Just under three weeks ago, I was taken out by a blue BMW riding down Mt. Tam. I went out to Mt. Tam to do repeats up and down the mountain so I could get a lot of elevation in a relatively low-mile ride. The ride was going well, I've had been feeling stronger than ever lately and I barely blink an eye at the long Bay Area climbs anymore. However, on the last descent back into Mill Valley, a crazy driver, who had to have been going upwards of 60 mph on a dangerous road, decided to make a stupid pass on a switchback. Because the car forced me to hug the white line while I was riding fast myself, I was left with the choice was to either hit the car or bury the bike and hit the pavement. Before I could even think, my bike fell out from beneath me and I was rolling and sliding down the hill.I managed to limp off the road with a slight sprain on my left leg and some bad road rash on my right arm, knee, and hip (as well as a few chunks of flesh missing from my right hand). Miraculously, my helmet and face didn't have a scratch on it. Basically, I did a harsh baseball slide against the pavement at 3x miles per hour. I was unable to walk normally for 5 days and the use of my right hand was somewhat limited, but that has mostly cleared up. I've only been on the bike twice... once for a 85 mile road ride and other time for a 45 mile-5 hour mountain bike ride around Mt. Tam. I also did a 6 hour hike, so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to race the Tour Divide. I had been putting off my last minute gear purchases because of the uncertainty, but I finally decided yesterday to pull the trigger and get everything. It's pretty safe to say "I'm in"
Who knows how it will affect me in the Tour Divide. I hope not very much. I've been reassessing my goals because of this accident. Anything under 20 days (especially in these weather conditions!) will be welcome. Not as grand as I once hoped, but it's more than the experience for me than anything else.
I spent some time tracking the amount of time I've put into the race this year... the training, the gear research, maintaining and developing the website, and helping generally co-organize it. It seems since December, i've averaged over 25 hours a week on this. A 1/7th of my time has been put into this... it is truly a labor of love; how could I not race it because of a car accident?
In other news:
Jeff Boatman over at Carousel Design Works just finished up my awesome new frame bag. This is going to help me run a truly "superlight" setup this year. Kudos Jeff! I cannot wait to stuff the bags this weekend and take them out for a singletrack spin!Also, after hours of Yahoo Pipes and Google Maps API documentation, I finally have the Tour Divide / SPOT Leaderboard online! If you have checked this out, you should. It is going to make the race so much more fun to watch. The realtime satellite tracking will be a much welcomed addition over the callins.
