Sunday, August 17, 2008

WELL, DANG.....










The stars are just plain aligned against me, I'll tell you what.

Now I've crashed my bike. Set out to do 10 miles, slipped on a railroad track. I barely had time to yelp before I heard this tremendous THWACK as my helmet hit the pavement and something skittering across the road (turned out to be my helmet mirror, yes, I wear a hokey helmet mirror.) I picked myself out from under my bike and off the road and ascertained that other than road rash on my shoulder and a little ache on the side of my head, and some aching/stinging on my thigh, I was OK. But my gear hanger was bent in between my spokes making the bike unrideable.

My husband came and got me, I washed the chain grease off my thighs and changed my clothes. The stinging ache under the leg of my bike shorts turned out to be a 5-inch diameter patch of road rash.

My ailing tendons escaped. No further damage there.

I took my bike in to the shop. The mechanic thinks he can straighten the hanger; if not, it'll only cost about $25 -- my Shimano Ultegra derailleur isn't damaged.

I'll need a new helmet; it has 4 dents in it. I'm glad I was wearing a helmet. I'm glad a car wasn't coming. I'm glad a train wasn't coming.

I've ridden across those and dozens of other tracks hundreds of times and never slipped. I still don't know what happened.

Oh, well. I'm OK, the bike can be fixed, and a helmet is easily replaced. But I hurt. My whole arm aches and my road rash burns. Could've been worse.

8 comments:

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Wow. I guess the universe is testing your determination. Still, we can all do without those kinds of tests, already. The universe should learn to take some things at our word.

Losing Weight: said...

Ahh, sorry to hear about your fall but glad you weren't seriously injured. I have only fallen once and like you, I slipped, but for me it was gravel.

Candee

ShirleyPerly said...

Oh my!! Your the second person I've read about slipping on railroad tracks recently. Thank goodness both of you were wearing helmets and escaped with nothing broken. The other person doesn't know what caused the fall either (she was in a race).

Vickie said...

Glad you or your bike weren't seriously hurt! But beware of hidden aches and pains that may surface later. I have had some close moments slipping on things I have rode over dozens of times. You just can't explain how you lose it sometimes. Even the lines in the road get slippery when wet, so you have to be careful there too.

Jeff said...

Glad you had your helmet on! Hope you're able to get back on the roads soon.

UltraMamaC said...

just checking in on you -- hadn't heard from a while. didn't know if you were started to head out to a different campsite this time of the year, or if that's not for a while yet.

hope your stars have been jolted back into position!!

Dee said...

Well, have you totally given up on posting on your blog. I need some encouragement and motivation. Get back to posting.

Usman Pasha Siddiqui said...

Hope you didn't hurt yourself too bad. Keep at it though :)

Usman
http://burnfatnbuildmuscle.blogspot.com