Mark Gringle was training for an ironman competition when he was recently assaulted on a local road.

Ironman events are grueling, consisting of miles of swimming, running, and biking — but instead of competing, Gringle will, hopefully, just be getting back on his own two feet.

The Black Diamond resident was biking on the Cumberland-Kanaskat Road, just east of the city, on July 24 when he was “buzzed” by a grey sedan.

“There was absolutely nobody around. It’s a two-lane road,” Gringle said. “When he passed me, he was… a foot or two away from my handlebars, which not only shook me up, but really upset me.”

In response, Gringle gave the driver the bird.

The driver then pulled over, got out of the car, and waited for Gringle to pass, he said.

Gringle said he was “freaked out” and attempted to go around the driver.

He was, clearly, unsuccessful.

“He just came up and just shoved me. I was probably somewhere between 16 and 20 miles an hour,” Gringle said; he regained consciousness sometime later after two passersby stopped to help.

His injuries were extensive — bleeding in the brain; a punctured lung; a broken scapula (shoulder blade), collarbone, and pelvis; and nine broken ribs, eight of them displaced.

He stayed in Harborview Medical Center for more than three weeks, and only recently moved to a skilled nursing facility in west Seattle for physical therapy.

“I still can’t put any weight on my left leg at all — it’s toe-touch only. I can’t lift anything with my left arm,” Gringle said. “Basically, my whole left side is shot.”

He hopes to be up and about again in a couple months, and back on his bike another few months after that.

“I’ll be back out there,” Gringle said. “I’m positive about that.”

He added that recovering will be his ironman this year.

This is not the first road rage incident Girngle been involved in — he’s had bottles thrown at him, or drivers “roll coal” as they pass by.

“It seems like there’s more and more animosity… towards cyclists. And people are getting more and more, I guess, aggressive. It seems to be OK with a lot of people — they talk about it at parties, ‘Oh yeah, I hate those cyclists’ which makes people want to do things like get too close to them,” Gringle said. “It would be great to find the guy, but that’s not the most important thing. The most important message that I want to get out there is, just give us bikes a few seconds, a few feet, and we’ll be out of your damn way. We’re human beings too.”

Anyone with information about this incident can contact the King County Sheriff’s Office at 206-296-3311.