Man Down! Medic! Meeeeediiiiiic!

No, not me.

Far worse - Daughter.

I thought we’d try going out as a threesome this evening - me running with Huge Dalmatian, and Daughter cycling. She wanted to go all the way to the end of the Tyne’s North Pier (about 4.5 miles round trip), so this looked like being a really good workout.

Trying to keep up with Daughter on her bike’s hard when I’m on foot, and Huge Dalmatian alternates between running at a speed that I almost need to sprint to keep up with (if I want to keep my shoulder un-dislocated), and acting like a sack of potatoes that needs dragging along.

Anyway, we were just past Cullercoats harbour, and I was on the main footpath of Beverley Terrace, with Daughter bowling along on the path that runs parallel, through the gardens about four feet away. The trouble is that there’s a sunken bit to the gardens - about four feet below the main path’s level. You can see it on this satellite image - the path I was on is next to the road, running top left to bottom right, and Daughter was on the narrower path that ends up going around the diamond-shaped flower beds.

She’d been watching kids ride their bikes down the 30-degree slope into the sunken area the day before (and pulling jumps on the way out the other side), and today decided to give it a go. When she was riding flat out.

She almost made it too.

Except her front wheel got caught in a rut hidden beneath the grass . .  . and down she went.

Thankfully, most of the impact was on the grass, and it was only the final bit of skidding to a stop that was on the pavement. Not so good was that she did this bit with her face. The visor from her helmet popped off and gave her a smack on the nose (some bruising, but I figure better than gravel), and she split her lip.

By the time I’d stopped (almost garroting  Huge Dalmatian in the process), and run down the bank, she’d taken that long, huge breath that kids do when it really hurts, and they want to let you hear all about it.

So we sat there cuddling on the grass, bloody, with Huge Dalmatian very concerned, and passers-by . . . er . . . passing by. And once I’d got her calm, I checked her teeth (all present and correct; well as present and correct as a six-year olds ever are), the cut lip (minor, but more blood than she was used to seeing!), the grazed thumb (no sprain as such).

So we got her bike back up onto the main path, and I’m proud to say that with a little persuading, she got back on her bike, though she was in no mood to go any further, and we just headed home. When she saw her face in the mirror, she got pretty upset, worried about what everyone would say at school . . . but that anxiety soon went away once she’d let us clean up the blood - apart from a slightly swollen lip there’s now almost nothing to see.

Gave me one heck of a fright though!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 09/19/2007
• Time: 18:30:00
• Total Time: 00:10:00.00
• Distance: 1 miles
• Average Pace: 10:00/mile

Filed under: Family, Injury, Run