Kelly Walker
Crawlin 15.2
Rich Walker
For this column I have a truly amazing and inspirational story for you guys. It is in a way quite sad, but if you can get through that, you will see what some people are willing to do to accomplish a goal, no matter what is in their way.
Before I get into that, I just have to report that I had a chance to chat with Glenn Bonner at KOH. We talked about the upcoming rock crawling competition series Cal-Neva Extreme that he owns and runs. He was a little apprehensive when he divulged that he would not be running a series for 2013. He may attempt an event or two at Donner Ski Ranch (in California), but he feels he needs to take a break. Many thanks to Glenn and his entire staff for everything they have done for the sport in the past and we hope they will be back at it in full force soon.
Now, one of the most inspirational, yet emotional stories to come out of KOH this year comes from a gentleman named, Eddie Peterson. On July 25th, 2012, Eddie was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer that had metastasized to his stomach, liver, spleen, and lungs. In Eddie’s own words, his life was perfect and at 41 years old he had everything to live for and nothing to die for. After many tests and consultations, the prognosis was the same; he had one year to live.
After receiving this devastating news, Eddie decided that racing in the King of the Hammers was one of the things he absolutely had to do. He proceeded to sell all of his 4x4 related stuff (including the buggy he was currently building) so that he could buy an already built and race-ready buggy. He ended up with Gary Ferravanti Jr.’s buggy and after Gary informed Dave Cole (Hammerking owner and race promoter) about the situation, Dave gave Eddie a spot in the race no questions asked.
Once Eddie knew he had a spot in the race panic started to set in. How would he be able to afford it all, get the countless hours of preparation done, while still maintaining his Chemotherapy and other treatments (take a minute to think about that). Luckily Eddie has amazing friends and family. From yard sales, to T-shirt fundraisers, to party poker tournaments, everyone worked hard at raising money to make sure Eddie would be able to race.
Fast forward to race day. Everything fell into place and Eddie and his wife (did I mention that Eddie’s wife was his co-driver for the race!) were lined up ready for the green flag. For the play by play of the race, I will use Eddie’s words from his post on Pirate4x4 as there is no way I could even try to re-write it.
“Race day was crazy, long, cold, frustrating, and challenging, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it!
As we are sitting at the start line my wife accidentally hit the wrong button on the GPS, and all her information went out. For the first lap and a half we did not have great GPS and we had to also rely on a paper map. At the start of the race my wife’s window net comes unlatched. So, now we have the helicopter following us, yelling to clip the window net. At around race mile 12 we started having fuel issues. There were some times were we couldn’t go faster than 10 mph in the open desert. We finally got it fixed at remote pit 2 after driving about 79 miles. After the fuel issue got fixed we were excited and happy to be moving faster until we got a flat tire. Actually not just a flat tire, we were driving on the rim for 13 miles. Again we were going slow! Since we didn’t have all four tires we had to winch up the rocky, sandy section at RM 49 and our winch motor gave out. Now what? How are we going to make it up backdoor? The whole plan was to winch up it! We get the tire fixed at main pit and here we go again. Never having went up or attempted to drive up backdoor in the new buggy I was really nervous but I had no choice. I kept thinking about all the people that were pulling for us and I couldn’t let them down. They gave me the motivation to keep pushing. After making it up Back Door a new surge of excitement came over us and thinking we can still finish on time! So we kept moving along. We make it to the entrance of wrecking ball and we broke the heim joint on the lower link.
It took us a while to get moving again and not realizing how much more we still had to drive, I still had hopes of making it thru the finish line on time. My wife knew how long we had to go but she did not tell me until after it was 10pm and then she told me to keep the car together and that all we could do now was finish the race. We got lost a couple of times we were freezing, and tired. My wife did not go pee the entire 15 hour race! Finally, we saw the finish line! This was a GREAT MOMENT! I was really taken aback at how many people were freezing their butts waiting for us at the finish line. That is a sight that I will never forget. We couldn’t hold our emotions anymore and as soon as we got into our friends truck to go back to camp my wife and I broke down. There were so many emotions flowing, especially proud to have finished. We have never participated in any other races before and to have finished a race as hard as this one was incredible. Thanks Dave Cole and all the crew that was covering the event. Thanks to them, our friends and family that were able to watch us cross the finish line from home.”
Having been there for the race and seeing this story unfold was very surreal. I can’t even begin to describe the feelings and emotions at the finish line when they came across. The cheering, crying, hugging and celebrating was nothing short of amazing. It brought everyone there a few steps closer and even though Eddie’s battle isn’t over, he left his mark on over 30,000 people that day.
Stay safe and see you on the trails!