Okay, so I know that I’ve been trying to keep on top of the blog this year and I said I would try to post every Sunday. Well, its not every Sunday but at least its only been a few weeks since my last posting. I am getting better. I actually wrote about this to a friend of mine recently, the fact that since middle school I’ve tried at various moments (mostly for my acting classes) to keep a journal of some sort and I’ve usually failed pretty dismally. I would keep it going for about six months or so and then other things in my life would take over and I wouldn’t make time for the writing that needed to be done.
So, the last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. Just last week I reached 2,000 miles commuting again this year. That doesn’t count the extra miles I logged either commuting to my summer job (about 600), the Gold Coast century (which I actually finished this year, read my previous post), or the club rides (however infrequent they’ve been this year – sorry guys), the most recent of which was a bit unsettling.
For the last three years I've started doing this 50 mile ride the day after Thanksgiving with some guys from the bike club. Its the "AA" ride which means its the more experienced guys in the club and we normally average about 18-20 miles an hour. The guys who ride in this group and on this ride have all been riding for years and I'm probably one of the younger and newer guys who does it. This year there were only four us who were able to make it and as we were riding out of Cold Spring Harbor on 25A heading towards Syosset one of the riders (actually the ride leader) had a crash. We were doing about 22 miles an hour (I was pulling in the front along with another rider) and Mel hit something. I heard a "crunch" and then turned my head to see him flipping end over end in the road. Scott, who was following behind Mel, hit him and then landed hard on his elbow. When we got to him I had to disentangle Mel from his bike because he was all tangled up in what was left of his bike and he was moaning softly as he was lying on his side. Fortunately, there was a volunteer fireman just two cars behind us and we were only ¼ mile from the Cold Spring Harbor fire station so the EMTs were there in a manner of minutes and they rushed him to the hospital. The three of us headed back to the start and once I got changed I headed over to the hospital to see Mel. He ended up with only a fractured collar bone but that image of him going end over end is still in my head. I got back on the bike two days later just to “get back on the horse” so to speak but I still find myself getting a bit more nervous than before about riding these days. I stopped by my LBS a few days later and found that Mel had dropped his wheel off. Apparently, he found out that Mel thinks he may have clipped a piece of the brunch I had pointed out and it flipped up into his wheel which would explain why six of the spokes were broken, his steering tube snapped, and why he flipped over. Like the time I got hit by the van, it just makes me more conscious of being aware of everything around me on the road.
Okay, I've given you enough to read for one session. However, one of my biggest "gratefuls" this year (its a tradition that we do every night but really big on T-day when the whole family is together) is for my family – that after the few years we’ve had of healthy scares, they are all healthy and happy. My other gratefuls were for my job, good friends and the Dallas Cowboys winning a football game - hey you can take the boy out of Texas..... Of course, they didn’t do so well last week, but there is always next week – with the Giants!
Stay well and I'll see you on the road!
