Hazards of having fun

On Sunday, Jim and I went bike riding with some friends on some local singletrack trails (basically, hiking trails for bikes). This was my first venture off-road, so I had a few falls (one about 5 minutes into our nearly 3 hour ride) and some seriously slow going. The trails were mostly dry, but there were a few wet and muddy spots, like this one (P.S. That's not me. I fell in less forgiving spots)...

I'm a huge wimp, so going up and down hills and through water and over logs was pretty intimidating. I got slightly braver as the day went on (not saying much), eventually inching through places like this

It's hard to tell from the picture, but this section is downhill to the sticks and then back up again. I was ridiculously excited to be able to do it. :)

We had a lot of fun and got ourselves (and our bikes!) super dirty. Here's Jim afterward.

My hand started hurting after that first fall, and when I took off my bike glove at the end I could see why. I had dislocated my right thumb. Nice. It would pop back into place, but it wouldn't stay there. Monday after work I visited first my doctor, then a hand specialist, then the hospital for x-rays, back to the hand specialist. It got me out of helping weed Jeff's dad's volleyball court, but not my first choice of how to spend the afternoon!

The end result was a splint until Thursday, when he's doing surgery to put two pins into my hand to keep my thumb in place until it heals. I'm not really excited about the idea, but it should be a lot easier to deal with than the cast that was the alternative! The bad news is that volleyball is out for the next six weeks, but the good news is that I can still run and ride my bike...on the road. The dirt trails will have to wait til the pins are out!