Marine Bank President Bill Penney last weekend broke his leg in an accident while training for his planned 70th birthday 70-mile bicycle ride for charity that had been dubbed the 70 Forever Young Tour.
Speaking to 32963 from his hospital bed this week, Penney said he will postpone the epic ride for about six months to give his leg, which was broken in four places, time to heal properly.
The charity he was riding for, the Center for Memory and Movement, which raises funds to find cures for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease, has offered refunds to anyone who already donated to sponsor Penney’s planned bike ride, but Penney said most people told the organization to keep the money, “which we appreciate very much.”
Penney said he will attempt the 70-mile ride again in about six months’ time, visiting all of Marine Bank’s branches in the area stretching from Fort Pierce to Melbourne, although it won’t be exactly on his 70th birthday anymore – his birthday is this Friday.
Penney said he had been planning to train for the long ride Thursday and Friday evening after work and then do up to 50 miles on the weekend to work up to the 70-mile ride, but the accident intervened.
Last Thursday evening, he started out on his bike from Riverside Park and headed north along State Road A1A. Around Jaycee Park, he felt like one of his tires was a little low on air and stopped to pump it up a bit. It still didn’t feel right so he turned around to head back, and just as he was making the U-turn, the bike sideslipped.
“I suddenly felt all the air going out of the tire and slipped sideways as if I was on a sheet of ice,” Penney recalls of the moments before he slammed into the pavement.
Penney praised all the EMTs, police and hospital personnel who attended to him for being extremely professional and helpful. He underwent an operation at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital on Friday to have a rod inserted in his leg where the femur was broken in four different places – he has no cast. Initially, he was in a lot of pain, but he was feeling better by Monday and hoped to be able to go home later that day.
“The whole thing has been just so frustrating,” Penney said.
