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I was planning to race at the track tomorrow night. There is currently a 55 percent chance of rain, which would mean the races are cancelled. The track is a 3 hour drive. My plan was to leave tonight and stay at my in-laws and then to work "from home" tomorrow, before heading out to the track.
I am undecided on whether I should drive down there. My general expectation is that if I go, it will rain. If I don't go, it won't. |
Ever had one of those moments where adrenaline is super high and HR is really low. From a stop 2 cars back I get to the edge of an intersection and there is one of those large metal construction plates pointing at 10:30. I halfheartedly make a last dash attempt at turning left and pulling my front tire up off the edge. Somehow I rode away from it upright without cutting one or both sidewalls. Been awhile since I had that awful throwing up feeling doing 7 mph.
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Subject: A short History of the Chicken I was asked by Matt Adams to write something up about the Chicken and I wanted to share it with all you chicken enthusiasts. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++ I first heard about the Chicken Ride in 1989. It was just called the 'Friday Morning Ride' or the 'Friday Ride' and really for even the next 10 or 15 years after that and in fact for the original members that is the way they will always think of it to themselves. It was said that if you went on the Friday Morning Ride and you could cross the line first you could win a rubber chicken. That was the story. At first I just thought it was an urban myth. Greg Lemond had just won the Tour de France by 8 seconds over Laurent Fignon and you could ride for a rubber chicken for free around the Paradise Loop? What kind of a magic world were we living in? It was already the stuff of legends even then. And who put it on? No one. It existed wholly on it's own with no sponsor, no organization, no leader -- just the same as it continues today -- but it always seems to take place. If you go back to the original forming of the ride and drill through the mantle into the core, it started as a splinter group of the Marin Cyclists ride on Friday mornings that Harry and Marsha Rethers led on their tandem for many years. Then an upstart group of young and junior bike racers including, Chris Elke, Rob Elke, Jimmy Robinson, Ravan Moezzi and Dario Frederick (among others) pushed the pace off the front of the Harry and Marsha group and broke away and formed there own ride, sprinting for the natural finish line (that everybody in the whole world has always sprinted for since just after time began) when they roll off that hill -- the bridge over the road at Marin Country Day School. At the end of one of these early splinter group rides, the rider who had come in second stopped, after losing the sprint, pulled to the side of the road and picked up a rock and handed it to the winner and said. "Here, now you have to carry this next week to even it out." As though he was ballasting a jockey and saddle weight for a horse race. And, in fairness and without protest, the winner put the rock in his jersey pocket and brought it the following week. And with each successive week the rock changed hands, er -- jersey pockets, until it was astutely pointed out by someone that crashing with a large rock hard rock in one's pocket could lead to a frightful bruise. So it was suggested that something should be substituted that would take the place of the rock, that would symbolize the rock, but would be a little softer to land on in the event one were to make an unscheduled departure from his or her machine. And so, as the first prize/ handicap was being awarded so was adopted simultaneously, the first safety measure of the Friday Morning Ride. Whether other objects or talismans stood in place of the rock in the interim before the first rubber chicken was officially baptized and sworn in to service is not known to me. I also can't say definitively who originated the idea of the rubber chicken -- but I can confirm that by 1989 -- one could, with the right combination of tactical nous, mental acuity, raw speed, brute force -- and savoir faire -- they could -- in theory -- win a rubber chicken. It was said. This oversimplified greatly the actual chances of doing so, however. A rookie in the early days had about as much chance of winning a chicken as he did of stealing the Hope Diamond on a tour of the Smithsonian Institution. It would have taken a little more than luck. You had to take on a small band of the hands down fastest bike racers in the county. On their home court. On a seven mile stretch of public road they had already ridden hard every Friday for the last five years memorizing every seam in the pavement and grain of sand on its venerated parcours. For a greenhorn to take on these guys for a chicken would have been like a pole vaulter going to the Olympics from the Republic of Klopstokia