Monday, October 8, 2007

Eating pavement

When I started riding my bike more I swore I'd never get clipless pedals eventhough I had the shoes from spinning class. A few days out on the trails trying to get up hills and having my feet slide around cured that! Saturday morning I headed out to ride a favorite trail determined I wasn't going to walk the bike, I was going to make it up every hill.

At the end of the 10 mile ride (I wanted to do more but the trip back home to retrieve my helmet ate up an extra half hour) I was feeling great. Got up all the hills--check. Didn't fall over-check. As I neared the parking lot where I was parked there were lots of people. There was a "walk for paws" going on in the park on the other side of the road. Not only were there lots of people but lots of dogs. Not wanting to run anyone over I decided I'd get off the bike and walk it up the hill to the parking lot. Apparently I should have started that thought process just a tad sooner.

I got my first foot unclipped quickly. Unfortunately I was quickly coming to a stop and leaning towards the other foot. So, in front of bunches of people I toppled over on the asphalt. I was horribly embarrassed, really couldn't I have fallen over without so many witnesses? I managed to untangle myself. Some nice guy picked up my bell and reattach it. A little blood from the elbow, a little scrape on the knee I was just fine. Then the little old man who had been observing said "I don't think anyone needs those things unless you are riding 50 miles or something, certainly not for just riding around." It was everything I could do not to tell him that I would've been just fine if he hadn't poking along so I couldn't possibly have made the turn I needed to get to my car.

I knew it was inevitable, eventually I'd end up on the ground. The whole thing happened in slow motion. The realization, oh shit, I'm falling...Oh, I really hope this doesn't hurt too bad...Geez, I must look really stupid with my other leg up in the air. In spin class one morning they were joking about it, discussing the fact that everyone falls over eventually--and more than once. They said that after the first time its just a feeling of resignation and here I go again. I hope I don't have to find that out too soon!

6 comments:

g-man said...

At least you didn't split your pants, or land on a dog or something worse-er. :) Just looking for the bright side.

MamaMaven said...

Thanks hon, you are right. Dog shit would have been a really crappy place to land!

joansy said...

Ouch.
And I hate those know-it-all little old men. I hope he gets a clipll pedal shoved up his ass one day.

Mackey said...

Ouch:(
Would a hug make it all better?
((((hugs))))

Builder Mama said...

You should've run over the smarmy old dude. At least he would've made a good cushion.

Tree said...

Oh, man! I feel your pain - literally. I fell while running this morning. At least you had a good reason. I was on my feet and I fell.

Honestly, the little old man was just being a wee bit nosey. He can keep his thoughts to himself. Did you even acknowledge him?