Day 23-24

Day 23

We rode from Casper to Shoshoni, WY today, and I dedicated my ride to Anthony Beadle, a friend of a friend who is about my age and battling cancer. We had about a 90+ mile ride today, and unlike previous years, it was relatively not windy. We got off to a very late start this morning. We slept in until 7a (late for us), had breakfast and then ran some errands. Bread for PB&J’s is critical and we badly needed some. People were also in search of eye drops. The air, though clean, is so dry it makes my eyes turn red. I end up looking like I have been crying at the end of almost every ride because my eyes are so red! We eventually got onto the road around 10:30 or 10:45a. At the first rest stop some of us decided that we were just going to ride the next 60 miles without stopping, and we were on our way. I lost the group I was with 15 or so miles later because I stopped to check out Hell’s Half Acre. Battle scenes from Starship Troopers were filmed here and Native Americans used to chase herds of Buffalo over the cliffs and into the bottom. Hell’s Half Acre looks like a giant crater with a spiky bottom, for lack of a better way of describing. One would definitely not want to be run over the edge. Sixty miles later, I stopped at the 80 mile rest stop with the others who were riding continuously. It was hotter than I don’t know what, and we decided to ride out the last 10 miles and see if we could get malts donated. Apparently, the best malts and shakes in the country are actually from a little drug store in Shoshoni, WY. People come from all over the place to get them. In one day, they once made 729 shakes! A few riders offered to help wash dishes in exchange for shakes for the team, which after some confusion, worked out well for everyone involved. The cherry cheesecake shake (one of their specialties) is delicious. We stayed at the Shoshoni Fire Department, which was just down the street. Another group of riders who are heading from the west coast to the east coast were also in town. They were impressed that we are actually responsible for organizing logistics for our entire trip as well as driving the vehicles, bike support, etc. While it crossed my mind that some of our riders may be envious of other groups who have all this extra support, I never had to worry. The Texas 4000 riders were proud of all the work they had put in to making this trip happen—as they should, in my opinion. It’s a pretty amazing feat when you really stop and think about it. A couple of our riders took charge of re-organizing our vans and trailers when we got into the fire station. I was glad to see people excited to do this (without me having to ask). After a spaghetti dinner, I finally got to take a shower and then it was time for bed. I started reading Siddhartha this evening. One of my teammates had a copy of it and lent it to me. Its good so far, but I look forward to diving into it more.

Day 24

Today I dedicated my ride to my grandmother and a friend of a mentor of mine was battling cancer last year at this time. We rode from Shoshoni to Dubois, WY. We are blazing new territory for the Texas 4000 Rockies route with our ride today. Past teams have generally gone from Shoshoni to Thermopolis. A couple of alumni drove this way last year though and suggested that we change the route so that we could stop in Grand Tetons National Park. We can see the Tetons from where we are staying, but we’ll still be riding more than 60 miles tomorrow to get into the park. Today was quite possibly the most beautiful day we have had yet. The mountains are amazing. The ride today was around 100 miles, but it felt slow. Maybe our legs were tired from yesterday, or maybe the road was just “slow,” I’m not sure. Either way, we eventually made it to the 80 mile rest stop only to see a few mean looking clouds hovering over the road on which we had to ride. We put our bikes under an overhang and hung out in the van for a bit. It never rained very hard, and within an hour we were back on the road for the last 15 or so miles. Those miles were along Wind River. Based on the name alone, you can probably guess what our ride was like those last miles. We arrived here in Dubois around 4p or so. There are still some mean clouds in the sky, but they seem to be keeping their rain to themselves for now. I was able to spend some time riding “alone” today (meaning I wasn’t riding next to or in a pace line with someone but there were people around). It was great. It has taken over three weeks, but my mind is finally starting to quiet. Maybe its because we’re getting into a routine and people know what to do or maybe its because I’m getting bored because I haven’t been in school for a few weeks, I don’t know. Either way, I feel like I can think again, which is nice.

