Background on my PBP trip

[Rob Hawks]

Hi all,

A few of you have asked what the tracker status of "waiting to start",  which never changed, meant for my entry. In short, it means I was a DNS.

I arrived on the Tuesday before PBP, assembled my bike on Wednesday in time for a short ride and then on the Thursday before PBP I met some friends for a ride to Chartres. Of course PBP was the big goal but I was so looking forward that ride to Chartres which was going to be a super flat, mellow paced ride. I barely made it 20 miles when i knew something was off, so off that I turned back and rode solo back to my hotel.

I had a terrible night of sleep, pretty much awake the whole night. Just after sunrise i began to feel dizzy, broke out in a sweat and then passed out. Then things got worse. People were checking in on me and i responded that i needed medical attention. I was in bad enough shape that i was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Versailles.

That was a rough 24 hour stay. I had many tests taken including a lumbar puncture (would you be surprised to hear i didn't enjoy that procedure?). I was released when my fever broke. All tests had come back negative, so there was no diagnosis offered. That was saturday morning, and it was monday before I ate anything resembling a meal. 

The 80 and 90 hour starts came and went, as did the X wave for my 84 hour start. I could not make it out of bed Sunday for the SFR photo, and there was no chance I could start PBP on Monday.

I got on the bike on Wednesday for 20 miles and felt good but wasted by that tiny ride. I checked out the finish and saw a couple SFR riders finish in the afternoon. I went back on thursday as well and saw even more club members finish.

I haven't really thought about what missing PBP in this way means. I can say that all the well wishes I received made a huge difference in my outlook and hearing from so many that i helped them get to PBP is going a very long way in making up for what transpired.

In particular I wanted to thank Wendell Doman for getting me to the hospital, and Mike Hrast and Matt Pendleton for picking me up from there. Ed Felker and Mary Gersema were keeping tabs on me and ready and waiting to get me medical care. Peter Grace and Tak Noguchi took care of the SFR photo. Arvi Sreenivasan got me some recovery food once i got back to my hotel which lasted 3 days! Greg Janess picked up my PBP packet too. Thanks to all those and thanks to everyone that sent me messages.

Rob Hawks

[Todd Teachout]

I am so sorry your health changes prevented your PBP ride.  Long Covid?  Hope not.  Hope whatever it was/is is an acute issue and over soon.  I suspected something was amiss when you posted a Covid test, even though it said, negative.   Didn't you contract Covid in the past?  If so, maybe it is Long Covid?  Hope not. 

Todd Teachout

[Rob Hawks]

Have never had covid and continue to test negative.

Rob

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[Noah Swartz]

Very glad to hear you're doing better and seem to be enjoying some post-PBP time in Europe.

Let's refrain from armchair doctoring, as I'm sure Rob had enough of that while in the ER in France.

But I will add to the chorus of thanks to Rob for helping all of us qualify. It was a long road to get through my first SR series, and to be able to do all of my qualifiers in SF and represent SFR at PBP was a really special experience and one I won't forget for a long time. Thanks again Rob for all of the work you put in to getting us there!

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sfrandon/CA%2BV%2BKA0ZnshsR0bEJYTeyGA8mJCrYyycC-k20UYWsD5G3OrBMA%40mail.gmail.com.