Crash and Road Rash

Well I started this blog telling about my bike accident at the beginning of my triathlon career. My second post is about my second accident. Last weekend while enjoying a long bike ride on a beautiful day with my sister-in-law I had a pretty serious accident. (Please don't tell my mom, she doesn't need to know everything:). I hit a "glob" of dried up concrete that stopped me in my tracks and sent me flying over my handle bars and jamming my left shoulder into the concrete. Cindy and I were both very lucky, she didn't go down and I managed to walk away with no head, neck or back inujuries. I have a bit of road rash and one severly separated shoulder.

I was pretty upset when the ER told me Ironman Texas was most likely not an option anymore. My training just started to feel good, I was enjoying every minute of it. Word spread quickly through the tri4Him team and at Neartown Church, which I have recently started attending. Prayers were coming from all directions in emails, phone calls and text messages. I felt so incredibly blessed to know I had so many people praying for me. I then started thinking about the plan that God has for me. Maybe this is his way of telling me to slow down, that I am focusing too much on me and not enough time on him. It is so easy in this individual sport to get caught up in "me, me, me" Yes, I tri for Him but it is so easy to lose that perspective when training long hours and talking with team mates about training plans. I now have a permanent bump on my shoulder to remind me daily that there is a bigger plan.

I recieved good news from my orthopedic surgeon today, Brad Edwards. Brad is a fellow Christian and Ironman. He understands the need in me to complete Ironman. He gave me the go ahead to start back training as my body can handle it. I will be on the bike trainer for a while until I can hold myself up on the bike again. I can start running as soon as it feels comfortable. No swimming for 3-6 weeks. He told me that Ironman is in my future. I left his office thanking God for an orthopedic surgeon that is treating me the way he would want to be treated. I also left thanking Him for reminding me to slow down and focus.

I want to thank Brad for getting me into his office so soon, he is a very popular Dr! I want to thank all of my Neartown ladies for the immediate thoughts and prayers and offers to come take care of me. Thanks to Tobey, Joe, John, Kyle, Mike and Karen for responding so quickly to the prayer requests and checking in on me so often. Thanks to Kyle for providing me with such a nice arm sling, it was way better than the one from the ER. Thanks to all of the tri4Him team members for your prayers. The biggest thanks goes out to Cindy, my brother and Emma for taking such great care of me the day of the accident, I really do have the best family! Emma slept with me on the night of the accident, when she woke up at 6 am she immediately looked at me and asked if I felt better and if I needed anything....you can't ask for better care than that!