“Ride #30: Crossing Paths”

Wednesday I left late for my ride, so I had to cut it a little short as I didn't want to be late for Bible class. I'd had a very good night's sleep, and after about twelve miles my average speed was still over twenty miles per hour!

Riding on River Road towards downtown Mystic, at about 5:50 PM. I get my first view of the drawbridge, and see that it's still down. "This is weird," thinks I, as the bridge goes up at "a quarter of" every hour to let tall boats through. It should still be up.

"Whatever," thinks I, deciding there must not have been any boats waiting this time so they didn't bother to raise it. Wouldn't be the first time.

River Road (or one of it's little tributaries whose name I can't remember) makes a 90 degree turn to the right. There's a bearing wall to the right of the road, and Mystic River to the left. I take the corner at about 20 miles per hour, a couple feet from the wall. Can't really see around the corner, but I can hear that there are no cars coming. (Please note that this road gets virtually no auto traffic.)

The jogger and I see each other at the same moment. "Oh crap!" says I, with gusto. He tries to jump to his left, but there's that darn wall. I swerve hard to my left, but there is no time. Poor guy bounces off me like a bug off a windshield, driving his chin forcefully into the muscle of my right shoulder in the process, hits the wall, then decides he likes the ground better. My feet pop out of the pedals, the wheels lock up as I clench the brakes, and the bike swerves madly.

Somehow, I manage to both avoid joining Mr. Jogger on the ground, or an unintended Mystic baptism in the river.

He's up again before I have full control of the bike, and asks if I'm alright. "Snap!" Feet locked into the pedals again, I respond that I'm fine, and ask if he's ok. "Me? I'm fine!" he yells, as he limps/jogs away, with his head cocked at an odd angle. "Um, are you sure?" But he doesn't answer, and so I'm off again.

For about another two minutes, that is. If Mr. Jogger was just a bug on the windshield, in Mystic I find the whole swarm. The bridge never went up because of a foot race coming through! Hundreds and hundreds of them, and all I can do is stand patiently on the side of the road, chatting with the other locals... including a cop, who keeps answering questions from the crowd with, "I don't know."

"Why don't you have any answers?" I ask him, "Isn't that a tour-guide's uniform?" (Cue laughter from the crowd.)

"Around here, it seems like it. Don't do much else." As Corinne says later, "That's fine with us!" (That the police don't have much to do -- besides act like tour guides -- is certainly not something to complain about.)

Anyway... even with all this craziness, this was by far the fastest ride I've had all year. I've included a copy of my performance graph (for the season-to-date) as proof. (The continually-updated graph is on the cycling diary.)

Stats: 31.91 miles (51.37 km) in 1h 38' 30" for an average speed of 19.43 mph (31.29 kph).

P.S. Hopefully "Crossing Paths" is an obvious enough title, but I also considered "Bump in the Road," "Bug on the Windshield," and even something about Immovable Objects and Irresistable Forces. ;-)

P.P.S. Yes, my shoulder still hurts. Not terribly, and there's no bruise, but the muscle feels like it would feel if I had over-worked it while exercising, or like it might feel when hit by a flying chin at 20-25 mph.