6 posts tagged “crash”
so many of you know that my thirtieth trip around the sun started with a bang crash boom crunch. The following are excerpts of what I've been up to, the story of the crash, the hospital, the surgery, the recovery. Sit back and enjoy.
You broke your what? Part I
So I was dressed up in my coconut bra and ugly little skirt over my kit on Saturday morning, September 20th. I did all the usual stuff, rode to DFL race in Golden Gate Park – paid my $5 to race, pinned Anthony and he pinned me. Off to reconnoiter the course. All was fine n peaceful and as I made my right turn from grass to pavement, I was feeling good… till the guy in front of me swerved quickly around a fire hydrant that I frankly did not see… I had one of those woah woah woah… almost cleared the hydrant. So close in fact that I was very surprised to be hurtling over my handlebars onto the ground. I brought my arms up to hug myself and protect my innards and head, and landed with a crack/crunch and a *&%$ as I rolled onto my now flattened left elbow. It’s done broke.
Many expletives later, I rolled to a sitting position and firmly asked (once I stopped swearing) Anthony to find my teammates (anybody wearing yellow) and then go get the car, we have to go to the hospital. My entire forearm and hand were turning numb. Just like that. I’ve been through several handfuls of first aid and cpr classes… thank goodness I knew how to direct people. (Flashbacks of the YMCA first aid class, shouting and pointing "you call 9-1-1" , "you, call ems", "you get the AED" were running through my head) What I knew was that I had broken my arm, but I didn’t know where or how bad. And I was NOT prepared for the hand/arm to go completely numb. In fact I was quite scared. What if I’m bleeding inside? Do I need to raise my arm? As these thoughts are cascading through my brain simultaneously, I also knew that I was settling into shock. Any moment in fact. In an effort to lay down and keep my arm above my heart, I jostled the bones and felt the most intense piercing pain I’ve ever experienced.
While Anthony was off and cycling hard to get the golden chariot and my wallet and some clothes, it began to rain. My teammates, Paule and Julie were doing their best to stay warm and keep me warm. They kept me talking and scrounged up some ibuprofen for me to ward off some swelling. It was the best. Paule even fashioned a small sling from a leg of his pantyhose, awww Paule thanks....
First off - race organizers put on a fabulous race.. thanks guys! Williams wheels - big thanks to you for the neutral wheel support!!!!!!!!!!! Props!
EBC stands for east bay crashfest! Wom 3/4 (race together, score separate) - full of sketch riders that cant take bot dots or lean into each other, which is how I ended up hitting the pavement on the SECOND lap. but first: teammates - lots of them! Mo, Ashley, Bergen, Kate, Cathy. Course: flat, fast, great pavement, short. just like merco. also a crashfest.
My goal - points - just needed 2 to upgrade. Team goal - Get 2 lady mice on the podium. I wanted to lead Bergen out. Ideas: Find each other in the pack with 5 to go - and start ramping up the pace to string out the pack and see what we can do.
So - lap 2, one girl hit a bot dot or a bump, over reacted - leaned into Alice from Metromint - they were directly in front of me. I see this happen in slo-mo - and think "dont go down, dont crash, dont crash, dont crash" and.... they crashed - hard. Alice ended up shattering her elbow and may have fractured her cheekbone. She will need surgery to keep her elbow in place to heal. As this happened directly in front of me as we're going 20+mph, I slammed on my new emergency braking skills - slowed way down but had to either bunny hop a bike/person or go down to the right... so from what i remember, I braked and fell over. i have 5 giant bruises. I did happen to think "dont put your hand out" as the ground rushed to meet me. I gathered my arms close to me and rolled - landing mostly on my right hip and forearm and shoulder - and saw my bike skid across the road. Popped up quick, looked around, grabbed my bike and started to get back on - when people yelled at me to go to the pit (Anthony? nole? other teammates... it's all a blur). I ran into the pit - they changed my wheel - it was a bit bent... got me back in the race - unfortunately it took me an entire lap to get back to the pit - so they gave me 2 free laps... which i guess is a no no... anyway, i was bleeding and wanting to get back on so the official allowed it.
