defying death for fun

  

“No sport is worth doing unless you risk your life doing it,” a hang-gliding friend once told me. Joking, I guess.

Well, I figure that rules out chess, ping pong, bowling and tennis.

But my favorite sports have been skiing and biking, which meet the qualifications.

There’s such a thrill at the top of a black diamond ski run, looking down and wondering if you can make it without falling. You forget everything else in your life. You are living “in the moment.”

In at least 200 skiing days, I was never injured, except  once in supposedly safe cross-country skiing, when the guide at Aspen took us down an icy road that turned to pavement and I fell and broke a rib.

I felt safer skiing than on a bike, where I had numerous accidents, as most avid bikers do.

I broke another rib while fooling with the gears and hit a sign once. I fell when hit by a car that went through a stop sign. Fortunately, the driver was a nurse.

And worst, I ran into another cyclist seven years ago in downtown Washington, D.C. We were in seemingly safe two-way bike lanes in front of the  Treasury Building, ironically below the window where I used to work. I think a tourist walked in front of us and I didn’t see him.

I landed on my head and had a concussion, but I was also wearing a helmet, which cracked.  The best part was the Secret Service rescued me. I guess I must be important!

I was released from nearby George Washington University Hospital the next day after answering a dozen questions about what my name was and who was president.

I still ride an e-bike, even after crashing into one of the trees on our property a few years ago. When you think about it, it really is a motorcycle.

So I hope I haven’t dissuaded any of you from trying these sports. I mean, they didn’t kill me, did they? Yet.