Day 18-22

Day 18

Today was a rest day in Boulder. I had grand plans to sleep in until some late hour of the morning, but promptly woke up at 6:30a because I couldn’t sleep anymore. Oh well. I went for a short run and then spent the rest of the morning updating my blog entries and pictures. A local reporter called two cancer hospitals in the area yesterday and told them we might be dropping by; however, I didn’t get the memo until late last evening. Unfortunately, whoever took the memo only wrote down the contact info for someone at one of the hospitals not both. I gave the hospital a call, expecting to be able to bring the entire team over but they told me we’d significantly out number patients (not good) so we ended up sending only a few riders. This worked out well though—those riders got to speak to someone who had recently been diagnosed with leukemia, and I think the riders were all very touched by the experience. A couple of them dedicated their ride to the man the next day. While those riders were at the hospital, a few of us went to local bike shops. A friend of mine from Hawaii met us at one. I only got to talk to him for 15 or 20 minutes, but it was great to see him. Hopefully next time we’ll catch up for a longer period of time! This evening we had two families hosting us for dinner so we split the team in half and half went to each house. The house I went to for dinner was home to two of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Bill has biked across the country a couple times and Mary Jo became a marine archaeologist in Israel in her mid-40s. If they’re not good examples of being active and always seeking new adventures, I’m not sure what a good example is. I really enjoyed meeting and talking to them. After dinner, everyone met back at the church at which we are staying for a team meeting. We talked about the usual safety and van issues, and then one of the riders brought up ride dedications. The group talked about how we were doing our ride dedications and people feeling pressure to have to have a new person to dedicate their ride to everyday. Feeling any sort of pressure during ride dedication is definitely not what our organization is about and in the end, we decided to change a few things, including not videotaping our dedications. I was really proud of the group and the discussion we had. People were very passionate about dedicating their rides and it showed when they added their opinions to the discussion. A few people went to explore Boulder after the meeting. I sat around for a bit talking and then decided to go to bed. Apparently I woke up at 2a when people came back and was having a very nonsensical conversation. All I remember is that I was trying to convince my boyfriend that he couldn’t build roads there…wherever there was.

Day 19

Today we rode from Boulder to Ft. Collins. I was driving today, and I dedicated my day to Kevin Seiter, the father of a friend of mine, who had squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. I had to clean a few things out of the van today before we left and then our hosts gave us more leftovers than we could eat. Fortunately, one of our hosts knew how to recycle everything and mentioned taking extra food to a homeless shelter. We happily donated what we couldn’t take. A couple of our hosts road with the team out of town, which is always a treat. There were even a few kids who rode the first couple miles! We only had one rest stop today, and it was packed with fresh fruit, which we hadn’t seen much of lately. I think everyone enjoyed it. While driving, I was talking to the rider who had hurt his ankle, and we had a really good discussion about why one would or would not want to get a full cast. I’m obviously not a medical professional and at the end of our discussion, I told him to call our team doctor and ask his opinion. I really appreciated his frankness. Later in the day, the doctor told him he didn’t need a full cast, which made the rider happy and me relieved that at least for the next several weeks, I didn’t have to worry anymore about whether or not he needed to see another doctor. The rider is on his way to health! We arrived at our host’s house in Ft. Collins around lunch time. They had a tent outside with tables and a huge spread of food in the kitchen. Everyone dug in and enjoyed immensely…and then we found out there was more. They had arranged for a couple of personal trainers to come stretch us out, for a massage therapist to give massages, for full access to a local sports club and even more food at 5p. Wow. I joined a few people at the sports club and went on a 10 mile run. Ft. Collins has great bike paths! After showering, I met up with the half of the team who had gone to check out New Belgian brewery and went back to our host’s house. Our hosts had a huge dinner prepared, and around 6:30p what seemed to be the whole neighborhood appeared for dessert…homemade ice cream! We gave a presentation about Texas 4000 and answered everyone’s questions. Afterwards, I had my massage and waited, watching the bike mechanic, until he finished the last bike. We were so grateful for the tune-ups (and in some cases a little more) that he provided for our bikes. They were much in need.

