heroes?

We saved a guy this morning, you guys. 

(Sort of.  Not really. But that sounds so good, right?!)

Picture this: Tweedledum and Tweedledee merrily chatting on their way to work, approaching the motorway overpass.  Ahead: Striding Gym Girl.  Also Ahead: Bicycle Guy, chaining his bike to the overpass railing.  We look up; BG is collapsing onto the pavement.

It was a real slow-mo, boneless sort of collapse.  At first, I thought it was a joke.  But P & I must have registered what was really happening at the same time; we raced towards him past Striding Gym Girl.  P took the lead and I was fumbling for my phone to call the ambulance.  It must have been a faint; BG came round when P started speaking to him and we nixed the call to the ambos.  We gave him some water and SGG offered him some nuts if his blood sugar was low.  Poor guy lay out on the pavement for a bit - he eventually got up and shook us off.  I think he was terribly embarrassed.  After assuring us it was all downhill and not far to go for him, we left him removing his helmet and finishing locking his bike.  I gave him surreptitious glances over my shoulder for a while, until he was out of view.

I hope he's ok - must have been a hard cycle that morning.  He was about 30ish and otherwise healthy looking (my first thought was 'ooooooohhhhh no heart attack' when I registered that the collapse was real, thank god it wasn't that).

Lots of people stopped to help if they could - it made me feel good about our community / humanity etc, I suppose.  Much like the time we came across a bike crash in London, most people just stood around feeling helpless until they realised the issue was being dealt with, but I love to see that people cared (certainly wasn't just voyeuristic watching, we were asked if BG was ok as P had clearly taken control of the situation). SGG said to me that she'd been in her own world with headphones on when he collapsed - she was very confused as to why we ran past her until she clicked what was happening.  She felt really guilty, I think, though she needn't have.  We all just wanted to help.  I liked that. 

Note also: P & I immediately divided tasks by our strengths without discussion - he went to help the guy into the recovery position, I pulled out the phone as I am much, much better with street names and descriptions, not so good with people and crises etc.

So.  There's some excitement for you.  I felt the adrenaline for a bit, afterwards.