Things are not always as they seem…

I haven’t bothered to update this blog in a very long time… guess I can’t get excited about keeping people updated on my life… can’t get interested in facebook either. But last Thurs I had an experience that was horrible, surreal, wonderful and lucky, all at once… that might be interesting to some.

I’ve been training hard on the bike recently, trying to get ready for Moriarty. Things have been going very well… I seem to be stronger and faster than last year, which is an accomplishment at age 50. I wanted to do a fairly long ride this day, and as usual rain was in the forecast (it’s been very rainy lately) and cool temperatures. I figured I’d ride down to Hondo and back via Capitan (~75miles), so in case I did get rained on I wouldn’t freeze. Hondo is lower in elevation… about 5,000ft compared to 7,400 where I live. The ride was typical and uneventful with rain off and on but not raining very hard. On the way back, about 20 miles from home, just before the turnoff from highway 380 to the Fort Stanton road, something very unusual happened.

This area (Ruidoso NM) seems like the safest riding area I’ve ever lived in. Most roads I use are fairly lightly traveled in lightly populated areas, but with no shoulder. I ride roughly in the right tire track most of the time (to be seen) and drift right to the line when I hear a car passing… this is all on auto-pilot. I ride ~8k miles per year, and in the 4 years I’ve lived here I only remember 4 times when I’ve had a close call (someone passing way too close), and they were obviously just being jerks. When I lived on Kauai this was a daily occurrence. Here, the great majority of motorists will pull completely over into the left lane and few seem to be in a big hurry.

So… I hear another vehicle coming up behind, so I drift to the right. Next thing I know, it feels like something with the solidity of a brick wall slams into me at high speed. I knew instantly what had happened, and I also thought I’d be dead… like this was my last conscious moment on earth. Then I was just tumbling, and when I stopped I found that I was laying in the grass and still alive. The left side of my body felt pretty munched. At that point I was 99.9% sure I had a broken hip and leg, and figured it would be best to not move. I also wondered if I might pass out and didn’t know how long it would be before someone noticed me laying there. The truck (pulling a trailer) wasn’t stopping, so I pulled out the phone (kept in my right pocket, so it was ok) and called Shiva to tell her where I was.

The driver (Jack Greene from Capitan) did come back right away… he was just looking for a place to turn around. He called 911 and kept me company… I was just so thankful that he had stopped. Another couple stopped and entertained me (owners of the Lincoln Grill… can’t remember their names) until the ambulance arrived. I guess there were several other people who stopped too, but I wasn’t paying much attention. Shiva arrived just after they loaded me on the ambulance. The ambulance guys (Kevin, Steve, and Mike) strapped me to a board when they arrived, and took good care of me and kept me occupied on the way to the hospital. I wasn’t in a lot of pain, but I also know that I tend to numb out automatically when I get hurt, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. Klaus came to the ER, and he and Shiva kept me company for the several hours I was there.

Being strapped to the board wasn’t comfortable at all, but I stayed on that until the first series of x-rays were done. The doc said that no fractures were found, but sent me back two more times to make sure. I couldn’t believe it… after getting hit that hard nothing was broken. The conventional wisdom is that cyclists have weak bones in their lower body. Since cycling isn’t load bearing, these bones don’t experience a lot of stress, so they accommodate by becoming lighter. Guys my age or older commonly break their hips just from falling over.

I had a lot of contusions from the initial impact, but luckily I landed on soft grass, so the fall was relatively easy. My left hip, upper arm and elbow, and just under my left calf appeared to be the main impact points. My neck is tweaked also, but isn’t too bad. I also have a big bruise on the inner side of my left knee which probably corresponds to the broken top tube on my frame. The most worrisome injury is my lower back on the left side… I get sharp shooting pains in there when I move. The muscles and/or ligaments all along the left side of my spine are also very sore to the touch… I didn’t even notice this until Shiva did a little exploring. I can get around ok, though painfully, and my left elbow doesn’t want to open or close all the way. So far it has only been four days and I’m really not feeling much better yet, but I’m still hoping for a full recovery. I’ll need to see a chiropractor about my back and maybe get an MRI to see what is going on if it doesn’t improve.

I talked to Jack (the driver) later, and he is a very nice guy… genuinely concerned. He said he didn’t see me at all… his first clue was when he heard and felt the impact. The visibility was pretty good, though it was cloudy and raining lightly. I was heading NW ~4pm. I don’t think the jersey I was wearing was that invisible, though dayglo would have been better. I also had reflectors on my seatbag, helmet, and shoes, but I don’t know if his lights were on. The road had some undulations in that area and a slight curve, so it is possible that he was just looking elsewhere for a moment and that was it. Luckily, he wasn’t in a hurry and estimated that he was going ~45 mph when he hit me. Since we were going up a little rise, the relative speed would have been at least 30 mph.

I just can’t believe that I didn’t break anything. The rear wheel on the bike appears to have been hit in the initial impact, as it is buckled and bent inward and the tire was torn loose, so it would have been the first part struck. The guys in the ambulance found a piece of orange plastic in my hip, and Jack said this corresponds to the right front corner of his truck (along with some denting) so we know what hit where. The state cop (Diaz) thought that the damage on the truck was too high (I haven’t seen the truck), but maybe hitting the wheel first lifted me up a bit. I was very lucky that I wasn’t just a foot or so to the left, since then I would have been thrown in front of the truck and likely been run over instead of being knocked to the side. Also, if he had been driving at the normal speed of ~65 mph I think it would have been a lot worse. Maybe the fact that I had zero advance warning was helpful, since I didn’t have a chance to tense up. Also, being struck from behind while in a riding position would result in my body unfolding… which could have helped dissipate the impact.

The bike doesn’t look bad except for the frame and rear wheel being busted. I think the bars are likely gone too… they don’t look bad but they were struck during the landing, and with carbon composites you can’t tell if there has been internal cracking. I guess that goes for the fork, seatpost, and cranks too. No big deal though… this stuff is much easier to replace than body parts.

This whole experience seems very surreal to me. I thought I was dead… then thought I might be crippled… then some nice people taking care of me… and at the moment I don’t feel too bad at all, and hope to be as good as new before long… and I’m pretty happy about that!

I have to include some photos, so below you can view my naked behind… among other things.