Mordecai's first faint

So, this past Friday, I fainted for the first time in my life.

After sleeping in a bit, I decided to go on a bike ride to a place I'd heard about a few times, Nesher Park.  It's a very nice place, with two suspension bridges (made of steel, not grass), and a large cave. There's also a geocache hidden there.

As it happened, Nathanael was gone to his lab, and I wasn't necessarily planning to be back in time for the frisbee game in the afternoon, so I decided to go alone.  I grabbed my bike, phone and water bottle and took off.  Across campus to the gate is all downhill, but once off campus, it was uphill for a few kilometers.  Determined to make it to the top without stopping, I settled in to a low gear and kept cranking.  Reaching the top, I was proud of myself, but noticing that I was less hydrated than I should have been.  I had also skipped breakfast, so I was feeling a little light-headed from the long uphill climb.  After pulling in to the park entrance, I stopped and stood up, straddling my bike, and took a little drink.  Then I went to take another drink, tipping my head back.... The next thing I remember is pleasantly waking up on the ground.

Waking up was by far the nicest part of the whole experience.  I had the exact same feeling as when you sorta drift out of sleep, snuggled deeply in blankets, and refuse to think about what time it might be.  I remember thinking "wow, what a dream I had about riding really fast, and then crashing."  Then I thought "hmm that's funny, I'm lying with my bike between my legs"
Then I thought: "why is my waterbottle over there emptying the last bit of water out of the neck?"
It was about then that I noticed some blood on the pavement by my chin.  After a quick check for oral bleeding (none. hooray!), I evaluated my body, trying to see if there were any injuries.  I determined I had cuts of unknown degree and unknown locations on my face, and my jaw was sore.  Once I decided I was ok to move, I sat for a bit and drank the last water that couldn't get out of the water bottle.  Seeing the last of the water trickle out when I came to is the only time indicator I have for how long I was out; apparently only a few seconds.

I cleaned my wounds with some tissues and borrowed water from a big birthday party that was happening in one of the gazebos in the park, and then went on to look around the trails and find the geocache.  I was a little concerned that I would scare some people since I didn't know how scary my cuts looked, until I realized I could take a picture of myself with my phone as a 'mirror' of sorts.  In this way, I discovered one of the benefits of a beard: it not only hid the worst cut, but since my beard is dark, you couldn't tell by looking at it that part of it was wet with blood, instead of just sweat.

While I was hiking in the park, two dogs started to follow me around.  It seemed like they were abandoned or runaways, since they were very friendly, and both had collars (with no tags or id).  However, one of them was very thin and thirsty, and I was sad since I don't know of any shelters that I could take them to.


The bike ride home went great, and I got back just as the frisbee game was ending.

A few days later, everything is healing nicely, and I'm trying to make sure that I keep good tabs on my hydration level.