Have you ever had one of those days that start out wonderful, and then something odd happens and you are left with your mouth hanging open like a fish? Well I had one of those Saturday.
With my big race less than a week away, my training for Saturday was pretty light; just a 2 hour bike ride. Since I’d already shipped my time trial bike to the race site, and I didn’t feel like driving all the way to Magnolia to ride on my road bike for just 2 hours, I decided to do the local club ride. They said it was 40 miles and 2 to 2.5 hours at 18-20 mph.
The ride lived up to expectations. The pace was close to 20 mph most of the time, but being able to draft it was a very easy ride. Towards the end of the ride I was getting a bit bored with all the stops and starts, and was ready to be done with it.
I stuck around the bike store for a few minutes, but not knowing anyone that wasn’t very exciting and I went home. Not being very tired my mind wondered all over the place. I remember noticing how the recycle hadn’t been picked up yet, saw that Kelli wasn’t home and was wondering where she might be when all of a sudden I heard a huge crash above my car where the garage door was. My first thought as I looked up was that the garage door hadn’t opened all the way (which has happened in the past) and it caught my bike rack. I quickly realized the problem was much worse!
I got out of the car to see my bike, still attached to the roof rack, obviously broken and in a lot of pain. I had to back my car out of the garage to survey the damage, wondering firstly if I had scratched the roof of my car. While my roof rack is slightly bent, nothing seemed to be touching my car. Getting my bike off the rack was a bit tricky, as the frame was literally in pieces, held together only by the cables.
I don’t know if the normal stages of grief apply in this scenario, but I know I went through a few before I was finally able to smile just a bit at how comical it really was. I mean seriously, how many people try to drive into their garage with a bike still on the roof of their car?
As you can see by the two photos below, the garage survived relatively unscathed. The bike, on the other hand, has seen better days. I’m not sure what I will end up doing with the pieces of what used to be my bike, but for now it hangs in the garage as a reminder of what happens when you forget about what you are doing! By the way, I was still so shocked when I took this picture that I didn’t realize the rear wheel was upside down and couldn’t figure out what happened to the bottom bracket!
The moral of this story is: If you can’t laugh at yourself, you may find yourself in a room full of people as the only one not laughing.
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