Beer Near?

When we pulled into the parking lot last night for the fast rides we noticed that Dennis had a 6 pack in the back of his SUV in a plastic bag. Dennis, Dennis, Dennis... are we going to have to do an intervention here? Friends don't let friends drink hot beer. Get a cooler! We are worried about you!

My Irish friends drink warm beer, but that's because they don't know from ice cubes. Of course they also say that we drink our beer ice cold to hide the taste- that American beer tastes like piss. I've never drank piss, so I wouldn't know...

Of course by the end of the ride I could have used one of said beers. Crap, it was windy last night. Kim begged Cliff and I at the beginning of the ride "Lets just go get pizza!" Noooo, I told her... my ass is too big and since the race on Sunday was bagged I needed to get a hard work out in. Wind, is our friend, I told her. Hah! (2 women on the ride last night- the dumb two.)

Not only was it windy, but the pace line yo-yo'd because of it, making gaps to avoid crashes which you constantly had to keep closing down. It was exhausting. By the time big Kevin got up to the front of the line heading to Vontay, pulling at 30 mph people were getting shelled right and left. Then I got dropped off first in line to go up the hill and promptly...

BOOM!!!! Did you all feel the explosion last night? That was me, blown to bits... molecules of Karen scattered into the wind...

If Cliff hadn't collected me and some of the other debris out there and dragged us back, I'm sure that I'd be dead in Rockville somewhere. It wasn't pretty, but we made it back. Cliff is still laughing at me. Yeah, wind is my friend. It's a great training partner. Just like hills and mean dogs.

I could have used one of those beers. Cold though, very, very cold.