The Utlimate Sturdy Girl

Our week up at the cabin started off with a bang. Or a crash rather...

The good news was that nothing was broken. But then they took some more X-rays and concluded that there was indeed a compressed hairline fracture in the pelvis and while we already greatly suspected Marsha's cycling would be put on hold for a while, this pretty much confirmed that Cycle Oregon would be out for her.

It really sucks. She'd worked so hard for months and we were at the very end (like 3 miles from the car) of our last long training ride before starting to taper down in anticipation for the event. We'd spent the day touring various lakes in central Oregon, we'd ridden through icy rain and wind, practiced drafting and overall had collectively kicked some ass on the road. 60-something miles under our belt we turned onto a slightly rougher road to head back to the car. My dad was thinking, "Hmm... this road is sorta rough, we should probably slow it down a bit." I was thinking, "Hmm... we are at the end of a pretty long ride, we should probably cool it down these last few miles." We were all, however, tired, not really thinking and focused on getting back to the car and so were going along rather quickly. Then my dad, who was in the lead, hit a fairly sizeable pothole (perhaps not to a car, but for people on lite little road bikes) and was barely able to get through it. Unfortunately, because we were drafting off each other and therefore riding right behind each other's back wheels, he wasn't able to warn Marsha who was already somewhat unbalanced due to favoring a left elbow. She hit the hole, fell off the right and skidded around and along. Being right behind her I had a fairly frightening view of the fall and am utterly astonished that I didn't crash myself. It seems to defy the laws of physics that her crash right in front of me wouldn't catch me up. However, I emerged unscathed, leapt off my bike and ran back to her. Some kind passerbyers stopped and gave us a blanket, some iced-tea, gave my dad a ride back to our car and helped slow and divert traffic around Marsha, who was, after all, splayed out on a back road highway.

To summarize: Marsha has a lacerated elbow (the doctor in the ER suggested we check the road or the inside of her clothes for chunks of missing flesh), six stiches in that elbow, a contusion along her right hip that looks like a bruise the size of a melon with road rash streaming out behind it so it has a bit of a flaming meteor look about it, a big gap in the flesh of her right ankle, abraisons and bruises alllll over the right side of her body (shoulder, chest, legs, arms), bruises along the inside of her left leg, some cracked or deeply bruised ribs and a fractured pelvis.

The good news is that we ended up back at the cabin for the week. The long ride back to Portland seemed rather torturous and the thinking was she could rest better at the cabin than at home. The one sticking point was getting to the bathroom. Up at the cabin the "bathroom" is the outhouse about 20 yards from the cabin. But we got a camping potty and put it right next to the bed so it worked out rather well.

Marsha, however, is QUITE the sturdy girl. With all that is going on she is healing up pretty well on a flesh-level (I got no idea what's going on with the bones), is fairly ambulatory on the crutches, seems to be getting better each day and through it all - even in the hospital where they systematically tortured her with needles and moving her in painful ways - has been cheerful and positive.

For any of those, like our favorite neighbor up at the cabin, who want to tease her with nicknames like "Crash" or claims like, "It seems you can't be a very good rider, keep fallin' off like that!" I would like you to consider the following: She started riding for the first time in years just a few months ago, broke her elbow two months back but kept at it, had just ridden 60+ miles in the mountains and was barreling down the road going 20+ mph. How many of YOU would have faired any better?

p.s. I have some lovely photos from before the crash but technology and I are in a bit of a tiff so you'll just have to wait. My appologies.