In preparation for my first appearance at the 24 Mountain Bike Race in the Old Pueblo, I was riding regularly, including a couple of times a week at night (with lights).
On Saturday, December 29th, 2012 Mark, Brian, and I went for an easy ride in Fantasy Island. About half way through the Bunny Trail, we realized that we were going to run out of daylight if we tried to ride the entire loop. I turned around on the trail, rode backwards for a minute to check on a point in which we could cut the loop in half. As I did this, a rider was coming in the other direction so I went off the trail slightly since he had the right of way. I rode over a giant piece of cactus. (I actually fell over at this point, because I was looking at where we could cut the trail, got distracted by the cactus that was in my tire, and stopped without un-clipping - but I was fine). Here is where I made my first mistake: I pulled the cactus out thinking that the Stan's tire sealant would plug the hole. Instead, I should have cut the cactus off and left the thorns in. As soon as it started hissing as it let air out, I quickly rode to move sealant to the hole. I thought it was good at that point.
Apparently 15 minutes later when we finished our ride, my tire was still slightly leaking air (I didn't realize this). We exited Fantasy Island through the gate at Irvington and Harrison, and both Brian and I turned off our GoPro cameras (Stupid! - record everything/all the time). I then had a burst of energy, and quickly rode to the hill leading out of the desert and jumped it. The combination of my low front tire and the slippery ground caused me to fly through the air sideways and land on my right side: I hit my head, cracked my helmet and put rock indentations on either side of it, broke my GoPro helmet mount, got a concussion, broke my right collar bone in two places, broke a couple of ribs, bruised my hip, and scraped my leg (had to get a tetanus shot at the ER). Painful and expensive!
Six weeks later, I'm mostly healed up - and riding again. My first time back was ironically on the weekend of the 24 Hour race I was supposed to be in. However, the important thing is that I'm back - this time with new tires, the correct amount of Stan's, and a lot more experience & wisdom.
You're slacking on your posting.
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