Working Off All That 3-Day Weekend Beer

Lord knows, I am not the kind of girl who has a bunch of t-shirts from various road races. Truth be known, those people who claim to get up early on a Saturday morning (not to mention going to bed early on a Friday night) to RUN MILES for what they call FUN . . . well, those people kind of scare me.

Yes, I married one, but that's a-whole-nother-story, as they say in Eminence.

I have to admit, though, that I actually like the Mayor's Hike and Bike that we have twice a year here in Louisville. Yesterday's drew more than 2,500 people. At one point, I could see the crowd ahead of us (because looking at the crowd behind you while riding a bike is dangerous) and couldn't resist saying to Todd, "Hey, look at all those people!"

He says that's what all those runs are like. I'm taking his word for it.

Anyway, I am quite pleased that I actually finished the 15-mile ride. Of course, if anyone had given me a "not-finishing" option at around Mile 13, I may have taken it, but they didn't, so I finished. I even made it up the one hill.

Yes, I had to stop in the middle of the hill and call Todd to come back and fix the chain on my bike that had JUST GIVEN UP and tried to escape halfway up, but after it was fixed, I (and my chain) made it up the hill.

What cracks me up about a bike ride with 2,500 people is all that "courtesy yelling" that goes on. I'm riding along, trying to catch a breeze, and all of a sudden 15 people in front of me are screaming, "HOLE!HOLE!HOLE!"

So I'm all, "What? Why are these people yelling at me?"

Then, I'm all, "Oh, hey, there's a hole."

And it wasn't just holes that prompted the yelling. Throughout the ride, I heard lots of "CAR!"

"BRAKING!"

"CLEAR!"

And my favorite:

"COMINGUPONYOURLEFT!ONYOURLEFT!"

Me? I just ride. Yelling stuff takes too much air and just might possibly destroy all my balance, which means I would have to call out,

"CRASHING!CRASHINGRIGHTNOW!OUTOFSHAPEWOMANONTHEGROUND!"