2021 mileage: 3404.3
Today it had cooled off dramatically, and it made for a delightful ride. When I began, just before 6:00 a.m., it was 59° and cloudy, and that temperature rose to 63° during my ride.
I rode a loop around St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (my "home away from home" for so much of 1993—177 days, from June to December, while I recovered after my severe, near-fatal car accident). Even though much of this route is the same as when I ride my round trips to Matthei Botanical Gardens, it is significantly shorter. Nevertheless, I felt it was still a substantial ride (26.1 miles, in 3:25), and it put me over a new mileage milestone (3400 for the year).
I also saw my friend and fellow triker Jim Alvey (saw him twice today), as I did two or three days ago.
Alas! What had been overall a pretty good, successful, and significant ride was troubled near the very end. With only about a quarter mile left, shortly before crossing Oak Valley, the sidewalk takes a nasty curve around a big tree. A very large woman was lumbering down the sidewalk away from me, and as I came up behind her, I called out, but she seemed not to have heard me (I believe she was listening to earbuds) as she made no effort to move, and I had to veer off the sidewalk to avoid her. In that spot the terrain was rough and quite uneven, and I ended up taking a tumble and ending up face down, with my feet still caught in my trike.
The woman who caused all this had to have seen me, but she just kept on going heedlessly. However, as I was struggling to bring some equilibrium back into my world, another person stopped by—a fellow resident of our complex (Heatherwood) who was out walking, a kind woman who introduced herself as Elana. She was quite concerned, wondering at first if I wanted her to call 911, and asking how she could help. I somehow managed to convey to her wordlessly that if she could just help get the trike off me, I could then get up, and that happened and I was soon on my way for the short remaining portion of the ride (albeit with a freshly bloodied knee).
No comments:
Post a Comment