Mortality

13 years or so ago I called my mom. I had about 3 hours of sleep on a Naugahyde couch in an apartment with no air conditioning that I was sharing with about 6 other cyclists. The night before I had crashed hard on the track. I woke up on a backboard, totally unaware of where or who I was. About 6 hours later I was discharged from the hospital in the middle of the night, after spending a few hours with Nurse Ratchet, who informed me that she was tired of stitching up "you crazy cyclists". Here's a tip, bitch: Don't work in the ER of the closest hospital to the most competitive velodrome in the world.

My friends had accompanied me and drove me home. Unfortunately, they were all gone when I woke up back at the apartment. We were all supposed to leave at 6am to head to US Track Nationals. They left, I stayed. I was under strict orders not to drive a car for 10 days as I had suffered a pretty nice concussion along with losing about half the skin on my right side, several cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, a swollen shut left eye, and half of one of my front teeth was missing. When I called my mom she immediately knew something was wrong. All I could tell her was that I hurt all over as I started crying like a five year old that wants her ice cream.

That day, my coach told me I needed to ride my trainer because I had to keep the blood flowing. I rode for ten minutes before I realized I couldn't even balance myself on a stationary bike.

In the past week, three of my friends have been hurt pretty badly in seperate bike accidents. Ryan may never walk again (he had surgery on Friday to try and relieve the paralysis)....Brendan looks like he was beaten by an angry mob, left to bleed a while, then beaten again for good measure... and Amy (who I haven't talked to) apparently has at least one broken bone.

Brendan, you weren't pretty before...and you sure aren't now, bro'

During the first race my mom went to watch me she got to witness a crash in the race before mine, front and center. She immediately turned to me and said she'd pay for a year of car racing if I'd quit bikes then and there.

I've been around car racing my entire life. I know only a handful of people that have been seriously hurt. I don't know a friend of mine that HASN'T been in some sort of bike wreck. I've been in two races where riders died. I have arthritis in my hip from a wreck that will never go away. I like to think I have an incredible pain tolerance, but that really doesn't matter, because for the first time in my life I'm a little scared to ride a bike.