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.
