More Road Rash

So there I am running around Prospect Park, minding my own business and enjoying my runners high when WHAM!, some testosterone filled cyclist decides the people in front of him are going too slow, darts around them and rides right into me. I really had no chance to avoid him. I saw him coming right towards me, so I just held my line, looked which way he was going and jumped at the last second off to the side to avoid being smashed head on.

I was for the most part successful avoiding him. I took a glancing blow from his front tire against my right leg. This kind of sent me flying, but luckily the ground was there to break my fall. My left hand slapped against the floor and the bottom of my chin scrapped along it. I knew immediately that I wasn’t hurt badly, but it sounded like the cyclist didn’t fare too well. He was kind of lying on the ground rolling around and moaning. I just wanted to get back up and continue my run, but for some reason I felt a sense of obligation to hang out and see if the guy was alright.

Several people had gathered around him by now. He asked about the person he took out and I said it was me as I started to walk over to him. By now one of the people around the cyclist realized that perhaps they should check on the person he hit. Someone asked me if I was ok and I said yeah, I just think I have a cut on my chin. I touched it with my hand, which came away with a nice smear of blood, verifying the fact that once again I contracted a case of road rash. It could have been a lot worse for me, because I had landed in the traffic lanes and the park was open to cars.

By now the cyclist stood up and caught site of me. We verified that we were both ok, shook hands and then I went on my merry way. Despite the fact that I was bleeding, I continued on with my run. I didn’t really feel like going home. It was too nice of a night outside and I didn’t feel like retiring so early.

I did have to cut my run a little short though. I was thinking of going 6.5 - 7 miles, but the time I wasted waiting for the cycling dude to get up made it so that I wouldn’t have been able to get to the pharmacy before it closed if I didn’t cut it short by a mile. I had to pick up a prescription for my son and if I went my planned distance I wouldn’t make it on time. Interestingly, my running felt even better once I got started again. I guess the adrenaline flow from the incident helped to perk me up.

My bloody chin only attracted a couple of looks and only when someone passed me closely. It couldn’t have been too bad as my friend Larry didn’t notice it as he rode by me on his bike. My pharmacist at the drug store noticed that something was wrong, when he saw blood all over my hand. I explained it was from wiping blood away from my chin caused by my accident in the park.

When I got back home I finally noticed the abrasions I received on my leg. I am pretty sure they were caused by the front tire of the bike, rather than the ground. I could kind of make out burnt rubber matted into the hair of my leg. I cleaned it off with some hydrogen peroxide which caused a satisfying and bubbly stinging sensation. Fortunately I have plenty of telfa bandages to cover the wounds from the last time I had road rash.