The last NRC event of the season. US 100k Atlanta

After racing Saturday to regain his Florida Cup Lead. Garrett attended the Labor Day US 100k. The team was really spread thin and the riders wanted to do at least one of the major races this weekend. Being the last NRC of the season. This was another very important race for the team. Garrett was able to place 16th of the 107 finishers in the Pro / Am Event. As many have said, this was a hard pace and painful race to finish. In the photo, many times Garrett tried to set up a breakaway and found no one was willing to follow.

Great Job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5XV5_YLqXo

Finish From Today's US 100km

Photo in ROAD

Check out my photo in Road Magazine

http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=18948

page 70-71

Road Bike Action Post

We as a team work hard to promote cycling, promote going green, and limiting our impact on the envirnoment. It helps our slogan is ”kick the CO2 habit”. Road Bike Action Magazine takes the time to talk with us and help deliver out story to the public in their Oct 09 issue page 22. Thank you RBA.

http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issn=1069-2649

Redlands... Complete

Sorry for the delay on this folks, a hectic travel schedule and heavy training load sort of put the blogski on the back burner.

So as we left our host housing in Pomona, the team headed for Redlands and a new house and family to donate their living space to us. As we got to the home, we met Tammie, who was an awesome host! We filled the house with eight riders and had air mattresses strewn across her floors.

Prologue :

As we continued the battle against poor air conditions, we faced another battle against the clock and a steep climb! It also was a true race against the clock in the team camp, as a few guys had difficult times making their bikes meet UCI regulations. I was happy mine went right through, just proves that if you ride in the rules, it will save you down the road. So the flavor of the team camp was chaos and during these times, I am glad I had an ipod. I was able zone out of most the craziness until getting closer to my start time.

I remember Dave Towel announcing my name and some stats about me before embarking on my voyage, and then I heard to beep and hit it. My 30 second man was Bernie Sulzberger and I on the second riser I was closing in fast. I was feeling confident in my tt, until about 800m to go.

The course has a massive climb and after riding it there was a false flat, which I planned blowing up on for recovery. Unfortunately, I miss judged it by 200m. Also, cyclingnews was there to see it all....http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/mar09/redlands09/redlands090/JD_09rdlandsTT029

I figure that I lost over a minute suffering to the top on the last 800m. After crossing the line, it felt like I smoked an entire pack of cigarettes. I could barely breath, and somehow it was a light pollution day!

After some good rest and recovery, we set our marks on Stage 1.

Stage 1:

This being the longest stage, it was rumored that all the heavy pro teams were going to make it a point to shred everyone in the first hour. After having a bike almost blow off our team van, we made it to the start, got ready and had time to roll around for 5 minutes before people started to swarm the start line. Knowing that it was going to be strung out, I was there as fast as possible, only to out witted by 50 riders who took a side street to get on the finishing stretch first.

After sitting in some chilly weather for about 15 minutes, waiting for the start and call ups, we finally got sent off. True to form, it was go from the gun. I was spun out in 53x12 for the next 30-45 minutes. In the group it was so fast that any road debris was thrown into your body and the hum of the group was amazing. Finally after 30 minutes I got to the front before the first climb and was able to sustain my position at the front. As we hit some cross winds, the field was beginning to shred and then we started to climb. I found myself in a comfortable spot, and eventually was on Floyd Landis' wheel. I figured a guy that has won the tour was a good guy to follow. I was wrong. I heard him begin to breath heavier as the pace accelerated, and I looked around him and we were 50m off the group. I panicked and was able to make it to the group by the top of the climb but was in shambles. On the decent, we had a close call with a dog on top of all the craziness. On the next climb, I totally blew up... I made it over the top with the group in sight and then saw my buddy Floyd coming back, so I waited. After exchanging some pulls, Landis popped out of the chase group and everyone was looking at each other in awe. As we looked back again, he turned off into some side street and was content with a DNF. Our group rode another hour before tossing in the towel. Most of Ten Speed Drive was there. Sad Day.

As the race progressed. We finished two riders, Ronnie Strange and Christian Velasquez. Great experience and great race. I just wish I was a better climber!

San Dimas Stage 2 and 3

As we started the road stage for San Dimas, and I was not sure what to expect, as we had ridden the course, but riding it with 8 guys and 150 is a completely different animal. As the race started, the first 4 laps were full out. Along with breakneck speed, the climbs had guard shacks and road medians as fun little obstacles.

