Day 41: Dixon Goes 232 While I Go 0

May 21, 2017
Mile 558.51 Tehachapi, CA

Zero day! This one seems well deserved after a rather tumultuous week. It wasn’t harder than any other week, just had a lot of ups and downs. Rain, cold mornings, hot days, Cougar and Dr. McDirty having to get off trail, foot pain. Just a trying week so it was nice to finally feel like we could truly take a breather. Unfortunately, zero days aren’t always completely relaxing. We still had to walk a couple miles to the grocery and back after we ate breakfast so we could resupply. That took the bulk of the morning and I certainly noticed my left facia being quite sore as we walked around even without a pack on. 

When we got back to the hotel we hung out in the room and called home and watched the second day of Indy 500 qualifying. Well, I watched it. Everyone else wasn’t paying much attention. Fair enough. I completely realized my mild obsession for the event. One of the more thrilling qualifying sessions at Indy in recent memory. Several runs above 231 mph and Fernando Alonso even held provisional pole for a while before Scott Dixon set the fastest time since 1996 with a four lap average of 232 mph. Still trying to wrap my head around that. That’s just so blistering fast. He was topping out at 239 mph going into turn 3. Unreal. 

After becoming overly excited about 500 quals while the rest of the fam was largely uninterested, we headed to the hotel pool for the afternoon at around 2:30. Fast forward five hours with many libations and we were still in the hot tub/pool along with basically the rest of the thru hikers staying at the hotel. Much debauchery was displayed as was great conversation, fun, and ultimately relaxation. Well spent day. 

232.164 mph. Absolutely bonkers.