photo 6 Thinking back to the day of my accident, I remember not feeling ready when I was in the gate and when they said, “riders ready?” I should have said, “no!” but I didn’t. Instead my pedal felt like it was in the wrong place, my goggles weren’t on right. I didn't feel right. When the gate opened I felt like I was all over the place and by the first turn I was so far behind I should’ve just walked back up to the gate! Instead of giving up I was telling myself not to quit because you never know what can happen. I was coming up to a tricky rhythm section and remembered saying to myself..."jump it!....no..don’t jump it!....”jump it!!" And as soon as I doubted myself, even for a second, that was probably the moment I should've backed off. I entered the rhythm section and needed to pick up my front end to catch the backside of the roller and pick up more speed but I screwed it up and the next thing I know I am going head first into the lip of the double I’m supposed to be jumping over! The initial impact is what broke my neck and then because I couldn’t slow down my body had nowhere to go but up so I did the full scorpion and that’s what broke my lower back. As soon as I hit I remember rolling back down the lip of the jump and I could feel my legs just sort of flopping around as I rolled. When I came to a stop I remembered it being super hot out just laying there in the sun. And then the pain hit.