FOOSH!

What's FOOSH, you ask? FOOSH is the sound that a big goal or dream makes as it rapidly deflates. FOOSH is also an acronym used by the medical profession that stands for "Fall On OutStretched Hand" and is often the cause of a wrist fracture. And it's a shockingly powerful energy mint.

This weekend Sarah and I went to the Oregon coast with some friends for a fun relaxing weekend on the beach. Saturday afternoon while Troy, Dave and I were walking on the rocky jetty at the end of the Nehalem spit, I slipped on a rock and landed on... you guessed it, my outstretched hand. On impact it made a sickening muffled crunch noise like breaking a 3/4 inch stick wrapped in a piece of flank steak. I knew before I looked at it that it was broken. But I still had to look, and a quick inventory told me that I had one new elbow in middle of my left wrist that didn't belong there.

The next thought that entered my mind a half second after the realization that my arm was broken was the realization that my chances for making the Charly Miller society at this summer's PBP were also broken. I let out a stream of obscenity that caused nearby barnacles to blush.

From where I fell we had to walk a couple miles to where Sarah was able to meet us with the car. As we walked, my friends Troy and Dave tried to convince me that I would still have time to recover from this injury and train for PBP. I appreciated their efforts to cheer me up, but finishing PBP in 56:40 was always going to be a long shot. This injury will probably keep me off the bike for at least 4 - 5 weeks. Then it will take me a while to get some strength and mobility back in my arm, not to mention regaining the cardiovascular fitness and leg strength I'll lose while I'm off the bike. I haven't given up hope completely on PBP yet, but at this point just finishing may be my new stretch goal.