Medical Update!

Fighting the war on two fronts is always inadvisable, but here we find ourselves and here is the latest for you:

1. Speaking with Kira on the phone tonight, all is as well as can be expected. There’s some pain and a fair degree of uncertainty as of yet, but we’re chugging right along on the Crawford front. We still have 12 days to wait to find out exactly how big the dude in the other corner is going to be, and how much foil we need to put on the ol’ knuckles.

2. Kmac is doing smashingly well in her rehab and doctors have told Clint to “stop worrying” as they are confident now that she will make a FULL recovery!! While this is indeed encouraging, it is still undetermined just how long that may take, but either way, a year, a week, a month, who cares, our Kmac is making her way home from Oblivion. Head injuries = long roads back and we’re there to take each step with her, no matter how gingerly.

Speaking of gingers…..wait, no, that doesn’t make any sense. Tomorrow is the Mississippi crit, and look for equal portions of Ironclad to be racing and heckling. Are you racing? You’re fair game.

It’s Friday night, it’s raining out, and there are many beers yet to be consumed before we sleep. Not quite Whitman, but close enough.

See you tomorrow!

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Mt. Tabor Is “The Murderhorn”

Good fucking christ, that course just kicks most mortals in the balls on sight. Seriously. Theres .04 % of the population that gets the genetic dealing of the cards to ride that bastard, and the rest of us are chum. Just chum. Bait the water, wait for the sharks, reflect on bullshit.

While we’ve had medical curveballs (good band name) thrown at us from all sides, a large contingent of the B&Y showed up and posted some very fine results. Herr Weber scored 7th in the 4’s, Anna Clark nabbed the same in the women’s 4’s, Monnig slotted 12th in the 3’s, and the other 15 of us racing just hung on and did the best we could. Great efforts all around, made even better by the “wearing of the pink” in honor of Kira Crawford and the beginning of her fight after today’s surgery. Thanks to all for all the support all around. It means the world to all of us.

Pictures and video in the morning……sleep now. In the fire. Of Tabor. In our legs. Feels like termites.

UPDATE: Firstly, Kmac says hello. Second, Kira has been released from hospital and is on her way home! And now photos are up at our Flickr site and you can see all the action from Mt. Tabor #1 right here. Thanks to Dave Roth for snapping most of them.

notice the pink armbands! attaboy lads!!

Kira Crawford Update

Kira’s double mastectomy was performed this morning at Legacy Meridian, and the doctors are very pleased. The whole day went about as good as it could go. The initial biopsy of the lymph tissues came back NEGATIVE so we’re very positive and motivated by that. However, the full course of what treatment method they’ll use won’t be known until the actual tumor is biopsied 8 ways to Sunday. So, we’re on the clock for about 2 weeks until the labs come back.

Once out of surgery Kira was immediately cracking jokes, housing pudding and small ice cubes at an alarming rate, and complaining of an itchy head. She had team and her family around her and was thankful for everyone’s support so far. Then she ate another pudding cup and promptly fell asleep.

So tonight we race Tabor for her. We will have tons of pink ribbon and tape, so come get yourself an armband. The team has also ordered custom chainstay stickers saying “F*ck Cancer In The Face” and we’ll have them shortly at the races. Quenton offered to shave his head, but as of tonight, still has a rather f’ed up mullet.

Thanks again for all your support. It means everything to Kira, Kmac, and all of us. Stiff upper lip…..

And In This Corner, Cancer.

Kira asked me to write this, so here goes: We feel it appropriate to let the OBRA community know of another medical fight on our hands in the Ironclad camp. Women’s team captain Kira Crawford has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The initial treatment will involve a double mastectomy this Wednesday followed by a course of treatment yet undetermined. You see, we just don’t know the extent of what we’re up against just yet. We do know the surgery takes place this Wednesday and at best case will be a year long fight.

We’ve loaded our hearts with enough kickass to help her through this troubling time. Her husband Mark and daughters Macy and Addison are also ready to bare their teeth and enter the fray.

After much discussion we have determined that cancer must have lost a step to pick such a foe. Perhaps cancer didn’t do its homework or has Kira confused with someone else, because it’s about to walk into a Crawford buzzsaw and get the ever loving crap kicked out of it. Maybe it’s drunk? Maybe it has beer muscles? Anyone who knows Kira knows she’s tough as nails and pretty much eats buildings and craps tanks, so we’re thinking while this one may or may not go the distance, there will be no split decisions. Kira is going to beat the absolute shit out of cancer, full on KO, and we ask you to join us in the rally cry of “F%$k Cancer”.

We’ve gone from one  tough week  to another with a completely different set of guidelines. Kristin’s injury was sudden and horrific and required the “sprint” mindset and now Kira’s status is a more long term, sinister “stage race” kind of tempo to it. So that’s just what we’re going to do. We’re going to set tempo at the front and pull like hell as long as she needs us to, and you’re all welcome to take a turn.

