(long) Happy yet drenched, battered and bruised!
This morning was my very first organized ride - I chose the 26 mile option (for locals this was the Brownsburg Trails fundraiser). I took my LHT with me and had no idea what to expect as how this whole "organized" thing works. I almost always ride by myself and the largest number of people I have ridden around before has been two friends.
Ok, so we got started - saw a friend from spinning class so he said that he would ride with me for a little ways until I got over being nervous. I was surprised to be a little nervous about riding around all of those people but that passed pretty quickly. As he said would happen, everyone stretched out. The rain began 3 miles into the ride... no fireworks, just a light soaking rain. It was refreshing and cooling...then came the first (and only) SAG stop on my chosen route.
Instead of stopping on the road and walking it, I decided to ride into the gravel drive and stop there. I have no idea what happened next - perhaps a combination of wet gravel and wet brakes, but I did not stop as intended... somehow I wound on the ground with my thumb stuck behind my trigger shifter (and it took some help to get it out). That was when we realized that my leg had somehow gotten stuck through/underneath the frame :eek: This is a small frame and it took several people to extricate me without hurting my leg further....
My leg was, and is, a very "pretty" sight, and will no doubt be quite colorful for a few days at least. Cuts/punctures/scrapes and so forth on the front of my leg - but nothing more. My LHT HAD 2 bottle cages this morning, it now has one, my leg bent one of them totally out of shape. Better the cage than the leg I say! Thankfully I did get a tetnus shot earlier in this decade...
They had a first-aid kit so cleaned/bandaged the leg. Got a banana and peanut butter, put the chain back on the crank and removed/disposed the bottle cage. Then I went on to complete the ride :D
I am very glad that I finished it, though someone did offer me a SAG ride back to my car. The rain stopped soon after and while the humidity rose the temps didn't, a nice breeze came and the second half of the ride was beautiful.
At the end I was starting to run out of energy, starving and thirsty. I was too nervous to drink from my 'bac around everyone, though I did manage to do that a few times while riding :D
All in all I am very happy with how things went, even if there was an unplanned adventure!
