Struck by Lightning

If I was reading a blog and saw that title I'd wonder what exciting, unexpected, rare, etc event happened to the author. In this case it isn't any of those, well it was all of them, but I was really struck by lightning.

I was on a bike ride this morning. I noticed that a storm was approaching and figured I would just beat it home if I road for just so many minutes. It was a beautiful day otherwise.

Getting close to home I realized I wouldn't beat the storm and was going to get a bit wet. No worries, that has happened plenty of times before. I noticed the lightning picking up. It was very intense and getting closer.

About a mile from home is a stretch of road that is high in elevation and very open. I was thinking this is not exactly the best place to be in a lightning storm. And that's when I had that staticy feeling. When you rub a balloon on your head, that. Except all over. The next thing was a huge flash all over. I had my head down at the time and managed to see a spiderweb of sparkles on my legs and bike. I have no idea if that's what happened or that's what my brain thought my eyeballs saw. I also saw an arc between my right index finger and brake lever. I'm pretty sure this was real. It felt like being shocked with a spark plug or gas grill ignitor on the tip of my finger. It kicked or I jerked my hand off the bar. The sound of it was just a loud noise. I can't say what it sounded like, just loud.

After, my body was just tingly all over. My finger felt swollen, like there was pressure between the joints. Now, about 6 hours later the finger still feels full for lack of a better term. The right arm also feels like I hit my funny bone only much milder.

It must have been an indirect strike. One of the spindly little parts or just stray voltage along the ground. Otherwise, I think I would have actually been hurt. Also, I think I'd have a visible mark on me someplace.

One interesting bit is that when I reviewed my GPS and heart rate data it showed a spiked heart rate in the place it happened.

So there you go.