A few posts ago I mentioned that I escaped my first rollerblading outing without incident. Since then I have gone rollerblading quite a few more times, usually on weeknights, and I have not had any problems. As a matter of fact I was getting very comfortable on my blades this year.
Today, I drove to my old store and parked my car and strapped on my Rollerblades. I headed for the bridge and down to the river for about an hour skate. I had my sunglasses on and my I-Pod blaring (oh yeah and no pads or helmet on). I was skating along nicely, but it was very busy down by the river because it is so nice out. About 500 yards up the path I see a group of people walking slowly but there appears to be enough room for me to go around them. as i approach I enter into the other lane to pass and see a man running with his dog.
CRAP! I am alongside this group of tourists walking calmly along the river and have a man walking with his dog approaching me on the other side, I try to speed up and jut barely get around the tourists and seem to avoid the running man, but unfortunately I get tangled in the dogs leash. I try to free myself but I loose my balance and head down right side first with left leg tangled with a barking dog. I hit the ground hard and I am like roadkill as the tourist walk around me without asking if I am OK. The man comes running over to claim his dog as I dislodged the leash from his hand as I fell. He asks if I am okay, and besides a few scrapes and probably some bruises I am fine, just a bit embarrassed. I wish I had seen this man before I went out for the pass but I didn't and now I am laying in the dirt on the side of the path bright red and somewhat battered.
The worst part is that I am still a 20 minute skate away from my car, so as embarrassed as I am I have to get back up on my skates and head back to the car. I skate tentatively for a few hundred yards and start to think that this is ridiculous. I hope I don't fall again but I was doing well so even though I fell down and went boom, I will be OK. I returned to my car without incident and took off my skates. But the worst part was still to come, I had to get home and clean out my wounds, as I scrub the gravel out of my knuckles with an alcohol swab and mutter and scream in pain at I decide that maybe I will take the rest of the week off from rollerblading. Or at least some time, because the threat of falling again and needed to clean out my wounds is a little bit unsettling.
No comments:
Post a Comment