Day 20

Today we rode from Ft. Collins, CO to Laramie, WY, and I dedicated my ride to Dana Dugan. Our hosts provided a huge breakfast, including the best bran muffins I’ve ever tasted. One of our hosts and one of his cycling buddies rode the first 20 miles with us. We headed out of town on bike paths again to avoid the traffic. I am loving Colorado bike paths (when they’re paved)! The scenery heading out of Colorado and into Wyoming was beautiful. We did quite a bit of climbing today relative to what we’d done so far (excluding Mt. Evans) and reached the highest point on our journey yet (8600+ ft., again, excluding Mt. Evans). The wind picked up a little in the afternoon, but wasn’t too bad. The locals told us that there was no wind today. I think I should probably be concerned if this is “no wind.” We arrived at the church in the early afternoon. Our hosts were waiting for us (with snacks!) at the church. They had already divided us into host family houses, and as soon as everyone was in, we were sent on our way to our host families to shower and change. Enroute to my hosts house, I got a tour of the University of Wyoming and Laramie. There is quite a bit of development going on there and the university has a bunch of new buildings. There is also a cancer center in town, which has been open for four or five years, but unfortunately, I didn’t know about it in advance and we didn’t have the opportunity to visit—next year’s team should definitely try to go! The group reconvened at one of the hosts houses at 6p or so for a taco potluck. I got to meet and talk to a bunch of the other hosts, which was a lot of fun. After dinner we headed back to our hosts house and spent the next few hours talking and relaxing. We didn’t have a particularly long day, but I was falling asleep in my chair by 9p!

Day 21

Today was Laramie to Medicine Bow, WY. I dedicated my ride today to a woman named Bunny who I met yesterday when we arrived at the church—she has been breast cancer-free for six years now! I woke up this morning and my lungs were a little tight. I’m allergic to cats, so if I sleep in the same house as them the tightness tends to happen, but it goes away in a few hours if I’m not around them (which it did during the ride). We had a great breakfast this morning. While eating it though I was talking to people to see if we could get one of the riders some altitude sickness medication. She’s been struggling quite a bit and we’re staying at elevation for awhile (and already have been for a week), so I wanted to make sure she had whatever people had recommended for her. We got that worked out though and had one of the drivers pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy. Right before our ride dedication this morning I was talking to the woman who organized our stay for a bit. We were staying at an Episcopal church and she told me that the Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferies Schori used to do deep sea research before receiving the call to the priesthood. For those who don’t know me well, religion is something I’ve always been fascinated with and I love going to different churches. I’d like to learn more about Bishop Jefferies Schori because her story sounds really interesting. I was really glad I got to talk to this host about her. The ride today was relatively flat with some rolling hills and little wind. Some of the riders were setting off fireworks at the first aid station (nothing burned down and no one was hurt), and the second aid station passed by uneventfully except for some dancing by two of the riders. Eight miles after this aid station, we stopped at a house made of dinosaur fossils. Apparently they are still pulling fossils out of the bluff behind the house and one of the dinosaurs they’ve pulled from the hill resides in the Smithsonian. All the local schools take field trips out to see the dig sight and house/museum. We arrived in Medicine Bow in the early afternoon. I got to sit and chat with some of our hosts for a bit while others took shower, which was nice. Around 5p, a lot of the church members came over and we had a big spaghetti dinner. Afterwards, we gave a presentation and answered all sorts of questions about the ride. The pastor wants to ride next year and asked if I could leave him an application! I’m not sure that’ll work, but its definitely clear he and the others here appreciate what the group is doing. After dinner we wandered over the Virginian, an old hotel here, which is apparently where they shot a movie and is named after some hotel in a book (I’m not sure which one). Inside the bar, there are pictures of all the famous outlaws and a couple notes about the deeds for which they became infamous. Its now closing in on bedtime and I’m definitely ready for some sleep. We have three 100 mile days ahead of us before we reach Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Day 22

