Team LiveSTRONG
Many of you know last year I rode on Team LiveSTRONG to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in my Sister's memory. (Just got my email from the team, so I will be riding again this year!)

So, it is like Day 4 of a 7 day, 478 mile bike ride across Iowa. We overnighted at the University of Northern Iowa and after a great nights sleep, I was up and preparing to head out for the day. The team was having a meeting and I was REALLY frustrated because we were wasting time. See, July in Iowa is HOT. So every minute we wasted in a meeting before kicking off was a minute closer to the high sun and heat of noon.

The meeting was just mumblings about silly stuff and I reached my boiling point and decided to be Lone Wolf Citadel and snapped my right foot into my pedal and pushed off down a very very slight hill towards the sidewalk that would carry myself and my roadbike to the roadway for the start of the race. As I reached the sidewalk, I didnt realize it was as elevated from the ground as it was (about 1.5 inches) because the grass was so thick I couldnt see the base.

My front wheel connects with the sidewalk and after wrenching my front wheel to the left about 90 degrees, I go down. On my right side (so no free foot to catch my fall because, well, its ATTACHED to the pedal!) and the way I fell, my KNEE HAMMERED right into the perfectly sharp edge of the sidewalk.

After copious amounts of swearing, I was able to extricate myself from said bike and dragged myself to a nearby picnic table. Upon examination by the 'Team Physician' (I hope they werent paying him!) he patched up the inch long tear in my flesh and said "Right. You can be on your way!"

Later? I discover a sliver of my patela/knee cap has been chipped clean of the knee area. It's still there, floating around.

Karmatic Result you may ask yourself? My being a whiney git wanting to get on my way cost me one piece of my knee and ALOT of blood! So much for me being a 'Team Player' apparently. Though I have since pondered this a good bit and I have come to the conclusion that 'no good deed goes unpunished.'

The best part: the rest of the team left after they learned I was okay to ride. Bastards.
( Citadel Because the world needs less morons, Fri 22 Feb 2008, 16:13, Reply)