well that was a new one...
My morning ride started off nicely, I decided to do the hills first while I was "fresh" ha ha, I don't think I will ever be fresh enough to enjoy hills. Anyway, I left home around 0830 and started my journey downtown. I encountered a little construction on Phalen Blvd so I had to get off the bike trail for about a block, not a big deal. I dropped down into Swede Hollow and was happy to see they removed the downed trees. There had been a couple trees blocking the bike trail. I followed the bike trail up to Mounds Park (hills!) and caught the crosswalk over Shepard/Warner Rd and was rewarded with a nice downhill. From there I caught the trail that leads to Battle Creek, this is a steady climb, not real steep just a continuous climb. The trail goes through a tunnel under hiway 61 and pops you out at Battle Creek park. Here comes the fun part...
The trail zig-zags along following the creek, there are a series of small wooden bridges and some nice little rollers. As I was approaching one of the bridges I noticed a group of children. I immediately slowed down, not that I was going very fast anyway, it's all up hill and zig-zaggy. There were probably about maybe 8 kids and one man on the bridge. The teacher? tells all the kids to move to the side so that I can pass. At this point I was moving only fast enough to keep my bike in a forward motion. The kids all moved to the sides of the bridge and I was riding through the middle. Just as I got to the end of the bridge a boy on my left side darted in front of me! I hit both brakes but there was no way of avoiding hitting him. I did a slow endo over the handlbars and he was knocked to the ground. My right leg/knee was jammed between the handlebars and the frame of the bike, the left pedal found it's way into my left ankle. And I landed on the palms of my hands. I detangled myself from my bike and checked the kid. He appeared to be fine just a little scared. The teacher came over and checked to see if he was alright, now the boy started to cry. The boy said his right leg hurt so the teacher took a look, I couldn't see anything but I'm thinking he may get a bruise out of it. I stayed around long enough to ensure that the kid was OK, he stopped crying right away and seemed to be fine, I think he was scared more than anything. I know it scared the hell out of me!
I continued my ride into Battle Creek and explored the Upper/Lower Afton areas. Then I turned around to enjoy the downhill ride back into town. As I was riding back I noticed my back tire was losing air and my right knee was starting to swell. By the time I got back downtown my knee was giving me quite a lot of grief so I decided to cut my ride short and headed back home.
I rode a wee bit over 28 miles and now I'm enjoying a spot of lunch while I ice my knee. I'm glad I started with the hills I feel like I got a better ride. I'm also taking bonus points for the endo and riding in the heat. I have three 12 hour days at the office coming up so my next ride probably wont happen until Tuesday.
Now I need to go check out the back tire and make sure there isn't anything in it. I'd hate to get a flat tire riding into work tomorrow :p
