Split Second

It is amazing how much thinking you can do in a split second.

Today I did what cyclists fondly refer to as an ENDO on my brothers mountain bike. I was zipping along on my way to work and I looked up in time to see a curb rushing at my front tire. I demonstrated my superior handling skills by riding into the curb as fast as I could...
...Then something interesting happened. As my momentum lifted my body from the saddle of the bike I realized that Jordans bike does not have clipless peddles but rather toe straps so if I didn't won't to seriously damage my ankles I needed to get my foot free from the peddles. At this point the ground was rushing up at me in much the same fashion as ground rushes up at the whale in Hitchhikers Guild to the galaxy.

In the following fraction of a second I managed to extricate my right foot, let go of the handlebars, angrily strike the earth with my open left hand, and jam my knee into the ground with enough force to make the both of us rather uncomfortable I assure you.

The amazing part is how clearly I saw all of this, how many individual thought I had between seeing the the curb and kissing the dirt.

The speed of the human mind and how much we can observe in a split second will never cease to amaze me