Paying My Dues In The Mountain Biking Club

I should be paid in full for at least a few years, I’m hoping.

On Sunday afternoon, I was trying to decide between taking a nap and going for a quick mountain bike ride. I reminded myself that I usually regret taking naps, because I can’t sleep very well that night, but I never regret a great workout. So I gathered my gear and hit the trail. I was about two and a half miles in and feeling really strong. I came through a wash crossing and started climbing up a hill that I’ve made it up before. (I’ve also failed to make it up the hill before many times, but I’ve always been able to get off the bike easily enough and walk it to the top.)

Well something went wrong this time, and despite reliving the moment in the slow-motion instant replay of my mind dozens of times since, I can’t quite put my finger on the exact thing that went wrong this time. I started to lose my momentum about ¾ of the way out of the climb. As I tried to get one more revolution out of my pedals though, I lost my balance and toppled over to the left. Luckily, there was a nice cholla cactus to break my fall. If that had been all that happened, I would have dusted off, got back on my bike, and finished the last five miles of my ride. Unfortunately though, as I went down, my right leg fell onto the large front chain wheel.

You know…the big round thing with lots of pokey spikes all around it? Yeah, it pretty much drilled into my leg, right below the knee. I caught one brief glimpse of the torn flesh and exposed fat and knew I’d need stitches. Luckily, it wasn’t bleeding too fast, and it wasn’t on a part of my body where I had to look at it very much. I was able to avert my eyes, stay calm, assess my situation, and then call Joel. I always ride with my phone, and I was so thankful that Joel was in an area of the house where he actually heard his ring. I told him I’d wrecked and I was hurt pretty bad and would probably need to get stitches. I asked him if he’d drive to the trailhead to meet me in a few minutes. Once I knew he was on his way to save me, that helped me relax a bit. But I knew I still had a two mile ride to meet him. So I removed the larger chunks of cholla, picked up my bike, and got back in the saddle. Thank goodness it was a downhill ride back! I had a couple of spots to pedal through, but for the majority of the ride I was able to coast, which was way easier than walking would have been.

As I rode up to Joel, I’m sure he was thinking I was a big wuss, since my wound was on the back of my leg and he couldn’t see it. But as soon as I passed him and he saw it, I could hear him groan. He said “I’m going to have to take you to the hospital. You know that, right?” Yeah, I knew it.

So we loaded up the kids, called my dad, and I started searching on my phone to make sure the hospital we were headed to accepted our insurance. Joel was very calming, and I have to say, I was very brave. I was chatting with the PA while she was taking my medical history. When I told her I only had one kidney, she asked if I had any restrictions because of the donation. Joel told her I only had to avoid activities that might damage my remaining kidney. She kind of raised one eyebrow and asked “You mean, like mountain biking?” Well, to be perfectly fair, I only damaged my leg. My kidney was perfectly safe. And it would be at a much greater risk of damage from diabetes. So I told her I was really doing it a favor!

She took great care of me and had me fixed up in no time. It’s still pretty sore, but I think it is getting better. It is only really painful when I straighten my leg and the tension stretches the skin around my stitches. The worst part is that I’m basically restricted from any cardio for the next 10 days or so. And this sucks big time. I really feel like I was on the way to busting through a new plateau with my running, and now I feel like I’ll be starting way back at square one. I know I’ll bounce back quicker than I’m dreading, but it is so disappointing to think about losing the fitness that I worked SO damn hard to gain.

As you can see though, it gets a little bit better each day. Hopefully I’ll be back in the saddle in no time!