Ridin' Dirty

Yesterday, I had a great bike ride once I replaced my flat & picked up some spare tubes (again... sigh). I had tons of energy and I was killing – feeling totally ready for the bike portion of my Oly tri in Madison (which is coming up June 14th). For the first part of my ride I took a new route to the place where I ride loops and was almost hit by a stupid student driver making a turn. The teacher in the passenger seat actually gave me a dirty look like it was my fault I was crossing the street with the light from the bike path! Ugh.

Anyway, once I hit my loop, I was flying past people, including two dudes that showed up on the route that I not only lapped but blew past. Ready? Oh hell yeah I am – for the bike portion anyway (provided I make it out of the swim, haha). Anyway, with about 15 minutes left to go on my ride before I headed in - (I don’t count to and from my route in my overall time spent on my bike. Though, I do count it on my runs, haha. Guess which one I like better.) – anyway, with 15 minutes left I got stung in the throat by a bee. Well, really a bee flew into me (or did I fly into it?) and got caught in my helmet strap right where it clips together. AUUUUUGH!! I am not a bug person & now have a bug with a sharp object lodged in my helmet while I am in control of a moving vehicle. I immediately thought of Brett’s experience on the Zen Tri podcast & tried to remain calm. I tried to pull the strap away from my neck hoping while I was slowing that it would fly out. At this point all I can hear is buzzbuzzbuzzzzzzz coming from my neck area & my hopes of emerging unscathed are quickly slipping away along with the bee’s odds of survival. Then, I felt it – STING. OWWWWWOWOWOWOW. Right smack in the front, middle of my throat. And, it hurt. I’m not allergic to bees but I am allergic to pain. Finally, I got stopped & got off of my bike & had a stinging burning sensation on my throat. Now, I don’t’ carry a mirror on my bike, so I was using my TMobile G1 as a makeshift mirror bc it gave off a slight reflection. Took me a few tries, but I finally got the little red stinger out & it felt a little better. The site swelled up a little after but overall, it could have been worse.

After that, I decided it was time to head home. The air burned my sting but the worst part of my trip home was the awesomely jerkish fartknocker that decided to buzz me in his white workman’s van while simultaneously honking at me. Man, I was angry – and startled. WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT?! What if I got scared and jerked my handlebars to the left, right into his path? The road wasn’t crowded, he could have easily moved into the left lane, and I wasn’t even over into the lane any more than normal. He was just being a tool.

So, then I was all flustered and totally sure I needed to get home. You’d think that would be the end of it, right? You’d be wrong. This is me, after all. About ½ mile from home, I stopped at an intersection. I guided myself over to the crosswalk button and unclip left and stand up with my right foot still clipped into the pedal (normal for me). I hit the button and start to angle my bike to the left to point myself across the street and – OOOOOH NO – falling to the right. Right in front of a crowded intersection, and of course, right on my rear derailleur. Luckily nothing more than my ego was bruised. As soon as I stood up and checked my derailleur, I started laughing. This ride was such a comedy of errors, I couldn’t do anything but laugh.