On The Pegs January 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 1 | Page 82

On The Pegs
when I went down, I was counting. I
knew exactly. From the time I hit the
ground to the time I got back up it was
seven seconds exactly. For me, that was
really tough. Then Thad (DuVall) ended
up getting me back I think 12 seconds
in there. The last test all I was thinking
is let him throw it away if anybody’s
going to throw it away. Let him push.
Let him try to catch me. He rode a really
flawless race as well as I. At the end of
the day, only twelve seconds separated
us. He ended up beating me by a few
more in that last test, but luckily I had
just enough of a cushion. That place
has suited me really well. I’m definitely
happy with the way the day went.
This was kind of an up and down
year with you getting sick midway
through the year. Were you sur-
prised that you were able to come
back like you did?
Yeah, definitely. When I got sick it was
one of those things where my tem-
perature was so high they said I could
get brain damage. I know my memory
was definitely not there. The following
two months probably I lost everything
that Nate and I, my trainer, had worked
so hard to gain. We basically watched
it go away as I was lying on the couch
every day just about. I was trying so
hard. I wanted to work out. I wanted to
train. I wanted to ride. When I would
get out of bed, go ride, go train, what-
ever it may be, it was all I could do to
get 20 minutes into it. That was really
tough for me knowing the amount of
work that I put in this year. I had a lot of
second thoughts on everything. When-
ever Pennsylvania National Enduro
P 82
rolled around that is my favorite race.
It always has been, and in my opinion
always will be. That was kind of an eye-
opener for me when I realized my body
was just not up to par. That race always
suits me and I didn’t even land on the
podium. That was really tough to live
with. Over the next few weeks we stud-
ied on what I had and upped the doses
on the vitamins. There leading into Un-
adilla I was able to start training. Over
the last few months everything started
turning back around and just started
clicking again. We closed out the sea-
son with a few wins. Obviously Thad
was hurt and I was sick, but we rode
really well even with the circumstances.
I felt just as strong as I ever have. I can’t
wait to race with him next year. It was
a hell of a year. Thad, hats off to him.
He was great after the race. We hugged
each other. It was super cool. We talked
about deer hunting while we were
racing all day long. People around the
track have been asking all day, “You’re
actually buddies with the guy that
you’re going up head to head with?” All
I got to say is we both want the same
thing at the end of the day. I really
enjoy racing Thad. He’s a good guy.
Obviously they helped me out a lot
when I had my eye issues a few weeks
ago. Hats off to the whole DuVall fam-
ily for having me up there, riding with
me and being so cool during all of this.
Obviously it was a hell of a year, a lot of
pressure. I haven’t been getting much
sleep the last two weeks. n