and trying to win the gold medal with a broomstick. These guys were hitters. They had an all for one one for all mentality that was part three musketeers and part pride of lions -- employing tactics that were shockingly similar to those used in the wild: Surprise attack, run down by superior fitness, or the most cunning and clever of all, orchestrated panic that morphs into a surgical guided ambush. A lion specialty. And so in 1989, I started to go on the ride. And I got dropped every single Friday for the next six months -- anywhere from instantly to soon thereafter. It was probably close to a year and 40 or 50 chickens later I saw an actual finish unfold with my own eyes. And, as is so often the case, in the intervening moments between desperation and despair, something heroic and noble was discovered in the pursuit of the unattainable. And I discovered that the chicken was born in that grandest of all traditions of hunter and hunted, victor and spoils, centurion and gladiator, senator and slave -- where greatness is not only measured in victory but even in the bravery to fight at all -- where a member of the proletariat can dry his hands on the sandy floor of the arena, draw his sword, and take on a king. That, metaphorically, is as near as I can get to the spirit of the Friday Morning Ride, of the Chicken. It is a laboratory crucible. It is a small window through which are sometimes revealed in fleeting moments the kernels of inscrutable truth that are inside all of us. And not only in the riding moments -- sometimes in the talking moments too -- tiny particles of meaning which, as we try to grab them, are always, just out of reach, stubbornly undefinable and ultimately unknowable -- composed of an impossible blend of concrete certainty and ethereal myth -- but whose promise alone brings riders back again and again to witness. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ Steve |
Originally Posted by Ygduf
(Post 19577410)
History of the SF Friday morning ride. One that just put a guy into ICU with a few-days-long coma.
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Originally Posted by Blackdays
(Post 19578424)
The ride didn't put anyone into a coma. It was a distracted teenager in a car.
That sprint comes around a bend too, doesn't it? |
Originally Posted by Ygduf
(Post 19578436)
didn't mean it in any negative way. I do race-y group rides all the time. There is a risk. Cars turning left, even if they are paying attention, can easily misjudge the speed of an approaching cyclist or group of cyclists.
That sprint comes around a bend too, doesn't it? The sprint does come around the bend, but there's a good bit of lead up + higher elevation coming down which actually gives great visibility. This also means the sprint happens at pretty high speeds. |
So he's out of the coma?
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Originally Posted by mattm
(Post 19578701)
So he's out of the coma?
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A driver pulled in front of the "chicken ride", and one guy ended up in a a coma. That's the last I heard, until Fudgy said it was a "coma for a few days", so it sound like he recovered.
I've never done the ride, it's somewhere way up north from here where it's cold and wet all the time. |
Originally Posted by mattm
(Post 19578701)
So he's out of the coma?
anyway... |
13 days since I crashed and I thought things were progressing alright until last night when my elbow on the side that I crashed started to become distractingly painful (throbbing/swollen/no ROM). by 1 AM, unable to sleep, i finally booked an appointment to see a doctor this morning. it felt better (sore, but not super painful like it randomly was for 8 hours last night), but the doctor took one look before saying it was super infected and calling in her colleague.
now: on a couple antibiotics and actually listening to the doctor about taking a day or two easy/off (she wanted more, but I told her that was unlikely to happen). pretty worried by how concerned the doctor were about it potentially infecting the bone (that happens??? :O), so frustrating. also: the doctors said that road rash should clear up "in like 3 days" which definitely sounded like BS to me, I've never had wounds heal as quickly as that. am I just weird? (and yes, i realize I'm asking the internet instead of trusting medical professionals) |
No way does road rash clear up in 3 days. The doc is thinking of a minor scrape or something. Probably never seen real bike crash road rash.
Did you clean the living heck out of the road rash the day of the injury? Like, relentless scrubbing with soap in a hot shower, tweezers if needed? That's super important, that road rash should look like fresh pink (bloody) baby skin by the time you're done cleaning it, on the first day. |
Originally Posted by globecanvas
(Post 19578873)
No way does road rash clear up in 3 days. The doc is thinking of a minor scrape or something. Probably never seen real bike crash road rash.
