Stop by and say hi. Monty and I are hanging in the expo. Bunch of Slowtwitchers streaming by.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Have fun. Did you do the mountain bike tri?

Not fucking kidding. And then that 100 yard smooth Section teaser and back to the teeth rattling. 10 miles of really shitty road

I discovered that they weren’t putting the caps on the bottles all the way down. I reached back to grab one for a sip, road had rattled the top off and all the water out.

And then the first 5 miles of the bike rips whatever balls you had left off

Or you might end up in the ICU...

Here's my story:

Still in ICU but I'm obviously fine now.

I hit a sizeable pothole at mile 3.5. So big that my aerobar pads dropped down on my Vukka Aeros. I wasn't overly excited about my new position but racing this sport is all about overcoming these kinds of challenges.

I kept hammering away and was fairly confident that I was keeping close to my AG leaders.

Somewhere along Interlake I started seeing squiggly lines in my vision (right side) but this has happened before in the past so I ignored it. Note: someone once told me it's called an ocular migraine.

This is where things got fuzzy...

I'm going to say about 10-15min min before the turn on Nacimiento (along Jolon), I continued hammering away when all of a sudden my left arm went completely numb. It was like it was dead. I'll explain the rest the best I can but much of this might not make sense because it's hard to find the words that accurately described my situation.

I didn't panic but I'm not sure how much of what was going on with me was computing in my head either. On one hand, I was fully aware that I was racing and had full strength in my legs. However, my brain couldn't locate the right aerobar pad and my right peripheral vision was compromised (although, I'm not sure how fully aware I was off that fact). I actually thought that my right aerobar had fallen off. I kept going up and down in the aero position in a state of bewilderment. I was just telling myself that I will figure out a way of fixing this problem and that's what I attempted to do for the next several minutes. I have this saying that I repeat to myself when racing:

You can put up a brick wall the size of China in front of me but I will figure out a way of getting over it.

One problem though. There came a point where I realized that I was jeopardizing the safety of others but it actually took someone yelling at me for it to really sink in. Somehow, I was still passing people but due to my poor left side peripheral vision, I was getting way too close and someone actually yelled at me. I was continuing to get worse so that was the trigger for me to pull the plug.

I had enough awareness to do whatever I could to make it to the corner of Jolon and Nacimiento since I knew there would be volunteers there.

I stopped, lacked the coordination to unmount my bike, fell over and just laid there. A female volunteer ran over and started taking care of me.

Eventually the fire department paramedics showed up. My right arm was still numb but feeling was slowly coming back. They asked me a million questions of which some of them I could answer quickly and with 100% confidence and others I could not answer at all. The real kicker was when I couldn't remember who's the president. Yes,, I really couldn't remember who the president was so they were highly suspicious that something wasn't right.

Eventually I was taken to emergency in Templeton (Twin Cities). I'll be honest though, I tried to talk them out of it. As it turned out, it's a very good thing I didn't.

At Templeton I was diagnosed with a disection of the coratid artery. There was also a clog as a result. I was then airlifted to Cottage Hospital in SB where there is a world-renown neurosurgeon named Zauner. He immediately performed surgery and I am now recovering.

I was told that the injury was acute and very likely occurred when I hit that pothole.

Sorry this was soooo long. I have several friends on this forum who probably aren't aware of my condition.

Lots of people are telling me that I was very lucky. Honestly, I don't know if I was or not. I tried to do what I thought at the time was the right thing to do. My sincere apologies to anyone I might have almost wiped off the road. I would have been horrified if I had injured anyone else. Thankfully, I didn't.

I wish I could dearly thank those who took care of me. I know they would probably say they were just doing their job.

Writing this has actually been therepeutic as this has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me. My friends have been absolutely amazing though and that's probably where my luck really starts and ends.

Ho-lee shit.... Sorry to hear about what happened, that's really awful. Shocked that you made it as far as you did. and glad you figured out how and where to get help. Heal up well and take care.

Holy shit. I'd definitely rather have my balls gargled, every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Glad you're ok.

Wow!!!!! Looks like you are extreemly fortunate to be upright! That is scary stuff, and so glad that you got the needed assistance, and medical attention. Best to you as you recover!!!

Um, those potholes yesterday sucked, but severing a carotid artery is the next level! Kudos to you for keeping your shit together, glad you made it out, and hope you heal speedily and well.

