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skinned knee // 2002-08-11

yesterday, while practicing transitions for the triathlon, i forgot to take my foot out of the clips and fell in my bike. tipped over, is more like it. i knew that would happen at some point. (everyone says, when you first get clips, that at least once you'll forget to take your foot out and you'll fall and make a fool of yourself, but after that you won't ever forget again.) so i skinned my knee. i feel like a little kid first learning to ride a bike. it's really kind of cool, having a skinned knee. ok, it hurts a bit and then i couldn't swim because it would have gotten all soggy and nasty, but i don't mind so much. strange for me, really, since i hate the thought of hurting myself, so much i'm often petrified by fear and then i don't do things i'd like to do. i should just fall more often. like really try and hurt myself so i know i can just get up and keep going. in fact, last year in the triathlon i stepped on a little rock getting out of the water from the swim, and did the rest of the race with a rock embedded in my heel. i didn't even know it happened until i had finished the race and all of a sudden my heel hurt like a motherfucker. i took off my shoe to see a sock soaked in blood. they had to dig the rock out with tweezers and lots of rubbing alcohol. but now i have a cool story to tell and little white rock on a shelf in my kitchen and my heel is just like it was before.

before // after