My Dad and I are about 2 months into
our training and besides a few swims, we haven't done any training
together. So we finally coordinated to do our 2.5 hour ride together
on Saturday, February 25th. We both did our own swim
workouts that morning, then met for our ride. Of course it had to be
windier than all heck, which would normally mean riding the second
half of our ride straight into the wind. That makes for an unhappy
Katie. So we found a new route that would take us out to the River Rd
to Meadowview then we'd come back down Franklin Blvd with the wind at
our backs for the last stretch....something to look forward to!
(Remember this face!)
The ride started out great until we
turned West. The next hour and a half were pretty much fighting the
wind and trying to not get blown off our bikes! But we were still
having a pretty good time and keeping an eye out for the town of
Clarksburg where we hoped to make a pit stop for ice cream (which we
never found).
From there, we go on Meadowview which
turned onto Mack. Got a little sketchy in that area...not great
shoulders and not the best roads. I think we were anxious to get to
Franklin Blvd.....maybe too anxious. We were starting to feel the
tailwind and we knew we had less than 10 miles to go til we were
home. I was out in front heading over this little mini-overpass type
of hill. I was cruising until I heard the sound no one wants to
hear....something sliding across asphalt aka bike down. I glance back
to see my dad now on the ground instead of on his bike. I slowed down
as quick as I could, got off, and ran back up the hill.
His face was
gushing blood and he was holding his arms funny so I instantly
thought he broke something. He was sitting up so I took off his
helmet and glasses to find out where he was bleeding from. Luckily,
just the nose. And luckily I brought kleenex! A motorcylclist stopped
and help him get up. Might have been better to leave him on the
ground because after that I couldn't get him to sit still! His nose
stopped bleeding and he quickly assessed that he was pretty much ok!
Hardly any scrapes on his legs and arms. His fingers and his face got
the worst of it. I got on the phone with Dan and told him where to
come pick us up and then we waited.
Apparently he ended up crashing when he
went over a bump and only had one hand on his handlebars because he
was eating a shotblock (gummy type of food to eat during training).
See, the timing of your nutrition is so important! He must have been
in moderate shock because he was happy to smile for the camera and he
still wanted to finish riding home.....uhhhhh not happening. A few
people stopped to see if we needed anything. One woman gave us some
antiseptic wipes and a box of kleenex to clean him up. We were
surprised that so many people stopped for us. We must have been a
sight to see with his jacket covered in blood. All in all, he was
pretty lucky that he crashed where he did and that he crashed right
before a rest week so no major workouts were missed while he was
healing.
Unfortunately, crashes are something we
know can happen everytime we go out for a ride. We just hope that
when it does happen it isn't that bad and that we can still smile!
