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.)

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.

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.