What a weekend!

These passed few days have been a whirlwind, physically, emotionally and mentally. As Eric wrote in his previous post we just attended Team Donate Life’s spring training camp. The first day of camp was supposed to be a 60 mile ride. By the time we all met up at Bicycles Plus there was lightening, hail, and heavy rain. We cut the ride short, but still got pelted with lots of hail and rain. If it wasn’t the first day of camp, I would have just gone home and got on the trainer or better yet, changed into my jammies.

The second day was a 100 mile ride with 11,000 feet of climbing. That’s a tough ride! Everyone did great! That evening riders, crew and family met up at Bicycles Plus for a yummy dinner and to catch up with some old TDL friends and to meet new ones.

The third day was a RAAM simulation. All the riders were split into teams of two with three crew members following in a vehicle. It was a chance for the crew to learn how to help the riders with transitions, to navigate, to drive, and take care of the riders. It was pretty crazy because there were so many teams and so many cars on the road. But it was fun! I was teamed up with Bob, who was crew chief last year and has raced RAAM before. Things were going great and the crew was learning a lot. We had just been following Bob down a fast descent down Salmon Falls Rd and the crew was looking for a safe spot to make a transition. When we were getting ready to round a corner we saw another crew member waving a big orange flag. Then I saw Jen, a rider, near him signaling cars to slow down. I immediately knew something was wrong when I saw a rider out of the car and off her bike. We all then saw the other side of the road were a bunch of TDL people hovering over a rider who crashed. I was looking for Eric and I couldn’t find him and I knew he was somewhere in front of our team. I jumped out of the truck before it was stopped. I immediately started running up to the road, but decided to walk, because have you ever tried running in bike shoes? You really can’t! I asked the first two people I saw with TDL who crashed and they didn’t know. The next three people I asked didn’t know either. Then I saw Cayden across the street near the crash site and she waved for me to come there. Crap, it was Eric.

I knelt beside him and grabbed his hand. He was surrounded by Dr. Ray Thomason, Dr. Bodily, and Chris Biesinger, a nurse. He was so lucky to have them there to help him. They were asking Eric simple questions, which he wasn’t answering correctly. Eric couldn’t even remember crashing. We were all patiently waiting for an ambulance. He looked good, no broken bones, not too much blood, but he just wasn’t getting the damn year right when they asked him. The medics arrived and loaded him up in the ambulance. It was determined that they would get the helicopter to transport him to the hospital since he had a head injury and they didn’t know the extent of the injury. As we rode to the site where the helicopter would land, Eric started to talk more and remember the crash. And then he would finally correct himself when he got the year wrong.

I looked up from the ambulance and saw two TDL crew members, Tad Rogers and Virginia Nunez, waiting to take me to the hospital to meet Eric. I was so relieved to see two of my TDL family. Once the medics took Eric to the helicopter and I headed up to meet Tad and Virginia, I finally shed some tears. My son Tucker, and I have had multiple hospital visits, some life threatening. Thank God, we survived, but through those I have learned to remain calm and wait to hear news from the doctor before I react. But seeing Eric leave for the hospital in a helicopter for unknown head injuries and seeing him worried and scared, it finally hit me. We watched the helicopter leave and then drove to the hospital.

The doctor had the results of the CAT scan fast and said there wasn’t anything wrong. The tech bandaged up Eric’s finger that had a bad cut on it. Other than a big bump on his head, his cut on his finger and lots of scratches on his back, he was fine. So they discharged Eric within less than two hours. He walked out of there with just a bandaged finger.

I can’t even begin to express my gratitude to everyone with TDL. They were all concerned and quick to help with whatever we needed. We are so lucky to have such a huge extended family. And of course a huge thanks to our friends, family and our Folsom PD family who were also there to help in a heartbeat.

Once Eric’s head is a little less cloudy he will blog about his version of the crash. God was truly watching over him that day. His crash could have been much worse if he had crashed on the asphalt instead of the dirt. I can’t even begin to imagine it.