I was planning on running a 10 mile trail run called the Evansburg challenge today (outside of Philadelphia) but my weekend went a little haywire and I decided to skip it.
Friday night on my way up to the poconos (my wife and I have a place up there) I ran into a poorly marked median about .5 miles away from our house. I bent both of the aluminum alloy wheels on my land rover and both of my tires went flat. It was too late (about 10pm) to do anything about it that night and we made it the .5 miles to our driveway so it wasn?t a big deal.
Saturday morning I woke up and it was pouring rain out. Since Im a crazy tough runner type, I went outside in some of my gear and I changed the one bad tire and replaced it with the full sized spare. Soaking wet I took the other tire off of the truck and I loaded it into the rear of my mother-in-law?s Honda CRV and I drove it about 1 hour in the pouring rain to a place out side of Allentown, PA, that is capable of repairing alloy wheels?If I didn?t fix the wheel I wouldn?t have been able to make it to the trail race the next morning, so I was a bit frantic. I made it to the ?Wheel Collision Center? 30 minutes before they closed and I spent $150 to have my tire fixed?
Awesome. I have a fixed tire and now all I have to do is drive 1 hour back, put it on my truck and I will be set for Sunday morning. I will get to the trail run and have a good time with my wife.
About 40 minutes into my ride home from the "Wheel Collision Center" it started raining especially hard. I was driving on a large highway (65 speed limit) and I slowed down to about 45 which seemed to be the acceptable speed at the time. I got into the left lane as I prepared to merge onto another highway and the Honda CRV hit a slick spot on the road. My car started rotating counter clock wise. I tried to correct it but the car was not responding to my attempt straighten out the direction which the car was moving. I realized that my car was going to go off the road, I was head right for the blunt end of the start of one of those metal guard rails (there was a down sloping (about 40 degrees) grassy median off of the left shoulder) and I knew that I was in for a big crash.
When the car had rotated about 90 degrees counter clockwise, I decided that fighting it was a waste of time. I took my hands off of the steering wheel and I crouched down in my seat in a sort of make shift crash position and I waited for the impact. My arms were together against my legs and my chest was bent down to sandwich my arms beween my thighs.
The car continued to rotate until it made it to about 165 degrees in the counter clock wise direction, when the blunt start of the metal guardrail thing impacted with the rear right side of the CRV.
The truck flew up into the air and started to flip. I have no idea how many times I flipped over but the stupid roof hit me in the head about three times as it collapsed in on me, before the car stopped moving.
The car finally stopped (on its wheels side) with all of the windows smashed and the drivers side of the roof caved in almost all the way. I was still in the crouched crash position that I got into before the car started flipping. I did not move when the car came to a stop. I wiggled my toes and I wiggled my fingers and I waited about 3 seconds to see if anything hurt?nothing hurt so I decided to try and get out of the car?I had no idea if there was a fire or a gas leak or what. So I tried to open the door with out luck?it was smashed close. The passenger side door was also blocked by debris and other junk so I squeezed through the driver?s window, dukes of hazard style. As I was getting out the car, there was a guy running towards me yelling at me not to move (he was scared that I was going to hurt myself). So I got out of the car and I laid on the ground (pouring rain) until the paramedics arrived.
In the ambulance on the way to the hospital the EMT tried three blood pressure cuffs. After she tried the second time I said ?what is wrong?? and she said ?I cant get a good read on your blood pressure and pulse?I need to get your vitals.? I said ?What are you getting? and she said back ?Your blood pressure is around 115/70 and your HR is about 65. but it seems too low so I think that my cuffs are broken.? I said to her ?that?s normal for me?I?m a runner.?
Turns out I was ok. Nothing injured. I had a small scratch that is the size of a large freckle on my cheek and a couple of bruises on my head?I left the hospital about 2 hours later (after a chest xray and a ct scan). I rested for the remainder of the day and I slept in this morning. When I got back home tonight, I went out and ran 6 miles?nothing hurt and the run was great.
No doubt, I am one lucky ba$tard. The seat belt probably helped out a whole bunch too.
Best of all (besides not having died) I don?t even have to put off training for my first 50 miler at Pittsfield next June.
