I'm still standing!

And there I was again, on the starting line of yet another race. This time it was only a ride, 56 miles to be exact. It was a beautiful morning in Mountain View, 65 F and sunny. However, the ride was not in Mountain View but in San Mateo: fog , wind and 54 F. Check-in went well, and on our way we rolled. Once we got out of San Mateo, the sun came out and the views were great. Grateful to be in my first race since June last year, I took in the great competitive atmosphere and the scenic route. As we got to the top of one of many climbs and started our decent, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. As I turned my head and saw a deer coming full throttle down the mountain side I thought: is this how peolple will remember me, the guy who got taken out by a deer? There was nothing I could do but to anticipate the impact. Seconds later the deer's head hit my hip and he spun like a tumbleweed in the wind, and I .... nothing! I kept going like nothing had happend. The only evidence that I was hit was the non-functioning speedometer. Who would have thought that getting hit by a deer on my bike would be my first animal encounter while on a vehicle?

The race went on and I finished in 3 hours and 23 minutes. In retrospect I feel really lucky that I'm in one piece after my, hopefully, one and only deer encounter.