That Bike will Kill You Son

It has been awhile since my last post.  I actually thought about not ever posting again but I recently thought that if I wrote about what has happened recently it would make me feel better.  So here we go.

The past few months have been very hard  on me - both physically and mentally.  I would say this period of my life is by far the hardest I have ever had for several reasons which I will go over during the next few weeks.  But first...

Back in April I foolishly decided to participate in an Hare Scrambles race and was involved in an accident out in Big Springs, KS.  I got hit from behind by a 250 lb motorcycle that was racing with me.  It happened so fast.  During the second lap I was moving up from a poor start (motorcycle did not start) and during one high speed section of the course my front end washed out around a corner and I clipped a tree.  This threw me into the trail where I was hit, hit very, very hard.  I actually thought for a few minutes that I was going to die right there in the woods.  Sure I like the woods and riding trails but I sure as hell did not want to die out in them on this day. 

Once I stopped tumbling and crawled off the trail so no one else would hit me I tried to stand.  My body was having nothing to do with that.  Getting the breath knocked out of you is one of the worst feelings   For a couple of minutes I tried to ascertain my injuries and calm myself down.  Tom, the rider who crashed into me, and another rider tried to help me but they could not do much.  I started to panic because I could not breathe, but once we got my helmet off it was a little better.  My back and stomach were killing me and my hand was numb.


After about 5 minutes a trail patrol rider came by.  He did not know how long it would take for the paramedics to get to me.   By this time I could sort of breathe o.k. It was painful and I was making wheezing sound but at least I was breathing and walking.  I asked for help with picking up my bike and getting it started.  My ass was getting the hell out of those woods and off the course.   After some help I got going again.  It was very painful and I had to ride with one hand but I was able to make it out.

I knew I had some broken ribs and some internal injuries.  My hand was numb so I was unsure what damage had been done.  From past experience I knew that if we went to the hospital all that would happen is we would wait for several hours in an emergency room in Topeka only to drive home because they said I need to see a specialist.  Instead I decided to have Carolynn drive me home and go to my doctors in the morning.   Jason and Karry helped us load up.  I think someone else also helped but I was hurting so much I really do not remember.

The evening was very painful.  I  could hardly breathe and I hurt all over.  The night went by very slowly.  Every time I moved  or coughed the pain just shot through my body.  I could not get out of bed to go to the bathroom so Carolynn had to make me a handmade bed pan.  For the next two weeks I used this handy jug when no one was home to help me get out of bed. 

Morning finally came and Carolynn asked how I was doing and if I still wanted to go to the doctors.  I could not say "Yes" fast enough.  Only problem was I could not move.  My back had frozen up. When I tried to move severe pain shot down my spine and into my legs.  Images of my little brother John kept flashing in my mind.  What kind of damage had I done to myself?

We ended up having to get my son Christopher up out of bed.  I had not seen him in several weeks.  Not by choice, well at least not mine.  He has grown to hate me for some reason and has done everything in his power to avoid me.  I will not get into that right now.   Anyway, he grudgingly got up from his drunken stupor (he had just gotten home from parting all night) to help his old dad out.  I wish I had film of Carolynn and him trying to get me up out of bed.  Every time they moved me I would cry out in pain.  After about 10 minutes of trying, Carolynn said she was calling the ambulance.  I laid there for a few more minutes contemplating what to do.  Finally I decided I was going to get up at all cost.  Christopher took my left arm securely in his grip and Carolynn got behind me and and together they yanked me out of bed. Pain shot through my body like I have never felt and Christopher heard his Dad cry for the first time in his life.

"Ten".  That is what I told the nurse at the doctors office my pain level was.  I have been injured dozens of times and never have I responded with that number.  I guess getting hit by a motorcycle at high speed will do that to a persons body.   I ended up having a number of injuries:  fractured ribs and spine,  collapsed lung, damage to several internal organs and a destroyed left hand.

I keep thinking back to when I was 16.   I had just gotten my first real motocross bike - 1983 CR 250R.   After taking my first win at the Homestead Motocross - still the muddiest track I have ever ridden, I decided to head North to race in the Orlando stadium Supercross amateur day.   For the first time ever my dad came to watch me participate in a sport.  He never came to watch me or supported me when I played baseball, never saw me accept my Broward County Little League Player of the Year award.  But he did take a quick break from his Trucking Business (he had a shop in Orlando) to come watch me.  I won my heat race in the 250 B class.  Lined up for the Main event and proceeded to blast off the gate and into the first turn.  My front wheel washed out and about 5 riders ran over me when I hit the ground. After the race all I heard was "That Bike will Kill You Son".  My dad never again watched me race.  I kept racing but looking back I believe that man was right.

Meltdown at Wyco

Summer is in full swing. What better way to spend your Sunday that at the Masons Midsummer Meltdown. 

Good turnout for a first year event with a lot of the local guys showing up to support the event and enjoy a day of riding

Cliff and his family made some cool awards.  All from recycled materials.  Hopefully with form, which is not very good right now, I can earn one of them today.

