for my 25th bday I got a..

broken collarbone. Yup, kejadiannya 8 Januari kemaren di Cikole. Crashed di chickenway-nya drop setelah berm zigzag abis section doremi. Suddenly I got sent over the bar and landed shoulder first. Don’t ask me why I got sent over the bar in the first place, I too don’t know the cause. I crashed, dan meskipun ngga ilang kesadaran, pas nyoba bangun tangan kanan ngga bisa dipake buat numpu. Dislocated shoulder was what came to my mind first. Took of my T-shirt to do some inspection, and when I felt a bulge on what was supposed to be my clavicle, I was almost sure that it must be broken.

TKP, foto diambil dua hari sebelum kejadian. Kredit foto: Arly Aurizki Putra

Made an emergency arm sling from my T-shirt (dan arm sling itu dibilang bagus sama dokternya, hihi), and got evacuated to Bandung. Admitted to Halmahera Hospital where I was X-ray’d. It really was a fracture. Patahnya di 1/3 tengah klavikula kanan, oblique. Karena masih bingung mau operasi atau ngga, akhirnya di Halmahera cuma di fiksasi dengan ransel velband. Spent the night in Jakarta, the next morning I was told by a relative, who also a doctor, to be operated in Solo. Took a quite cheap Garuda flight w/out reservation that same morning (some panic event omitted here) and I was operated on the evening. 🙂

before and after.

Selama masa pemulihan di Solo, which is quite boring for the first few days with no internet connection, I’ve spent my time wondering what went wrong. Rider atau sepeda? Kondisi trek? Kenapa jatuh? Cara jatuh yang salah? Well, on to elaboration. Kondisi badan hari sabtu itu terbilang fit selain pergelangan tangan kanan yang range of motion-nya belum full sejak jatuh hari minggu sebelumnya. Paha kanan ada yang ketarik sedikit karena memakai seatpost yang terlalu pendek ketika riding hari kamis (ketika foto di atas diambil). Setting sepeda cuma ganti seatpost+saddle aja dari setting riding sebelumnya. Kondisi trek sangat kering, tidak seperti Cikole biasanya yang licin-licin asyik.

Lha, kalo gitu kenapa jatuh? Well, I was riding faster than ever (it was unusually dry!), but I’m sure I was riding within my capabilities. I wasn’t trying new lines. I kept my vision way ahead and wasn’t “surprised” with berms and drops. Right, berms and drops. No wonder I crashed on a chickenway. Thing is, a chickenway is usually designed to be a way around a big obstacle. Hence the name. People usually ride it SLOWLY. At the moment of the crash I was exiting the previous berm way quicker than I usually was and hitting the chickenway quite fast. On second thought, my speed was actually enough to clear the drop next to chickenway. I didn’t take the drop because I’m not familiar with it and it somehow seemed quicker if I took the chickenway. 🙄

So, my front wheel must be stuck on to something on that chickenway. Stuck on to what, I don’t know. I went over the bar, and crashed shoulder first. I should have done an ukemi back then, but there are some possible factor as to why I didn’t. First, lack of ukemi practice. Second, I haven’t get used to crashing at that kind of speed in Cikole. Third, the crash was so sudden. Fourth, I was still protecting my right wrist unconsciously. Fifth, a few weeks before I was having a pool jump session and impacting into the water with no ukemi (why should I?), probably messing my ukemi reflexes. In the end, no ukemi, and add that to the fact that the track was really dry so it was all impact with no dissipation from sliding. 😐

And here I am with a broken bone. Hopefully it will heal fast. Well, my friend said that oblique fractures heal faster than tranverse one. So here I am, hoping. 😀

Apart from the mountain biking side of stuff, quite a few other things come to mind. I was somehow quickly be in a state of acceptance that I broke one of my bones (well, statistically, clavicles are the most common broken bone in the human body). I wasn’t as composed as that when it comes to treatment expenses though, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I really am grateful.

Being grateful and accepting is, frankly speaking, what I really need at the moment. I actually was going to whine that someone was treating me sardonically when I got an accident from doing things I like the most. When I got an accident while I was trying to figure things out. Well, I guess the accident is a part of figuring things out. And I understand that sardonism. Wait, I wasn’t talking about guessing and understanding. So.. the thing is, usually I expect the same someone to make a blogpost about this day. Keep expecting is not being grateful and accepting, so there goes a lot of expectations. Maybe what I just type are only typings, but I always have to try. Yang penting usaha.