Plan B?
Sunset in Thurmond, NC (and on our 2021 Mongol Derby)
We’ve decided to push our Derby Adventure to 2022.
Coming off of a fabulous training week leading up to Easter in North Carolina (more on that in future posts, of course), the news this week feels all the more surreal. We had been starting to push that gas pedal down further and further and now we...put on the brakes? Or maybe ease off and put it in cruise control? It’s hard to tell what the best course of action is.
I write this feeling rather adrift, untethered, slightly lost, and more than a little frustrated. The anchor that kept me sane through much of the pandemic, and which I was using as a bookend to my nomadic life is now another year farther. It feels less relevant, and yet it is still something I look forward to eventually doing. It just isn’t going to happen as soon as we had hoped or planned for.
Mongolia’s borders have been shut to everything except government charters for months now, and their case count has been on the rise, doubling over a two week period. They started vaccinating at the end of February. The population of Mongolia is about 3.2 million people, with the majority residing in the capital of Ulaanbaatur. Vaccinations seem to be going well considering, but those who reside outside of Ulaanbaatur are mostly nomadic herders. They will be hard to pin down for two doses, and from the communication with The Equestrianists, it sounds like there is a lot of trepidation towards allowing outsiders to come into their communities, especially foreigners who have just flown from who knows where. The nomadic herders and their communities and way of life are what the race pays tribute to, so having them on board and open to our presence is key- not having that is a non-starter. While The Equestrianists have remained committed to having 2020’s in July and 2021 in August, it’s looking more and more like it may not happen, or if it does, it won’t be a sure thing until they’re on the ground there. They gave us a free option to move a year out to 2022 (not something they normally do, but due to Covid, they allowed it), and that’s the option Kristin and I took. We had to let them know by April 16, but after Monday’s email, we were also worried there wouldn’t be enough room in 2022 and we really didn’t want to be put in 2023, so we pulled the trigger to move. A less-optimal sure thing is better than an unsure more-optimal thing. We can work with plan B. But now we have to make plan B.
While yes, I am upset, disappointed, and overall bummed out, I am also trying to remind myself just how privileged my life is if this is what is throwing me for a loop. My friends and family are healthy and supportive, I’m still able to do my job, I have expanded my life to include two animals who are rewarding and frustrating in their own way. I am fortunate to have family and friends willing to put up with (and welcome!) my presence while I continue not to be able to commit to having my own home. I have the opportunity to see many parts of the world on horseback, which is something I only dreamed of as a kid. I think I’m more bummed because we were so close to this being a reality, and now the journey itself is going to take a lot longer. But if I look back at everything that has changed during the journey so far, maybe that’s a positive.
I feel like training for the derby during Covid was the opposite of a sacrifice. I was able to justify leaving my house because I wanted to survive Mongolia. It got me back into horses and even convinced me to own my own. It was something to work towards, and to hold onto when everything else around me was confusing and scary. I’m now adjusting both to post-Covid life (or a more open world post-vaccines) and the reality that I will have other things competing for my time. Weddings that have been pushed multiple times, bachelorettes for wonderful friends that are now able to happen, long overdue birthday trips or girls weekends, family trips that have long been talked about and now can happen...Most people training for the derby have to contend with these things regardless, something I was fully prepared to do - but I had gotten used to not having to. I got used to work and training being really the only two priorities that I could have, with the occasional friend zoom or very carefully planned and covid-conscious friend trip with quarantines and negative tests, etc.
I am more comfortable with the cognitive load of the race. I still don’t know any Mongolian, but I am more familiar with the rules and regulations. I know what I’m going to wear. I know a few things I can eat while riding that don’t make me cramp or have a stomach ache. I know what trotting for 25 miles feels like, and which tendons will be sore. I know where to apply bodyglide to protect my skin from chafing. I even accidentally have endurance colors (my helmet randomly matched my riding sneaks, which randomly matched my backpack, so now we’re going with teal and black with orangeish accents). We have more time to get fit, to work on our balance, to work on mounting quickly and with minimal effort. And now no excuses for accomplishing all of that (Not that we had any before)!
This journey to train for this race has brought about a lot of good - here’s to hoping that prolonging it only continues the trend.