Dirty Kanza Report:The Rally

All across Emporia the riders and DK200 were mentioned. This was from the South side of town.

8:00- Joe's House, Emporia, Kansas:

I'm standing in the basement of the house of our host, Joe, listening to the awful sounds of MG vomiting. I was anxious for him and worried, and of course, I felt helpless to do anything. At that point we were trying to make sense of the situation. Why on Earth did this have to happen now? With hours to go before the start of the inaugural DKXL, the by invitation only, self-supported, 350 mile event  that was being "beta tested" by DK Promotions for possibly being added to the suite of Dirty Kanza events. MG was taking this honor with extreme humility and respect. To possibly not even be able to make the start was soul crushing, and I could feel it too.

We wracked our brains trying to figure out what was the possible cause of MG's malady. Finally it came to me. MG had gotten his sandwich the day before but he really didn't get around to eating it until a couple of hours later. Hmm...... Fast food sandwich, maybe had been sitting under some heat lamps for a while anyway, and then let sit out in ambient air temperatures for a couple of hours? Yeah....food poisoning. 

The "All Things Gravel" expo was on my "to do" list Friday morning.

 This wasn't good at all. Thoughts were that now it may prove to be outside of reason to think that MG would be able to even get registered at packet pick-up for the event. I cautioned MG against taking big drinks of water. I said he needed to take small sips and see if he could get that to stay inside him. He tried it and immediately threw that and a bunch of other stuff back up. It was just an awful scene.

I went upstairs and consulted with Joe on what should be done about MG's situation. Joe suggested that if he wasn't up and about by 3:00pm, roughly 12 hours after he first felt ill, we should take him to the ER and see if he needed fluids. I agreed on this course of action, and then I bade both he and MG farewell as I had to go downtown to cover the "All Things Gravel Expo" which was being put on by the DK Promotions team.

My heart was heavy, but life goes on, and a good 20 block walk with a heavy messenger bag in humid conditions can take your mind off things. I made it down to the expo and did my thing. I ran into Jim Cummings, executive director and co-founder of the Dirty Kanza 200, and he said that he heard MG had registered, and that he was surprised to hear that. Surprised?!! I was floored. What?!! I immediately texted MG and asked how he was doing. He said he was up and about, still feeling iffy, but that he was going to try to eat something. Wow! What a rally from where he was earlier in the morning!

Next: Man About Town