I dedicated my ride today to Hank Ciocca, a friend of a family friend who battled with a rare form of brain cancer and passed away earlier this year. I was thinking about Hank as I rode today in windier and hillier conditions than we had encountered thus far. The ride was from Medicine Bow to Casper, WY and was just over 90 miles long. We got up early this morning, had breakfast and were off in an effort to avoid as much wind as possible. In general, the day was very sunny…but cold. There are only a handful of us left in the arm/leg warmer challenge. This challenge is to see who can go the longest without wearing arm and/or leg warmers (Mt. Evans excluded). It would have been a nice day to lose the challenge, but I had packed both my arm and leg warmers at the bottom of my stuff sack. Oops. The ride today was relatively uneventful. We had a great downhill at one point that lasted for several miles and was relatively straight. The wind in my ears was incredibly loud as I flew down the hill. We had a rest stop at the bottom where the drivers got creative with their attire (or lack thereof), and at every rest stop, including that one, we did the usual pushups. I got to ride the last 30 or so miles today by myself. It was great to be left alone with my thoughts and to simply ride at my own pace. In triathlon there are strict no drafting rules for long distance races, so I’ve been used to riding my bike, regardless of weather condition, by myself, but I haven’t done that much on this ride. I paused at one point to snap a picture of a roadside historical marker…for the Oregon Trail! We arrived in Casper and stored our bikes at our hosts’ shop before driving to their house. We haven’t had to cart the whole team around in the van much lately, and there was stuff everywhere in the back of the van. This was super frustrating, as the one thing we go over almost everyday and definitely at every weekly meeting, is that people need to get their personal stuff out of the van and into their duffel bags. Although this issue may seem trivial, you would be surprised at how quickly and how much stuff accumulates. I ended up putting all the random stuff in a trash bag (not to throw it all out) and telling people they needed to claim their stuff and put it in their personal bags (I may have had a fairly annoyed tone in my voice when I did this). We drove down a lot of gravel roads towards our hosts’ house before turning into a driveway. Our hosts were there to greet us with a warm welcome. After showing us around, about half of us decided to go canoeing. We loaded up the canoes on a trailer and someone drove us up the river a bit and helped us put the canoes in the water. It was great to be out on the water—very relaxing! We arrived back at the house in time to enjoy dinner, and at present, everyone is relaxing some more and watching movies—a luxury we have not had much of on this trip but which everyone seems to be thoroughly enjoying.

Day 15-17

Day 15

We woke up early this morning so that we could get into Colorado Springs before 1p. The grandparents of one of our team members are celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary, and we wanted to arrive in the Springs early so that he could go to the party. I dedicated my ride this morning to the mother of a woman named Lovedia who was my teller at the bank yesterday. Her mom is currently battling ovarian cancer. Today I will admit was a challenging day for me, but probably not for the reasons I would have expected. A couple of alum gave us a route to follow, which we dutifully did. Less than 10 miles into the trip we ran out of road. The pavement turned into packed dirt and then into gravel. This lasted for 16 miles. Our first rest stop was somewhere in the middle of the gravel, and ironically, in front of one of the only driveways on that stretch of road. We continued on our way but then found out that the alum we thought were going to come meet us were not going to meet us any longer…and we were supposed to get on bike paths for the last 20 miles. Great. We pulled over in a random park and fortunately a few mountain bikers rode by so we were able to ask for directions. They told us the path would be gravel for a mile or so but then would be paved the rest of the way. Turns out the path was unpaved for about 6 more miles or so and he gave us the wrong directions. Fortunately, however, he realized this and met up with us a short while later on the path to lead us the rest of the way. To put it nicely, I was rather annoyed the whole route. I don’t feel safe at all riding on gravel and when the bike path turned out to be 6 miles or so, I slowed down to crawling speed (if that). We finally arrived at the Residence Inn in Colorado Springs, and fortunately our drivers had secured us lunch (graciously donated by California Pizza Kitchen). The two alum who had written the directions rolled up a few minutes later. One introduced himself to me, and I informed him (nicely) that he now had 20 people who didn’t like him. He laughed and said that his year, he had to drive that day and all the riders were annoyed with him when they finally got to the hotel, and last year people were annoyed with him as well. The other alum rounded the corner of the trailer a few minutes later and said, hey man, I heard you succeeded in getting another year of riders not to like you! We all laughed at that. Unfortunately, it turns out that the gravel road we traversed is basically the only road to take (unless we went 30 miles or more out of the way) and the bike paths are the safest way into the Springs. After a some food and showers a group of us headed out to check out Garden of the Gods. It was nice to do some sightseeing, and I think everyone enjoyed playing outside, not on bikes. We headed back to hotel when we were done and another alum and some of his friends made us dinner. It was delicious. One of the alum that had given us directions also helped us determine a Challenge for our route…Denver to Boulder via the top of Mt. Evans. Previous years have had the Dees Lake Challenge, but this year people want to push the limits a little more so we’re starting Challenges early.

