I realize that it’s been a long time since there has been any update on my website, and I felt like it was time to write and explain what’s been going on in my life since my last post.

Since Worlds in France I took a break from training to get myself ready for the second half of my season. This second half was extremely important to me– it had two World Championship races in it. The first being Long Course Du Worlds and, the second, Clearwater Ironman 70.3 World Championships.

After my break, training was going well, and I slowly began my build. I was enjoying workouts and things looked better and better every day for Du Worlds.

Then, over labor day weekend, I was hit by a truck head on while biking in the mountains near my parents’ house. I know what most of you were thinking… “oh if you would only stay off busy roads!” But I was not on a busy road at all. I was not, in fact, on a paved road either. I was riding my cross bike out on some desolate logging roads in the back country. I’ve ridden on these roads many times and have never seen a car or person for that matter. And yes, I was alone.

The truck came around a blind curve just as I was about to come around in the opposite direction. I had no where to go except for the hood of the truck. I flipped over the hood, and landed in the ditch next to the truck.

I quickly stood up, checking my right knee b/c that was where I knew I had hit the truck. The person who hit me I think was more scared than I was… he thought he’d killed me. He took me to the ER and my mom met me there… along with several of her friends and their families.

Xrays at the ER showed no broken bones. After a few more days, I went to my Chiropractor, Dr. Swank, who has been absolutely instrumental in my recovery. He ordered an MRI of my knee, started immediate physical therapy in his office, and has adjusted my knee to get it back in alignment (it was knocked out of place from the impact).

I’m happy to say that two and a half weeks later I am biking again and I will start running again soon.

It’s been difficult to see this last half of my season slip away. But I’m also thankful that I’m alive after this accident, and I’ll have a complete recovery. It could have turned out much, much worse than it did.

I’d like to say thank you to those who have been supportive of me during this time. It’s not been easy to stay focused with the pain of my knee, and it’s felt like “life isn’t fair” to me a little too much recently. However, I think I had it completely wrong. Life is good. And I’m glad that I’m going to get to keep on living it.

Now it’s time to get on with the off season, and start thinking about next year. I will not be racing Long Course Duathlon Worlds, since I am still not able to run and have just started biking again. Clearwater is still an undecided, I will make a decision about it closer to the race… although at this point it looks very unlikely.