The Wheel Cyclery and crew were on hand providing food and Heather Jordan was again the official.  The Wheel/Heather so far has officiated and supported the majority of the local MTB events.   They deserve a big Thank You!

Midwest Mountain Bike Patrol ready for the days action.  I would actually pay them a visit later in the day :-).  The patrol are some of the people that support events that never get enough credit.  Without this guys/gals we could not have events

 On Saturday the family headed out to Wyco to pre-ride the course.  Christopher rode the large log on the new section with the 3 foot drop on the other side. On this day he missed the ramp on the other side and crashed really bad.  Luckily he only ended up with a few scraps and a sore neck.  That makes 3 people I know that have crashed on that log.  Call me a candy ass, but maybe that obstacle should be removed or a wider ramp placed on the other side. I would hate to have someone really get hurt and then sue the park/city/Masons. 

Christopher toeing the lined today with his teammate Shane Martin.   There are two classes we need to grow in the sport - Juniors and women. 

Getting ready for the start on the old Mary.  I got her built up with a lot of  Crank Brothers parts including their Colbalt 29er wheelset.  I decided to race the Single Speed class in XC events this year.

Jennifer getting ready to feed a bunch of hungry mountain bikers.

While he has not trained much when Christopher does ride he seems to have fun. That is what riding is all about anyways int he end.

Having fun is great, but winning is even better :-)  Christopher on the top step of the box at the Meltdown.  He mentioned after the race that he wants to race the Marathon class to get in better shape for Hare Scrambles.  That might actually be a good idea.

I had a good and a bad first lap. The good is I got off to fast start and was out front with a nice size lead. About 1/2 into the first lap I was really pushing hard in this fast section and got to spinning to fast - that happens sometimes with a single speed.  My chain derailed and I had to stop.  Lost about a minutes or so putting it back on then I really put in a hard effort to catch back up with the leaders.  This got me outside my planned intensity zone which would come back to bit me on the second lap.

After the hour mark I started to feel the effects of the first lap effort and the heat.  I was still in first but second place was closing in fast on the up hills.  I could see he on the switchbacks.  Picking up the pace was hard for me on the climbs.  I tried to distance myself again on the downhills.  This did not work so well as I clipped a tree.  Could have been those wide bars I have been running on the single speed.  Jeff ended up getting by for the lead.  My hand was numb at this point and I had trouble handing on, but I chased hard the last two miles only to come up 29 seconds short to eventual winner Jeff Wass.

Hand getting some attention.  I thought I might have broken it because it was numb and somewhat painful.  The patrol cleaned it up and we applied ice to it.  In the end just some lost skin and a swollen finger (which is really hard to type with by the way....)

Not the step I wanted, but at least I was up on the box today and earned one of those cool awards.  My derailment on the first lap and a slight meltdown on that last lap cost me but that is racing.

Down and Out

The family took advantage of some dry single track and milder temperatures up in Smithville today.  We all really like the trails up there and usually have a very fun ride.  I know the trails like the back of my hand and at times I seem to push the pace and ride on the edge because I feel so comfortable out on the trails.  Today I went over that edge.

Things started off a little slow for me today, maybe my age is starting to show.  Christopher on the other hand was out of the gate and attacking Lakeside Speedway like it was a race.  His new Anthem 29er was just floating over the rocky sections of this part of the trail.   He actually had to wait up for me a couple of times.  Once we got through Neal's we took the pavement back up to join into Posson Trot (basically we were running the old Bone Bender course).  By then I was really warmed up and passed Christopher and started to pace us.  I wanted to do a tempo ride anyway.  Once we crossed the paved trail and bombed down to the creek bed Christopher got a stick in his rear wheel and had to stop.  I continued on and actually picked up the pace because I really enjoy this part of Posson Trot.  Well, I guess I got carried away and ended up going down really hard and hitting my head.  I do not remember everything, but I do remember wheeling over the large log and beginning to lift my rear tire over to clear it.  I guess I started pedaling a little too soon and clipped the log which catapulted me into the air and over the bars. I hit the right side of my head really hard.  I have a nice big dent in my Rudy Project helmet to prove it.  Luckily the helmet did its job and protected me from serious injury, but I was unconscious for about 20 to 30 seconds.  I think the last time I broke a helmet  and was knocked out was during the Branch Oak 12 Hour Mountain Bike race up in Nebraska.  You can see the results from that crash below.

Back to today.  Christopher catches up to me after he removed the stick from his wheel set. When he gets to me I am laying flat out on the ground.  He thinks I am playing around and asked if I was "Taking a break"  I am starting  to come to at that point and slowly get up and check to see if I have any serious injuries. I did not, but what if I did.  I asked Christopher what would he have done if I did not get up.  He said he did not know. He would most likely move me to the side of the trail and then go get help.  What if I had a broken neck I said?

