To: wist@magpie.com Subject: the long story... In-reply-to: Your message of "11 Jun 2001 06:30:00 EDT." <20010611063000.26985.qmail@magpie.com> -------- ahh. the long story: summary: Last month, I crashed racing my fzr400 with the Willow Springs Motorcycle Club. I screwed up going into turn 9, paniced and kept screwing up 'til I fell off the bike, highsided, and crashed onto the asphalt going over 100 mph. I broke my collarbone in about three places, chipped a bone off my heel, and had two bruises (one on my other big toe, and one on my shoulder where the armour took the impact...) Thanks to my Z Custom leathers, my Held Gloves, Daytona Frey boots, and HJC LT-12 helmet, I came out of my masterful f*ckup with onlythe two bruises, and two broken bones. Two weeks out of work, three weeks in a wheelchair while my foot heeled enough for me to walk on it, I'm hobbling along with one crutch still and waiting 'til I can get the cast off... the clavicle will take a few more weeks (months?) to heal. From all accounts, it was a pretty spectacular crash, with me rolling over and over again out of turn 9 while my bike ghostrode down the hot pitlane, where it then proved countersteering works when the left clipon caught, executing a perfect 90 degree right hand turn causing it to crash into the other pit wall at ~ 60 mph (according to my partner who saw the whole thing. I was too busy keeping my eyes closed as I rolled down the tarmac...) and completely thrashing its new paintjob and front end... What did I do? well, while racing my first race, I went into turn 8 thinking, "damn, I'm tired." and someone passed me. (Mistake number 1) HEY! I didnt know you were behind me! god damn it! and I put my head down and decided to see if I could keep up into turn 9. Except I forgot to downshift, and hang off, and had the throttle pinned for a lot longer than I thought I could handle. Mistake Number 2: I paniced, and rolled off the throttle, (instead of hanging off, downshifting, and leaning the bike harder... :-P) which caused thebike to go very very wide as I slowed down and downshifted... (Mistake number 3) Instead of rolling on the throttle and looking down the front straight, I rolled back on the throttle and looked at my front wheel and noticed how close to the dirt I really was... so, in that split second of stupidity, my front wheel went off the track and into the dirt, spitting me off... my last thought before I closed my eyes was "gosh, there goes my paint job..." as I curled up into a small ball with my arms and legs in... I was terrified of snapping a limb... I remember hitting the ground with my right shoulder and hearing something crack, and then I kept repeating that same mantra that my mom taught me when I was a little kid and afraid of the dark as I rolled across my back and over my knees and elbows and back across my back over and over and over again. I thought I should straighten out and just roll, and that's when my foot smacked down hard causing me to curl back up into that little ball and keep rolling for what seemed like forever. Finally, I came to a stop and realized things hurt a lot. I was breathing way to fast and was close to blacking out, and THAT, I didnt want to do. "Breathe slow. In thru your nose, OUT thru your mouth." and I turned my head to see where I was on the track. Things kept going to black and white and I coudnt see anything but edges. (I dunno why...) but I realized I was on the track, so I just lay still hopeing that my bright leathers werent going to be an object of someone else target fixating... Gods, it hurt. ow ow ow. I could tell my shoulder or collarbone was hurt, and my ankle was really sore... my right elbow was kinda sore too... and everytime I tried to sit up, my vision would go dark... (I think I'll just lay here now...) I heard bikes slowing down and stopping, and just as I wondered "Where is the ambualnce", I heard a women's voice, "Honey, are you ok?" and I opened my eyes to see a couple of Very COncerned people... I said, "no." and when they asked me the date, I said, "dunno what day it is, but its the third sunday in may..." Then a buncha stuff with the ambulance where they kindly got my helmet off, asked me numerous questions about my health and what meds I take and asked me what hurt.. When I wriggled my toes it hurt. OW OW! When they tried to get me to sit up I was terrified. What if I'd hurt my back. One of the ladies pointed out I could feel my toes... oh. 4.5 hours later, I was out of the hospital, happily filled with morphine, with the diagnosis of 'fractured clavicle' and 'chipped heel', wondering about my motorcycle... and how I was going to get up the stairs at home... 3 weeks later, I'm back to walking, and impatiently waiting for my collarbone to heal enough so I can get back onto a motorcycle... the bike needs a new front end, control, upperfairing, tachometer and a new front wheel, but squidboy's got most of that under control. *heh.* I have to thank all my friends who called, wrote, emailed, sent flowers and all their love. They are the best. Thanks also to Squidboy for always being there. I thought I'd broken myself of the habit of "when I panic, roll off the throttle" but I must have been more tired then I'd realized. Unfortunately for me, sedentary means I gain weight, so there's a long road to haul to lose it all again when this collarbone heals. That's the worst. I'll be driving up to Laguna Seca and missing about 4 months of racing (june, july, August at least...) and I promised myself I'm not getting back on tthe track to race 'til I'm back in better aerobic shape. On the bright side, when my collarbone heals a little more, I can go back to playing the violin and start to learn to knit or something. :-p Gayathri, resisting the urge to drink yet another milkshake... >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #98 '88 FZR400 ('gurlzbike') '98 T595 Daytona, "huckleberry" "The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire." - Brian Tracy