Peets and Oatmeal... breakfast of champions
Jeff and Me with steamed artichokesFrom the artichoke stand we rode on to rest stop two where Ruben was their greeting us as Ernie with Bert and Big Bird. Of course, Ruben had to show us his yellow finger.... ugh...LOL!
From rest stop two we headed to lunch. Right before the turn to lunch, on the local neighborhood street I ran over some gal's head.
That's right. Julie Brown ran over someone's head- yes literally. Good thing she was wearing a helmet!! So let me explain...
This woman and her sister were riding in front of us. Yes I was about TWO BIKE LENGTHS behind her (and I have witnesses to confirm it), and we were all going at a good clip, probably about 16-17mph. She was apparently riding too close to her sister's wheel, because her sister slowed suddenly without calling out and she clipped her sisters wheel, sending her down and sliding backwards on her frontside as I rolled up quickly towards her. In order to avoid running over her neck, I turned my bars hard right and ended up running over her helmet instead. Thus, I can now say I ran over someone's head on the AIDS Ride.
Yes, she took me down but I didn't even notice that I went down because as I rolled over her helmet I thought- damn she's gonna be hurting! I went down, popped back up (so they tell me) and looked at her and said "are you ok? are you ok?" No response. Not even a moan. She was unconscious and looked like a little rag doll on the pavement. I immediately scream "call 911! call 911!!" Then realize, if we call 911 we are not going to get the local emergency services so I looked at the emergency 800 number for the Ride on my wrist bracelet and called that, got an answer immediately and got the ambulance there pronto. As I'm giving all the info to dispatch, she and her sister decide that she should stand up!! Ay yiyi!! by this time there is a Salinas Policeman on the scene and they and the EMT's are taking care of her....
Well she turned out to be ok, they did take her to the hospital at my insistance because I said "hello? I RAN OVER HER HEAD". Turns out she was fine to ride for the rest of the week. I had a nice big gash on my left knee (maybe you saw I rode with one knee warmer over the bandage all week?) and a gnarly bruise on my right thigh. When I told my cycle buddy about it that evening, she said... "and when's the marathon?" Oh damn, I thought - I forgot all about that!!
Anyhow we can joke about it now (and we do constantly) because she was fine with no major injuries--- so it has now been said that you'd better be safe around Julie Brown or she'll run over your head.
On another note- I GOT TO SAG for the first time ever!! yippeee for me! Since my knee swelled up pretty nicely at lunch, I decided I would take it easy and ice it for the rest of the day, since I really wanted to ride tomorrow as it was Quadbuster Day. This meant that I got to SAG to King City from lunch. It also meant I missed the skinny dipping bridge, Cookie Lady, the Otter Pop stop and the DMV at rest stop 4. It was a bummer because I found that riding the SAG bus is boring... but I did get to meet people on the Bus, which was nice too! I met Rebecca who is a TRL from L.A. and said she remembered me as her tent neighbor last year. (damn, and I though MY memory was good!) and I also got to ride with two of my newbies- Annette and New Nicole.
So all in all, it was a good day- except for the crashing part.
From rest stop two we headed to lunch. Right before the turn to lunch, on the local neighborhood street I ran over some gal's head.
That's right. Julie Brown ran over someone's head- yes literally. Good thing she was wearing a helmet!! So let me explain...
This woman and her sister were riding in front of us. Yes I was about TWO BIKE LENGTHS behind her (and I have witnesses to confirm it), and we were all going at a good clip, probably about 16-17mph. She was apparently riding too close to her sister's wheel, because her sister slowed suddenly without calling out and she clipped her sisters wheel, sending her down and sliding backwards on her frontside as I rolled up quickly towards her. In order to avoid running over her neck, I turned my bars hard right and ended up running over her helmet instead. Thus, I can now say I ran over someone's head on the AIDS Ride.
Yes, she took me down but I didn't even notice that I went down because as I rolled over her helmet I thought- damn she's gonna be hurting! I went down, popped back up (so they tell me) and looked at her and said "are you ok? are you ok?" No response. Not even a moan. She was unconscious and looked like a little rag doll on the pavement. I immediately scream "call 911! call 911!!" Then realize, if we call 911 we are not going to get the local emergency services so I looked at the emergency 800 number for the Ride on my wrist bracelet and called that, got an answer immediately and got the ambulance there pronto. As I'm giving all the info to dispatch, she and her sister decide that she should stand up!! Ay yiyi!! by this time there is a Salinas Policeman on the scene and they and the EMT's are taking care of her....
Well she turned out to be ok, they did take her to the hospital at my insistance because I said "hello? I RAN OVER HER HEAD". Turns out she was fine to ride for the rest of the week. I had a nice big gash on my left knee (maybe you saw I rode with one knee warmer over the bandage all week?) and a gnarly bruise on my right thigh. When I told my cycle buddy about it that evening, she said... "and when's the marathon?" Oh damn, I thought - I forgot all about that!!
Anyhow we can joke about it now (and we do constantly) because she was fine with no major injuries--- so it has now been said that you'd better be safe around Julie Brown or she'll run over your head.
On another note- I GOT TO SAG for the first time ever!! yippeee for me! Since my knee swelled up pretty nicely at lunch, I decided I would take it easy and ice it for the rest of the day, since I really wanted to ride tomorrow as it was Quadbuster Day. This meant that I got to SAG to King City from lunch. It also meant I missed the skinny dipping bridge, Cookie Lady, the Otter Pop stop and the DMV at rest stop 4. It was a bummer because I found that riding the SAG bus is boring... but I did get to meet people on the Bus, which was nice too! I met Rebecca who is a TRL from L.A. and said she remembered me as her tent neighbor last year. (damn, and I though MY memory was good!) and I also got to ride with two of my newbies- Annette and New Nicole.
So all in all, it was a good day- except for the crashing part.
