Considering everyone that reads this most likely knows me well enough to know just how accident prone I am this was bound to happen eventually.
So here is how it all happened:
This slew of nice, hot, and humid weather we've been having has been awesome and great training weather for RAGBRAI. So, I like every other Chicagoan wanted to take advantage of it. The evening of May 17th Alexis and I decided to get our bikes geared up and hit the trail. The ride to the trail was surprisingly uneventful and easy, considering riding down Irving Park is not always a walk in the park, particularly on game days. We get to the lakefront path, me leading the way, and sure enough its packed. We decided to head south on the path, weaving our way around runners, walkers, dogs, and those dreaded roller bladers. We were trying to get our pace up a little bit so were not the slowest riders on RAGBRAI. We were making pretty decent time and had just gotten past Belmont Harbor when it all happened. There was a roller blader in front of me that was kindly taking up 75% of the path, and as I was approaching her I kept saying "left, left, left" trying to get her attention, but to no avail. My only option was to speed up even more and quickly pass her in the oncoming lane before the bikes coming towards me caught up. I started pedaling hard and turning my bike when I completely lost control, I couldn't figure out what was happening and quickly realized I couldn't stop, my only option run myself into a tree and that's exactly what I did, I went front end first into a tree. After coming to a VERY abrupt stop I hopped off my bike in complete shock and embarrassment. Alexis came flying up to me, and everyone in the surrounding area stopped to make sure I was ok, and a guy handed me my pedal, yes my pedal.
After calming down some, and having a little cry (mostly as a result of the shock)I pulled myself together and figured out what happened. The way it happened was a perfect storm of events, as I was speeding up to pass the roller blader I jerked my front end to the side to turn and pushed down extra hard on my left pedal, this caused my pedal to fall off which is when I lost control, as I was careening out of control my chain came off, and a little icing on the cake a stick flew up into my brakes and that is why I couldn't stop. Through out this my leg must have gotten mangled in my bike though I honestly don't know exactly how that happened, all I know is I looked down my thigh was bleeding and I had an instant bruise that I could tell was going to be a doozy. Alexis thanks to her soft cloth helped me clean up my legs and then got to work trying to figure out if we could repair my bike enough to ride home. I sort of just stood their awkwardly, holding the cloth to my cut, still crying a little, and becoming more and more aware of everyone riding by watching us.
Alexis worked hard to get my pedal back on but quickly realized it wasn't going to happen without a wrench, which we didn't have with us. My cousin Jen came to the rescue and she met us with a wrench, but that was a no go my pedal was not going back onto my bike luckily though she has a large SUV so it fit nicely in the back. As I hopped into the car to get a ride home I sat down and instant pain. I think this was when my body finally was fully out of shock and I could feel the extent of everything. More and more bruises were appearing by the minute but the worst of the pain was in my tail bone, that was what took the full force of me running into the tree full speed. By the time I was home I could barely walk and I couldn't sit down at all.
I'm sure you're all wonder yea yea yea, but what about your bike?! Well, Jen was nice enough to keep my bike overnight and then drive us to REI to have them take a look at it. They were able to get my pedal back in and fix the other, I guess it was only a matter of time till I lost the other. I'm sure you're also wondering "who put you're bike pedals on, its time to sue!" Well calm down, because I put my pedals on (oops) and rethreaded them in the process (double oops), so now if I ever need to get new pedals or take them off I may have to completely replace the crankshafts, which are expensive, like it would cost more than my bike to replace both. So here's to hoping I never have to replace them! And pat on the back me for being awesome and messing up my bike. All in all though it only cost $15 to fix, I jarred the front fork lose hitting the tree at such force but they were able to tighten it, and they had to true the tires but that was it. Phew!
Now its a week and a half later, my tail bone still hurts a lot, but my bruises are healing rapidly and I'm able to wear pants again. Mostly now its just mental healing which will take some time but I'll get my confidence back, accidents happen and this may not be the last one for me. I know I'm lucky it happened on the path and not in traffic, and I know I'm especially lucky Alexis was right there. It's great to have riding partners!
