If anyone is interested in my Seacoast Half Marathon (Portsmouth NH, next Sunda 11/8) -- let me know and I will try to get it transferred to you. No charge or anything.

I was hit by a car while running last Sunday and have been in hospital for 8 days, so will not be running this race, or anything else soon.

On Sunday Oct 18th at about 11:40 in the morning, I finished the Bay State Marathon. I had a good training cycle leading into the race and was in the best running condition of my life.  Training base worked beautifully for 24 miles before the weather won for the last 2.2 miles.

One week later, on Sunday Oct 25th at 11:52 in the morning, while on my first longer run since Bay State I was hit from the side by a car going 35 - 40 mph breaking my arm, shoulder (surgery), vertabrae in my neck and lower back, tearing up right knee (future surgery) covering me road rash and leading to a week in hospital.

What a difference a week makes.

I'm home now and don't know when I will run again. Victory now is measured in small steps, literally, from the bed to the kitchen.  I'm in for a long recovery and the 2000 mile pace bunny will beat me this year.

I was eagerly looking forward to Seacoast, wanted to really  fling it out there for a new 1/2 PR and get a qualifying time for next May's Indy Mini seeded corals.

oh my goodness Andy! Again, thank goodness you're alive! {{hugs}} and healing vibes.

Was there an investigation into the accident? What caused it etc?

I replied in another thread, but just wanted to say I still can't believe it!  Andy lives only a couple of miles from me.  It's scary to think there are drivers like that in this area, but I guess they're everywhere.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts.  Typing isn't all that easy yet, so excuse my brevity...

After reading the police accident report, I am reminded that I'm lucky to have not split my head open or worse -- I'll be at least a year getting back to "normal"  -- but many things could have gone worse. For example, the hit threw me over the car and 70 feet down the road, but the car took 120 feet to stop and going over it means it didn't run me over.  It could have been fatal.

Here's some odd tidbits in response to some of the questions:

- the driver did stop, and some other folks did some real herioc on-scene help to keep my from drowning in my own blood and from trying to roll over, off my arm which would have been a bad move with my broken neck.

- The hit was hard enough to knock a shoe off and it was only found after someone searched for it.  Also there's a perfect circle cut on my finger where my wedding band was, but the wedding band is gone.

- My Garmin was confiscated for evidence, and as a biohazard.

It was a clear day, good site lines, so the question has to also include why did I run in front of the car, in addition to why did he not see me. 

I'm working through how much of my story to post here on RA without getting all dramatic -- its interesting real-world example of something we (and all our spouses) worry about.  I did post more over in the Maine runner section originally since I know some of those folks I-R-L, but haven't done anything out in the main forums.

I'll answer any questions -- but my main point here was to see if anyone wanted to run Seacoast.

Dear Andy,

I read our news while lurking in the Maine runners forum. I'm very thankful you survived the hit and are on the road to recovery.

A

(fomerly of Belfast, ME now in Canada)