Livin' In The Dash

That seemed to be the most appropriate title for this... My heart wouldn't let me go with the other contenders...

Even the Pros Crash

It Was an Accident

Skin In The Game (bad... I know)

Face Value (sorry - another bad one)

By now you the reader has figured out I crashed. Indeed. Saturday I did a century on Skyline. It was beautiful and I had a really good time. The worst part was a saddle sore. The best part was completing a century in pretty decent weather.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Sunday... well, the result was quite different. I planned to do part of the Civil War Century route that would amount to close to 80 miles. I got a late start and it was hot as hell. At 30 or so miles and 3 hours in I started praying for God to provide a water source (I swear).

Literally a few minutes later I was flying down a hill at 32 miles per hour and hit a rough patch of road. I remember pulling the breaks slightly because of the conditions and the next thing I knew I hit something *hard*. The front wheel took a sharp turn to the left beneath me and I went sailing over the bar. My next conscious thought was, "Oh shit." I felt my helmet hit, then my face, then my chest.

Honestly, the next thing I remember is being on the opposite side of the road in a seated position, with my knees near my chest with the complete inability to breathe. All I could think was "Inhale - if you don't breath you are going to die - breathe!" Every muscle felt like it was constricted and my chest muscles didn't feel as if they would let me expand enough to inhale. As I concentrated on each in-breath, they started to get longer and longer until my entire body could relax.

After what felt like an hour I got up and surveyed the scene. My Camelbak, iPod, headphones and bike were littered about. Oddly - everything but the Shuffle was in the ditch with me. The Pod was in the middle of the street. By that point I realized there was blood everywhere (yes, it took that long). So I dug out my phone and froze. I didn't know what to do. I would now like to thank cost-cutting measures and the healthcare system as I didn't know if what was going on was a "real emergency." I distinctly remembered that if it was deemed to not be a "real emergency" I would have to pay some ridiculous amount of money. There were also my issues of not wanting to make a big deal of this mixed in there somewhere...

So - I phoned a friend. (For what it's worth,this was an actual emergency.)

To make a long story short (which I rarely do) I'm pretty ok. I am bumped and bruised from head to toe. I have road rash on my face, hands, arms, chest, right shoulder and a$$. To date, everything that had a decent amount of contact with the road but not soaked in Betadine is infected. I have several stitches in my right elbow and it takes some conscious thought to move that arm. My left distal fibula has something odd going on and the jury is still out as to the issue. Every doctor I see wants more imaging because they can't believe I didn't break something. I downloaded the Garmin data and from what I can tell I was going about 32 - give or take 2mph - when I hit the road. Given that, I don't blame them for being thorough.

So why do I think I am the luckiest girl alive? There was a plan that day - and I wasn't in charge... So many people have said, "if anyone doubts there is a God - they just need to listen to this story." There were too many variables. Too many things that were just crazy coincidences. I left late which allowed Emily time to get her errands run which made her available to come get me. Something made her fill up her tank so she didn't have to stop. There wasn't a car behind me, or coming the other direction. My helmet stayed on. I'll state the obvious: I'm alive. This guy named Ryan stopped and gave me some rags for my face. He also gave me cross roads so Emily and the kids could come find me. Others stopped and asked if I needed help. Most of them parent-types... some were teenagers. Later that night my friend took her phone upstairs which she never does... and she was able to go get my dog. The list of people that are doing for me what I can't do for myself right now is endless. I've always known people love me. I've always known I have a God that loves me. For me, this was just proof - proof I didn't need... but proof nonetheless.

I do want to provide a couple of accident pics... if you are sensitive, don't scroll through.