Any Other Sunday

The day before.  

We woke up Sunday morning April 15, my 2 year ‘cancerversary’.  It was just like any other Sunday.  G and I ate our breakfast and gathered our things together to get to the trailhead.  It was a gorgeous morning and we were meeting our friend Tony at Blue Mountain.  He was only down from Vermont for the day so we decided to change plans last minute.  Our original plan was to ride the road bikes since we had been going pretty hard on the dirt lately.   I was sort of tired but really happy to be meeting up with Tony and a couple other friends that I have not ridden with in a long while.   It helped to put a bit of extra something in my legs. 

Totally focused- Sunday's ride before...

We decided to start off the ride doing the chainstretcher race course loop.  I was feeling pretty ‘on’ with my technical skills that morning and felt surprisingly strong.  We were going at a pretty nice clip when about 3.5 miles into the loop it happened…That quick lack of judgment or bad line choice that changes everything. 

I went over the bars and rolled down a ledge only to land on my head and my right hand.  It sounds a lot more dramatic when I write it out but it was a pretty good crash.  Nobody even saw me.  Most of the guys were ahead of me and G and Tony were behind me a bit. By the time they rolled up on me, I was trying to climb out of the pile of rocks and leaves.  This is a known spot for crashes and is one that I usually take a bit more cautiously. 

I have been pretty lucky with most of my crashes in the past and have been able to at least ride out of the woods.   I had no choice this time.  I could not hold the handle bars, was pretty dizzy and in quite a bit of pain from my hand that I thought it could be broken. 

To be on the safe side, we took a trip to the ER to get an x-ray.  Thankfully, it is not broken.  They gave me a splint to help keep it stable and sent me home to elevate and ice.  I would have updated sooner but it has not been so easy to type.  It still hurts but it is so much better than I thought it was going to feel.  The swelling is coming down a lot and my whole palm and wrist is turning deep shades of purple.  I think it is healing!

This is a minor setback in the grand scheme of things and I remind myself that it can always be worse. 

I am unsure if I will be able to race this Sunday at the Chainstretcher but only time will tell.  It all depends on if I can hold onto the handle bars or not.    

I am off the bike until further notice.  

  

This was not how I had planned to spend my day celebrating or starting my racing season but that is how life works.  This could have happened on any other Sunday.  It is mountain biking after all and I would not change a thing except maybe I would have taken a better line.

It is time for those super hero healing powers to kick in anytime now.

S.M.