If you like, you can follow the story from the horses mouth by adding Kira Peters Crawford as a friend on Facebook.

In another showing of team solidarity, we will be wearing pink armbands on Wednesday’s Tabor race, so if you feel inclined to support in that fashion, stop by our camp to pick up your pink ribbon or pink tape. We usually post up right across from the parking lot where the riders start.

Wednesday begins a long hard fight. There will be battles won and lost along the way, but the winning the war is the important part. We’ll quietly keep you updated on Kira’s progress as we help her along the way.

And through all of it, we race. We race because it’s what we do. We race because those of us who have temporarily fallen want us to, as we would wish unto them if the situation reversed itself.  Thank you for your continued support.

Kira surrounded by her team as she will be throughout the fight. The boys in the back have a special message for cancer.

Thanks again, Monday Nighters….

Thanks to the Monday night racers at OBRA who donated $200 last night to the KMac fund. Pretty impressive.

Monday PIR and Kmac update

Hey folks, thanks again for all the support so far. Your Kmac update is as follows:

Firstly, Mom and Dad are in town to help out and as we all know, Mom makes everything better. The doctors are pleased with the collarbone work, and are now setting about an aggressive treatment plan to get her head back in shape. Her speech, vision, and short term memory are still a little sketchy so it seems they’ve decided on an “in house” treatment plan which will require the poor girl to stay in one of those goofy hospital gowns for another week. Damn. The progress is slow, but sure, so it’s encouraging. We have nothing definitive for you as the doctors play brain injuries vaguely, as they should. We’re just not sure yet about a lot of things, but there is definite steady improvement.

Also, tonight at PIR, the estimable Jim Anderson has lowered the race entry fee to $10, so if you want to pay the $13 it normally is, the extra $3 will be donated to the Kmac Fund. So please do that. Thank you to Jim and the Obralites for making this happen. Very kind of you all.

We’ll see you there!

Willis Posts Top 15 In Final Stage!

Results trickling in from the mountain range show our Drew Willis, adrift from earlier stages snakebite flat tire luck and course aweseomeness, stuck a very fine crit finish at the Mt. Hood Classic’s final stage! Top 15! (we think, totally unofficial,  but pretty close to what we believe is the almost sorta certainly truth.)

Awesome job, Drew.

More soon!

Riding Into The Night

Another Ironclad party, another set of epic ridiculous memories. And one new reconfigured refrigerator! It was good to blow off some steam and carpet bomb our brains with beer after such a stressful week. A much needed affair!

SURGERY UPDATE: Kristin had collarbone surgery today to put in the plate, screws, and laser cannons. Awww yeah! Initial word from Clint is everything went well, the docs were pleased with their work, and that she’ll be in hospital one or two more days before being discharged. There are long roads of recovery ahead in several senses of the word. Thanks for your continued support.

Willis Takes On Hood

We’ve sent a lone Ironclad rider into the meat grinder that is the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. We scraped together a box of hersheys and some Ramen noodles to send with the lad as economic hard times (and some common sense) prevented most of us from heading out to the Gorge. We’ll save it for Elkhorn. Seems we’re not alone as all fields, from the pros on down, are woefully light in big names and overall numbers.

Anyhow, our own Drew Willis is doing well, having barely arrived at the finish of Stage 1 to barely beat out that insanely mean weather system that moved in yesterday. Windy today for the TT, we wish him well. We also promise to have him mentally evaluated for taking this race on.

Kmac is actually in surgery at presstime, and we have some other sad medical news to announce soon about another surgery in our camp happening next week.

We SHALL overcome.

Radio KMAC On Your FM Dial, All Hits, All The Time

So your Thursday update looks like this: Kristin was put on her feet today for the first time since the accident in her daily physical therapy session, albeit assisted. She was able to sit up without throwing up as well. Today a speech pathologist will be evaluating her too, to see what the neurological damage is in that area, if any. She’s been slurring her words a lot, but for most of the time she has had enough goofballs in her to make 20 people high.

On the surgery front she goes under the knife tomorrow (6/5) at 9am to have her collarbone bionically fixed, or as we’re thinking, enhanced. We’re hoping the surgeon opts for a Predator-esque shoulder mounted laser thingy, just for good measure. Once back on her bike, few would dare trifle with that kind of firepower. Y’all had best Get To The Chopper. We have a feeling when she comes back, she will do so with a fury and a half.

We have a lot of medical adversities in our camp these days. Most of them we’ll handle privately since that how such matters should be tended to, but in this case we are again standing in reverance of all the support from the OBRA community. Two wheels, one love.

Donations to Kmac’s bike fund via Paypal at rider15@gmail.com

Thanks!