Day 16

The alum redeemed themselves today by riding with us from Colorado Springs to Denver. I dedicated my ride to Katie Anderson, a childhood friend who died of cancer when I was young. The hotel fed us a continental breakfast and after ride dedications we were on our way. Seven miles into the ride we hit were at the top of a hill at 7500ft elevation, which was the highest point we had reached on our journey yet. One of the riders seemed to be suffering from a bit of altitude sickness and I had her sag for the rest of the day (stopping every mile or less because one feels like nausea seems like a good reason not to ride in my opinion). After that hill we were on a series of long downhills and rollers and the miles quickly passed. After our last rest stop we basically split into two different groups and one of the alum led each group…and we went on more bike paths. I was very impressed with the bike paths in Denver however. They were great. We arrived at the church at which were staying in the early afternoon. We grabbed some lunch and then about half the team headed to the REI and the swimming hole in front of it. The water was pretty chilly (snow runoff) but it felt great. When I was in REI I had stopped to talk to the people at the information booth about places to swim and the woman there informed me that the swimming hole would be cold and have somewhat strong currents due to all the snowmelt this time of year. She and I chatted for awhile and she told me about her adventures in Glacier National Park, where the team will be in a few weeks, and I shared with her about Texas 4000. We returned back to the church after our swimming adventures and the alum that had ridden with us that day cooked us a delicious dinner. Afterwards, one of them helped us finalize the directions for the Mt. Evans Challenge some of us will be taking tomorrow.

