I woke up early after days of the luxury of sleeping in, and enjoyed a home breakfast prepared by my parents before finally hitting the road after almost a week at home. While I relished the comforts of home, I was still anxious to continue my journey, and to resume the rolling stone lifestyle. My bike was over packed with food, and weighed more than it has since I first rolled out into the early morning light in Victoria.
The morning was refreshingly cooler than I have felt in quite a while, and I was eager to go. I cruised along familiar roads through Oromocto and across the Burton bridge onto the old highway on the far side of the Saint John River; Shediac bound. My course followed the river for many KM in the cool, quiet morning air. It was quite a nice and relaxing ride. I had the option to either stay on the secondary route or switch to the Trans Canada Highway near Jemseg, and by doing so, save 10 KM. In the end I chose to take the highway and avoid lengthening a long day even further.
I was strolling along happily enough despite my heavy load, but my front fender kept rubbing against my wheel and making tons of noise in addition to the friction it created. I kept stopping and trying to fix it, but it kept doing it, frustrating me to the point where I stopped thinking altogether. I lost my temper and kicked it while still biking, and my foot went inside the spokes of my front wheel as the bike continued to move forward with tons of momentum. I felt a sharp stab of pain in my right foot and leg, and before I could react, I had flipped through the air in a complete circle and came crashing down on the pavement. Great dismount, but I botched the landing. My foot and leg were tangled up in the front wheel, with the overburdened bike pinning me to the ground. I was in complete shock. I dragged myself out from under my bike, taking in my bloodied and torn hands, my wrecked front wheel and fender, and my aching right hip as the shock response rushed in on me and the shakes began. I called mom and asked her to come pick me up; I would be going no farther today. A car stopped soon after, and two cyclists, one who happened to be a retired doctor, stopped to help and looked after me in my shock condition. For anyone not familiar with the term, shock refers to the physiological condition after extreme physical or emotional trauma where your body reacts to the stress by over dialating your blood vessels, leading to inadequete blood perfusion to your body. This causes shaking, confusion, weakness, a racing pulse, potential loss of consciousness, etc. It is fun stuff, and often ends off being an over reaction that is worse than the accident itself, like today's scuff up. Eventually my body calmed down, and mom arrived, so with bandaged hands we packed my gear in the car and headed home in temporary defeat.
Despite being a holiday, Savages Bike Shop was open until 2 PM, so we brought my front wheel into Fredericton to be repaired. It wont be ready until tomorrow at noon, so I likely wont be able to leave until Wednesday morning. My right hip and hip flexors are quite sore, so a little rest might be a good idea anyway.
I am very frustrated and upset with myself for my complete lack of anything resmebling intelligence when I put my foot anywhere near that wheel. While this is another large setback, I am thankful that it once again happened close to home where I have the support of my parents. I am thankful for all the extra work theyve done for me while I have been home, and I feel bad for making them worry so much with incidents like this.
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