Biking to the skating rink today was actually the first time in a few weeks (since 2021-09-15) that I’ve biked or skated at all. This is because of a nasty incident I had jousting (without a lance) against a mailbox which was stupidly placed between the road and the bike path I was cycling on. Cycling at full speed. While I was extremely lucky to survive and even ride away from this event (barely), this collision required some astonishingly bad luck.
There is an image of the enemy mailbox. The green line represents the path of the rider who had passed me — not a common occurrence, so he was going pretty fast. I wasn’t right on his wheel but I picked up my pace to match his and rode several bike lengths behind him for a pretty long stretch. I know this route well enough to know that my turn off up ahead is inaccessible from the bike path when it once again separates from the road. Here where it is joined is where I must cross the street. I looked back to check for traffic — all good. I looked forward, started my move, and… mailbox. What. The. Fuck. A mailbox?! The guy ahead of me — riding sensibly — had just perfectly eclipsed the mailbox with his body and the post with his bike. I had a driveway’s width at 20+mph to do some self-preservation. I did manage to save my bike but I couldn’t shift my own mass to the right fast enough.
I’m pretty lucky to have survived and without a trip to the ER. But you don’t rip the door off a metal mailbox with your pelvis without some damage. It was my wrists that were most seriously injured; I think I led with my right palm and back of my left forearm.
While skating and biking are not a problem, even a light fall could be catastrophic for my wrist. So I dare not (until today). Very frustrating. Not exactly an ideal time to be trying new exotic skates, but I couldn’t resist. I actually wore all my ice padding today and was actually just taking it very easy.
But I mention this incident because it was an extreme example of how shit happens. I wouldn’t trade mailbox dodging skills with anyone and yet here we are. That mailbox was very badly placed and I think it was a real long shot that I got caught by a perfect storm of compounding issues (another one would be riding at night - I don’t even want to think about that). This may be the most extreme weird freakish bad luck event that has happened to me on a bike. Let’s hope this is a less than once in a lifetime kind of thing.