[fabsroman]

KT,

Obviously you aren't a cyclist. Last I checked, I never crashed in water. Heck, I would have preferred that.

Let's see, I wrecked in a race on the ellipse behind the White House. At the time, we were probably going 30 mph. That resulted in a hospital visit. Had two other wrecks like that, but I just stayed home and toughed it out instead of going to the hospital.

What else. Like a moron I was drafting a truck at about 50 mph in the middle of the road. I hit a huge pothole, smashed my face into the handlebar stem when I lost my grip on the handlebars, broke, and I mean broke, both rims and blew out both tires, and lost both water bottles. On that one I was really lucky. Only thing I ended up with was a sore face and a 2 mile walk home (i.e., before the popularity of cell phones).

I have been forced off the side of the road by people driving cars on a couple of occassions, but have always been good enough/lucky enough to make it on the shoulder and/or grass.

Pretty much I had it easy. One of my cycling friends ended up paralyzed from the neck down when he wrecked and broke the vertebrae in his neck during a race. My training partner's father was killed at an off ramp when a motorist ran him over completely. The guy didn't speak English but knew enough to say that he never saw my friend's father, but only realized he had hit something when he felt the bumps.

Quite honestly, death can happen faster on the road on a pedal bike than on the water looking for ducks. I am sure that my buddy's dad would have liked a minute to save his life. Same goes for the guy that hit the asphalt never to walk again.

My motto in life over the past several years has been that if I have to think twice about something, I take precautionary measures. If I happen to think that the dog might eat something in the kitchen, I move it. If I happen to think I might die chasing some ducks, I leave the ducks for somebody else.

If you are ever on big water thinking "what if", you should have stayed home. I am a safety freak and my brothers and sisters give me crap for wearing a life jacket when the boat is moving and requiring my dad, who doesn't know how to swim, to wear a life jacket at all times.

Be safe everyone.