Sunday, March 28, 2010

Lesson of the day - chemo doesn't mean that cars will get out of the way of you and your bike

Yesterday I had another nice life lesson. I got up in the morning determined to ride my bike - had a great sleep (10 hours!) and was definitely feeling the urge to get in a ride. Susan went to the club to do some indoor workouts so I had some time for a ride. But the weather wasn't great - low 40s and really windy. But I managed to get my ass in gear and after bundling up, headed out on the bike. Due the weather I did a shorter ride than usual and definitely felt like I was pushing through jello going upwind. But the wind was coming out of the north and so as I headed down McCaslin into my area of Louisville, I was really flying. Doing about 36 mph on a slight downhill and was really loving having successfully gotten out on a ride when it would have been really easy to bail out. So I cut through a parking lot, see a little sand in the corner and because I'm wanting to not do anything stupid on my bike, I swing wide around the sand. And right into the path of an oncoming car. So I'm thinking to myself "Doesn't this guy know I'm doing chemo and I'm finishing a great bike ride. Get the f* out of my way!" And then I realize he isn't turning, I'm not turning and that in a head on collision between a 17 lb road bike and a 4000 lb full size sedan, the bike isn't going to do so well. So I jump on the brakes, get out of my pedals, put a foot down, kind of swerve around the car and gently acknowledge that yeah, since I was in his lane, the whole thing was kind of my fault.

The funny thing was that I did the same thing when I was about 14 years old on my bike. Cut across a parking lot to beat a traffic light and ran right into a car (again, my fault). So I don't know if it's a good thing that I'm still riding that way on my bike 37 years later or if it means that I'm a dumbass and the universe is trying to teach me a lesson I'm slow to learn. Probably a bit of both.

2 comments:

  1. Thank God you're OK. Ask Ed or Karen and Mike about the Italian tourist's car door in Ireland. Are you OK - I'm fine, are YOU OK?? ...hmm, good thing it's a girl's bike...

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  2. Yeah, I missed him by a few feet. Sounds like you've got some first hand experience at this type of thing!

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