DD Part Two

So as many of you know this past Thursday was Thanksgiving for we folks in the U.S. and, like any good person, I decided to travel. For the second year in a row I headed to Pittsburgh to spend the big day and subsequent weekend with the freshly minted Mr. and Mrs. Babik. The highlight of the trip, however, was going to be my second dance with the Dirty Dozen; riding bikes up thirteen of the steepest hills in the city. I wasn’t sure how the ride would go since I haven’t been training but the weather was going to be ideal and I figured I could struggle through it. After all, I would be starting with a belly full of Turkey.

A lot happened over the weekend so instead of going into specific detail I figure it will be easier to just make a list so here goes:

• Jared and Caroline host an amazing Thanksgiving feast
• Jared has more beer left over from his wedding than any one person should
• Pittsburgh has some fun mountain bike trails right in the city
• Steve K. is awful at NHL 95 but for some reason is really good at the Sweet Valley High board game
• There's free parking closer to the Pen’s games than most people realize, but watch out for the nacho cheese
• Caroline makes an amazing breakfast and is great at motivating cyclists so they don’t quit
• Steevo can ride the wheels off a bike; any bike
• Jared can get true hill points when he tries
• Riding roads and trails for four days straight takes a lot out of you
• Driving the turnpike the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a bad idea

As you can see it was a full couple of days and that is just a partial list. I survived another Dirty Dozen and completed all the hills. I felt better than I thought and rode stronger than I expected. Steevo won his 8th straight DD and a record crowd of over 300 cyclists showed up to start the 29th installment of this little tour of Pittsburgh (but the amount of finishers is unknown). Of course the show on WQED and the 60 degree weather probably helped but who’s counting? I’ve already decided that I’ll be back to do it again next year because the whole trip was a lot more fun than I expected but more importantly, I’ll get a dot next to my name for (hopefully) finishing my third DD.