Livestrong Challenge

The Charity Part

Participated in the 100 mile bike ride last weekend. Didn’t turn out so well, though :-)

The event required that you do some fund raising, something I’ve intentionally done very little of before. It turned out to be quite rewarding though. Got in touch with lots of new and old friends and learned interesting stories about almost everyone.

My fund raising total [http://sanjose09.livestrong.org/srfljf] of $3600 was good enough to win Linda and I a trip to the charity banquet held Saturday night before the race. In fact, 52 of us invited to the dinner were responsible for 20% of the $1.3m raised by the event. There were about 200 people there. The dinner was held at the Dolce-Hayes mansion. It’s slightly larger than our places.

During and before the dinner they showed us video about the fear and stigma associated with the disease around the world as a death curse. The emcee told us her story, and the main speaker was Carly Fiorina. The other couple at our table asked if we knew she would be speaking by the groans of our reaction at the first line of her introduction. We had both worked at HP when she became CEO (head cheerleader, head global promoter was probably a better title). She is currently battling breast cancer. She told us that she has no fear of anything, except those things that are “profound”, like death of a child, close friend or loved one. She very clearly told us that she’s running for the US senate and is not afraid of doing so. Note, that according to the merky [sic] news article about the event [http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12823079] she hasn’t announced this publicly. I hope that Barbara, Boxer[s] her butt in that race.

The most inspirational speaker was the guy who raised the most money, Alex Arato. He lost his father to cancer when his dad was 43. He’s 46 himself and raised over $37k. He pointed out that when his dad was suffering there weren’t groups like the LAF that helped people “survive” with it. This struck an emotional note with Linda, who felt the same way.

The Crash

OK, about the ride. It was a group start and you can guess who gave the ‘inspirational’ send off speech. I didn’t hear more than 2 words of it. I was nervous about being in a huge pack. The SJ police escorted the pack at 20 mph for the first 10 miles, a blessing and a curse. We got to thumb our noses at the traffic signals, blow raspberries at the drivers at the intersections and smile and wave thanks to the cops, but meant that the pack didn’t really thin until the escort was over.

I started too far back to really take advantage of a 20 mph pull, but was able to get warmed up and work nicely through the pack with an easy spin. 35 mph on Hwy 9 through Los Gatos. When things did thin, took turns pulling and being pulled by folks I found myself near. There were some rather easy hills with nice houses southwest of Los Gatos. The devil himself, or a guy in a costume, cheered, cajoled and gave us high fives when we reached the highest peak before Metcalf Rd. After 29 miles took my first rest. Average speed up to that point of 19 mph. 8 miles later on Uvas Rd, disaster would hit.

The weather was perfect and I felt like I was doing great. Was drafting behind two course marshals one second, the next I’m staring at my head tube and nothing’s connected to it. The course marshals are staring down at me, my shoulder hurts and I realized I’m not going any further. Had absolutely no sense of anything going wrong before waking up with these guys standing over me. Before I got loaded in the ambulance, the marshals said we were going about 24 mph and that I didn’t hit them or anything else as far as they knew. Three guys in a straight line.

First time ever in an ambulance. My head and neck feel fine, only my shoulder hurts but I’m a trauma patient, because of going unconscious, so I argue with the EMT about having to wear a neck brace and getting laid out on a trauma board. EMTs are arguing over which hospital to take me to, “the one farthest north, please”, eventually San Jose Regional, and now they are asking how to get to 101 and I tell them to cut across on Bailey. It takes a good 30 minutes to get there. CT scans/X-rays of everything above the waist. “Wait, I need to comb my hair”. Good thing I’m done with children. First time I’ve broken a bone that I haven’t ignored like a toe or finger. Total damage was right clavicle broken near the sternum, left thumb (may have already been broken, but more severely re-injured ), 10 stitches in ear, glue but no stitches to scar above right eye, road rash on the back, smile missing from my face.

Two days later, the orthopedic guy had no good news for me. Wants to put my thumb in a cast for 6 weeks [Are you *kidding* me?]. May need surgery on the clavicle, but he’s out-of-town and unreachable until Friday, and no message with the assistants, on the other hand didn’t tell them to schedule surgery either so that could be good news.

Bicycle Forensics

Ok, fork failure, blowout or something in the spokes? One of the owners of the Bicycle Outfitter is in the fork camp. He’s “95% sure” if it wasn’t for the broken spoke. The spoke has a large dent so took a big impact from something. The spoke is ripped out at the hub and nearly ripped out of the rim. His initial thought is that something broke the spoke but there are a number of things that prevent him from concluding the spoke caused it.

When you sit on the bike the fork is pushed forward. An impact mark inside the top tube may indicate that the fork exited forward rather than backward as would happen if you hit something that stops the rotation of the tire. If you hit something or get something stuck in your spoke then it usually shows up as wheel marks on the underside of the frame or there are impact marks on the back side of the forks, but neither exists. Forks and frame are clean. The fork sleeve is torn like a tin can, not sure how to explain that other than impact.

But impact where? Scrapes on the shifters, crank and rear tire indicate the bike went down on the left side probably with my hand still on the hood, which is how my thumb was re-injured. I probably landed on my helmet and right shoulder. Still these minor scrapes are not at all indicative of a major impact. The biggest point of impact seems to be on the spoke!

Blowout? You’d think I’d remember hearing something or would have felt something go wrong. There’s some indication of wear on the sides of the tires but it looks more like something sharp cut the sidewall. 3 guys in a line, you think they might have seen or remembered something about it, but the marshals told me my fork failed and said nothing about a blowout, so can only think they didn’t hear anything. Other than the spoke, there’s no visible damage to the rim, it didn’t slide on the pavement. Still it remains a possibility. May find out more when I take the tire off. More photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/srfljf/AnatomyOfACrash?feat=directlink

The Bike

Need to replace fork, wheel, tires. Possibly shifters, handlebars and seat post. Can’t tell if cranks need to be replaced until bike is put back together and they can be spun. Not going to do that immediately. The fork is the standard one that American Bicycle Group puts on Merlins. Going to send them pictures of the damage and see what they say. Not interested in pursuing a law suit, just want to see if they can lend any insight or make a better product. Not planning on buying a new bike at the moment. Not sure what I’d buy. The Bicycle Outfitter guy is going to loan me a bike and a trainer for the time being! I might have some time for a little spinning.

Ride safely out there.