broken collarbone

November 10, 2006

Betasso. "One of the easiest and most benign trails in Boulder County" you say? Well, not for the likes of me!

Jason and I set out for a quick before work ride at Betasso, drove up there and everything because I didn't want to take a big chunk out of my workday. On lap #2 we hung out on this one section of trail and sessioned this downhill part (when going clockwise) not far from the parking lot. Although the trail in this section is a wide old road, you can ride up a banked section of the lefthand wall, and with enough speed jump off a rock, kick the rear a little to the left while midair and exit back onto the trail. While reworking this jump, I just wasn't getting enough speed for good air.

So on lap #3, I went for it with a ton more speed but botched the jump and exit. I don't know exactly why I wrecked, but I landed on my head and left shoulder at rather high speed. Yeah for helmets!! While sitting on the ground trying to recover, I moved slightly and felt sharp pain in my right shoulder, which hadn't hit anything. Why the hell is my right shoulder complaining?
Gasping with pain, I ask Jason to check it out -- yep, my collarbone is suddenly very poky.

At this point I really can't hear or see very well - I actually went into shock!! Jason, a hiker and another cyclist (thank you for the good karma of nice people!) helped treat me for shock. I thought I was ready to stand up, so they helped me up ... and I passed out! After lying on the ground for a bit under Jason's space blanket with elevated feet, my blood came back to my head along with my hearing and vision. Sweet! Good to go for another lap!

Completely joking, Mom.

Jason walked me back to the car, and the nice people pushed our bikes back for us. At the emergency room, they said my head was fine (go brain bucket!) but my left arm needed stitches (split skin on impact) and my clavicle was broken. The alignment of the bone was still good, so they sent me home with my arm in a sling and a buttload of oxycodone to wait for my body to mend my newly protruding collarbone.

A day of injury firsts -- a broken bone, going into shock, fainting, and stitches done by a real doctor! Oh yeah, and I even got to take a real sick day from my real job!

stuck in a hole

AUGUST 27, 2006

Having successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation mere days before, it was clearly time to get on the bike and have a spectacular set of injuries to show for it.



I was riding a nice creekside singletrack somewhere near Fairplay with some friends, one of whom was luckily behind me for the downhill. A fairly innocuous trail, narrow with a few rocks and a slight dropoffto the righthand side. At some point, there were a couple of rocks in the center placed together to form a V -- put the wheel in the center and roll down the 4", standard stuff.

Not so standard today! I somehow managed to hang up my front wheel in the V, and after a little bit of squirrly handling I knew I was about to wreck. Thinking to myself "low speed, not a problem to be thrown off the bike, this won't hurt" I managed to stay loose and not fight the wreck. But low and behold, the bike veered to the right and I became draped over a rather substantial boulder, feet near the trail pinned in my bike frame with my torso pointed down and my head wedged into a hole between a dead tree and a rock. Huh. The helmet did its job, brain intact, so I just rested on my head (3' lower than my feet) while waiting for the pain in my leg to subside.

How to get out of this literal and figurative hole? As fate would have it, Keith rolled up shortly afterward to find me butt-up and struggling to get out of my hole. After freeing me from the bike and providing a helping hand to rotate out of the hole, we discovered a large branch protruding from my right leg. Oh shit, this is the kind of wilderness first aid you hope to never encounter. Fighting the sinking feeling in our chests, we peeled back the leg of my shorts and ... bloop, stick fell to the ground. It had gotten wedged under the band of my shorts, and had only gouged out a not-so-deep scratch in the leg. Excellent.




The boulder and dead tree scraped off a fair amount of skin and bruised my right hip. I also sprained my middle finger, which now largely resembles a sausage. Bruising has developed nicely, as you can see in the bonus pictures below.