Cycling for Sight 2017 - The heart of the athlete

Carol Corcoran - An empowered blind athlete and I set our goals to ride a 2 day event called "Cycling for Sight". We shared a fund-raising site and pledged to raise $1000 for the Center for the Blind in San Diego, California. We rode together several times and varying distances and we were a great team. My tandem, a modified Cannondale Mountain Bike tandem was outfitted with disc brakes and narrow wheels for road riding.

We started our adventure at the TREK store in San Marcos with many other Blind Stokers Tandem Teams. Carol and I started off great and the bike worked wonderfully - we were scheduled to complete around 50 miles that day. We rode with a group for most of the morning but then kinda got off track trying to find the lunch stop - we were alone by that point and didn't have a wheel to follow. My GPS system failed to indicate the stopping point. Needless to say we did a little extra climbing. Carol never complained - I think she secretly liked the extra work. Carol knew we missed the stop - even though she cannot see, she knows areas, neighborhoods and streets. She has done this ride several times before and without her help, we would have missed the break altogether.

After lunch we were doing great and then upon crossing a railroad track for the COASTER, the back wheel of our tandem dropped into the track rut and we got suddenly slammed to the ground. It absolutely came out of the blue, I had no idea it would happen - I have crossed 100s of railroad tracks but now understand that a tandem behaves a little differently on tracks and must cross absolutely perpendicular to them.

Carol was not wanting to move at first but there was a train coming. Carol did not feel well and we called the support vehicle to take her to CSU San Marcos where we were going to stay the night. Two support riders stopped to help us and even stood over Carol to provide shade. It looked rather comical, but they were tremendously helpful. I rode the last 5 miles alone on the tandem and met Carol at the CSU San Marcos pool. We both sat in the pool for over an hour. When Carol got out of the pool her leg had swollen up like a watermelon!  She had difficulty walking. We got back to the dorm room and she laid down. I tried to ice and compress the swelling. We both started to realize she should probably get checked out, so we were transported by the event bus to my car and I took Carol home where her daughter met us to take her to the ER. While at the ER Carol passed out and that actually helped speed her being attended to. She was in CT scans at about 11pm that night - and everything looked okay - no concussion, no compression, no fractures or broken bones, but a very large hemotoma to her right leg from her hip to her knee. The leg was so swollen with blood that they did an isolated CT on it just to be sure everything was okay. Carol was moved to a local hospital and stayed the night.

That evening - The director, Dave White came to me to ask what my plans were. Was I going to leave? It was clear Carol was not going to be back. He explained he had a stoker without a captain and I was a captain without a stoker. I was nervous. I felt like I should have been fired as a tandem captain. But I remember Carol's voice in my head; "Pat, please stay and ride the second day...I really want you to get to know these wonderful people in the organization..."  I agreed to stay and ride the next day. I discover the stoker I was going to pilot was a 6'2" man named Mark. What? This guy barely fit on my tandem!  Dave had confidence in me and Mark had confidence in me. I was astonished that I was able to do a 20 mile ride with him - and what a character he was. He helped me a lot. We sang together and he told me I was going to be okay - even when we rode over the train tracks. I stayed until the end of the day and tried to meet everyone and talk to everyone. Carol wanted to come and say hi to everyone just out of the hospital, and we both agreed that she should go home and rest. (She didn't sleep hardly at all Saturday night.) We made a card for her and I collected some goodies for her and dropped them at her house - without disturbing anyone, I knew she would be sleeping.

​I have checked in with Carol since then and she says she is healing. She has been in the pool at her gym and tells me the heater is broken but the cool water is probably the best thing for her.

Carol is an amazing athlete - not only is she strong in the body - she is unbelievably strong in spirit. She never complained, she never was discouraging, she only continuously cheered for me, even from her hospital bed. There is a huge lesson for me in this beautiful journey - Carol taught me that being an athlete is much more that having fitness, it is about having an undeniable spirit that will stand and conquer any obstacle. She is my heroine.

Thank you so much for contributing to our collection bucket. This was much more than a fund-raiser for me, it was a friend-raiser and a spirit-raiser.

Thank you to Carol Corcoran, you are amazing.