In late April I got run over by a car while biking. I took a sharp right hand turn, hit some sand and slid (at 20 mph) into the opposite lane and under a 2009 BMW 328i which was coming in the other direction.
Those of you who know me know very well that working out is a large part of my life. Shallowly, I'd say, it is at current the largest. And has been the largest with seemingly no end in sight for years now. So knowing that - and knowing that I have been continually hampered by injury for the past three years, (thus kept far from where my efforts and passion aspire) - you might think this cute accident has been especially tough to swallow. Amazingly, that has not been the case. It's had far more positives than negatives as far as I can see. Let me list them:
1) I am alive. Although only moments after the crash Jon and Andy where making jokes to my incoherent self (also to the little old ladies horror) about "my finishing the ride," "getting back up to run home," or, the "drat, he's still conscious," it was pretty clear immediately that I was damn lucky. So, there's that. the car didn't run over my chest or skull. It wasn't going 40 mph. Hooray!
2) I have great friends. Besides Jon gregariously taking pictures while I was down, then developing them while I was in the hospital so I had appropriate mementos when I got back... as well as Andy's motherly cooked dinner, with other attentions (wink, wink) - the two of them less than an hour after the crash began planning to get me a brand new road bike. This is no small task or minor gift. Since I'm injured constantly, I've become a mightily decent biker - I don't own a car, I bike everywhere and compete with the Northampton Cycling Club - a new bike is a dream gift - something I could never afford. Loosing my red Cannondale in the crash (it was my fault so the Beamer lady was not obligated to replace it) was perhaps the biggest down of the entire event. Long story short, with the help of over 50 close friends and family, the two of them raised enough money to get me a state of the art Trek Madone 5.2. Basically, a rocket-ship. It's a freakin rocket-ship. Literally the best gift I've ever received.
3) Biggest positive of all - and related to all of the above -My Life Has Been Decided. Or, at least, my life for the next few years. Indeed, I'm obsessed with working out, but this is hardly all I want to do - it's just all I do do. It's all or nothing with me, thus, the only way - I've continually thought - to get out of this workout habit, is to get INJURED! Seriously injured, so I can't return. It's a sick thought, but I've had it often. So, as I am sliding without fail into this red tank of a car, what is on my mind? Obviously, this will suck, but I may be free. So, the irony here: I should have been seriously injured - (all the doctors where amazed I was not) - I should have been out for at least a year, or longer... enough time to do something else... But, instead, I get a brand new bike out of it - bike of my dreams actually - just the thing I needed to compete seriously at the elite triathlon level. Well, that and some more swim training. (I've been swimming 5+ miles a week for six weeks because it's all I can do). The crash decided my path. I am not meant to break - but continue to train. Cool. I can do that.
