The race bike was out of the shop and I had one weekend left before we would leave for the big race. It had been 3 months since I had ridden the race bike last. I wasn't supposed to ride the race bike before the race, but my 2 stroke race bike is so different than my 4 stroke DS650, that I felt I needed to refresh my memory on how to ride it before the race. I had pre-ran almost the entire course and had conquered my fears of every important section except one, the Lagrimas Hill, which was probably the most important section of the race since it would be at the very end. So we decided to use our last weekend to go back to Uruapan and do just one quick 30 mile run up to the Lagrimas Hill and back (without the kids). I thought that maybe on the race bike it would be easier to do the hill and then I could rid myself of the fear I had of that one remaining course challenge.

We arrived late Saturday afternoon and asked the main store in town for permission to leave our truck with them. By the time we finally geared up and took off, it was very close to dusk, but we really wanted to get the ride over with so that we could return home as soon as possible and start the big task of packing for the big race. We started on the course out of town and then about 5 miles into it I realized that this was just crazy. We were heading up to Lagrimas Hill at dark time, with only one weak light on Tim's bike, and a mountain of fear ahead of me. I told him I wanted to go find somewhere to camp and start over again in the morning. So instead we explored the town a little bit and finally discovered the hot springs the town was famous for. We then returned to our truck, loaded up, and drove down highway 1 to use the rest of the time that evening to finalize our notes on the access roads to the race course for our chase vehicles.

In the morning we returned to the store and kids from all over the place circled around asking for racing stickers. We gave out stickers that Duncan Racing had so considerately set us up with for this very reason. The kids asked us all kinds of questions as we got ready for our ride. I wondered how the race affected their town, since the race course went right through it. The kids shared with me that they get to have a day off from school (Friday) because their teacher wanted to watch the race.

This time when we headed up the trail to Lagrimas Hill I had a different plan. During the whole pre-running experience, I had been carrying around this gift I wanted to give to Tim in my camelback and I finally thought this was the right time to give it to him. I stopped him about half way up the mountain after one of the times we had to get off the bikes to open and close a barbed wire gate.

I had us sit on our helmets on the ground while I tried to explain to him why I was giving him this gift. Unfortunately, the only words that came out of my mouth were, "Remember those heart necklaces we saw that couple wearing in France a few years ago that you said you liked? Well, here." I gave him the little box that was in remarkably good shape after all this time and he instantly remembered how each person wore a broken half heart that could be put together to make one when the couple was standing side by side. Tim, was honored to receive the gift, but until he reads this, he doesn't understand why I gave it to him. In that moment I had so much to say, but I couldn't say it without crying and I just did NOT want to cry; I hadn't even reached Lagrimas yet!

After Tim finished the 2004 Baja 1000, he announced publicly in a large group toast that he was truly grateful to me for letting him dedicate all the time he did to that race. He said that next year would be my turn. I feel very fortunate that he followed through with that promise and has supported me through every challenging part of it. He chased me, pitted for me, coached me, mentored me, pushed me, consoled me, recruited sponsors for me, kept my bikes running, and ate my dirt as he followed behind me every mile of training and pre-running. With him as my guardian angel, I was able to blossom into the ATV racer I wanted to become. He is the only person in the world who was willing to go through the needed experiences with me to get to where I am today. I could not have done this without him and if anything were to happen to me in the race, the broken hearts were to be a reminder to him that I was not complete without him. The actual race wasn't as important anymore; the best part of the whole Baja 1000 experience had already happenned.

With all those unspoken thoughts bouncing around inside my head, we pressed on for Lagrimas. I found that all of the technical spots that posed a challenge for me the first time up this path, were minor bumps in the road for me now on this bike. We arrived to about 5 miles away from Lagrimas Hill before I realized something wasn't right with the bike. One tail pipe was smoking a little more and it kept bogging down on me at important steep sections where I really needed to have power to climb. By the time I got to Lagrimas Hill, and I swear it was only a couple of feet from the spot where the other bike crapped out on me, I couldn't keep it going at all. And then it acted like I flooded it and wouldn't restart. Tim got it going again and then took it for a spin to see if he could figure out what was going on. All he could say when he got back to me was while there does seem to be an unusual amount of smoke coming out of one tailpipe, I really just needed to learn how to drive this high powered race engine. Great! what does that tell me a week before the race?! I tried to pick up speed a few more times just before the Lagrimas Hill, but it still kept bogging down on me. I started to get nervous about ruining the bike only days away from the race, so I said to Tim "I think we better go back home and just call the shop to make sure we are doing things right before I ruin something and get stuck up here again." And with that, we started back down the mountain. When I think back on it now...I realize I missed the opportunity to vanquish that lingering fear. But it was just too close to the race to take any chances.

When we got home, Duncan Racing told us that we probably needed a new ignition coil and they leant us one to use for the race. I still had the funny feeling that I just didn't have enough time on the bike, but it was too late to worry about this now. We left for Ensenada 2 days later with the thought that I would just have to figure it out in the race.