I Survived the A-Typical Group Ride

I survived the a-typical group ride today! However, I may have severely damaged my relationship to my only friend after a crashing altercation with his wife! That can't be good for a friendship! Let me back up and tell you about the ride.

Every year, Boulder has a free ride they call the B-360 which is a 23 mile ride around Boulder following bike paths, neighborhood streets and bike routes. At the same time, they have a ride called the B-180 that is only 12 miles. Corban and I have been wanting to do a ride longer than our normal 3ish mile route, so the B-180 sounded just perfect.

The ride was really well organized and had power bars, water bottles and patch kits at the start and end of the ride as well as an aid station with cookies, orange slices, bananas and water mid-way through the ride. The only problem was that the route was not very well (horribly!) marked. There were signs sprinkled (~1 per mile!) around the coarse to help riders find the route, but the main route indicators were small (itsy-bitsy!) letters painted on the sidewalk.

We had just passed under an overpass, and were heading up the hill on the other side, the two boys out in front, followed by Sheri. With my momentum, I started overtaking Sheri, so moved off to the right while starting to slow down. As I was coming up beside her, she noticed the route turned to the right while the boys had missed the turn. She hollered up to the boys to turn around as she started turning to the right, right into me. In my infinite and paniced wisdom I blurted out, "Woah, woah, woah." Who in their right mind says, "Woah, woah, woah" when they are about to run into someone. Why couldn't I have said something more dramatic like, "Watch out!" or "I'm about to clobber you!", but no. I said, "Woah, woah, woah." Well, we bumped and then she took a dramatic crash, scraping her knee and "twisting" her ankle. After a brief rest, she was thankfully able to finish the ride, but allowed her husband and kids to gather snacks for her at the finish.

That evening, Sheri ended up going to the ER and found out that ankle is broken! Wah! Sounds like it will be 4-6 weeks in a cast and crutches! Wah! I feel so bad!

After Corban finished the ride, he started wishing we had done the 23 mile route instead. He was pretty tired after the 12 mile, so the 23 would have been a great accomplishment. Maybe we can do it later this summer. And I'll try not to crash him. I wonder if Sheri will want to join us?!?!