Earlier this year, in what turned out to be the first of many serious crashes experienced by triathletes and duathletes, Vince Golding (aka online as 400m) was hit by a van while out on a training ride. Fortunately, he's now well on the way to recovery and offered to share his experiences with Tri247 as part of the therapy. This is the first in an occasional series of articles that Vince will contribute as he recovers from the accident.

How do you get fit again? That’s the question that puzzles me. Once you’re out of hospital – in my part of the country at least - you’re left to your own devices, there is no service for the injured athlete or triathlete wanting to get back to being a fit person. I over-simplify to say that it seems to be: 'you’re not dead, job done'. There is some good after care service in the NHS, and some lamentably bad too. Private medicine has some good services too, but as far as I know there is nothing to help put me back where I want to be. I could start getting existential and ask “why do sport?”; - and I have asked myself that very question - but let’s agree that in modern western society we have leisure time available to pursue our dreams and goals.

I’m a hobbyist triathlete; I drifted into the sport after many years as a competitive runner, formerly at 400m but more recently as a road racer and cross-country runner – as you get older you get slower! I was managing to put in 10 or more hours training time a week around my self-employed work and being married with two children. I was very fit for my age.

Cyclist vs van

In April I was out on a training ride as part of my preparations to return to Ironman Austria and improve on the time I managed in my debut the year before. The driver of a van coming south on the road I was riding north on didn’t see me and pulled over to get into the car park of the roadside café. The van hit me and, as far as I have been informed, I went through the side window. Although I was wearing a helmet my skull was fractured and there was internal bleeding of the brain, my jugular vein was severed and I lost a lot of blood requiring a blood transfusion. I was fortunate that a garage owner, having his lunch break, stepped forward and took charge of the situation. He used tea towels, from the cafe, to stop me bleeding to death. As I was a few miles from the nearest hospital the Sussex Police helicopter was used to ferry me to Worthing General. My first ever helicopter flight and I can’t remember it.

In the A&E a few hundred stitches were needed to mend my jugular - I now have no feeling in the right side of the neck or ear lobe - and it took a while to stabilise my blood pressure. My brain scan was sent electronically to King’s College in London which as well as providing A&E for South London also provide a service for those patients with severe head injuries who require surgery or special monitoring from all over the South East. They were ready to perform brain surgery when I arrived around midnight, I was given another brain scan and the doctors decided a brain operation wasn’t immediately necessary.

I was put in a bed in the neurological ITU on the ground floor – at King’s the worse your condition the lower the floor you are on. A hole was drilled into my skull and a pressure bolt was inserted so that the blood pressure could be monitored for further bleeding and potential swelling. As well as my head injuries I also had a broken right clavicle, quite a common cyclist’s injury, along with four broken ribs and a punctured lung. I’d later discover that my right scapula was broken too. I was intubated nasally and a tube inserted through a hole made in my arm pit to drain the lung. Isn’t triathlon fun?

I was moved from ICU to High Dependency (first floor) and eventually to the Murray Falconer ward (second floor) which is for general neurological patients. They basically feed you via a syringe and pump you full of drugs to alleviate pain and sedate you - what’s known as a medically induced coma. After nearly two weeks I must have made enough progress for the staff to stop giving me the sedative and I regained consciousness. As far as I can remember I saw my father and asked the classic line: “where am I?” He told me "King’s College" and I knew where it is as I used to work in the sales of medical equipment and had been to Kings a few times many years ago.

King’s isn’t an easy drive for my parents or wife and brothers who had been visiting me daily, we live in Crawley which is in the north of Sussex. With my condition improving I was moved to my local DGH which is East Surrey, another two weeks saw me moved on to my fourth hospital Southlands, the Sussex Rehabilitation Centre in Shoreham. After six weeks in hospital I was given the OK to leave hospital – which I was glad of because the nurses talk all night and with my bed at Southlands being near the nurses’ station it meant a lack of sleep! I stayed at my parents for three weeks so that my wife only had to look after the children. Finally, nine weeks after the accident, I was home.

Starting from scratch

So now what should I do? All sorts of ideas entered my head I looked at the major European Ironman sites but they sell out quickly – a good job too as I might have wasted money and entered one. I filled out an entry form for my favourite race which I’ve done a few times, the Ballbuster Duathlon. As far as I was concerned there wasn’t much wrong with me, maybe that’s because I’ve no memory of the day of the accident and I was sedated for a couple of weeks. I’ve been in no pain either. It’s like some sort of dream.

The reality is quite different. I had, and still have, loads of medical appointments to attend, clearly my right clavicle was mis-aligned, my right arm was largely immobile and I couldn’t straighten my left hand. I realised I didn’t dream anymore and, as is common with a traumatic brain injury, I needed to sleep in the afternoon.

Near the end of July I went for my first run; my 10 year-old son accompanied me. I managed just under a mile which basically is a run around the block. It was as far as I could do. To me it’s as if a magic spell has been cast and all my ability has disappeared. I have to come to terms with it, reset my sights to a much lower level than before forget my previous standards and start afresh.