Okay, so you are probably wondering where this is going to go. Well, some of you know that I broke my tailbone back in March, and after still being in pain I have recently found out that it is still fractured (well, duh!). I guess biking and running might make it a little difficult to heal, but hey, I have an ironman in 22 days so I can’t take time off. I have been fortunate enough to be able to suck it up and deal with it, or HTFU (i am finally part of the club), but I just received a phone call from someone who isn’t able to do that. See, for some reason, triathlete’s always have to “one up” each other and this phone call was living proof. Regina Fowler just called me and the first words out of her mouth are, I HAVE YOU BEAT! I am seriously beginning to wonder what her and Susan did after Jeff and I left them leaving River Rd. today. I start wondering what she could be talking about. I mean, other than my serious bonk on our 20 mile run last sunday, I wasn’t quite sure how she was beating me since we weren’t racing today. It didn’t take too long for her to divulge, she wrecked her bike on her way home. Now, at first, I kind of thought she was kidding. We have all been on pins and needles for the past week and half about injuring ourselves before IM Austria, so I thought she was just giving me a hard time. You start to feel things that probably aren’t there when you get to this stage of IM training, your mind playing tricks on you aches here and there. Plus, Regina had turned her ankle on a run last week, but that crisis was averted without too much drama. Well this bike wreck was full of drama! So how did Regina wreck her bike? Dog, no. Car, no. Another rider, no. A crack in the rode, BINGO! So as I understand it, the front wheel got stuck in this crack in b/w 2 cement slabs on a bridge and that’s all it takes if you are caught off guard. She ended up falling directly on her elbow. Yep, she may not weigh much, but that’s all it takes for bones to break. She knew the elbow was bad, but then the shock starts to come and lightheadedness follows. Susan can barely stay vertical just having to look at Regina. EMS arrives and whisks her away thinking they are helping her, only to later dash her hopes of racing in IM Austria. 22 days, 3 weeks of taper left and the only thing Regina can think of is trying to “one up” me. I think she is going to have to come up with a better and less expensive way of doing that next time.
In all seriousness, lets put some good mojo Regina’s way and hope that Steadman Hawkins will get her in working order as quickly as possible. Especially since now she’s going to be our sherpa at IM Austria!
On a completely different note, I have to BRAG about miss Julie Murphy who busted out a 12.5 mile swim around Key West today. She rocked the house finishing in 4 hours and 53 minutes. What an accomplishment! Tracy McKee is the coolest person in the world b/c she ended up flying to Key West last minute and kayaking with Jules the entire way. Regina, you could take some lessons on being a proper sherpa from Tracy . . . I’ll give you her number!