Everylap the field became smaller and smaller and coming in to three laps to go, I completely blew my engine up the climb. This only left us with one rider in the field. I knew from the pace of the field that pretty much everyone not in the group was going to get time cut, so I decided against riding in the autobus and went straight to the team van. This was the worst showing I have had....

Definitely took a lot from the experience, and now will use it to make Redlands a success.

Sitting and watching the crit from the side of the road was really crappy.

A Very Humbling Stage One

Well today was definitely an experience to say the least. The best part of my TT was getting announced as the number one rider from Florida. That was pretty much it. I really have a ton of work to do on climbing as today showed me that a lot of these riders are on another level. By no means was I setting the world on fire today.

I didn't finish last from the team or get last, but I did finish in the barrel. This is not acceptable, but we all have our off days. This leaves a lot open for tomorrow, and being far down on the GC means that I am going to have green lights to put myself in the break aways.

Team Ranks:

90th: Travis Burandt
121st: Josh Liberales
123rd: Emiliano Jordan
128th: Ronnie Strange
131st: Christian Velasquez
138th: Adam Carr
141: Garrett White
146th: Jesus Zapata

So a big day of working hard tomorrow to make up for today's beating.


Hopefully I can get some awesome pics of me suffering up on here tomorrow!

Thanks for reading

Team Ride/ Course Preview

Fueling up for the ride, water at the local Valero. Our national Champion Christian Velazquez and New Englander, Adam Carr



To our surprise, while doing the road course, we ran into Obama and the Colavita Women's Team... VERY NICE




Rolling it up the climb on the Road Race course


So we got a nice two hour ride in and were able to pretty much do nothing the rest of the day. We had an awesome Sushi lunch while waiting for registration and eventually got to hit the GNC and grocery store....

Tomorrow is going to be epic, the tt course is very difficult and will be very interesting since I have not done one in 4 years. But the legs are feeling great and I hope to be going strong! Until next time...

Travel Blog 2.0

Welcome back, to the second edition of my travels and racing abroad. This time around I am off for three weeks of destruction starting with San Dimas Stage Race, Redlands Bicycle Classic and ending with Ft. Davis Hammerfest. From the look of things, all of these events will be world class, with fields over 150 riders.

The trip started with an entire day of flying, in which true to form, my carry on bag was picked off of my stack-o-luggage, as I was so scatter-brained, I didn't even realize this until I was through security. Good thing some baggage handler pulled it aside and I had a nice little courtesy call about 20 minutes later.

Moving on to a huge layover in Houston, I enjoyed watching a few movies and wasting some time online. I also enjoyed a $10 airport meal, so I could stay half way nutritional and awake.

After a short flight to El Paso, I was glad to be picked up by the team director and get some sleep, as we had to hit the road to Cali at 6:30am. With four of us in the team truck with trailer in tow it was an all day event.

We stopped to pick up Emiliano Jordan in Tuscon, along with a stop at a sponsor shop for some small items. After taking about 2 hours to do what seemed to be an easy stop we continued our voyage, with another planned stop in Phoenix at UPS to pick up our six boxes of team clothing!

At the UPS hub, things went a little more smooth, and the clothing turned out awesome, hopefully we'll be putting up some awesome pics soon. We also had to get some real food, as granola bars and beef jerky only go so far.

We continued the trip towards Pomona, CA; with some Top Gear episodes, some Paris-Nice stages and some naps. We also got to review the TT start list for San Dimas, and I am the first rider off from our team, riding in the 6th slot. Johnny Clarke and Jeff Louder will be blazing up behind me....

Finally we arrived last night at 10:30pm, I got up to the room in the host house we were staying at and passed out completely!

Host housing is awesome, as we had an awesome breakfast spread; with coffee, juice and oatmeal with fresh fruit. Now we are setting to head off for some course preveiws, team meetings, a nice 2-3 hrs ride and then hopefully some rocking lunch.

More to come later and tomorrow....

Getting Some Team Website Press

So another nice surprise this morning.....

http://tenspeeddrive.com/garrett-white-1-in-florida-race-rankings/

Hopefully I keep this going all year. Thanks for all the support

The Becoming... Continued

... conclusion of previous post.

Unfortunately as the season started, so did my new job, which required almost 70 hours of work a week. Doing business-to-business construction sales, I started the “career” that encompassed all my time. I went from riding six days a week to maybe riding on weekends. It took about a year to realize that this is not what I really wanted to do, as I started to gain weight again and jumped back over 185 pounds. I barely had time to race and when I did, I fought for dear life just to hang on.

