endo

A couple of friends from work took me mountain biking for the first time last night on the local trails in the hills around the lake. The trails are marked green, blue and black, like ski runs, and we did mostly greens and blues, then one black to see what it was like. Mostly I was fine and really liked it. However, about two minutes into the whole ride, on the first real downhill, I caught a pedal or something and flew off my bike and down the hill in what was later described as a "total Pete Rose slide". Opened up my knee, scraped up my thighs, hips, elbows, forearms, and did something as yet undetermined to my ribs. It was really lucky I was wearing gloves or my hands would be a mess. So at least I wasn't worried the whole time about taking my first fall. I got that over instantly. It didn't even hurt until I sat down after the ride and stiffened up. We rode for about two and a half hours and had a great time, went for beers afterward. What a crazy sport. Everyone we met along the trail had a more gruesome story about how they'd maimed themselves mountain biking. Clavicle breaks seem very common.