Today I went karting with colleagues from work. It was the first time I raced in a kart. I’m not a daredevil, but it was to be a fun “guy” activity, or so I thought.

In fact, I really enjoyed racing, even though my weight was playing against me, resulting in me being 6 or 7 seconds slower than everybody else.

It is hard to keep the kart in the race line. Often being inexperienced, one has to recover from bad driving. So I was always more or less trying not to go off-course and out of the track.

It’s summer, I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt, like all of us. The girl at the clothing stand says that only the helmet is mandatory and that the whole suit was only for those who didn’t want to make their clothes dirty. She was wrong. Dead wrong. There is another reason to wear the whole suit: burns.

Here goes the story.

I’m trying to keep in line… however, I break too late, so I end up going through the grass and off the track. In the process, my kart is kind of jerked on one side. To compensate, I extend my left leg, and lower my head and body. That’s when the tire wins over my lower leg. Ouch. It hurts.

But I managed to stay on track, I just made a mistake and paid the price. This was about 30% into the race. So my left leg is burnt, it hurts, but my pride wins over again and I keep on racing. A little burn will not keep me from finishing the race. About 2 thirds into the race, at the exact same place, 2 of my colleagues try to avoid another kart, and hit each other, right as they are passing me, of course, I try to avoid them as well, I do a 180 degrees slide and end up on the grass. I lost about 2 or 3 race turns, trying to get my kart back on track. When I get back in, I completely forget that the engine is red hot and my right arm touches it. Ouch. It hurts.

Anyway. After the race, I looked at my wounds. Holy shit.

My leg has traces of rubber on it and is very red. The burn is about 5 cm by 4 cm. Probably 2nd degree burn.

My arm looks leathery and I can totally see that the epiderma layer is floating. 5 cm by 2 cm. Most probably 2nd degree burn.

The result of the race?

Well, I don’t really care, but here it is: We were 7 in the race, and I finished 4th. Mainly because two of the guys had problems with their kart. One stalled, the other broke his wheel shaft. Another guy abandonned.

I’ll get my revenge, but first, I’ll heal, and next time, I’ll wear the full suit.

brem