Take a close look at the third rib from the bottom. Yup that's broken for sure. Doc says it will be about 3 weeks before I feel better and about 6 weeks for a full recovery. Once again thank you to Brian Eppen for waiting on the side of the trail with me, Teammate Ryan Krayer for getting help, and the first responders for towing my bike and me off the trail. Lesson of the day: Listen to your wife when she tells you not to ride. Story behind the lesson: I actually injured my ribs on a bike ride a couple weeks ago. Lynn didn't think it was a good idea for me to race, but I wasn't going to let a bruised rib keep me from racing, so we ventured up to Rhinelander anyway. As we were waiting for the race to start, I wanted to see for myself just how bad the rib was. I took a deep breath and noticed a bulge on my left side. I decided to try to push it back into place. This should have been my convincing moment not to race as it made a cracking sound. Lynn advised me not to race, but I had to prove her wrong. I decided to race anyway against her better judgement. Things weren't going great, but I was able to race. It was all going good until I went over my limit a couple of times and couldn't breathe, but I couldn't let Lynn be right. Then for no reason other then Karma, I fell off the small pine bridge and squared up perfectly on a rock. I couldn't catch a breath, and honestly was really scared I messed things up bad. From the vantage point of other racers, it must have looked just as bad.
So again, thanks to everyone who helped me get my pathetic carcas off of the trail, and I appologize to those that I scared (Lynn and Ryan for sure).
Wish me a speedy recovery, and thanks for all of your good thoughts!
Darrin
AKA Big D
