“Lots of questions, because people saw my Strava post (see below, ed.) today… Yes, I was hit by a car earlier today coming back from my ride… A bit of an unfortunate incident.” Not that the timing for this is ever good, but with two weeks to go until the Ironman World Championship in St. George, Sam Long got an even bigger fright when he crashed into a car yesterday. On Instagram, he explains what happened and says he seems to be doing alright.
“I was basically blindsided”, he takes us back to the ‘unfortunate incident’ as he refers to it himself. “Going through an intersection, a lady decided to try to jump in front of me because she thought I was moving slower than I was. So she pushed the gas and came right out from my side. I slammed on the brakes, got hit and sort of leaned in to her, rolled up over the top of the car and laid the bike down. Thankfully – for what it could have been – my reflexes very likely saved my life.”
As one of the favorites for the upcoming Ironman World Championship (May 7), Long was concerned about just one thing: will he still be there? “Once I was down, my immediate thought was, ‘shoot, am I out for St. George?’. Obviously, I was in some pain, there was some swearing going on, it got a little heated in the moment, but then I got back on the bike again.”
His Trek bike took the hit well and seems to be doing fine, Long continues his story. “I rode most of the way home… Actually, Talbot Cox (a triathlon videographer, ed.) gave me a ride as he was filming me today. When I got home I got a massage, took the rest of the day off, skipped some training sessions and I will skip them tomorrow too. Just lying low, but I do believe that I will be okay for St. George. Obviously, I don’t know for sure yet, but I would say 99 percent I would be in St. George. Just resting up and dealing with things the best way I can. Sometimes life throws you curveballs and I rode Mount Lemmon today, so I was given lemons, and now I’m making lemonade.”
