Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Few days off followed by a highspeed crash
Well its been a week since I last wrote, and sadly, I have only had 1 more run, and not even a complete run at that, we crashed in corner 14. Last Thursday I was supposed to slide, but didn't end up sliding so I was trying to slide on Friday, but that also didn't happen as we had a sled malfunction - runners weren't responding to the steering. So saturday I spend the morning sanding runners, then into the shop for the early afternoon and then up at the track for early evening. My boyfriend had come up for the weekend to see me slide and Saturday would be the first time ever he'd see me slide - naturally we were both excited. My pilot and I are roaring and ready to go, I do 90% of the push, as she will be racing on Sunday, but we want it to be decently fast. Do our loads, and the run is going soooo smoothly, little pings here and there, but for the most part a very perfect run, and then we have a hit in corner 11 and suddenly the sled has flipped and I am violently yanked from the sled, at around 140km/h (it was a fast night at the track), I am spinning down the track on the ice, out of my sled. I try to stop myself so I dig my bobspikes into the ice on the short wall and on the actual corner, and eventually grind myself to a hault, where I know the sled will most likely be careening backwards towards me. So I drag myself out of the track and on to the platform in the middle of corner 16. By the time I am out, and sitting, that is when the pain hits me, my left hand is searing in pain, and my elbows well I can barely move my arms. The medics rush up and watch as my adrenaline levels plummet to the ground - now everything hurts. So they check me all out and decide its not worth the risk, send me to the hospital for x-rays on both elbows and my hand. As Terrance the track med says "I misdiagnosed hand last week, there is just too many bones, off to get x-rays you go, better to be safe than sorry". So now my poor boyfriend who has had to watch this wicked wild crash, where the bobsled ejects me then proceeds to do barrel rolls, breaking the back axle in the sled, destroying the bunk in the process and mushing the 15kg solid steel runner into some form of melted art. He rushes into the Medical room and sees me, alive and well, bandaged up, but smiling. What a relief, but he comments that he will never get that image of me being blown out of the sled at 140km/h. It's the nights like these that make you remember just why you are doing what you are doing, who you are with and what your life is about. I got lucky. So my boyfriend drives me to the hospital, get all my x-rays and I assumed I would be fine. I am, just crushed the tissue in my left index finger, and severely bruised my elbows - they are now black and deep shades of indigo and violet - but all good none the less. We then head home for a quiet evening of icing and movies.
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