What do you do?  Heck, I do not know either.  It has been many, many years since I attended any CPR/First Aid training.  As I started to feel a little better we continued on with the ride.  We met up with Shane and Cliff and stopped for a few minutes.  Cliff asked me if my eyes where dilated.  Cliff is a Trail Patrol member so he knows a thing or two about first aid.   After we left them I decided that I was going to become a Trail Patrol member this year.  With some of the stuff we do I need to be able to handle emergency situations and be able to administer first aid to a fallen rider, especially if that fallen ride happens to be a family member.  

Cross Training

First a disclaimer: I am not the best self coached athlete out there. In fact, I may be the worst as I sit here all sore, bruised, cut and tired from a week of my style of cross training.....

After a couple of days off I got back to training with a MTB ride at Landahl. My plan was for an easy ride with my teammates (Tige, Rich, Ashley and Roger). This easy ride turned into a pain train down the single track of Landahl and lead to a trip to the emergency room for me. It turns out I forgot how to ride my mountain bike and ended up crashing on the easy section of the trail. I still think Ashley tagged my rear tire, but he says "I did no such thing..."



After a couple days off my leg starts to feel better so I come up with the bright idea to go ahead and run the 5 mile Wilderness Trail Run. I signed up for it several weeks ago and have always wanted to run it (Cross promotion for the past 10 years has always kept me from it) Carolynn advised me against such a feat as well as all my co-workers. But what could it hurt? If my stitches broke or my leg started to bleed heavily, I would stop. Besides, I have all but given up on this years cross season and basically am now just training for next triathlon season. I need to start my run base which Saturday's run did. I ran the 5+ mile off-road event is a blistering 42.58 which was good enough for 6th in my age-group and 48th overall out of 236. Yea I know I need to focus on my run for next season. Running is my weakness and I hope to improve for next year.

Sunday was Roger's Veterans Cross race on a new venue (private land). Like I mentioned above, my season is all but over and I am basically just using any race events to stay fit and do something over the winter months. Which is what cyclocross was originally designed for - training.

The course was in an open field with part of the course on a hillside that lead down to a pond. It is a perfect location to raise cattle or grow crops. After yesterdays run I should have stayed home and just worked getting ready for next weekends De Stad Cross Cup, but like I said, I am not the best self coach. I basically rode around for 30 minutes and came up with this brilliant idea - full suspension cyclocross bikes. I know what you are thinking, but with the latest crop of cyclocross courses one could really use a FS CX bike. I know I needed one today.

It was nice to ride the bike today and hang out with some friends. Even if it is not at the level I would like, I still have fun riding and racing. I hope to see a lot of my friends next Sunday at the De Stad Cross Cup. It is going to be a great day for cross on the University of Saint Mary campus.

Bad Karma?

You ever get that feeling that you should just go home? Well yesterday I had such a feeling. Not because I did not feel like riding, but because it was my lovely wife's birthday and a nice evening out was awaiting the family.

But fall is such a great time to ride mountain bikes and our local trails are in awesome shape. Besides, Carolynn was o.k. with me riding as long as I was home in time to head out to dinner. But was she? After receiving 5 stitches last night in the ER, I am thinking she voodooed me or something. Or maybe it was just bad karma and next time don't plan anything on the wife's birthday.....




Last night was an very restless evening to say the least. Bled all night long and I am not looking forward to removing the dressing and cleaning the injury this evening. The only good thing about last night was I got to pee in a jug while lying in bed (did not want to drip blood all over the carpet...). I just remembered that I forgot to empty that jug......

Full Moon Mountain Bike Ride

To celebrate the Full Moon, John Harter called a ride up at Smithville Lake. The only catch was no lights were allowed. He mentioned that we would be able to see just fine with the Full Moon and the snow on the ground. Let me be the first to say that John is FOS. You couldn't even see two feet in front of you. Not to go against his rides rules of no lights we pressed on....Most of the trail was in o.k. shape. Other parts were really hard to ride and made a really challenging ride. On the way back we (Tige Lamb and Mark Studnicki) somehow lost Harter, Puglsy man and the others. They might have done the smart thing and doubled back on the packed trails. We on the other hand peddled our bikes through several inches of deep snow. We only rode one lap which took nearly two hours (this included a stop to repair Tige's flat tire).

We decide to hit the Subway on the way home, but we never made. My trusty 1996 Ford Aerostar had a little mishap on the way home. I started hearing some loud noises coming from the front end. Come to think of it, I have been hearing noises for the past week, but thought it was something to do with the transmission. We stopped and tried to figure out what the problem was. I decided I was just going to park the van overnight in a nearby construction area because I just had this feeling that something was not right. I go to back up and turn around to park and the darn front wheel falls off. I lost all control of the van and thought for a second that I was going to hit Tige who was behind me. The van finally came to a stop several feet from a nearby ditch with my tire still in the middle of the road. Thanks to Tige, he ran out into the road to grab my tire before it was run over by an oncoming vehicle. I guess I should be very thankful that the tire didn't come off while traveling 70 mph. I could have wound up seriously injured or god forbid dead in a Smithville ditch. Thank you God!