The Big Ouchy

Hooo-ie! Have I got a story to tell you. I took a fall. A hard one. And it was bad enough that I'm not disappointed that I'm out of biking for a little while. Yeah - it was that bad.

There was a race. At Sundance. And I just got a new rear cassette on my bike to make the gears a little more beginner-friendly (aka easier). And there is a big incline (big to beginners) on the course. I've always had to walk it before. But this time I was determined. I was determined to make it up that incline. This time I was also running on 5 hours of sleep. And a spin class in the morning where I already felt the effects of little sleep and a toll on my legs.

I was 2/3 the way up this incline!! I was SO ALMOST THERE!!!! And I was only 1 or 2 miles into the 6-mile race. All of a sudden, I spun out.... I was pedaling like a mad-woman.... but going no where. The incline is on the side of a steep mountain-side. I didn't get clipped out before I started to fall .... and fall down the down-hill side of the steep mountain-side.

After that I did what my body normally does when I'm seeing myself getting hurt. My vision went black... I went limp.... and I don't remember exactly what happened. All I know is I slid down the mountain for 10 or 15 feet and a tree stopped me... I stopped myself with my head - thank goodness for helmets. I had stopped thank goodness. And so I started to get up and drag my bike out of the branches it was stuck in. But then I started to slide down the mountain again so I had to stand against the tree. At that time, the woman that was ahead of me came running back down the trail to see if I was okay. As far as I could tell at the time, I had a lot of scrapes and cuts all over my body, some pretty good ones on my ankle that were already bleeding like a mother, and a lot of dirt in every orifice on my head - as well as down my shirt and shorts.

She helped me drag my bike up to the trail since I did not have the strength to get it done by myself. Once back up on the trail I just sat there for a few minutes. Collected myself. Got the shakes out of my system. Took a little inventory of all my wounds and determined that they were probably just surface flesh wounds, although my ankle ones were bleeding pretty good and beginning to bleed onto my sock and shoe.

But what did I do? I got back on my bike, MUCH MORE TIMIDLY, and finished the race. I wanted to cry when I finished it. I was so glad to be done... and I was really beginning to feel the pain. The first aid guy cleaned me up a bit and then I was feeling better so I went to dinner with some friends.

I also had a sweet visitor bring me a Wendy's Frosty and give me some REALLY nice hugs. :) And then I soaked in the tub for a while to clean out all my wounds. But the big cuts on my ankle were still bleeding. So my nurse friend, Lindsey, came and took a look at my ankle and dressed it. I could have gotten maybe a stitch or two on those two puncture wounds - they were that deep.

And then my ankle and foot really swelled up Thursday at work. So I went to a doc-in-the-box (as my sister calls urgent care facilities) that night - they took x-rays, gave me my first tetanus shot that I remember in forever, and told me I had sprained my ankle too.

So now I'm wearing this awful brace thing on my ankle. It is so hot. I think I'm done wearing it. It just annoys me now! As you can see by the picture of my arm, you can see I also got a pretty bad bruise on my arm. I wish you could have seen it a few days ago - when it was in its prime - black and purple like you wouldn't believe.

So yeah. That's my story. Crazy huh? I'm not really sure how I sprained my ankle, but I did it. Just like me do it too. So wanna guess how many times I've sprained my ankles in the past year? 4 times. 4 times! 2 while mountain biking. 2 just being a klutz and walking wrong. Ugh.