Rules of the Road

Training for triathlons means putting in the miles: running down the road, cranking the pedals, and (finally) venturing into the open water. We're careful when we're out there: we wear reflective vests during our many nighttime runs, have blinky lights, usually have a phone on hand, wear helmets, and roadIDs. But, still, accidents can happen. A week ago, while biking to work on a backroad, I took a turn a little close to the inside, and suddenly was off the pavement. On a mountain bike, it'd be recoverable. On a racing bike with 1"-wide smooth tires, sliding off into sand and wet grass, on a downhill slope, you're pretty much just along for the ride. At least until the bike decides to stop, and then it's just you and Isaac Newton. This particular morning, it was up and over the handlebars and onto my back onto someone's lawn. After a few well-chosen curses, I realized that I was more or less unscathed: a little pain where I landed on my back, a hard whack on one forearm, and a tire slightly askew.

As it turns out, the pain where I landed on my back was slightly less than it otherwise would have been, because I'd landed on the hip-pack, which held my wallet, some odds and ends, and my phone. Clearly, my phone got the worst of it:

I have great admiration for Gorilla Glass, but there isn't much that can be done to keep a 1-mm thick piece of glass from being completely shattered by being underneath a 140-lb rider. Not to worry: replacement parts weren't too expensive (about $100), and I already had ample experience in fixing my phone. Still, a somewhat costly mistake to make.