Crysta Turnage and CT Sinatra, Tevis 2006

I was about 7 years old when I heard about the Tevis. I've wanted to do it ever since. So 19 years later I found myself actually entered in the ride and heading up to Robie Park. I wasn't really nervous until Thursday afternoon, and then it all kind of hit me at once. I had done my first 100 this June at the Sunriver ride in Oregon, but I knew Tevis was a whole different ball game. My horse Sinatra was ready and we were going to give it our best shot.

(photo by Cristy Cumberworth)

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Nick Warhol and Forever Dawn, 2006

The Tevis 100, 2006

Oh, what a ride!

I looked at the Tevis this year as kind of a breakthrough ride for me. I have started this thing six times in the past and have only completed it twice. That’s not a great record as far as I’m concerned, but then again, this no ordinary endurance ride. Not by a long shot. Not by a longer shot. Take the longest shot you can imagine, double it, then add a few miles, throw in some more rocks, and you have the Tevis. It’s not that it isn’t possible to finish, because you can, it’s just harder than most other rides anywhere. That’s one of the things that make it so attractive, since over half of the starters don’t get to finish, and believe me; every starter out there wants to get to Auburn worse than just about anything. That’s the thing that makes it so important- the fact that the rider next to you wants to finish so badly it hurts. The rider in front of him wants to finish just as bad. There is a lot of sheer willpower floating around out in the air above Robie Park on Friday evening before the ride.

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