Tag: bike crash

Wear A Damn Helmet

As I walked my dog this late morning, I saw my neighbor with his grandson, the boy scooting along on his balance bike, and the neighbor following on his bike. Neither with a helmet. When he saw me, I gave a half-hearted wave and shook my head.

With the dog walk over, I put on my running gear and headed to the nature preserve to get my five miles in. About two miles into it, where the steepest part of the route is, there was a young kid (about 4-years-old) and her mom coming down the hill at a rapid pace. As I took notice, I could see that this girl was flying, and all of a sudden the bike developed the dreaded “death (speed) wobble” (video example), and she lost control and hit the pavement hard. Mom freaked out, grabbing both brakes, and also wiped out right next to her, with her leg folding under her in the most awkward and painful-looking way. The youngster had on a helmet and popped up fairly quickly, declaring herself to be okay. Mom looked to be in pain, but was very concerned about her daughter. After realizing that they were both lucky to not have been seriously hurt, I told the mom that she may want to consider wearing a helmet as well.

Here’s the elevation of my running route. I was climbing the hill near the red X, and they were coming down the hill fast. I can easily hit 20 mph in this preserve coasting downhill.

This mom, I’m sure, felt bad about what happened, but seriously… This hilly nature preserve is not the place for very young and inexperienced riders to be riding on. It’s easy to understand why a 4-year-old is not an experienced rider, but just knowing that mom wasn’t wearing a helmet and riding a mountain bike on a wet, paved slick trail at a really fast pace also tells me that she wasn’t an experienced rider, either. I’m sure she thinks that she’s an adult and can make adult decisions for herself, and that these things won’t happen to her, but there she was, picking herself up and worrying that her kid was alright. The kid can’t make these decisions on her own. I hope she isn’t forced by mom to ride back there again until she’s old enough to handle a bike with speed.

I’ve seen numerous posts on the triathlon and cycling groups I’m on where a rider will post damaged pictures of their helmet, with the words “the doctor said thank goodness you were wearing a helmet.” I have a local friend who has crashed twice this year; both times his helmet saved him from a serious head injury.

I know I’m preaching to the choir. I know that you didn’t wear a helmet as a kid and made it out alive. I know that the kid and her mom today got up and continued to where they were going with only minor scrapes. I know. But it could have been very serious.

Wear a damn helmet when riding a bike.

Rub Some Dirt On It

2021 IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA TRAINING

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WEEK 21 – July 25, 2021 

I was riding with Tom, my buddy from work who is training for his first half-iron distance triathlon race. He shared a story with me about this character on a show called “Eastbound & Down,” about a washed-up former baseball player named Kenny Powers taking a job as a teacher or something. The principal introduces himself as quite the athlete as well and was training for a triathlon, which he seems to think that Kenny knows all about that and Kenny replies that he doesn’t because he plays real sports and isn’t trying to be the best at exercising. Hilarious.

Old Kenny reminds me of most coaches from my youth who would tell you to rub some dirt on it and walk it off if you got injured no matter how serious the injury was. Well, as we were coming back home on our almost 4-hour ride and had about an hour and a half of riding to go, Tom hit a patch of gravel on a turn, and down he went. He literally rubbed some dirt on it, and in it. His hands were chewed up pretty good and it did not look like a fun injury. I had mentioned in an earlier conversation that morning about wearing cycling gloves to A.) alleviate any pain from holding the handlebars, and B.) to keep your hands from getting messed up if you crash. I guess it doesn’t help to add to his pain to mention that fact again. To his credit and my astonishment, Tom picked himself up, assessed his injuries, and decided to tough it out and continue the ride home with bloody and throbbing palms. Tell me that isn’t impressive, Kenny.

As I ended my ride on that very hot and humid day, I still had 45-minutes of running to do. I put on some less sweat-soaked running attire, grabbed some water, and headed out for my run. As I passed the park at the beginning of the run I saw some young men just starting to play basketball and thought nothing of it. But when I returned one of them was vomiting into the trash can. It was interesting to me that I had just completed four hours of cycling and another 45-minutes of running and this kid couldn’t handle a short game of tossing a ball into the hoop and jogging back and forth.

Back in the mid to late twentieth century, they used to say that bowling and golf were the two most popular participation sports in America. I bet that they might not even make the list today. I’m not really sure what the most popular sport to participate in is today, but if I had to guess I would say it is running. I would be shocked if it wasn’t running. Even the other sports that are popular, almost all of them involve running. Most might guess the usual football, baseball, basketball sports would dominate the list, but really, you play those games as a kid in local rec leagues, maybe into high school, rarely in college, almost never professionally, and as an adult, c’mon man, you haven’t played football as an adult ever. When you get old you run for exercise. And if you like it and stick with it you run for sport. Finishing that first 5K or marathon or any race and the sense of accomplishment is just as awesome as getting a hit every fourth-time at-bat. You might want to practice more if you wanted to stay in the big leagues, Kenny.

I hate to disrespect any type of sport. They’re popular for a reason. The professionals make it look easy, and the moments I spent coaching and watching my kids play baseball and soccer were some of my greatest memories. But I don’t like having my sport and the athletes like Tom, who came from football and is quickly learning that swimming, cycling, and running isn’t so easy, dissing triathlon. So if you stick-and-ball guys think that our sport isn’t worthy or as hard as yours, come give ours a try. Tom will have some scars to prove to you that it isn’t so easy, and I bet we would garner some respect from you.

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Come ask Tom if this sport is easy.

Swims: 2 – 3000 yards

Rides: 3 – 108 miles

Runs: 5 – 41 miles