So I devised a plan to come back into racing. I was going to train the rest of the season and keep a low profile, downgrade to category three to and gain some confidence in racing again. During this time, I was still working over 60 hours a week, getting home at 9:00 pm and riding my trainer until midnight. I was ready to give everything to go back to my previous level.

Thankfully for me, the company I worked for made some bad market moves and being laid off definitely helped me realize that the corporate structure was not for me. After a few months of unemployment, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time when I exchanged some emails with Clive De Sousa from Glory Cycles.

Clive brought me on as sort of an all-in-one employee to start out, and gave me opportunities to grow with the business. This career move had a lot of facets for me as it immersed me in the sport, allowed me the time I needed to ride, and also gave me a community outreach.


Over the year and a half I was with Glory, my position grew as did the store’s success. During that time I was able to achieve some solid results in the category 3 ranks and have enough upgrade points to return to the Pro 1-2 level. My plan was slowly coming to fruition.

After finishing the three remaining FPS races as a category 2 rider, I was able to crack top 20 in all the remaining races, but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I knew I could be faster.

During preparation for 2008, I made a full-time commitment to a coach rather than workout suggestions. Over the years I’d became friends with Robby Ketchell of ColoradoPremierTraining.com, who helped me with coaching here and there, and also gave me some great training ideas. Together we came up with a good plan and I purchased a power meter to make the most out of my training. I put 100% confidence in my coach and followed every workout to a T. Unfortunately that meant a lot of rides alone and a lot of long days in the saddle, but as the season dawned upon us I was more confident than I had ever been. Part of the confidence I gained was in some beginners luck at cyclocross, as I was able to take 3rd place in the overall Pro 1, 2 Florida State Cup.



The season officially started with the 2008 Tour of Bahamas, where I was in a familiar place, racing with big names that I read about. Was nice to see some familiar faces, as one of my home town friends was the lead mechanic for Slipstream and one of my collegiate racing foes was now riding for Rite Aid.

Although things did not start well for me—my hotel reservation got lost and I got hit by a bus one day before the race started— the race was a great experience. I beat Dave Zabriskie in the second stage taking 15th and then got blown off the road in the final stages destroying a set of Zipp wheels. The good results took everything else off the map, and gave me fuel for the upcoming Florida races.

As the year started, I was learning something during every race, and soaking it in like a sponge, and as this happened, consistent results followed. The season was looking up when I secured two guest rider spots; one with Eric Murphy’s Myogensis squad for the USA Crits Speed Week Series, and the other with the Colavita Pro Development Team for a later date. As Speed Week approached, I was completely in shock of the speed and intensity of the races. The only thing that could describe it, is absolute chaos.

My week of racing was pretty much over on night one, as I was involved in a crash that took out over half the field. Thanks to SRAM neutral support, I was able to ride a spare bike for as long as my body would let me, which was only 20 minutes. The next night was just as bad, as it seemed I could not put any power to the pedals. So I took the third night off and finally by the fourth night I was able to finish. It was a small victory and enough to keep me positive after what seemed to be a bad week. To add some insult to injury, I came down with the flu the last two days and started with a fever to ensure our team points. This week was a huge eye opener. I had so much work to do and had to learn to deal with bad luck. Thankfully I was able to tackle down some good results in Florida to slowly boost my confidence back up.

Moving into June, I received an email from Colavita, giving me little notice that they were scheduling me for the New England Race Week. I was beyond happy. It seems so common in the cycling world to hear things and have promises and offers that never materialize, but now this was happening, and everything was taken care of for me. I finally got the break I was looking for. To document things, I started up my blog, Making The Leap, as I knew there were some parties in the Orlando cycling community, who wanted to see how the races went. Thankfully this time around I was able to race to my fullest, taking 7th in one of the big twilight crits. Everyone on the team was awesome and I was looking forward to hopefully doing more races with the team in the future. A few weeks later I received an email confirming that I had earned a spot on the team for 2009. This gave me motivation to end the season strong, taking 6th in the Florida Points Series and winning the last race of the calendar year.

Moving to this year, the Ten Speed Drive/ BH Bicycles Team, will be racing a full US calendar. We are sponsored for our travel and lodging, but food and racing outside of team events are up to the riders. Needless to say these costs add up over the year, as does the amount of time you are away from work and ability to earn an income.



Unfortunately this is the risk and sacrifice you have to take to earn a pro contract. I want to personally thank everyone in the Orlando and Florida community for their support. I hear every one of you cheering at the races and I remember talking to you all during rides.