Thankfully yours,
Quaker
Friday night on my way up to the poconos (my wife and I have a place up there) I ran into a poorly marked median about .5 miles away from our house. I bent both of the aluminum alloy wheels on my land rover and both of my tires went flat. It was too late (about 10pm) to do anything about it that night and we made it the .5 miles to our driveway so it wasn?t a big deal.
Saturday morning I woke up and it was pouring rain out. Since Im a crazy tough runner type, I went outside in some of my gear and I changed the one bad tire and replaced it with the full sized spare. Soaking wet I took the other tire off of the truck and I loaded it into the rear of my mother-in-law?s Honda CRV and I drove it about 1 hour in the pouring rain to a place out side of Allentown, PA, that is capable of repairing alloy wheels?If I didn?t fix the wheel I wouldn?t have been able to make it to the trail race the next morning, so I was a bit frantic. I made it to the ?Wheel Collision Center? 30 minutes before they closed and I spent $150 to have my tire fixed?
Awesome. I have a fixed tire and now all I have to do is drive 1 hour back, put it on my truck and I will be set for Sunday morning. I will get to the trail run and have a good time with my wife.
About 40 minutes into my ride home from the "Wheel Collision Center" it started raining especially hard. I was driving on a large highway (65 speed limit) and I slowed down to about 45 which seemed to be the acceptable speed at the time. I got into the left lane as I prepared to merge onto another highway and the Honda CRV hit a slick spot on the road. My car started rotating counter clock wise. I tried to correct it but the car was not responding to my attempt straighten out the direction which the car was moving. I realized that my car was going to go off the road, I was head right for the blunt end of the start of one of those metal guard rails (there was a down sloping (about 40 degrees) grassy median off of the left shoulder) and I knew that I was in for a big crash.
When the car had rotated about 90 degrees counter clockwise, I decided that fighting it was a waste of time. I took my hands off of the steering wheel and I crouched down in my seat in a sort of make shift crash position and I waited for the impact. My arms were together against my legs and my chest was bent down to sandwich my arms beween my thighs.
The car continued to rotate until it made it to about 165 degrees in the counter clock wise direction, when the blunt start of the metal guardrail thing impacted with the rear right side of the CRV.
The truck flew up into the air and started to flip. I have no idea how many times I flipped over but the stupid roof hit me in the head about three times as it collapsed in on me, before the car stopped moving.
The car finally stopped (on its wheels side) with all of the windows smashed and the drivers side of the roof caved in almost all the way. I was still in the crouched crash position that I got into before the car started flipping. I did not move when the car came to a stop. I wiggled my toes and I wiggled my fingers and I waited about 3 seconds to see if anything hurt?nothing hurt so I decided to try and get out of the car?I had no idea if there was a fire or a gas leak or what. So I tried to open the door with out luck?it was smashed close. The passenger side door was also blocked by debris and other junk so I squeezed through the driver?s window, dukes of hazard style. As I was getting out the car, there was a guy running towards me yelling at me not to move (he was scared that I was going to hurt myself). So I got out of the car and I laid on the ground (pouring rain) until the paramedics arrived.
In the ambulance on the way to the hospital the EMT tried three blood pressure cuffs. After she tried the second time I said ?what is wrong?? and she said ?I cant get a good read on your blood pressure and pulse?I need to get your vitals.? I said ?What are you getting? and she said back ?Your blood pressure is around 115/70 and your HR is about 65. but it seems too low so I think that my cuffs are broken.? I said to her ?that?s normal for me?I?m a runner.?
Turns out I was ok. Nothing injured. I had a small scratch that is the size of a large freckle on my cheek and a couple of bruises on my head?I left the hospital about 2 hours later (after a chest xray and a ct scan). I rested for the remainder of the day and I slept in this morning. When I got back home tonight, I went out and ran 6 miles?nothing hurt and the run was great.
No doubt, I am one lucky ba$tard. The seat belt probably helped out a whole bunch too.
Best of all (besides not having died) I don?t even have to put off training for my first 50 miler at Pittsfield next June.
Thankfully yours,
Quaker
