Wednesday, 17 June 2009, 16h 34 min
Yesterday afternoon the vans had already gone through revision, Greg and I had dedicated a couple of hours to cooking meals for Wednesday and Thursday and we where pretty much all settled to go. I took this perfect timing to do one of the designated cognitive tests on Patrick. Shortly before Greg had done an interview of our dear cyclist. We later on had a succulent sausage plate Greg had prepared accompanied with candle light, we had our last crew meeting in "La Jolla" before we all dispersed to try to sleep.
It was 4 a.m. and I just could not manage to fall asleep. I turned on my sofa and thought about the great, mysterious, fascinating and tough this race was going to be. Luckily for me not long went by and Jerome was up on his feet doing the same as me, turning skype on in order to talk to his love ones.
Not half an hour went by and the house started to have massive movement, even thou we agreed on waking up at 7 a.m. By 8 we had all have had breakfast and started to do last minute packing, such as putting ice in the ice coolers in order to keep the food fresh as well as Patricks energy drinks. At this same time Patrick decided to try to sleep half an hour. During the night he had succeeded in sleeping 5 hours, which is pretty good before a big event such as this.
By 9:30 we had already divided our crew into the two vans: Rob Greg and Aude would be on the follow van while Jerome and I would be on the support van. The follow van went directly to Oceanside while the support van went to a Fedex authorized location to drop the first package of drawn blood.
At 10:30 we all met again in Oceanside, Patrick was leaving at 12:41 but he had to be there at 11:30, so we had a good timing. Because of this situation I couldn't avoid walking to "La Mission's beach" Mac Donald's , which is literally a minute away, and buying some food. At the sight of it Jerome decided he too wanted to take this opportunity.
At noon all the Solo drivers where on the leaving stage ready to start their maximum 12 day race. Jerome and Greg where ready with their cameras shooting each picture they found worth it, and after only three riders where still to be announced Patrick's turn came. While Robic and Marko where still on stage, Patrick started his journey.
Due to this years rules Patrick had to do the first miles without a following van, the real starting line of the race was 8 miles from the stage. The two vans left, one to frog leap and the other to get some groceries which had been ignored before doing the final packing.
After this, Jerome and I went on into the first time station. We stopped there to wait to see Patrick go trough, but the invasion of millions of crickets in this zone was to much for us and decided to move into another place. Ten miles from the first Time station we found shade under a couple of trees and stayed there. We have now been here for three hours and still no sign of the first Solo racer. We are in the middle of nowhere so there is no phone signal. We are literally un-contactable. We will wait what we must, and after that we will advance to the second time station to find internet and send you guy these facts.
Thank you vey much for your support, donations and interest =). Have a great day and hope to see you soon via newsletters.
Maite J. Balda
P.S. Jerome is writing a newsletter each day also in French and in a different point of view and knowledge (lets face it I am a rookie at this race while Jerome appreciates and has the trained eye to see importance in facts that skip my mind).
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