I would like to ask for your support in contributing to my cause and pursuit of this dream. Donations can be sent via U.S. mail to the address below, or via PayPal.com payable to mightywty@hotmail.com. 1% of your donation will go fund research for Bell's Palsy.

Garrett White
4205 Shadow Creek Circle
Oviedo, FL 32765

Part 3: The Becoming

It’s the second lap and I am absolutely pegged. On the rivet. In the red. I am wondering what I got myself into. Looking at my heart rate monitor only made it worse, as I am pinned at 175 bpm. How I am going to go this fast for 45 minutes? Do all bike races go this fast?

All these thoughts and doubts were racing through my head, as I was just trying to finish. After this short track mountain bike race, I was completely hooked into racing. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. It put any sport or any workout I have ever done into ultimate shame.

After realizing that I had no idea what the hell I was doing, I sought help in our Directeur Sportif, who also ran Colorado Premier Training. After a few meetings, I decided that hiring on a professional coach was the quickest way to improve.

Through some excellent guidance, I began training with a purpose and saw exponential gains. After working hard all winter I went head first into my first road season with CSU not knowing to expect. I came into the season prepared, and during my first year I had great success with various podiums and some top 10s in the Men’s “A” division. I was selected as an alternate rider for Collegiate Nationals, but was unable to attend due to a punctured lung. I was able to take some rest, and during the Colorado road season, I was able to go from a Category 5 to a Category 3 rider in that same period.

Moving into my final year of college, I was setting and achieving goals early on in the season and was learning a lot about myself and how I fit into races. I had the great support of the Rio Grande Cycling Team, to make sure that my grades didn’t dip down because of my cycling commitment, and also good team building in the races where everyone had their chance to ride for the win. Being my last year at CSU, my only goal was to race Nationals.

I was so focused on this, my training started in December and every race was in preparation for Nationals. My fellow teammates and I would spend 10-15 hours a week together, over the next four months, prepping for the race. As the dates got finalized, I noticed that Nationals coincided with my graduation. I had been waiting to race Nationals for two years and I was not giving up the opportunity, so I skipped graduation, much to the dismay of my family, even though they had given me full support and were very proud of what I had accomplished.

Nationals were a big event and I was in a state of shock at the environment of the event. The rider fields were massive, and the depth of talent was amazing. I was racing with guys that years before I had only read about. The crit even was amazing, and despite having some rain, it was the fastest race I had ever done. I was able to avoid all the crashes and came in a respectable 44th place out of 163 starters.

The road race was set to be an even harder course, rolling all day with a 15% finishing climb, which we were set to do 4 laps on. From the start the race was every bit as fast as the crit and with the wind, we sat in the gutter, single file all day. Luck was not on my side, and as the field shredded down to about 60 guys with 20 miles to go, I came completely unglued and couldn’t even turn over the pedals.

After some immense hydration, I was functional again and ready for the coveted Team Time Trial, the event we had been practicing all season. After a good warm up, everything was looking good as we blazed the fastest time to the first turn around. Unfortunately, our bad luck continued as our team captain flatted. We kept it together and finished 23rd out of 40 universities. This weekend helped lay the foundation to see what its like to race at national level and planted the seed to get to that level.




After a few months back in Colorado, my family convinced me to relocate with them to Florida. I spent some time researching cycling and got in contact with Darrell Cunningham from Orlando Velo via email, and Darrell was very welcoming and helpful in guiding me to the group rides and online information about racing in the area. After a weekend of Errol and Windermere rides with Darrell (who owns B3 Café in Orlando) and Darrell Pounders, I was welcomed into the Orlando Velo family with open arms. The guys were very enthusiastic, and I was very excited to be a part of their team.

to be concluded...

San Antonio Road Race and Dade City Criterium

Welcome back to racing here in Florida, we are going full bore. As we went into the third week of racing, I got a nice midweek surprise to see that I was second place overall in the state rankings(Results Here). Going into what I felt to be the hardest road race course in the state and one of the more technical crits, I had a lot of motivation to do well.

San Antonio Road Race:

As we started Saturday with a full field of 108 riders, we were set to do 4 laps of a 17 mile hilly circuit. I was glad to have Chris Keane out there. During the first lap it was mostly single file and I was wondering if it was going to be a long day! Lap 2 continued with the pace and Chris and I found ourselves apart of a massive 30 man split. The group started out well, but then as usual some teams took inventory of who was at the party and the speed dropped. Things all came back together and at the start of the third lap on the first hill, I hit it as hard as I could and was off the front. Next thing I know, there is a break group of 7 riders rolling turns with a two minute gap. I was fine with doing my share of the work, when suddenly Frank Traveiso, Dave Guttenplan and one of Frank’s teammates bridged the gap.

