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Crash #TheRunningWriter


Crash

*****

One time while I was mountain biking in the beautiful-and rugged-Colorado trails, I crashed my bike on said beautiful trails.

Big time.

One second I was flying down the single track, laughing, feeling the endorphin-induced tingle along my skin and then, the root.

The dreaded root that wrecked my day-along with many days after.

I was getting some nice air, hopping over roots, launching off little nature-made jumps, but this one time, I landed with my front wheel a tad crooked.

I flipped. My hip smacked against a root. My helmet bounced off the hard ground. And I rolled for what felt like eternity.

Boy-was I down hard. Dizzy, discombobulated and in wicked-pain. Any time I tried to move a wave of nausea swarmed over me.

I laid there, stunned. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. For sure, I had a concussion, and possibly a broken hip.

We sat there a while, trying to figure out how I was going to get down this mountain. We were more than 45 minutes up from the car. Not really close at all.

Eventually, I was able to stand without getting sick and put a little weight on my leg. Nothing broken from what we could tell.

I eventually made it off that mountain, mostly coasting, hopping, and big time limping, but I made it.

I didn’t get back on that bike for a few months, though. My injuries healed within a few weeks, but the fall scared me pretty bad. Messed with my head. Getting back on that bike to ride those trails-it wasn’t easy. The flashbacks of that crash plagued me for a good little bit.

And that’s normal. That’s okay. Things like that are traumatic. But eventually, you got to get back into it. You got to bust through those chains. The hurt. The anger. You can’t let it hold you back and control your life. Your mood. Your emotions.

You got to show fear who is boss!

Little by little, I chipped away at the fear by doing shorter, easier rides. Then I added back a little more of the single track to eventually get back out there.

I think I became a wiser athlete after that, too. A tad more cautious, but I still had some wicked fun out there.

It’s the same in life. Life crashes make us wiser and stronger. We may have to watch our step as we ease back into daily functioning, but that’s okay. As long as you’re easing back into it.

Stay strong, my friends. You got this.

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NYT & USA Today Bestseller & ultra-runner known as #TheRunningWriter. Agents: Joyce Sweeney & Nicole Resciniti of The Seymour Agency.