The stupid rider who blindsided me going the WRONG way up a race trail had the nuts to ask me,
"Where's your helmet?"
as I lay crumpled in the gravel.
I couldn't rise to my feet fast enough to punch him in the face. In fact, rising to my feet was quite a task in itself, and I had to limp around a bit leaning on the bike before I felt brave enough to ride again.
The funnest part about crashing on a bike is not knowing EXACTLY what you've injured for a few minutes. You usually spot some blood on your hand or maybe something is in your eye (a skin avulsion) and you have to do a body/bike check before moving on. This time, I was lucky. I narrowly avoided tearing my face off in the bark of a small oak, but ripped up my right knee and right forearm on some ugly rocks.
As I half stumbled/half rode away, the rider managed to come back around and almost knock me over again!
I made some comment about, "I keep running into you" but was in too much pain to do anything but keep moving forward. I don't know what the dude's problem was, but I managed to run into him AGAIN as I crested a small hill to allow my blood to cool off in the stiff Southern wind. At this point, I sank into Delta Wave mode and just watched as he went by - ready to tear something off him (like an eye or nose) if he got too close.
Adding to the joy was a 4 mile ride home, with some ugly black abrasions down my knee reminding me that I was hurt and needed to do some wound management. As I swept into my neighborhood roads, I was almost hit from behind by a woman driving a small Hyundai.
*sigh*
The pain set in as I rode into my garage and managed to clean up the bike of dirt and blood for a few minutes with an old t-shirt. Spent some time scrubbing off my arm and leg wounds with isopropyl alcohol and soap. The word "burn" does not sufficiently express the pain I felt while doing this.
Anyway, nothing a rum and Advil cocktail can't fix.
: )
2 comments:
Have you ever thought of taking up Scrabble, H.?
I've ridden the race trails since they were first created (about 15 years ago) and was always curious as to when I would hit someone going the wrong way.
It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't "powered into" the second set of hills, which put me face-to-face with Mr. Clueless while in mid-air.
Need to run now. My left index finger is apparently jammed as well and typing is not easy.
Thanks for the comment!
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