Saturday, May 2, 2009

Crash, break, rip and stitch - Get back up again:)

Well, after 7 years plus of riding I have to say that I have been quite fortunate not to have experienced any serious mishaps on my bike or falls from running for that matter. On Saturday April 18th @11.30 a.m. that streak came to an unfortunate end. I was riding down the escarpment-the best part of the whole day as it is fast and fun. Cars often track my speed and tell me at the bottom of the mountain how fast I was going. Quite the rush!

Well, after almost 3 hours in the bl@#&*$ing wind - 3 km from home and 80km of riding I was certainly feeling the fatigue of the day. The biggest question on my mind was should I go down Dewitt or down New Moutain Rd. Well looks like I picked the wrong route. I got to the bottom of the sweet ride down and decided I was too impatient to wait for the light to turn so I opted for a short cut across the Shell station parking lot. Remember "Short cuts COST". Normally, I should be able to negotiate a simple "climb" -lol over the curb. Not this time. I went to the crime seen last night to try to understand exactly what could/did happen. I had to laugh at myself as any moron should have been able to negotiate the driveway. Looks like I need to spend sometime working on my bike handling skills. Perhaps the ice rink parking lot would be a good place to start, kind of like when I started to learn how to drive a car. My father figured I couldn't hurt too many people that way.

It all happened so fast, one minute I made the decision to take the short cut, the next few minutes I woke up, on the ground surrounded by strangers. My first thought was will I be able to get up and make it the rest of the way home. It was my mother's birthday and I hadn't wished her a happy birthday. Then the reality set in. A gentleman was compressing my head with towels as I was bleeding, my right arm was sore and someone was calling out "why isn't the ambulance here"? My next instinct was to turn off my Garmin so that I made sure I could get somewhat accurate stats from my ride. The next was to pull my cell phone out of my pocket to phone home and see if Tony had left for his 4 hour ride. Well he had, so I left him a message "i am ok, crashed by bike and off to the hospital in an ambulance).

Long story short, short of a messed up face with a bunch of stitches, a broken radial neck in my right arm (they don't cast these things you know-which is great) and a broken helmet (one bump rule!) oh and I mild concusion, I am happy to be alive. It was Wednesday before I could see the surgeon. I had 5 minutes to ask all my questions. Most importantly "can I run? can I ride? Is pain my guide?" He looked at me like I had three heads. The answer was "yes, pain is your guide. No, you can't ride your bike - oh inside you say. Yes, was the final answer!" I left the surgeons office with a new found happiness. Yes, of course I was saddled up the next day on my bike and put in a 30km ride. I elevated the bike on the riser so not to put too much pressure on my forearm. The following day I booked a 10km run. The biggest challenge is not being able to use my right arm very well. Yes, going to the washroom and cutting up my food are the biggest challenges. I am MILKING it for whatever it it worth. My daughter makes a great helper!

Oh - JP, my bike is fine - just needs some new bar end tape.

Got to go. Have a 20 km run to put in today. See you on the road and at the races....

Happy, Healthy training

Lucy

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