By Rick Madewell
Assistant Editor

It was supposed to be a fun and healthy bike ride for Roxanne Carter and her boyfriend.

Instead, it became a tragic and almost deadly excursion.

On Sunday, Roxanne’s running group, the St. Cloud Pavement Pounders, will sponsor a special, nearly five-mile swim relay starting at the East Lake Fish Camp to raise funds for Roxanne, who was critically injured over two months ago.

Roxanne, a St. Cloud resident, has been a health nut, of sorts, for most of her 47 years, and two years ago even joined up with the city’s Pavement Pounders group, which has weekly runs for its members. Every Saturday she would set out on a bicycle — often with friends — and ride for miles and miles just to stay in shape.

The morning of May 8 was not much different, only that she felt particularly good and high spirited as she and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Blain, who was training for a cycling run in California, set out just themselves for another invigorating bike ride, one that would take them on a very familiar route — down the lakefront to 10th Street, then Narcoossee down to Pinetree then to Old Melbourne Highway to U.S. Highway 192 to the flashing light in Holopaw — then back, a good 50-mile trek.

All was well until around 10 a.m., as the couple biked along Deer Run Road. Roxanne was taking her brand new yellow and white Trek bike on its third outing and she and Jeffrey were near the Hitching Post and a new home-cooking restaurant that was having its grand opening when all hell broke lose.

Roxanne couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. A truck had slammed into her and Jeffrey from behind at full road speed.

“I only remember saying, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” she said. “The next thing I knew, I was in a helicopter.”

An emergency transport helicopter landed at the scene and took her directly to Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Her injuries were severe: both lungs punctured, two crushed discs in her back, an extremely crushed right knee, a fracture to her left heel and three cracked teeth from where her jaw hit the pavement. Jeffrey’s injuries were comparatively minor, with some cracked ribs and a few cracked teeth.

For the next three weeks, Roxanne lay hooked up to a ventilator, a tracheostomy tube in her throat and several chest tubes. After four surgeries on her back and knee, with even more awaiting her, and many grueling moments that physical therapy can bring with it, she was released — two months after the accident.

For a person not as fit and healthy as Roxanne, her doctor told her, the outcome very likely would have been fatal.

Rods and pins are now in her back. She still has no right knee, as her surgeon could find nothing remaining inside her leg to attach an artificial kneecap. Roxanne now suffers with a deep bone infection in that knee.

She struggles to talk and must completely rely on a walker to be mobile at all. Trips to the bathroom are a tremendous hardship because she has to put on a back brace and leg brace each time. There’s a small chance, she said, that she might be able to walk by December.

Although at the time of the accident both were wearing highly reflective clothing, including Roxanne’s bright orange jersey and yellow bike helmet, the driver, also of St. Cloud, told investigators he did not see them.

Roxanne cannot imagine her and Jeffrey having done anything different to avoid the terrible accident.

“We were right on the edge of the road,” she said. “He (the driver) just wasn’t looking and he said he didn’t see us.”

Now at home, Roxanne said her daughter, Stephanie, takes care of her.

“She’s the major caretaker and she’s just been the best,” she said, adding that Jeffrey and her sister also spend much time tending to her. “Right now I’m just trying to get myself together. It’s a lot of pain just getting out of bed.”

But through that pain Roxanne said it’s a great comfort for her to know that others have shown tremendous care for her since the accident, including her friends in the Pavement Pounders.

“The run club has just been the best,” she said. “Without them, I just don’t know … they’ve even come over and fixed some things that needed fixing. They’re exceptional people.”

Mike Snyder, president of the Pavement Pounders, said he thinks very highly of Roxanne.

“She's become one of the club's characters with her Southern drawl and no holds barred comments, but what everyone enjoys her for is that she is a consistent runner — we call her the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going and going,” he said. “Members of the St. Cloud Pavement Pounders are a very tightknit group of people and we consider everyone in the club family, ready to help out at moment’s notice.”

Aside from the sheer pain and grief brought on by the accident, Roxanne has had to face another very serious situation — the loss of her job.

Roxanne worked as a beautician at three nursing homes and did substitute teaching at area high schools. Now, without her jobs, there is little food and the bills — electric and mortgage, among others — are stacking up.

“From going to work to nothing,” Roxanne said. “But I survived when I could have been dead.”

To help Roxanne with some of her expenses, members of the Pavement Pounders have raised $2,000 and have plans for a future poker run to raise even more for her.

In the meantime, there will be an inaugural Swim Relay at East Lake Tohopekaliga Sunday starting at 7 a.m. It will start from the East Lake Fish Camp and will involve an open water swim for 4.7 miles to St. Cloud’s lakefront beach. Entry fee is $30 for individuals and $15 per relay team member, with an unlimited number of swimmers per relay team.

All swimmers must have an accompanying support boat, canoe or kayak to participate and there will be security boats to patrol participants/support teams. The typical boat launch fee at the fish camp will be waived. The first 30 people who enter will receive an inaugural shirt. There also will be a post-swim party at Crabby Bill's next to the beach landing. There also will be drawings for prize giveaways and a raffle for items donated by Retro Cycles and Track Shack in Orlando.

Online registration and donations can be made by going to www.active.com and typing: east lake toho into the “Find things to do” bar on the right side. For more information, contact Snyder at 407-791-3296 or mcitation525

@aol.com.

Roxanne said she could not believe the continued support of the group she belongs to in regard to the Swim Relay.

“Geez, all they’ve done for me, and that too,” she said. “I just can’t believe I’ve got that many people caring for me. I can’t believe there are people who still care. I never expected anything, really.”

Although Roxanne and her family and friends have been devastated by the accident, Roxanne said she remains extremely positive about her life and is very much looking to the future when she can get back on a bike and ride again. Only when that happens, she might include a new fixture on the bike.

“I think I might get me one of those mirrors where I can see what’s coming up behind me,” she said.

Swim Relay
What: Swim Relay. Cost $15-$30
When: Sunday at 7 a.m.
Where: East Lake Fish Camp
Why: To help raise money for Roxanne Carter, who was severely injured in a bicycle/car accident in May.
Info: Mike Snyder at 407-791-3296 or mcitation525@aol.com.