Crash!

Not once, but TWICE today on my bike. I'm fine, for the most part. Here's the story.

I left home early (just before 7AM) while it was still a bit dark and a little rainy. I was heading downtown to watch my friends doing a marathon/half-marathon. After cheering people on near the start, I decided to ride out to the east end (not too far from home, actually) so that I could cheer H on there. On my way, I hit a set of wet, slippery, angled train tracks and went down. My bike just slid out from underneath me and I ended up with some lovely road rash on the underside of my forearm and my hip. No biggie - it stung a bit, but no major damage.

After the race, I was riding home along my normal route when a van cut me off. I was beside a parked car in the right-hand lane and he tried to scoot into my lane ahead of me to pass a car (on the right) in front of him. I yelled at him and held onto the side of the van to try and let him know I was there, but he just kept merging and forcing me to the right. I lost control and went down hard this time, on the same side as last time. In the split second that I lay there on the ground, I was hoping to GUS that I wouldn't actually get hit/run over while I was on the ground.

My travel coffee mug that had been in my water-bottle cage on the bike went flying and a car rode over it to a really loud BANG. Nice.

The driver of the van stopped to see if I was OK but when I said, "Well, you HIT ME" he totally denied it and claimed that it was MY fault! I told him he cut me off and he said that I vered out into traffic from behind a parked car. Whatever!

I told him I was taking down his licence plate number. I didn't have a pen, so I memorized it and repeated it in my head for the 3K ride to the police station. I was also pissed because there were two public transit drivers standing on the corner waiting for the streetcar and neither one of them came over to see if I was OK. The only people who said anything to me was the couple who were double-riding on the bike path when I finally caught up to them at the next lights.

I rode to the police station and filed my report. I don't know if anything will come of it, but at least it will be on file. Based on the fact that he didn't actually hit me and he did stop, the most he can probably be charged with (if anything) is careless driving. Because from what I could tell, he moved into the right hand lane to pass a car that was turning left in front of him - and passing on the right is a no-no (even though we all do it, including me).

When I got home I took a shower, cleaned and iced my injuries (I have a very large scrape on my hip that has swollen up to look like it has a small nerf football underneath the skin). I also have a large bump on my elbow. Oww. I fell asleep on the couch watching something mindless on TV. I hope I can sleep tonight - I don't like napping in the middle of the day.

So, I'm going to take the next couple of days off from riding to work. It's just as well because it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days and I don't like to commute in the rain. I'll probably also stay home from the gym for a couple of days, too.

I think I rode about 30K today - from home to downtown and back - twice. I'm feeling pretty good after my long run yesterday, so I'm feeling optimistic about my race in November (as long as I don't have any lingering injuries from my two falls today).