July 5, 2015. At this point in the season, I’d already had stitches in my knee from a crash at the Transylvania Epic. I was racing at Gnar Weasels in Cumberland, RI. I’d pre ridden the course & felt pretty good.
The race started out fast, uphill. I watched as far too many people pulled ahead of me on the uphill start but I was over geared on my single speed so par for the course. About 1/2 way through the first lap, I was going down a rocky rough hill & the next thing I know, I’m going over the bars & the top tube of my bike smashes me in my most private of areas. Ouch. I get up with help & get off course. Gather myself for a moment & decide to abandon as I was a mess.
Getting back to start finish, I ran across a buddy I’d raced with earlier in the year. He was in a hammock next to a keg heckling. Hey Shoogs! Kris -crashed again? Yep. Have a beer. Seems reasonable, maybe I will.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’d been feeling as if I was urinating uncontrollably, have I? Well that was the sensation I was getting down there. No buenos. At this point, I had a glove off & had my hand on my left thigh. When I pulled my hand away, it was covered in blood. Uh oh…
Turns out I was not urinating, I was bleeding uncontrollably. Damn it, this might be serious. Shoogs goes white & tells me to get to start finish ASAP. I finish my beer & get to the promoters who promptly call an ambulance despite my protesting that I was pretty sure I could make the 1.5 hour ride to a hospital more local to me.
So long story short, after multiple invasive tests performed by the most attractive female health care workers I’d seen to that point, it was determined that I had a hematoma of the urethra. I got a catheter for a few days & healed pretty quick thereafter. But that day my spirit broke. I crashed too hard too many times that year. I dropped out of the Hampshire 100 a few weeks later. A couple of months after that, I blew out my back & ended up off the bike for a couple of years. Been back now for a couple more & am happy to say that I’ve avoided any serious injury so far!