Day 17

Today the team rode from Denver to Boulder. In reality, only about half the team actually rode the whole distance. The other half us went up Mt. Evans. Mt. Evans is one of the 14,000+ft peaks in Colorado and is home to the highest paved road in North America. It lies west of Denver, and as such, was sort of en route to Boulder. We have some very strong cyclists on the team this year, and they have been itching for some challenging terrain. We had wanted to ride up Pikes Peak, until we discovered that you can’t ride up it anymore. In an effort to figure out another challenge for us to do in Colorado one of the riders started asking the alum we had ridden with in the last couple days for a few recommendations. They suggested Mt. Evans. To say this mountain is regularly ridden by cyclists might not be exactly correct, but it is not uncommon to see cyclists on the roads leading up the mountain. The alum warned us that it took him 7 or 8 hours of solid riding to get from Denver to the top of the mountain and informed us that storms tend to roll in the afternoon. Knowing this we decided we needed to leave early. We set our alarms for 4a. Ten of us decided to go. I would like it to be known that two of the ten were girls. My understanding is that in the past no women have participated, but this year, we’re changing that too. Last night, everyone made sure their cold weather gear was laid out and that they had plenty of food, an extra water bottle and whatever else they needed. This morning everyone got up and quietly got their stuff packed up, finished last minute things on their bikes and had a quick breakfast. Though the whole team wasn’t going on the trip, the 10 of us still circled up for ride dedication. In my opinion, this was the most emotional ride dedication yet. People were excited and scared and nervous for this trip all at the same time. And today, especially, we needed the ride dedications. One rider broke down and started crying and another put his arm around him to comfort him. This is what it means to be a teammate. I dedicated to Shelley Ichisita, a woman a couple years older than me who I was coaching in triathlon a few years ago who is a cancer survivor. Before a race, Shelley would always tell people in the tri group to ‘kick butt and take numbers.’ Today, with a 14,000+ft peak in my path, I found strength in her advice. We rolled out at 5:40a and headed towards the mountains. We stopped a few times because one of the guys was having trouble with his bike, until we finally called one of the riders from the other half of the team and told him to meet us in Idaho Springs so we could switch out his bike. We still haven’t figured out what the strange noise is. After the second stop and phone call, we started up Lookout Mountain. We weren’t actually expecting this climb at all, but why not. At the top we saw the memorial for Buffalo Bill before descending the other side. A few downhills later, we had our first major spill of the trip. A rider took a turn to close and ended up in the other lane before going over his handle bars. He got away with a scraped and bruised elbow though and got right back up and started riding again. We had a bit of a scary descent for a couple of miles on the shoulder of a highway (cyclists go on this on a regular basis, but its still a little scary because you reach pretty high speeds), at which point I led us off at an exit because I was a little worried about being on that road. Fortunately, the exit was the perfect one at which to exit, because just under the highway was the county road and bikeway for which the alum had told us to look. We were still on the right path! About four hours after we started, we finally arrived in Idaho Springs and we stopped at a gas station to refill our water bottles and have a large snack. The alum who recommended the route to us had told us to refill here and that we should be able to make it to the top on that. We still had about 30 miles to go until the top. We switched out the aforementioned rider’s bike and were on our way. One of the most impressive things to me about the day at this point was that the group stayed together. We commenced our climb and stayed together for the first six or so miles before the group began to split up. Idaho Springs is at 7500ft elevation, and the next main stopping point on the road to the top is Echo Lake, about 13 miles further up the road at 10,600+ft elevation. The group got strung out a little bit, but we all reconvened at the lodge in good spirits. After warming up in the lodge and refilling our water bottles, we heard ‘whoa, we’re half way there…’ blasting from the radio in the lodge. We started laughing (we were actually half-way up the mountain at that point) and decided this was sign that we should get on the road. We paid our entry fees to get into the park and headed up the last 14 miles (or so we thought). We got pretty spread out, but everyone kept plugging away at miles. Five or six miles up the road, I passed my boyfriend. He caught back up and we rode together for a little bit before he fell back again. I passed Summit Lake without stopping (it was at Mile 9). With about two miles to go my boyfriend caught up with me and passed me. I had a feeling it probably annoyed him to pieces that I was in front of him, but whatever gives you motivation to get up the hill faster works. The sign at Echo Lake had said that there were 14 more miles until the top, but as the Mile Marker 14 approached, I observed that I was still in fact not at the top. The top was actually over 15 miles from Echo Lake. I was the third person on our team to arrive at the top. As I was approaching the parking lot, I noticed that the two riders in front of me hadn’t stopped at the top…there was a trail that went up even higher and they had gotten off their bikes and were carrying them up to the top. Not to be out done, I hopped off my bike and started hiking up behind them. One by one the other riders trickled in and made their way up the trail with their bikes. Our bikes really had no business being up there but it just looked more hard core. We took pictures of us holding our bikes over our heads with views of the Rocky Mountains in the background. The view was phenomenal and there were airplanes flying at our eye level! Our final shot was of eight of us mooning the camera (maybe the lack of oxygen was getting to our heads?). At this point we noticed a few mean looking clouds rolling in and we were starting to get really cold. We quickly scrambled down the paths with our bikes and as we got down our last rider rolled into the parking lot…all 10 of us made it up to the top. It was getting colder and colder so we quickly started our descent. The roads on the top part of the mountain are not particularly great. They are buckled in many places and have potholes/drainage holes…and there is no guard rail. Within a couple miles of starting our descent, the temperature had dropped even more and it wasn’t helping that we were going downhill and exposed to the wind. Then it started snowing. The front riders pulled in at Summit Lake and the rest of the group quickly followed suite. I rolled in and they took one look at me and said, so we have to stop right? I said yes. People were going to get hypothermic, the road conditions were not. good and it just didn’t look like a smart idea. Everyone was happy to get off the road. We walked our bikes over to a shelter, and fortunately, there was a park ranger there. She let us load all of our bikes into the back of her truck and then helped us find rides with other visitors in the park to get back down to Echo Lodge. Four families helped transport the 10 of us back down to the lodge. I rode with a group who was visiting from the UK, and we got to exchange stories about being up in the mountains and riding bikes. They also gave me a donation when I got out of the car and wished us luck on our trip and with raising funds. Once back at the lodge, we unloaded our bikes, lined them up under the porch and went inside to grab food. We called one of our drivers for the day and asked her to head up the Echo Lake with the van and trailer to retrieve us. In the meantime, we sat in the lodge, enjoying a very late lunch and lots of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. The restaurant let us sit by the heater too, so we could thaw. At one point, the power went out, but fortunately, it was after we’d eaten. We recounted over and over what had happened on the mountain and what everyone was thinking about while they were riding. Most of the group got shirts, hats or stickers that said they had climbed Mt. Evans. The van and trailer finally arrived and we took a few last shots of the ten of us in front of Echo Lake before heading down the mountain and towards Boulder. We arrived in Boulder around 10 or 10:30p, and our hosts had saved dinner for us. We enjoyed the leftovers and passed out immediately. I have to say, I had a great day. About six hours into the ride I started to feel great. People give me a hard time on a somewhat regular basis about never riding hard with the group and saying that I might not be able to outlast people after all. After passing those people on the hill and being in better spirits than anyone at the top, I don’t think people will say anything to me anymore. I still haven’t figured out exactly what it is about my body, but I tend to do better the more challenging the conditions. My legs felt great all the way up the mountain, and I wasn’t bothered by the altitude (though I can always do without cold weather). The ride today was my kind of ride. I look forward to the next challenge.