HOLY SH*****T. Glad you are OK. I think I came by when the medical team was working on you. Hope you recover well and are back at it soon. If it wasn't the early pothole, it was surely the teeth chattering on Jolon road for what seemed like MILES...I guess because it was for miles!

Wow, glad to hear you are OK. I think I saw you sitting on the ground on the corner right after it happened, I was wondering what happened that you would be sitting in the road with the volunteers looking confused. If you wobbled past me I didn't notice. Hopefully you'll fully recover quickly and get back out there!

Did a nurse gargle your balls at least?

Daaaamn. Glad you're ok.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Have you remembered who the president is?

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“Read the transcript.”

If only we could all be so lucky.

In all seriousness glad to hear you're on the mend.

x2. Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery.

Possibly the best thing that happened to me all day was actually forgetting who the president was. Unfortunately, it was temporary.

Thank you all for the kind words.

Title updated for accuracy....

Time for a lawsuit. you can receive compensatory damages for missing work and medical bills and get them to repave the damn road as part of the settlement.!!!

I've never had any interest in Wildflower but if I can get my balls gargled...

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

When I see routes posted, I often wonder if an organizer themselves or someone else they consulted had ever ridden the course OR had ridden all the roads on the course at some point.

I did a local to me fundraiser ride for a lady that had been hit by a car while riding, and the route was going to take 2 miles of very rough dirt and gravel road. For folks with roadies and triathlon bikes and skinnies.

I emailed them before the event and the response was "oh, we didn't know that". They fixed the route, but still.

Same happened again recently for a fun ride being organized. They had about 20mi of the event going down one of the busiest and most dangerous 55mph freeways in the northern part of the county.

I'd put this one in that category too.

Pretty sure the RD who has run this for 35 years knows exactly what the roads are like *especially* where lakerfan hit a pothole (at 3.5 miles) as that is still within park boundaries as far as I can tell. Before the entrance gate for sure, and these roads are well traveled.

But (and no ding of lakerfan) in that area the road actually isn’t that bad. The first mile to the first climb is shit, miles 28 to 38 ish are shit (but not many potholes that I saw, just rough like riding on cobblestones), but the rest are IMO really not bad. The condition of the roads in these locations is to be honest one of the well known challenges of this race.

Not knowing anything about what happened than what’s written here, it sounds to me just like really bad luck.

Ok, I'm going to tell you all about how deep the snow was when I had to walk to school. All this bumpy road stuff is just nonsense. First of all, the road has been pretty much the same as when I did the race 35 years ago, and then again for the next 22 years or so and a few more later on. On top of all that, I have taken about 20 training trips out there just to ride the course, run the course, and just have a blast all alone up there.I usually showed up on Tuesday so that I could ride the entire bike before race day and be ready on the weekend, so I know the roads out there.

I have done so many races on so many roads, and I never thought to complain about them. They were just what they were, we all just raced on whatever they were, medals, trophies, and money would be given out, and we moved on to the next race. I don't know exactly when all this whining about road surfaces started, but it has to stop. Race directors do not pave roads, especially ones that are hardly ever used except on race day like at wildflower.

You want to gargle your balls, ride that back section on an old steel tribike with 150 psi in Conti 18mm Tubulars, with a hard piece of plastic(ski pole grip) for your arm pads. That was the set up we all used before Tom A convinced you all that 90lbs pressure in your 25mm clincher tires was the optimal set up, and you have super cushy pads on all your shock absorbing carbon frames. You all have a Cadillac ride compared to our set ups. Please stop the whining and just race. If you hit a pot hole it was your fault, unless it was 2 feet wide and spans the entire road. Even then I would be able to jump it, jumped a ton of them that I just saw too late. You all know how to jump your bikes, dont you??

And don't even get me started on not enough water in your bike hand up bottles, ones that you get what, every15 to 25 minutes?? Aid stations just about every mile of the run, and all you can think about is where is the ice?? I know Texas has become more like glorified half now as far as effort(for most), but Wildflower is not your cookie cutter race, never has been, never will be. Toughen up people and stop looking for the hard stuff to be bad stuff, it is good stuff....

You forgot to tell us to get off your lawn. :-)

Where does lakerfan whine about hitting the pothole? I think he's been around and knows the condition of the course. I realize the same thing could happen to me. I've been riding 50 years and still hit potholes.