More than Enough

So as promised, this is my follow-up to last week’s post regarding that beloved little bike ride in Pittsburgh known as the Dirty Dozen. As I mentioned before, this is an event that occurs on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and takes riders up thirteen of the steepest hills Pittsburgh has to offer. Here’s how things went.

I guess I had a preconceived notion of what steep hills were. After all, I’ve been riding a bike for a little while and I’ve been on some intensely mountainous rides. However, nothing I have ever done before was able to prepare me for the hellish inclines that I encountered on Saturday. I think it’s fair to say that I was woefully unprepared for these hills.

Unless you’ve actually seen the hills that are on the DD course, you don’t physically have the ability to imagine how steep they actually are. Add to that the fact that you’ve got almost 200 people trying to ride up these vertical streets that are no wider than about a car length and you have all the makings for a cocktail of pain and anguish.

The bottom line is I survived, barely. I made it up every hill on my first try and didn’t go down once. My heart almost exploded out of my chest on more than one occasion, and on the final hill I was going so slow that I think it was just one long track stand. My arms hurt worse than my legs from pulling on the bars and walking hasn’t been that easy. I should also say that Jared almost won Canton Avenue, but lost to Steevo (who won the DD, again) by about a half a wheel length and Colin took fifth overall for the day. This could be one event that I don’t ever want to do again, but it surely was a lot of sadistic fun.