I'm Officially One of the Stats!

Last night, I had to raise my hand at our "Peloton" meeting and joined the list of cyclists who have been added to the official Sea to Sea Bike Tour 2008 stats. Why? Because I fell.

The day began very well... an easterly head wind, yet again, but it did not really bog us (I rode with Pete and Dave V. from his church) down. After stopping twice in Dorchester (one stop where I got to see my Aunt Joanne & Uncle Bill), within 30 min. from where we had camped in London, we made great speed! I was "pulling", which means the two other guys were drafting behind me, and we were cruising at about 30+ km. for the distance between London and Ingersoll. That is a first for me. The renewed strength from day to day is a huge answer to prayer! Also, I am not dealing with knee pain at present -- another answer to prayer! (Pete says I gave the pain to his knee now!) So, more prayers are needed now (for Pete!).

We stopped for refreshments in Ingersoll, worked really hard at climbing hills all the way to Woodstock, where another awesome lunch was made available to us, and then cruised on to Brantford, picking up a couple of day riders: Doug K. and Maynard W. While travelling through Brantford, we hit some serious construction. Deviating from the congested street traffic, we cycled through an adjacent parking lot before making our way through some grass to a sidewalk. That is where the law of gravity took over. I attempted to glide onto the sidewalk at a slight angle, not realizing that the sidewalk was actually not even with the top of the grass! My tire hit the edge of the sidewalk and slid out from under me. It happened so fast, I didn't have a moment to think or correct the move. Unfortunately, I scraped up my left knee and shin pretty badly (don't know why the left knee is taking the brunt of all my cycling mishaps!), but fortunately, I did not break any bones. I tried to clean myself up a bit, but cycled on to the next refreshment stop, which happened to be only about 5 min. down the road. There I was warmly welcomed by my Maranatha CRC family and doctored up.

After a rather lengthy visit and fun time of sharing, laughing and taking photos all together, we set out again and skipped the final refreshment stop on Jerseyville Rd., choosing to take the more direct route to Hamilton, where we cycled straight to Nancy & Peter's place. We later drove to Redeemer to pick up our gear and stayed for dinner and the peloton meeting where I had to be counted as one of the "FALL" stats. And that brings me full circle to the beginning of this post.

As an addendum, (since I'm writing this a day later) I was able to ride today with very little difficulty. My leg continues to sting, but the pain is manageable. I'm hoping the healing will be very fast!