My Blog

I had hoped to have a great season this year, but ended up coming into a rhythm section too hot, and  broke my left collarbone June 8th. Doctors orders were to play it cool for three months until things healed up. I also had a pretty nasty concussion, and still don't remember what happened at all. At that point, my collarbone was overlapping by about a half inch, and they decided I didn't need surgery to fix the problem.

Since I had already gotten my season membership, I asked the organizers if I could "putz" through the rest of the races until the last two where I could ride again. Since we don't have a large showout in the Women's class each time, they agreed, and I kept riding. In order to follow doctors orders, I couldn't do any jumps, or ride even half as fast as I wanted. There was too great of a risk that I could puncture my lung if I went down.

A little over halfway through the season, I picked up a 2002 CR 125, and started taking that to the races, and sold my 80. Unfortunately, it hadn't been very well maintained, and I had to put a lot of time and work into it. When all was said and done, I still couldn't touch the ground on either side by about 3 or 4 inches.

Finally, my 3 months were up, and the doctor said I could ride again! Two days later I went to practice at the local gravel pits, and had a great time. It started raining some, so we decided to pack things up. However, I decided to try load my big bike without help by riding it on to my trailer. With the rain, things were very slippery, and the front end washed out. I bailed off, but ended up landing right on my bad shoulder.

It snapped the bone right in half where it had broken before, and I found myself feeling "deja vu" all over again, as my friend drove me to the same hospital. This was two days before the last two races of the season.

For the first time, I went to a race and watched my class prep their bikes and line up at the gates.

It rained so hard that they cancelled the second set of motos, and postponed the second race. This was lucky for me, as by the time they re-scheduled things, I was out of the sling, and ready to go for a few easy laps. The track was absolutely perfect, and I was a little jealous that everyone else was flying over the jumps with ease while I was carefully rolling them. Then, as luck would have it, my bike fouled a plug two turns from the finishline on the last lap.

I asked if I could push it across the finishline for a last place, and the organizers let me. I had a really tough time pushing it through the ruts, but I did make it. The bike weighs twice as much as I do. They started the next moto, and I began pushing back to my pits which were at least 1/4 mile away. The organizers had stopped by to help, and had gone to find someone to help me get back to the pits...but it took quite a while. I was about 3/4s of the way back when one of my fellow racers finally ran up to help me (Thank you Shea!) And a minute later, the organizers came back with another guy to help get me the rest of the way back.

The second moto went without anything crazy happening, but my shoulder was feeling pretty badly at that point, no matter how slowly I went through the ruts and and bumps.

I have decided to switch back down to an 85 Expert for the time being.

I have about 5 more months of recovery, which will allow me to mod the bike to suit my riding style and skill.

I'll be back, and more competitive than ever next summer!