Adventure Racing Hallucinations

We had decided to push through the night - 45 hours with no sleep. It would be a long and arduous bike ride - but we were nearing the end, that great feeling you get when you finish a section of the race and arrive at the transition - like checking off items on the to do list. I was leading the team and stole a glance behind me to see how things looked with the team. What  I saw froze the blood in my veins - I'm not sure what it was, but it was dark, with red eyes and pursuing me.

Having just emerged from the single track through deep and foggy woods onto a dirt road - I felt the surge of adrenaline that usually accompanies panic. I channeled that energy into my legs and the crank of the bicycle - pushing it to accelerate. The map in front of me showed a couple of miles with some twists and turns to reach a major road. That was my goal.

I could hear my pursuer behind me - but now my mind was focused on going fast, outracing the threat. I turned a corner and stood up in the saddle, I could tell I was putting some distance between myself and the pursuer - that had morphed in my mind into a group of red-eyed ninja's on bikes. This made perfect sense to me, they had caught my team-mates and were now after me.

I could see the streetlights of my goal. Once I got out into the open with lights and traffic I would be safe. The pre-dawn was starting to light up the sky behind me and I just had to get to a safe place. One more turn and I was on solid pavement with closed stores and a lone traffic light about a half mile in front of me - my goal and safety. I could no longer hear my pursuit and the glow of the green light bathed me as the fatigue of the chase caught up with my legs. I slowed and came to a stop - hopping off my bike to look around, a coupe of lone car headlights moving through the toward me from both directions in the darkness.

What about my team? As quickly as your mind goes into the hallucination - it snaps off. I was on the side of the road at an intersection - alone, and my team was nowhere to be found - or was it. I could see down a side road the tell-tale bob of bike lights that were moving tentatively, looking for something. Me. I shouted and after a few tries they heard and were now a determined group of three bikers heading towards me fast.

Charlie was off his bike first and in my face "What the hell are you doing?!". To them I had just taken off, riding away as they were there stunned. I had just realized what had happened, even though in my mind the hallucination was as real as their anger at having been left without a map. They had tried to keep up - but their navigator, fueled by fear and adrenaline had pulled away. After some stammered apologies and some diplomacy from Team-mate Sean we got back on our bikes. Luckily nothing else strange happened on this leg of the race - our race would remain uneventful until the next leg...

But that is another story.