I'm Hill FREEEEE!

Tonight, we began our midweek rides. Tenille, Randy, and Glenn showed up. Randy is a longtime friend of mine and new to cycling this year. I was excited to finally get to ride with RL. He brought along his co-worker and friend, Glenn. The rain had finally abated, and the only wet was going to come from the road spray. Otherwise, I was calling this a dry ride. We set out to do 16 miles along the Seven Hills of Kirkland. We warmed up on the Juanita Drive Hill and then enjoyed the sweet descent down Holmes Point Drive.

As we reached the bottom, I turned back to Randy and asked him if he enjoyed that downhill. It was the fastest he'd ever ridden. I was pleased for him. But then I shared the bad news. I said, "In the parlance of Financial Peace University, you now have an 'elevation debt' and as you know, you have to pay off your debt." In other words, we had a serious hill ahead of us to climb. But I let Randy know he was fully permitted, once he reached the summit, to shout at the top of his lungs, "I'M HILL FREEEEEE!"

Glenn jokingly shouted back, "Hey, I didn't know there were going to be hills on this ride!" I replied, "Glenn, when I said we're going to do a portion of the 'Seven Hills of Kirkland', that might have been an indicator to you that there were going to be hills on this ride!"

We pressed on, climbed and climbed. I chatted with Tenille for a bit as we chugged upwards. (I learned later from Randy that my casual talking while his chest is heaving to get air into his lungs is somewhat discouraging. So sorry, friend!) At the top of the hill, Randy let it out right on cue...

"I'M HILL FREEEEEEE!"