“Unveiling Secrets: How Jess Phoenix’s ‘The Race’ Transforms the Meaning of Survival in an Unforgiving World”
“Erik!”
Nothing.
“George!”
Nada.
The black horse, my partner for this leg of the race, nicknamed Anthracite after coal that is almost pure carbon, headbutted me and tried snatching the reins from my hand. We’d had a difficult twenty-six miles together. Mounting him had required four Mongolian herders to wrestle him into a frantic, zigzagging, semi-controlled sideways sashay so I could fling myself aboard. During this race leg, we had to chase Erik’s horse after it flipped ass-over-front upon stepping in a gopher hole at a full gallop. Erik is a true equestrian ninja and managed to launch himself to safety, but George and I spent half an hour catching his offended horse. By the time Anthracite started tug-of-war in the burgeoning dark, I was at the limit of my ability to be polite to anyone, horse or human.