At this point, Frank’s team (Herbalife/Racer’s Edge) had 3 riders in the break and my time in the wind was completely eliminated. The attacks started on the last lap, and I decided to make a move with 6 miles to go with two other guys, unfortunately it was short lived as we got caught two miles later. Coming into the last stretch we began to surge as the attacks started. Coming into the finishing straight I was able to tap down third with a late surge.

Dade City Criterium:

Sunday’s course is always an interesting one, a short 6 corner technical crit with brick roads. With 70 starters it was looking like it could be a single file adventure! The race started and I made sure I was at the front and attacked on lap 2, getting a small break going with Yosvanny Falcon and Pro Mountain biker Earl Bradley. We were maintaining a 20 second gap and about 25 minutes in it started to lightly rain. Suddenly upon entering corner five I lipped the edge of a sewer manhole and found my way onto the pavement at 30 mph. I popped up and realized my shifter was broken and was binding up the front brake. Upon getting to the pits, I disconnected the front brake and saw that as I crashed, Chris Keane had made his was to the front and closed down the break remnants. I got back in the race and as it got more wet I slid out again, went to the pits for spare wheels and got back in.
Chris realized that things were getting a little to hectic and came out of the race. I sat in the group suffering. Another break had started and was gaining time on the field and I was content with a field finish. With 20 laps to go, Z-motion decided they were going to make it interesting at bring it back together, the gap went from 45 seconds to 20 seconds in 10 laps. The break was in sight and somehow I felt better. With 6 laps to go, I jumped across to the break and then caught my breath, and attacked with 3 laps to go. This drew out the big sprinters Frank Traveiso and Yosvanny Falcon and we rolled until the finish. Taking third I was happy to be on the podium especially after hitting the deck

Nice Surprise

So as in life, we all go through ups and downs. Right now things have been going down, I have done my best to stay positive, when I came home to this.

http://www.floridacycling.com/Articles/Pro1-2.pdf

I knew I had been racing strong, but holy crap, I managed somehow to become 2nd place overall in the Florida Points Series. This is over some pretty big names too. So a little lesson for you all, when things look bleak, have hope because greatness is around the corner.

Another Release

Seems like we are getting some good press! Keep fighting the good fight!

http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=13948

Part 2: The Departed

Grabbing my 40-pound mountain bike, knowing that I would have to rely on it as my only method of transportation, was earth shattering. The thought of 36 miles on that steel beast made me feel just of my punishment. Letting go and moving on are always the hardest part. Albeit, losing my license and ability to travel freely felt horrible; I remember telling myself to be optimistic and embrace the things that were happening to me, not to cherish them but to harness them as a means to become something better.



Change is something that is not easy; its difficult, ugly and constant work. This situation was definitely not one of grace, with a mid 90’s steel mountain bike that had not been ridden in years and the 230 pound out-of-shape partier riding it 140 miles a week to get to work and school. The idea seemed insane to everyone around me; no one believed that I would actually get on the bike and ride, everyone was holding their breath wanting me to ask them for transportation.

Starting out the first week was miserable and I remember thinking this was going to be the worst six months ever. My optimism would remind me that at least it wasn’t winter. After the second week, I began to find peace and discover myself in ways that I never knew were possible. I knew now at this point that I would never ask for transportation and thus my love for cycling began. Instead of dreading the morning ride to school, I began to embrace it. After the first month, one of my co-workers offered me a newer road bike and shoes that he no longer wanted, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Slowly those around me saw the change inside of me, as well as a physical change. I was becoming leaner, happier and more focused than I had been in years. Personally, I was feeling amazing and more confident. My weight had dipped under 200 pounds for the first time in 3 years. Although, this change was coming slowly and I wanted to embrace it as much as possible. This meant going beyond working out, this meant DIET!




In order to keep change moving, I had to dig deep and give up things I loved. This meant no more fast food, no more sweets and pretty much no more anything that tasted delicious. I remember having to convince myself of the values of fruit and vegetables while hating how they tasted. This was not going to be easy, but for the first time in my life I felt like I had control of a situation. I had the power and reserve to make it through even the hardest tasks.

