You know, I had just gotten done commenting to someone how it had been several years since I’d broken any bones on the bike. Me and my big mouth.
A few weeks back on November 29th, I was at NCMP trying to get some practice in and start getting in some kind of shape for the upcoming race season. The woods were closed, but desperately needing seat time, I spent the afternoon turning laps on the newly reconfigured intermediate track. I was riding ok, a little slow and rusty, but since I can count the number of times I’ve been riding over the last two years quite literally on one hand with room to spare, it was to be expected.
Maybe an hour and a half in, I was starting to pick up some speed and was hitting the jumps with a lot more confidence (except for the big single – I roll that one if there’s no flagger on it, and today there was no flagger). Anyway, I’m on a section of track that’s essentially a straightaway with a small rise in the middle. You can carry some good speed through here as you set up for the next turn. Everything was fine – bike was good, I wasn’t tired or distracted or anything… I’m coming up over this rise and am just a little too far inside, I start to ease back to the left, and bang…front wheel breaks out in some loose stuff and tucks under, and before I could correct, down I go.
Got the wind knocked out of me, but once I shook that off and kind of regained my bearings, did a quick assessment and determined I was just a little banged up – road rash, some bruises, etc…, but nothing serious. Bike was a mess though – bars and front forks were tweaked pretty bad – so I figured this was probably a good time to call it a day.
By the time I got home though, things were starting to really hurt and I couldn’t lift my right arm. Long story short, final verdict is 2, possibly 3 fractured ribs, indeterminate ligament and/or muscle damage in my right shoulder, sprained left thumb and some road rash. Of course the nurse practitioner who saw me in the ER (you would think that for $1900 dollars, you’d get to see an actual doctor. You would be wrong) starts talking about possible broken collarbone, possible broken hip, etc etc… but since all I could envision were the greenbacks flying out of my wallet into the tender loving arms of the Wakemed billing department, I held off until my regular doc could see me.
So, it’s been a few weeks now. Ribs are great. Still a little sore but not enough to slow me down anymore. The shoulder seemed to heal about 80% in a matter of days, but this last 20% is taking forever and is what’s keeping me off the bike. I’m supposed to race Jan 31, so this needs to finish healing like yesterday.