If ever there was a time to concentrate on getting healthy, now is it.
And if past experience is any example, a good ride in a race car may be the answer to our concerns when discussing both emotional and physical challenges.
I learned that about 14 years ago when I suddenly felt ill on a cold and windy day. The problem was that I was scheduled to drive a Legends race car in what could be termed nothing less than a Walter Mitty experience.
The closer I got to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Bullring 3⁄8-mile paved oval, the worse I felt. My entire body ached and I was certain I had a fever exceeding 100 degrees.
I passed several quick care emergency rooms enroute to the track and thought that the best solution was stopping in to get a shot and an assortment of medications. The problem was that I didn’t want to hang around a waiting area for more than an hour for a prognosis that would also prove costly.
So as I got closer to the track, I tried to convince myself that I really didn’t need assistance and that I’d be fine by the time I got to the track. However, by the time I did arrive to suit up and put on a helmet, I was hurting worse than ever. Just to make things interesting, the clouds started to cover the area near LVMS and the winds started to exceed 40 mph.
I was sure I had absolutely lost my mind when I opened the door of the race car and started to strap myself into a Legend car, which is the equivalent to a go-kart with a roll cage and a 5⁄8-scale body resembling an old Chevy or a Ford.
I started the car and was wished well by the crew of folks who owned the car although none of them had the slightest idea that I was hurting badly. Thoughts of me crashing this expensive car crossed my mind as I journeyed out to the track surface.
Mind you, this particular race car didn’t have a windshield; instead, it had a wire net, so the wind blew into the cockpit like Hurricane Katrina did New Orleans. Along with the wind howling I could just imagine my wife screaming at me later as I told her of my latest escapade.
Anyone who knows me realizes that I’m a pedal-tothe-metal kind of guy even when I’m not feeling well. So putting me in any kind of race car at any time of day or night psyches me so much that I instantly become the next best thing since Jeff Gordon.
I accelerated the Legend Car down the back straightaway and just to make things really interesting, I looped the car coming out of the third turn. Then, I repeated my mistake the next time around while thanking anyone who would listen for the fact that I didn’t put the car in the wall.
However, something funny happened en route to Victory Circle in that I suddenly discovered that the fever was gone and I felt like a new man. The runny nose was no longer present and my body didn’t ache.
I got out of the car and immediately called Dr. Dale Carrison, who just happens to be a friend, the track doctor and the head of the trauma unit at University Medical Center.
“Dr. Dale, I just had the wildest thing happen,” I told him. “I got into a race car sicker than all get-out and about ten laps later, I got out feeling just fine. I mean, am I losing my mind or did I find a solution to feeling bad?”
Dr. Dale informed me the drive in the race car actually produced an adrenalin rush that cleared my system of any ills. No medications, no shots and I had the time of my life. I mean, I have been to one of the finest hospitals in the country in Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif., and I found out that a race car could turn me into a well man.
I’ll never forget it — and I continue to understand why I’m an auto racing fan.
Mike Henle is a Las Vegas based freelance writer and the author of “Through the Darkness: One Man’s Fight to Overcome Epilepsy.” He can be contacted via e-mail at mhenle@aol.com or through his Web site www.mikehenle.com.
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