As my love for cycling grew, riding for necessity turned into riding for recreation. Riding provided the structure from definite chaos. The recreational rides increased, so did my desire to try my hand at racing, and Colorado State University provided an excellent resource in its collegiate division. I was lucky to have some friends that were established officers with the team which made joining hassle free. It was something new and exciting for me; something that I was going head first into with no idea of the commitment required. But with that aside, I departed with my prior self and went looking into uncharted grounds…

Team Press Release 2009

Hey Everyone, Our team press release hit this morning featured on the front page of Velonews, http://www.velonews.com/article/86340/ten-speed-driveellsworth-factory-cycling-team

Part One: The Meeting

As featured on Armada Racing,

I gave myself three choices:

1. Join the Marines.
   
2. Change my life.
   
3. Stop playing around and end it.

It finally had come to this point. After the past two weeks hoping I wouldn’t wake up, I’d finally hit the bottom. I knew something had to change because I could not go on being this miserable.

My day included waking up hung over, going to class, going to work and then drinking; but not to enjoy, but rather, to fill the void. I knew this wasn’t meant for me, so I had a “meeting” with myself, giving the three most rational answers I could come up with. I sat alone in my room pondering each one, thinking of the pros and cons.

At the time, door number one was looking to be the best option after a few recruiting visits and to validate, I would drop subtle hints at family dinners to gauge reactions…
I knew that the Marines and certain deployment in Afghanistan was not my path. Wanting to fight for the flag and fighting for myself were two different things that did not line up.

After thinking about ending everything violently, I knew that the love that I had for my family would never let me do this either. Having them discover such a scene was something I couldn’t stomach regardless of how depressed I was.

This left one option: CHANGE… Just by luck this would not be the easiest choice either, but after this meeting I was determined to be happy and find a path in life. I knew this was going to be a change for the long haul and that changes that work need to be slow and lasting.

But wait! What was I changing?

Going back in time, I was about 16 when this all started, playing competitive youth hockey, the sport also provided a lifestyle of drinking and partying. After high school I lost interest in the sport, but still wanted and needed that party lifestyle. Before I knew it, the lifestyle had swallowed me whole, forging two years of my life over to the bottle. Work did not help since I worked in a hockey shop, which perpetuated this lifestyle. It was perfectly normal for us to come to work, still a wreck from the night before. This was my life, and it provided a nice hole of depression for me to crawl into, and as it happened, I didn't realize it until I was already at the bottom.

So back to change, which was surprisingly easier than I thought. It became easy to not drink every night, and I had made steady improvements over a month-long period. Unfortunately this was not good enough; one slip up is very easy and comes suddenly.

I remember being upset about getting sent to the Boulder store location, but had no choice but to go. Basically this meant that I would be getting home even later for my Friday night out. After a long afternoon at the Boulder location, with no staff besides myself, I was ready for a drink. One thing leads to another and next thing I know I am drinking and driving. Despite the risk, I am almost home, planning my night out and as I stop for a red light, BOOM, I get plowed into. I remember seeing the headlights thinking “oh no” but there was no avoiding. My car is totaled; the damage wasn’t even explainable until I pulled myself out of the car. I realize the person behind me is seriously injured, both cars are totaled and I am seriously screwed.

As the police approach, part of me feels like this whole situation can still be ok while the other side knows we are imminently doomed. It doesn’t take much for the officer to realize that I am under influence and next thing I know I am doing roadside tests like a bad episode of Cops, knowing that any hope of not getting arrested is over. After my humiliation, I am handcuffed and thrown in the back of the police cruiser pondering how things could be any worse and how I am going to explain this to everyone.

To my surprise, because I was rather orderly and compliant with the officer, I was able to avoid spending anytime in jail and got released a few hours later to one of my friends. Finally upon getting home, I faced the inevitable, waking my parents up at 1:00 am to break the news. I was shocked by their reaction; they were comforting and happy that I wasn’t the one who caused the accident. They calmed me down and had me get some rest.

The next day I was proactive about the situation, knowing it was a delicate one; I contacted my employer and Eric Sunness, a good friend who was also a great lawyer. I continued to be surprised by the reactions of those around me, and this brought me hope knowing that these people were supporting me through this. After some legal meetings, it was apparent that I was going to lose my license, but would be able to expunge the incident from my record. I knew at this moment that this incident needed to be transformed. This was a horrible thing, but I was determined to make it the best thing that had ever happened to me. This had been the path that I needed to change, although it wasn’t the path I wanted to take…