Monday, September 24, 2007

game over?



It doesn't hurt all the time, only when I stand on it. Not much bruising, but that will come. I'm praying for enough recovery to allow me to race Gloucester in three weeks. I promise to be good until then... promise. Here's the story...

Yesterday the whole family made the trip to Bedford for a new cross race at Middlesex Community College but upon arrival we discovered that the relatively small field (50) for the elite master's was full. I jumped on the 3/4 waitlist and 15 minutes prior to start, I got the call: I'm in.

Third row spot, but no big deal, this one doesn't really count. This race is training, time to try something new and/or stupid. It ain't Gloucester. At the gun I'm 9th or so into the first few turns and 6th by half way through lap 1. The speeds are low and I didn't want to be behind a crash on the loose peety run up with a quick transition to a bony peety downhill. I moved to the front and came through that section in the lead. Feeling less constrained by the pack, I set my own pace and was soon enough well off the front for the first 3-4 laps. A Cambridge Cycles rider came up and passed, I was tiring but noticed that only he, Rosenthal and Lynne Bessette were gaining. I couldl live with that. Rosey caught me next, and offered well wishes/condolences as he rode past. Bessette was on me with 2.5 to go and passed me at the S/F line, pulling me back up to Scott a bit. I was resting a little bit on her wheel and decided to get in front of her for the run up as she had bobbled it earlier and again I didn't want to get held up because someone else did something wrong... even though it was Lynne Bessette.

Off the bike to hurdle the barrier and start my run up when my right foot lands sideways on this rock trying to support all my weight. It rolls to the outside and I go down. Race over. Season over? Man that hurt. I crawl under the tape and the EMTs are there with ice, ace bandages and no ibuprofin. The rest of the day kind of sucked.

On a good note, Saturday the Zanconatos invited us to join them apple picking and we had a great time. Last time we all went apple picking it was late in the season and they just told us to gather some apples up off the ground. No thanks. These babies were perfect. It was a beautiful fall day but our bellies ached from eating too many apples.



6 comments:

zank said...

no game over. You will crush their souls at Gloucester.

Yash Katsumi said...

Yo, I hit that same rock and twisted my ankle on the first lap. Today, my ankles are more like Cankles. It looks like I have had an allergic reaction.

Get bettttter!!!! I have theorized that if it were not for the Ginormous calfes, the ankle would have broken.

EyeBob said...

Matt, sorry to see that. I didn't realize that that was you off the front otherwise I'd have snapped several photos of you too. (Zank likes looking at himself a lot. He LOVES the photos that I take and send him.).

Get well. Rest up a bit.

Bob Tyszko

zank said...

I am very vain.

josh said...

you'll be back....you're a friggen hockey player aren't ya?

rest up and feel better, I too rolled my ankle slightly in the spot and its slightly swollen today, though not nearly as bad as yash or yours.

The Waterboy said...

No game over yet. You come from the land of Mike Norton. I'm sure you will come back with an angry hunger to rip peoples legs off in a bike race.(I have seen Mike Norton take out his vengence on the world)

Get well soon