Did you clean the living heck out of the road rash the day of the injury? Like, relentless scrubbing with soap in a hot shower, tweezers if needed? That's super important, that road rash should look like fresh pink (bloody) baby skin by the time you're done cleaning it, on the first day. |
Ended up not going down to race at the track last night. The weather report last night said 70% chance of rain starting at 5 pm and carrying on until midnight. Those odds didn't seem good, so I decided not to drive 3 hours with the hope the rain would hold off.
And of course the forecast has pushed the rain back, and it now says it's probably not raining until 10, so the races are on. Just as I called it. I don't go, races commence. But had I driven down, I'm sure it would have rained. |
yes, i definitely went to town with a terribly tough scrub brush - reopening the wounds, cleaning them out completely. this isn't my first rodeo. i actually took pictures daily of the wounds (and before and after cleaning) and they all seemed to be progressing OK to me, but I guess that's why im not a doctor.
i think i probably should have applied some antibiotic cream/ointment on it after scrubbing it raw (i figured the scrubbing would be enough?). i also probably could have applied bandages more seriously to my arm (the scrapes weren't very deep, so the scabbed over pretty quickly and i figured i didn't need to really treat them as much any more). i think i also complicated things by running and biking on them a lot which probably caused more dust and dirt to be carried into the wounds by sweat. actually, come to think of it, the main place ive been running lately is a sewage treatment plant with signs that say 'INVISIBLE DANGERS!' everywhere, so maybe some of those 'dangers' got into the wounds. you live you learn (hopefully, we'll see what the doctor says monday... :P) |
Originally Posted by topflightpro
(Post 19579002)
Just as I called it. I don't go, races commence. But had I driven down, I'm sure it would have rained.
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Originally Posted by scheibo
(Post 19579008)
if you wanted to guarantee it would rain you should have just fully cleaned your car. that pretty much works every time IME
fify |
Originally Posted by scheibo
(Post 19578841)
now: on a couple antibiotics and actually listening to the doctor about taking a day or two easy/off (she wanted more, but I told her that was unlikely to happen). pretty worried by how concerned the doctor were about it potentially infecting the bone (that happens??? :O), so frustrating.
Post a picture. :) |
'clindamycin' and 'sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim'. they took a culture, so i might get different antibiotics on monday when i go back and they have the results.
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Originally Posted by scheibo
(Post 19579099)
'clindamycin' and 'sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim'. they took a culture, so i might get different antibiotics on monday when i go back and they have the results.
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iunno, looked like some sort of stick or brush they were using. i didnt look too closely, i was too busy trying not to scream bloody murder. ill be good and do nothing all weekend while taking my pills.
(seriously though, what do people do on the weekend if theyre not biking/running/driving to a biking/running race?) |
yard work ... house work ... eat?
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An infection sounds like a good excuse to avoid dirt and toilets. Eat and watch netflix.
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Originally Posted by scheibo
(Post 19579004)
yes, i definitely went to town with a terribly tough scrub brush - reopening the wounds, cleaning them out completely. this isn't my first rodeo. i actually took pictures daily of the wounds (and before and after cleaning) and they all seemed to be progressing OK to me, but I guess that's why im not a doctor.
i think i probably should have applied some antibiotic cream/ointment on it after scrubbing it raw (i figured the scrubbing would be enough?). i also probably could have applied bandages more seriously to my arm (the scrapes weren't very deep, so the scabbed over pretty quickly and i figured i didn't need to really treat them as much any more). i think i also complicated things by running and biking on them a lot which probably caused more dust and dirt to be carried into the wounds by sweat. actually, come to think of it, the main place ive been running lately is a sewage treatment plant with signs that say 'INVISIBLE DANGERS!' everywhere, so maybe some of those 'dangers' got into the wounds. you live you learn (hopefully, we'll see what the doctor says monday... :P) |
Originally Posted by Ygduf
(Post 19579330)
was it your arm that was on the pads when you rode your tt bike to my place that day? like where the ooze had ground into the pad.
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