Off I chased back onto the pack and got in the field. now i had a chance to think about what happened. i was a bit scared so i got up front and did what i could to stay there - i did NOT want to go down or get near sketch girls again.
fast forward to 5 to go - we found each other - and were getting squeezed back by the dolce train and the code 3 train and the mintys. I said somethign to bergen and kate and i went left, they went right and we 3 went outside, regrouped and hit the gas... we maintained position going into the last 2 laps - pace ramped up big beginning the last lap where I heard the worst CRACK SNAP ever in a race. another crash - we kept going - didnt receive any news about neutralizing - kept our eyes open - and because I had let last weeks race go by me at the end - i wasnt going to let that happen again. So I worked hard to maintain position out of the second corner - into the 3rd corner... and finally sprinted it out - Bergen did well - i thought she was on my wheel for awhile but she swung out by the last straigtaway and left - i saw her charging - it was awesome. I put on my best sprint - outsprinting one or two gals for 5th or so (in the field - but i got 4th in the 4s).
Overall the race was scary - i didnt work that hard - but just as well. flat fast courses are scary unless the pace is so fast that the pack cant get together...
Here comes the scary part: i traipsed over to the pit to get my bent wheel and give back the loaner. The guy in the pit took the loaner - and my right side of the fork came off with it. a clean fucking break. I about passed out from shaking and scared of 'what if....?". Somewhere, my guardian angel (turns out the whole team had a bad ass cardre of Guardian Angels looking out for us this weekend) was working extreme overtime. The only thing keeping me together was the tension of the skewer holding the fork taught, and my body weight holding it down.
I am happy i still have my face.
double happy I have my upgrade points.
...the worst oil spill in the bay in like forever. Here's the thing - it's bunker fuel... extremely toxic, volatile, totally combustible. so we cant clean it like you would normal crude oil... it is despicable, and the most heartbreakingly sad thing I have personally witnessed. I wont be swimming in the SF Bay for a long long time. Estimates say minimum 6 months - but realistically more than a year or so. no surfing, swimming, nothing. And agencies aren't letting us volunteer to help save animals or clean up either. probably because they dont know how to clean up such a toxic mess. there's not enough hazmat suits to go around? the real crime is that the coast guard did not tell the surrounding communities until almost 24 hours AFTER the accident just how much was spilled. initial estimates said somewhere around 150 gallons. so everyone was really lax. but it's nearly 60,000 gallons of fuel spilled. That's exactly 1/2 the volume of the YMCA swimming pool (imagine a 25 meter X 11 meter swimming pool) is pure bunker fuel. it's so toxic that to breathe it causes major health problems. let alone to touch it.
you can read about the whole depressing thing right here at the Chronicle. Where they talk about how significant the impact will be on all the recently arrived migrating birds, like the surf scoter.
"This is where the surf scoter, the western grebe and other birds feed and spend their winters," Holcomb said. "A lot of these birds just arrived. We think there is going to be a significant impact."
Please, everyone, have a better day. Let's see some sunshine out there.
Last night, hot tubbing was my magic pill.
Today I am close to being better and am no longer feeling like a bruise.
Now I can attack that every growing pile of laundry while you (the audience) admire some fall foliage from New England (pictured left). Or contemplate the insanity that is wreaking havoc in Pakistan. It petrifies me that power corrupts the human mind as it does.
Yesterday I had to call in sick. I was too sore to breathe, cough, sleep, or move. So I just slept and watched two great movies. "the 40 year old virgin" and "Knocked up". Both movies feature most of the cast of "freaks n geeks" - remember that show? The kids are all grown up and still hilarious. Makes me proud of them :) Way to go FNG kids. But then the real damages started: I got sucked into the Bravo show: The real housewives of Orange County. The following is an excerpt from my conversation with my sister, whom I called while watching this gross-ness.
me: "OMG, these two high school girls just went 'back to school' shopping and dropped TWENTYFOURHUNDRED dollars on ugly lame clothes"
sister: "OMG, in ONE store? where were they?"
me: I dunno, some ugly store called Rachels Boutique. Unbelieveable! I could buy a car for what they spent in 2 hours! I need to take a shower, I feel gross for watching.
of course I didnt shower then - i could hardly move!
