Sunday, March 30, 2008

First Crash

I experienced my first bicycle crash last month. Yes, yes, it was last month. I'm playing catch-up here.

It was definitely not a "serious" crash. I was following Kasia much too closely when she stopped unexpectedly. I did a panic stop, followed by a "super man" over the handlebars and a face-plant on the asphalt.

I remember going over the handlebars, but I don't remember unclipping my shoes from the pedals. After fraction of a second on the asphalt, I felt my bike crash into me. At this point, I decided to just lie still until I was absolutely sure the crash was completed.

Pity no one was standing by with a video camera. I would love to see how the accident actually transpired.

The temperature that day was rather cold, so I was bundled in multiple layers -- cycling shorts + rain pants, base layer + jersey + polartec jacket + cycling jacket, and 3 pairs of gloves. The only exposed skin was my wrists, and my right wrist received a tiny bit of road rash. The layers protected me from the asphalt, so I was left mostly with bruises on both knees, both elbows, my left inner thigh, and my sternum (breast bone).

Here's the injury rundown:

Most Painful: The bruised sternum. It was difficult to raise my arms above my head. Even driving was difficult, and washing my hair in the shower was a nightmare. Turning over in bed was also high on the Not Fun list.

Most Inconvenient: The bruised elbows, although this may have helped with my table manners, as it was just too painful to put my elbows on the table.

Most unattractive: The bruised inner thigh. Over the course of several days, this bruise grew to the size of a salad plate and roughly the shape of the continental United States. It featured a lovely mix of hues -- black, blue, purple, green, and pink.

Luckily, I survived with all of my bones, joints, and teeth intact. I will certainly live to bike another day.
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2008 Event Calendar

There are many, many organized rides coming up in the Pacific Northwest. Several web sites contain calendars of events in specific regions:
It looks like "organized ride season" has finished for 2008. I'll eventually create another calendar for next year's organized rides.

Happy Winter riding, everyone!

Past rides from this year, if anyone is interested:

April
May
June
July
August
September
October
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MIA

I haven't posted anything on this blog in roughly... forever. During this off period, Kasia & I got married and bought a house in Woodinville. We also completed our first metric centuries (the 2007 Flying Wheels, also our first organized ride), or first imperial centuries (not organized), and our first double-metric centuries (first day of the 2007 Seattle to Portland).

It's the end of March, and Spring is upon us, although you wouldn't know this by looking outside. Woodinville received about 2" snow last night.

If Spring is here, then Organized Bike Ride Season can't be far behind. Kasia & I are planning to participate in a number of rides this year. See the Event Calendar for upcoming organized rides. No, we're not planning to do all of them.
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