Beware of the Mad Cyclist

I had an incident yesterday while running the Subzero 5 miler.  The race started off fine.  However, about three miles into the run, a biker hit me.  I was cruising along on the Capital City Trail at around 5:30 pace, feeling pretty good, when I heard a biker coming up from behind me.  I was running on the right side of the trail, as I’m supposed to, and I could hear this biker as he kept getting closer and closer to me.  There was nobody approaching me on the other side of the trail (the left side).  Instead of going around me and passing me on the left, as anybody with any brains would’ve done, the biker tried to pass me on the right side.  It all happened very quickly.  As I tried to dodge the crazed cyclist, his front wheel came into contact with my left leg.  The biker wiped out, while I staggered for a few steps, though was able to keep my balance.  Being the good samaritan and paramedic that I am, I turned around to see if he was okay. But, as I started to approach him, the biker yelled, “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!”  If this guy is able to cuss at me and threaten to kill me, he mustn’t be hurt too badly.  Scared shitless, I turned back around and ran as fast as I could to the finish line.  I was running for my life, literally.  I crossed the line in 27:10, a 5 mile PR, and kept running an additional mile till I was home safe.  I came away with only a minor scratch to my left calf, but my shoe took a bad beating.  When the bike's tire hit my leg, the top of my foot scraped against the pavement, ripping a giant hole in my $200 Saucony Endorphin super-shoe.  It’s a pity because I really like those shoes, and they didn’t even have that many miles on them.  Arg. I guess I’ll have to go back to my old minimal Saucony A-Type racing flats, at least till I can save up enough dough to afford another pair of super-shoes. Or maybe I should just channel my inner Abebe Bikila and start running barefoot.

RIP

And another thing. After running this morning, my trusty Timex 30-lap watch of 8 or 9 years stopped ticking.  It took a lickin' until it stopped its tickin'. I guess I’ll have to start using Kramer’s method of telling time—by looking at the sun. At least till I can find the time to buy a new watch.