Bike Attack

News Report:
Tuesday, September 9th at about 5:00pm. Karen Coleman is just coming back from a long run through and along parts of the University of Minnesota campus. She completed her three mile run and has been walking for about a half of a mile to cool off. There she stands, at the intersection of 15th & University, waiting for a green light.

As she waits, she decides that upon the changing of lights, she will sprint the last 4 blocks home for a strong finish. The light turns green and she takes off of the curb. While getting 2/3 of the way through her first stride a biker crashes into her. She absorbs most of the impact into her left hip where the handlebars nearly take her out. Their heads also collide, forcing his glasses into her temple. The biker and Miss Coleman had been traveling perpendicularly, and despite the small moving profile of a target, the biker's precision enabled him to hit her right on.

Since she was mid-stride, she was standing solely on her left foot (also the leg that was hit). To prevent either her or the biker from falling into oncoming traffic, she instinctively grabs the handlebars at the pivot point and regains her balance as well as the biker's. They eventually look at each other in shock and try to understand the situation. The biker is an unidentified white male of about 19 years old. He apologizes profusely but she does not comprehend any excuses given.

Miss Coleman looks around her to gain her bearings and notices her friend Eric Smolensky (a Graduate student in the Chemistry department at the U of M) is less than ten paces behind her. He was on a run of his own and they had not yet noticed each other. They see each other and Karen yells "I just got hit by a bike!" He sprints forward to make sure that she is okay. Overwhelmed with shock, humility, embarrassment, and nervousness, she laughs and the three of them make sure that everyone is okay. The biker bends his glasses back into shape as Eric razzes Karen about the incident, much to her chagrin. Soon, the biker is off on his way, as are the runners. They run the final 4 blocks back to her house together and bid each other a farewell with laughter as she goes inside and he continues his run.

Karen later realizes that if she had not seen Eric, she still would have laughed about the situation. However, the Lord knows her heart and how her joy is increased exponentially by the presence of others to share in it. He therefore sent her a friend to share in and increase her laughter. She sustained mild injuries of a 5 inch long bruise along her left hip from the handlebar impact, mild headache, and slightly sore right knee.

She is very thankful that it was not worse for either her or the biker. Karen also stated her gratitude that she ran into Eric, but luckily that collision is just a figure of speech.