She Fell for Him

An injured trail runner finds help—and love—from a knight on a mountain bike

- Caroline Fanning

Even Rogers had just whipped around a curve on his mountain bike in April 2020 when he was stopped short by the sight of a woman sitting on the side of the trail. She was cute and had long auburn hair and big expressive eyes. What he didn’t know then was that she was also in agony.

Sydney Linden, 28, had been jogging down Adobe Jack Trail in Sedona, Arizona, when she hopped over a rock and her leg hyperextended on the landing. The pain was instant. Her right leg collapsed and she hit the dirt hard.

Linden tried to stand but collapsed. She wasn’t sure if she had torn her ACL, broken her leg, or something else. All she knew was that the pain was a 15 out of 10. Linden dragged herself to the shade, “like an animal preparing to die,” she says. She’d called a friend, but after 30 minutes, her friend was lost. That’s when she saw the mountain biker.