As she drove north on Rio Grande, as she approached Matthew and the COOP, she noticed a little boy half in the road, lying on his back with his bike flattened out alongside him. Was he hit by a car? The little boy was not moving. Cece called 911 and reported this and worked to turn her car around given the median in the middle of the road.
Once on the scene she saw the boy move and sit up. She got out of her car and spoke to the boy. He wanted water. Cece only had hot water in her camel back bottle in her car. But, he said he wanted that. It turned out that this was Johnny. He looked about 9 years old, but he was a 17 year old boy with spina bifida. As they waited for the paramedics and his auntie to come, she discovered that he had not eaten and had had nothing to drink as he rode his bike in the 97 degree heat in Albuquerque in the late afternoon sun. His eyes were bleary and not well focused and he poured water over his head. The paramedics arrived and it turned out that he was exhausted and dehydrated and had heat stroke and had collapsed on the road because he just could not go on to get home.
Cece will never forget her ride in the Moab Century Tour last year when it was 96 degrees and there was no more water on the course with 20 miles to go on the ride back in to the finish. It was extremely difficult riding and many went down.
This is a good reminder to ride early in the morning if possible when there is this type of heat...to eat and hydrate well and be prepared with more water than you think you will need.