Thanks J for bringing me food. It was delicious... I was in bed by 8 and asleep by 9.... ahhhhh thanks for tylenol + codeine. I slept like the shaken baby I was for the past 2 days.
Today: back to work.
3 is a lucky number. that must be why the third cx race in the BASPS series was so stinkin crazy, hard, fun. To quote a teammate: "it was uphill, bumpy, and twisty, and downhill bumpy and twisty. That about sums it up.
the preride on Saturday was really really great - mentally IN THE GAME. Mo and I and a bunch of teammates were out in force on Saturday. Sunday morning I arrived early enough to pre-ride twice. There's something so satisfying about knowing the course before race day. Probably because I"m over the disbelief of the course by then, and revel in the mental advantage that I have, because nothing is surprising!
Well, fastfoward to the race... I got the hole shot - raced up that dang runup of terror, smiled at B (my feed guy - thanks B - wish i could've taken a feed!) and went to "put the hurt on" - unfortunately i had to run the berm because i was not in first - so i made a MESS of that corner... but took props from D hopped on her wheel and away we went... woohoo - the yellow train out front :)
well as luck would have it, i went around her at the run up - and she hopped on my wheel! i got a bit ahead after that downhill - and because i was a bit ahead, i thought "yes - go ahead and ride that corner, you did it twice yesterday" - ah while i did have the mental toughness of 'yesterday' i failed to realize HOW MUCH that corner had changed in one day - so that was my big BEGINNER mistake and real lesson of the day. things change.
So - my bike hit something (stump?rock?root) and whatever it was, the bike STOPPED - and my momentum carried my sternum into my headset/handlebars - and then i was on my way to the ground - and POOOOOFFFFTHUD - that was all the air exiting all cells in mylungs.... ever get the wind knocked out of you while your heart rate was redlined? i dont suggest it - it's a serious form of real torture. i thought i might die. or pass out. actually i was hoping I'd pass out, at least i'd stop the pain. searing rib/arm/shoulder/thudding stomach pain.
I'm sorry to all the ladies that might've been really scared at coming across this carcass in the middle of the course :) i couldnt say or do anything but moan. but everyone raced strong and did me proud. While my entire right side, from my neck to my knees is throbbing today - my pride hurts the worst because it was my first DNF.
But hey, you win some, you lose some, and sometimes you're that smooshed bug on the windshield...
the rest of my report is as follows:
things that are cool: the meece team still OWNS the women's C leaders jersey (though i couldnt manage to keep the rubber side down). way to gooooooo, meece! props to everyone out there it was a tough scary fun course...
cool: - the start and the first barrier/run up, only Altezza gal passed me and i could hear D close behind...
Things that sucked - that run up! whew a lungbuster (i'd like to say that the day after is more of a lungbuster...in hindsight)
Good: D passing me while running (and i was riding) up that little killer non-hill after the log - i ran it the second time
bad: when I decided to try and 'ride' that super loose corner by the tree.
Sucked: when i ate shit and endo'd by said corner and tree - and knocked the wind out of myself and could not do or say anything but MOAN and roll around like a shaken baby.
Good: i made D ride FASTER (says D) because she wanted to get someone to help me.
Bad: not being able to say "go ladies-i'm fine" because i couldnt say or do ANYTHING whilst rolling on said dirt with bike in the middle of the race..
Good: the two wonderful samaritans that found me and helped me up and walked back to the mouse tent.
Good: all in all, i have no broken bones and i should be ready to race next week.
Good: larry's max strength ibuprofen
Also good: brooke's IPA
Also good: that sweet photo of T in that cyclocross magazine - where do i find one for you to autograph T?
Thanks everyone for yet another stellar crazy race day.
