I was on my way to work on Thursday. A beautiful morning, light traffic, pleasant temperatures. The area in front of the White House was barricaded. Again. This time probably for P.M. Cameron. He and his wife were visiting DC last week.
I detoured the lazy way, turning left at H. H is one way in the wrong direction for a left turn here, so I got on the sidewalk. My intent was to get to 17th, take a left to Pennsylvania and continue on my way. The sidewalk narrowed as I passed Lafayette park. I moved over for some pedestrians. I rolled into a square of dirt around a small tree; that’s my reconstruction of what happened, anyhow. Whatever caused it, the dirt or the surrounding rim of cement (or something else), my bike and I went down. Anyone who wants to point out that this illustrates why not to ride on the sidewalk, point taken!
No damage to the bicycle, but some to me. A long shallow scrape on my right shin which hurt right away and a bump below my left knee that at first didn’t seem like much. A couple of kind passers-by checked to see if I was ok. Thank you for that!
Amazingly, the work clothes I was riding in came through fine. There was no outward evidence that anything had happened. I was very glad I was wearing a dark brown tunic and pants. It would have been a more embarrassing incident in a skirt. If I was a cycle chic type I think my outfit would have shown some damage.
I keep arnica gel at work, as well as bandaids and a cold pack. Occasionally I have needed one or the other. Thursday I used them all. As the day went on my knee started really aching. The evening commute was doable, though very, very slow. When I got home, I impressed John with the shin scrape. Cool!
I devoted the weekend to babying that knee. Arnica, comfrey, ice packs, heat packs. I was motivated. It’s spring and I don’t want to be sidelined! Each day, I was glad to find, I felt noticeably better. Today my knee was so much improved that I went out with John for an easy ride around the neighborhood. Not too bad. Looks like I will soon be fully healed. I feel very, very lucky to be recovering so quickly.
Mid-Atlantic Bike Commuting 