While Wednesday had it's share up ups and downs, Thursday had it's share of adventures as well. After a ho-hum day at work, I ran with my roadie friends at RunnersWorld at 5:30, and attended a nutrition clinic afterwards at the store. For a report on that, go to RunnersWorld-Tulsa

Afterwards, a few friends and I had planned on running long into the night. I intended to get in 20 miles, others were going different distances, some on pavement, some on trails.Left to right are Roman, Kathy, Bill, Vicky, and Glenn, with Brian gnawing on a chicken leg. Not pictured are Tatur Dave, who showed up just a minute or two later, and of course the Zombie who was taking the pic. We met in the lower parking lot at 9:30, with thunder and lightning to the south and east. My thoughts were that the storms were moving away, and that turned out to be correct. Kathy and Roman took off to do a little road running, and we lingered, trying to decide which way we were gonna run.

A few minutes later we heard the roar of a Harley heading up Elwood, and then a loud sound of scraping metal and then a thud. We immediately knew that the biker had laid it over. We sprinted to the road and to the trail that runs adjacent to the road. In about 60 seconds we found him in a very deep ditch with his motorcycle on top of him. This poor guy was wadded up like a pretzel with all the weight of his mangled bike pinning him underneath. The smell of gasoline filled the air, and the sounds of gurgling moans from this man had me fearing that his time was very short. We had already called 911, and we did our best to convey to this guy that help was on the way and he was gonna be alright. I refrained from taking pictures of him pinned under the bike....somehow it just did not seem right. The people on the phone at 911 told us repeatedly NOT to try to move him, although I knew the six of us could have lifted the bike off of him. Just before the fire dept got there, the man began to talk some. He said his name was Brad, he was 25 years old, he was from Chicago, and he did not remember if his girlfriend was with him or not. This sent us running back and forth up the road looking into the deep ravines and weeds for a possible unconscious body. We never found one.The fire dept, police, and EMCA workers were there in 5-6 minutes, although it seemed longer. They went right to work and 3 firemen heaved the bike off of the guy like it was weightless.They put Brad on a backboard and strapped him down and took him to the ambulance. Other than a few little scrapes, Brad had no apparent injuries. He was not wearing a helmet, and was 2 feet away from a huge rock which would have bashed his head. I still wonder if he might have some internal injuries as twisted as his body was under his bike.The ditch he was in was so deep, he would never have been found had we not heard him from the parking lot. He was having trouble breathing and probably would have suffocated before he was found.

We did run after that, going for about 4 miles on the trails, and four miles on pavement.I bailed after that, as did Brian and Roman. The rest went out for a few more miles.