A Helmet For Every Ride

My weekend didn't go as planned. It stared out ok. I was feeling a little under the weather with a case of sinusitis early in the week, but I was hitting my workouts as planned. Saturday was uneventful until I left the bike shop to run an errand or two. I stripped off my thick work shirt for the comfort and breathability of my undershirt to help with the 90% + humidity and hit the bike trail on my way to pick up a few items. The sky was overcast, little to no wind, and I was feeling fresh having skipped the morning training for extra sleep. I encountered many cyclists on my trip North, quite a few that I had helped in the bike shop just a few moments/hours ago, none recognized me. I just pedaled on, enjoying the fact that I had the next day off from work, free to do whatever I wanted.

And then it happened.

I made a left turn into a parking lot, it is a downhill entrance with a 180 degree turn at the bottom around a median. I travel to this shopping center often as it contains several businesses I frequent i.e; bookstore, video rental, movie theater, salon, second-hand sport store, nutrition store, grocery store. Needless to say, I have negotiated this entrance/corner/now death trap a multitude of times. Saturday was different. I entered the 180 a little hot, maybe 15mph, and didn't tap the brakes at all. I can't remember when I noticed all the spots of water or oil or whatever on the turn, but I saw them and I went down.

I went down hard.

I've crashed several times off road, this was my first crash while riding my road bike and it hurt, real bad. My tires quickly slid out and the brunt of the fall was aborbed by my hip and elbow. My shoulder and ribs took a secondary blow and are sore today but nothing like my right hip and elbow. Good news is that nothing is broken and the bike suffered very little damage, I'm lucky. I wasn't wearing my helmet, which was stupid. I used to never leave the house on the bike without my helmet, but I have become over-confident and lazy with the bike path. I managed to escape this crash sans helmet. However, I have rededicated myself to consistently wearing my helmet every time I ride, no matter how short the ride. My crash happened so quickly and violently on roads I had ridden numerous times. One never knows when a crash will happen, me thinks best to be protected. I have a great helmet that I will be wearing on every ride, commute, errand, beer-run, grocery-get, icecream-run, etc.

Sorry for no pics, my camera has finally crapped out. Bad timing as I would have some really gruesome photos of my elbow and hip.