Day 14: Las Animas to Pueblo, CO

Two weeks into our 10 week journey…it is amazing how fast time flies! Today we rode from Las Animas to Pueblo, CO, and I dedicated my ride to a couple I was talking to last night at dinner whose family members had been affected by various types of cancer. My hosts last night were awesome and this morning gave me a souvenir—a Colorado license plate. The kids had signed the back, and they wrote a note to remind me they would be thinking of me on the journey. It is going on my wall when I get back to Austin! All of the host families stuck around as we packed the trailer this morning and then we had a police escort out of town. The ride today was great. There was relatively little wind and I rode with a pack of six or eight other riders the whole day. We arrived this afternoon around 2:30p in Pueblo…just before a few angry looking clouds. The sun seems to have peaked back out without raining though and the forecast is for a beautiful day tomorrow. Tonight a Texas 4000 alum, his girlfriend, her family and some other friends will be feeding us dinner. We will actually be meeting up with several alum in the next few days, and I am excited to have a two-way conversation with them…up to this point, they have been telling all the stories and we have been asking all the questions. Now we have our own stories to share though! We also lost a rider today (temporarily). The rider I mentioned earlier who had hurt is ankle actually broke a couple bones and he got a ride into Denver this morning from one of our hosts last night. He’s going ahead to see a doctor and figure out what needs to be done to get him back to health, and he’s planning to meet back up with us before we leave Colorado. We’ll be seeing him in a couple days though when we get to Denver. Other Texas 4000 alum in the Denver area have been keeping in contact with us and offering to help. People say that you grow very close to your teammates during the Texas 4000 journey, but an equally important connection is made between all of us and the alum. Personally I have received a lot of very useful advice from them, but maybe more importantly, they have given me a support network who will laugh with me about how difficult it is to get 20 twentysomethings moving.

I have been having a lot of interesting and sometimes random conversations while on the bike, but also had plenty of time to get lost in my own thoughts. I’m the oldest person on the team and in a PhD program, so if anyone should know what they want to do with their life, it should be me. But honestly, I don’t know. My teammates have asked me what I want to do when I’m done with school and my response every time is that it depends on the day, but all of the options are related. They include some combination of academia, research and clinical practices. This may seem like a broad range of categories, but I study how people walk, so its actually feasible to want (and obtain) all of the above at the same time. Last spring, I worked in the Kinesiology Department at the University of Hawaii (which has graduate programs in athletic training) and a friend there told me early on that he thought even if I never became an athletic trainer, I would like the knowledge that I would have. He’s absolutely correct. I never considered doing anything clinically related in the past because I just didn’t like blood. After watching a bunch of surgeries though, I realized that blood didn’t really scare me at all. I fully admit that I have issues with modern medicine, but working in a hospital for the last year or so and the experiences I have had on this trip so far have (are) driven home the usefulness of modern medicine. When my rider fell the other day, I asked him a couple questions and based on his responses, I had a gut instinct that it was broken. He wanted nothing to do with the doctor and wanted to wait for a couple days to see if the swelling subsided. He repeatedly asked me what the time lines were for breaks vs. sprains, which having known enough people who have done that before I have a general idea. After telling him this though, I heard myself telling him that the only way to know for sure what his timeline for recovery would be was to get an x-ray ad see if it was broken. From someone who again has had issues with doctors, I was kind of shocked to hear myself recommending this right off the bat. Maybe even more importantly though was the feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was helpless to help him more. Yes, I may have had some intuition, but I have no clinical training to help someone…and I would like that. I took a leap of faith leaving my PhD program in oceanography, and some days I miss it. However, I feel like many of the experiences in my past and present have been directing me to do something that involves health issues and interacting with people combined with problem solving and constant change. At the risk of anyone thinking I want to leave my current PhD program, don’t worry, I don’t want to leave it. For the last year, I have been working with PT-PhDs, ATC-PhDs and a bunch of research-minded MDs, who have enabled me to see the interaction between research and the clinic. No decision on where to go from here has to (or will) be made immediately, but I’ve been eyeing an MD/PhD program offered through my current department for about a year and have definitely considered PT and ATC program. My experiences on this ride—from the little questions I get regularly about stretching and nutrition to the big questions about broken bones—are speaking to me, and they are saying things consistent with things I have been thinking about a long time.

