Happened to me two weeks ago, though lucky, almost no road rash.

The impact threw my body out of whack, which caused all kinds of pain. Several sessions of physio and chiropractic have helped immensely. So, even if she might not feel pain it's necessary.

As for road rash, Chrissie Wellington did her last Kona like that.

Here is some info I found on ST

Clean the wound immediately after the crash with a good antiseptic soap and brush to make sure you get all the gravel and dirt out.
I then apply a health dose of Anbesol gel (yes the baby teeth stuff) and triple antibiotic cream (this deadens the pain and helps keep things moist and clean)
Cover with a "2nd Skin" patch.They come is various size and shapes. So you can you one on the plam of the hand.

Properly attended to..I've never had an issue swimming after 24 hrs after a crash. If anything I found the chlorinated water kept things clean.


Make sure you buy some Tegaderm or some such product. It is designed to be worn in the water so you can swim/shower with it on (assuming you have a section of skin that will hold a bandage)
http://solutions.3m.com/...lth/brands/tegaderm/

Thanks for all of the input. From the standpoint of treating the road rash, I found this article on Velonews by an ER doc and cyclist (scroll down to the "If God made road rash cream" section):

http://velonews.competitor.com/...dawn-richardson_3909

The duoderm (hydrocolloid bandages) are amazing. I was able to get some from Walgreens by Johnson & Johnson. They are called "Tough Pads." They have worked really well so far (day 2). You can get them on Amazon for much less than the article states, so the cost is not prohibitive. They can be overlapped to create a larger bandage, are waterproof, and have significantly reduced the associated pain. I took a shower this morning with the bandages without any problem or need to change them.

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Cervelo R3 and Cannondale Synapse, Argon18 Electron Track Bike

+1 on the bandages

depending on how bad the skin situation is (can't be good getting hit at that speed), I would wait for a different IM down the line - especially since your race is in a lake (worse than salt-water or a pool as a possible source of infection - smaller lakes can have concentrations of some very nasty bacteria/single-celled organisms)

but if she decides to do it, GL - I would dry/disinfect/bandage ASAP in T1 before the bike - or have someone help bandage at T1

Some great advice from other posters. I'm thinking the ankle will be the unknown factor. I rolled mine 1.5 months before IM Canada and couldn't run much at all. I had to tape it up just to hobble into work. Anyway, she might as well race/run till it blows up and then walk the rest soaking up the atmosphere knowing it could have been worse. I took some drugs but my ankle blew at mile 21. Still had a ton of fun and was happy it lasted that long. Good luck!

IMWI is a full month away. Don't most cuts heal in one week?

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

Most pools will not let you swim with open wounds and bandages. You will have to wait until completely healed or scabbed over before you can get into the water. This protects you from infection and doesn't gross people out while your in the water

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

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If you can heal this in a week....You must have green blood my friend...

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�There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe, and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?�- Stephen Hawking

A good case of road rash takes several weeks to heal. It's not a cut that heals, but skin that's no longer there needing to regenerate.

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Dale Stephanos (Formerly PappaD)

Ok, I stand corrected.

I'd defer the decision about the probability of infection to her doctor.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

Jeeeesus. Pulling on/taking off a wetsuit will be memorable. Tough girl!

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Dale Stephanos (Formerly PappaD)

Even light road rash will take a couple of weeks to completely heal, but it all depends on the depth. Like others have said, get it clean and then break out the tegaderm. You will likely need to change it fairly often in the beginning depending on how badly the rash weeps, and then less frequently as things start to mend. Buy your stuff on Amazon, it is far and away many many times cheaper than going to a drugstore. I recently found if you are a Prime member you can get free same day shipping on Tegaderm and other first aid supplies, depending on where you live.

If at all possible, seek a dermatologist or some other skin/burn/road-rash specialist.

I had a motorcycle muffler burn on my leg about a month ago and was given a couple of ointments by a dermatologist. When I ran out a couple weeks later, I went to a general practitioner who didn't have the same medications and just gave me some fusidic acid.

With the stuff from the dermatologist, I was clearing healing about twice as fast, so I went back to the original doctor.