Weekend in Kemah, railroad tracks, I go THUD again!

I took some time of from the Blog, lots of stuff happening at the office in preparation for the Valero Bike to the Beach. You know by now that I’m the Vice President for the National MS Society in South Texas. But I still rode this past weekend, with an incident!

I ended up in Kemah, Texas, with some cycling friends. I rode on Saturday, though it was hit and miss after a torrential downpour overnight. Anyway, after breakfast, the skies cleared and the sun came out. So we all raced back to our rooms to change into our cycling gear…though I suspect there was some disappointment, since the night before we had celebrated a little and likely more than one of us on Saturday morning was feeling a little under the weather…

Anyway, we hit the rode. I made it over the Kemah Bridge, slowly! About 10 miles into the ride the heavens opened and the group found itself in the middle of not only monsoon-style driving rain, but also the distant rumbling of thunder. But the intrepid group rode on. Somewhere around mile 15 we approached railroad tracks (still raining). Our lead rider made it over, but the second rider didn’t (I was 3rd). The tracks hit the road at a 45-degree angle, no I didn’t measure the angle, but you get the idea. All the books and cycling gurus will tell you that crossing tracks should be at 90 degrees. So I guess it was inevitable that my friend’s accident was bound to happen.

It was her rear wheel that lost traction on the tracks and skidded out from under her. This pushed her front wheel into the “groove” of the tracks and so she went down with a wet THUD! Fortunately, she was able to walk away with just a small road rash on her knee. Unfortunately, her front wheel folded like a taco. Unable to ride on, she and a fellow rider hung out at the scene as the rest of us rode back to secure a pick-up vehicle.

Riding back to the start, where the vehicles were located, a huge flash of lightning was followed by a bone-shaking thunderous boom. It set off car alarms on the parked vehicles we were passing. Not needing to prove anything, and knowing our friend was okay, we all ducked under a car awning and waited out the weather.

About 30 minutes later, the thunder let up, we hit the road. We later rescued my friend, and that evening relived the ride on the jetty of our host’s home (jutting out into Galveston Bay), grazing on a fantastic shrimp boil and home-marinated quail. And some adult beverages.

We debated the day’s ride distance, but I calculated from the conversation it was around 22 miles.

On Sunday, we awoke to a brilliant morning. I don’t think everyone had breakfast, though most had coffee. We hit the roads around Kemah and pulled off about 44 miles. I felt strong all day, so was looking forward to at least completing my first 50 miles. But before I knew it, the ride was over and we were sitting at the table eating a wonderful breakfast, before helping straighten up the home and then driving back to San Antonio.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I fell on Sunday morning? What worse is that I fell in the driveway BEFORE the ride started! And, I fell on the same knee I’d fallen on just 2 weeks earlier. I haven’t ridden this week because of the swelling and the ache as I walk. But I plan to put in a solid 40 miles on Sunday, wheels down at 7 a.m., at Comal Elementary School.

C ya on the road. Tony
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