champion of falls

I had two more falls on the bike trip, one on day two and one on day three. When I say falls, I'm talking about flying off of the bike and landing on the ground. There were plenty of times when I had to jump off of my bike but those don't count as falls since I managed to land on my feet every time.
The day two fall came as I was coasting down a hill. There was a curved bridge at the bottom that spanned a mud bog. As I was nearing the bridge, I heard Dave yell out "Visually directed steering!" It was his way of reminding me that the bike usually went where I was looking. I yelled back to him, "I've got it," and then quickly realized that I did not, in fact, have it. My wheels hit the bridge and I knew that I was going into that mud. Looking back, I really have no idea how it happened. Chalk it up to the pure, evil genius of my bike or my own ineptitude. Whatever it was, I flew through the air and landed in the mud, rolling head over heels. The mud squished up around my neck, coating the back of my shirt. I came to rest in a seated position, completely unharmed but covered in mud. Dave called out, "That was great! But you need more height next time."
On day three, I achieved the proper height. I was out in front, riding on a fairly level, packed dirt road. No major spills had occurred and I was feeling pretty good. We only had about an hour of riding left and I was thinking that I might just make it through the day. Then, without warning, a huge gaping hole appeared in the ground right in front of me. I had enough time to notice the edges of rotted boards before my front tire plunged into the hole and I went sailing up and over the handle bars to land on my belly in the dirt. I remember thinking how nice it was to be laying down and how the sun felt warm on my back. Then I heard Dave tentatively say, "Whoa. Are you okay?" I did a mental scan and hopped back up once I knew that everything was fine. Dave and the rest of my group thanked me for finding the hole for them and named me as the champion of falls as they walked their bikes around the hole. I humbly accepted my new title and got back on my bike to ride the rest of the way home.  

photo by: stoast  http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoast/1590172490/

PS. Thanks for indulging me this week! I'll be back to my normal blog posts on Monday.