I had gained a bike rider co-worker friend. I was not yet up to riding with him, but we chatted about bike stories. He told me some of his favorite stories. Number two favorite story was when he swallowed the biggest insect in the world while he was riding, and it got stuck in his throat. He had to stop his bike and gag for a while to get the bug to go down the throat hatch. Number one story was the mud ride. He had the click-in shoes and pedals. He was pedaling along far from home and there had been a lot of rain which made a lot of squishy ground. His bike veered off the road to the ditch. He would have crashed badly, but the ground was so soft, his bike sunk and stopped. He was thrown forward and couldn’t get out of his pedals. He hung there for a while. It reminded me of the same thing that happened to me when Sage fell on her knees and propelled me forward. I couldn’t get my feet out of the stirrups and hung down her neck for a while. Oh the memories and stories we had to tell!
He was aghast at my park police story. I couldn’t wait to tell him about my triumphal ride at the park with my new click-in pedal shoes. Alas, it was not to be a triumph story.
With my new power shoes, I pedaled to the park. I went corvette race track speed down the park road hill. The conqueror returns to the park! I went to the trail and decided to ride up that short vertical trail. On I went. I pedaled up the hill. Wait. I pedaled up the hill slower and slower until my bike stopped our forward momentum. When the bike stopped, I was shocked and so were my feet. There was no signal from brain to feet. Feet stayed locked into the pedals and the bike crashed to the side. CRASH to blacktop trail. Sadly a hiking couple were there to watch in horror. Thankfully, nothing broke. More leg skin was scrapped. More blood was shed and there were no leaves near my crashed body to stop the blood. One thing was good…my feet came out of the pedals on the point of impact. The horrified couple and my horrified self determined that I could stand up. I apologized for scaring us all so badly. They went their way. I walked back down the steep hill to the level ground and hopped back on the bike. Good Lord….
I managed to ride out of the park without the park police seeing my bloody legs.
My co-worker was quiet when I ended the sad tale. He took a deep breath and said, “Susan, I think you should take off those pedals until you get more experience on the bike. You are just not yet ready to handle those pedals.” He said this in just the right way, sad and rational. I had no choice but to agree. The inner park police rage continued, but it would be a while yet before i won.
I didn’t ride to the park on weekends. There were plenty of other roads and other trails to find.