Cystic Fibrosis

On Falling Down

Paul and I did the Cycle for Life today, to raise money towards CF research. (Those are our friends Rich and Heather with us.)

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The course was mostly on the towpath. Now, the only other time I’ve ever come to the towpath to ride, I fell off my bike and down the side of a hill. I was not injured in this fall (it was lovely soft ground, and I fell slowly enough that I had time to think, “This is ridiculous”), so it turned out to be pretty funny, not least because my bike fell over in such a way that it was also out of sight. So my friend Tricia, who was just a bit ahead of me right then, looked over her shoulder, and I was … just gone. Apparently, she found this startling.

So not a bad fall. Still, I was keenly aware that it could happen again. Especially since we were riding in rain the entire time, and as a consequence, through quite a bit of mud.

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Don’t I look lovely? The front view was much the same, but with more of a spatter all over than a streak down the middle.

But anyway.

I jumped over some tracks on my way to the bathroom before the ride started, and I thought, “It’s wet. That wasn’t very smart.” But I didn’t fall down.

I took a corner at the beginning of the race way too short and skidded a bit, but caught myself on the fence by the side of the trail, and didn’t fall down.

I stopped at a road crossing and caught my jacket on my seat as I was getting back up on the bike, necessitating some maneuvers to stay upright. I’m sure the drivers at the stoplight were amused, but I didn’t fall down.

I rode into a lot of pretty big puddles and more than a few big ruts and wobbled and recovered and didn’t fall down. I finished, and I was feeling pretty good about my balance.

So we ate lunch at the Winking Lizard (after-party by the CF Foundation) and went to my brother’s house to pick up the boys. THEN I fell down.

On the concrete in his garage, as I was coming off the step. I think it was probably inevitable and I should have just ditched out earlier in the day on some grass and gotten it over with. Lesson learned.

I landed on my right side, and mostly I can’t tell (though I have a sinking feeling about tomorrow morning), but my little toe is all swollen up and turning purple.

Oh, well. I needed to redo my toenails anyway. I think I’ll paint them to match.

Happy Saturday! And stay vertical.

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