Monday, August 23, 2010

Jury Duty Would Have Been Better...


Well, turns out jury duty may have been the better choice after all. Who would've thought? About an hour into the first stage of the Breck Epic, I was descending a high speed fire road when I got caught in a rough line, hit a rock awkwardly and lost my front wheel. It was a hard fall, but I took inventory of my bones and bike (both fine) and started in pursuit of the leaders. Almost right away I knew something was wrong because I was breathing really rapidly for my level of exertion. I knew there was an aid station a few miles away, and began a very, very slow walk. I thought maybe I'd just bruised myself and would recover enough to finish the stage after some time with the nice aid station folks, but I continued to be short of breath and every bump in the road was painful--not conducive conditions for a high altitude mountain bike race. I got a ride to my car from...Dave, I believe ( a Breck ski patroller) and headed to the ER where they declared I'd collapsed some of my lung. Hopefully it heals itself over night and I can avoid getting a tube put in there. In the meantime I'm kicking back and prepping for a new Mad Men, which is probably what I'd be doing anyways--just not in a hospital bed while hooked up to an IV and oxygen. Bummed to say the least; even after just an hour it was clear to me that the Breck Epic is a sweet race.