Well OK. I did my hammerfest of sorts this morning. It quickly broke into three groups, with the first being the uber-hammers, the last being the "I thought this was supposed to be fun and relaxing" riders, and the third being the ones lost in the Purgatory of biking, too vain to hang with the "noobs" but too weak to cut it with the Hammerheads. Of course I was in that middle group.

I hung in there pretty well until we hit a 13.5% grade going up about 150 feet. I was so blown by the time I got to the top that I begged my group just to go off and leave me to die peacefully, but they would have none of it. I also started to develop that nasty "ITB syndrome twinge" in my right knee that put a damper on my enthusiasm (hence my ill-tempered posts earlier today).

I rode with a guy who is a missionary and only owns a beat-up old Trek mountain bike that had knobbie tires and a (gasp!) kick-stand on it. He was probably the best rider there and could have given any of us carbon-clad poseurs a good thrashing if he had wanted to.

I found it comforting that he chose to ride with me, given my physical state and all.

I can't wait until my next group ride.

That was it.