Vermillion Border

My new word(s) for the week is Vermillion Border. I never knew I had one until I needed to get it stitched up after a head on collision with the back of the car on Wednesday during my first bike ride in over a month. Why the guys (Connie & Pete of the tri fraternity) decided to head into town and all it's traffic for the lunchtime cycle i'll never know - hindsight is a great thing. In summary I misjudged the car in front which had momentarily stopped to let oncoming traffic past at the bottom of Sundays Well Hill and on taking off I looked down briefly to change gear only to look up and see that the car had stopped again (careful driver) and there wasn't enough time /room to brake in the 2 yard gap between us - so instead the first brake, of wheel against car, slowed forward momentum but not enough to stop me from going head first over the bike and connecting with the back of the car (second brake). My instinctive hand up to my mouth to check for damage revealed quite a bit of blood - so I guessed my upper lip was cut - quite bad I feared by the amount of blood, although I couldn't tell as the whole area was numb. No damage to car or bike. The guy I bumped into turned out to be a cardiologist - can't get one when you need one and I bump into the only one in Munster. He kindly drove me to the A&E of Cork University Hospital where I got assessed and told that it was important to match up the Vermillion Border on both sides of the cut, where the first suture would have to be ( I assume so that my family would recognise me afterwards) and so after 4 hours, 8 external and 5 internal stitches I was discharged into the loving care of my wife. To be quite honest it's more of a hindrance/embarrassment than anything else. The worst pain was the €55 for the antibiotics that the Doctor prescribed and the €100 A&E bill (yet to come). I must say that the care I received was excellent. I couldn't fault the A&E staff, who sometimes have to work in very stressful situations and I had no problem putting up with the wait (wasn't too bad in this case). On the running front my body has all but forgotten that I ran a marathon less than 2 weeks ago. On the Saturday before the marathon my resting heart rate was 38 and this morning it was 37. It shows that I'm in as good a shape as I have ever been - well since I started recording my RHR 3 years ago! Tuesday's track session was 3 x 2km @ 7:55 (6:20 miles) w/ 2min recoveries and while we didn't hit it for the first 2k we got there or thereabouts for the last 2 - 8:03/7:56/7:56. My mid-week accident left me a bit drained so I refrained from running until this morning when I headed out for an easy 5 miler in the rain. In terms of plans for next year, Adrian (my original running partner) and I have tentatively set our eyes on the Barcelona Marathon on 7th March, which we both ran in 2007. Other options include the Rome Marathon on 20th March and Paris on 11th April. Or there's the Connemara Ultra, also on 11th April, for which Barcelona would be a nice training run!!! Decisions Decisions. Monday 2nd Nov

2.5 miles in 19:50 907:56 pace - Treadmill) Tue 3rd Nov 7.13 miles in 58:16 (8:10 pace) with 2 x 2k in 8:04/7:57/7:56 Sat 7th Nov 5.26 miles in 43:59 (08:21 pace @ 126 HR) Paul and I chasing hares at the HSE 4 Miler on 1st November (Photos Courtesy of Richard Cronin)