Training for a marathon is really difficult when you keep
getting injured by non-running related accidents.
Last Saturday I ran my fastest 12 miles of my life.
Averaging 8:30 to 9 minute miles and finishing it in 1 hour and 50
minutes. If I had been running a
half marathon, I would have broken my personal record (2 hours and 4
minutes). To top it off I wasn’t
even feeling that great. I had
been fighting off a cold for over a week.
Really it was something else and I suffered (Also celebrated
my victory!) from that run all day. Which is another story, where I talk about
nutrition and its effects on my runs and post run.
Do you want to know how I celebrated my amazing feat? By
getting doored by a car the next day bike riding to a friend’s house. In the city of Chicago it is illegal to
ride your bike on the sidewalk if you are over the age of 12, so you have to
ride in the street. I thought I
had it down too because I had a helmet, a new awesome used bike, and I was
paying attention to parked cars. People warn you about doors, “Watch out for
people opening doors, it can be really dangerous.”
This is much easier said then done. It happened so fast that I’m pretty
positive I’m not even quite sure how it happened. The guy opened his door the
exact minute I was about to pass the drivers’ side and BAM, I smash into the
door and I believe I fell over. This is questionable because I barely remember
the sequence of me ending up on the street. I do think the guy came and picked the bike off of me and
then I think sat there unsure how injured I was.
Nothing broken. I’m alive. I would say it was a pretty lucky being doored
situation. But… I have a gigantic
bruise on my right arm and my left knee/leg is bruised.
The first thing I really should have thought about after
being hit was thank g-d I’m ok.
Instead I think and then say out loud, “I’m training for a marathon, and
I keep getting injured!” As I told
my colleague the other day, in order to get to the starting line I just need to
persevere through my injuries.
Ok so my knee hurts… I’ll just ice it and go run 5
miles. After my 12 mile run I feel
even more determined to make it to the starting line. Won’t let a little bike accident get me down.
Lastly, I really want to point out the dangers of biking in
the city. In my head I keep going
over if I could have avoided that door and honestly I don’t think I could have. The bike lane on Clark Street is
between the parked cars and the moving cars. Nothing about that car made me believe that he would open
the door when he did and the guy wasn’t even paying attention. He told me he was distracted and forgot
to look for bikers. The only way I could have avoided that was not riding in
the bike lane and riding with the cars.
Really though, what is the point of the bike lane if its so dangerous?
If the city of Chicago wants to make it illegal to ride on
the sidewalk over the age of 12, than they really need to start thinking about
how to make the roads safe for not just cars but for bikes too. Personally, if I were a parent I
wouldn’t want my 13 or 14 year old child riding in the street with cars. People can seriously get injured when
they are doored and I was lucky it wasn’t that bad.
Perseverance is commitment, hard
work, patience, endurance.
