry heaving, I decided to try to get out of my wet clothes. This was easier said than done because my hands had become pretty much useless at this point. I managed to take my gloves off with my teeth and slip out of my jersey and base layer, but that’s when things got bad. The blood started returning to my hands which was unbelievably painful. It was almost more than I could handle. I basically collapsed in the corner of the bathroom with Jake’s coat draped over my shoulders shaking like I had Parkinson’s Disease, breathing like I was running the hundred meter dash and occasionally letting out agonized groans and sobs. I probably looked like a dying puppy.This lasted for what was possible the most intense twenty minutes of my life. Eventually, the pain in my hands let up a little, and I got Jake to take my shoes off for me. I then stripped butt naked in front of everybody, put on dry clothes and sat by the fire for a while. Even after I had warmed up I couldn’t stop shaking. Ally actually was puking after the race because she was so cold. So basically it was the kind of weekend I live for. Miraculously, we all survived and made it back to school without any further problems.

This is how you know your in the south.