Day 11-Day 13

Day 11

Our second border crossing! Today we rode from Buffalo, OK to Dodge City, KS. My ride was dedicated to Lynda Chisman. We were unsure this morning whether or not we’d be able to ride this morning actually. Our alarm clocks went off at 6a…but it was pouring down rain, thundering and lightning. Actually, about 15 of us (there are 20 riders total) were sleeping outside under the stars until it started raining at 3:30a. We quickly packed up our stuff and moved inside the gym. I let everyone sleep an extra 30 minutes or so and then we headed over to the church which was feeding us breakfast. I was able to take a quick look at the radar at the point, and everything looked clear, so we went back to the gym and packed everything up to ride. We took pictures at the Welcome to Kansas sign and then proceeded on our way. There was some very beautiful landscape and a few small canyons early on and the land was mostly rolling. We rolled into Dodge City, after passing many a cattle farm, in the late afternoon. The fire station across the street from the church where we were staying let us take showers, for which we were very grateful. There were some miscommunications about whether or not dinner was being provided that night. About half of the team went out for steaks and the other half stayed at the church and made pasta. I was in the latter group, and as I looked around the table that night eating my pasta, I smiled. The people that had also stayed (minus one) were all of my committee heads and the other people that I really felt I could rely on for help when something needed to be done.

Day 12

Kansas, Kansas and more Kansas. Today we rode from Dodge City to Syracuse, KS. I dedicated my ride to my Aunt Rose. The ride itself was the most physically challenging and arguably the most dangerous ride we’ve had to date. The terrain itself was not that challenging. It was mostly flat with some rolling hills. What made the ride so difficult was the wind. We had a very strong cross wind all day, which in and of itself was exhausting. When cars went by, they sucked you along with them, which sometimes meant going over the white line into the rode (unintentionally of course). One particular stretch of the road had us all scared because there was a narrow shoulder and a lot of 18-wheelers. I am happy to report though that everyone did very well and no one was hurt. Fortunately that stretch of road didn’t last very long. The wind became progressively worse throughout the day and Mother Nature turned on the heater. By the time we reached the last rest stop (80 miles or so into the day) we were all ready to stop. A few tears were shed because of the shear difficulty of the day, but everyone plowed onward. The last six or seven miles were probably the hardest. You could see Syracuse in the distance, but it never seemed to get closer. When we finally arrived someone had secured a food donation from the Dawg’s Den for us, and we gratefully placed our orders. Then within 30 minutes of our last rider arriving, it started to thunder and lightning and hail. We have been very fortunate in that we have not been on the road when any of the bad weather hit. We were supposed to have camped at the RV park, but after the hail started, the RV park owner Vera made a few phone calls and we got to spend the night in the high school gymnasium. Because school was out for the summer, the water for the showers was turned off, so we experienced our first hose shower. To give you an idea of what this looks like, picture 14 or 15 cyclists still in their spandex covered in soap and shampoo, freezing and standing around passing the hose to each other. Everyone enjoyed it, and I’m sure we looked hilarious (and maybe a little pathetic) shivering there. We turned up the heat in the van though and were warm again by the time we got back to the school. That evening we hung out and cooked dinner. It was great just to sit and talk with people.

Day 13

Our third border crossing! Today we rode from Syracuse, KS to Las Animas, CO, and I dedicated my ride to Chuck Muese. Relative to yesterday, our 86 mile ride today was a piece of cake. Its funny how fast a distance like that can become “easy.” Our drivers this morning whipped up pancakes and got donuts from the local donut shop (yum!). I was the sweep rider today, which means I was riding at the back of all the riders to make sure no one got a flat or injured. Ironically, I was the only one who got flat and we think it was due to manufacturer defect judging by the hole. Not to worry though, I quickly had it replaced and was again on my way. We crossed the Colorado border about 16 miles into the ride, and for many people it was a huge mental barrier that was crossed. We are finally in the first state which is home to the mountains for which our route is named, and in the next day or two we will officially be 25% of the way (mileage-wise not day-wise) to Anchorage. In an effort to strengthen ourselves physically, we’ve started doing pushups at every rest stop. We rolled into Las Animas in mid-afternoon and grabbed a quick bite to eat. The church we are staying at had a potluck for us, and we were able to meet a lot of members from the community. I talked to a couple for awhile whose family members had been affected by several forms of cancer, and I plan to ride for them tomorrow. Tonight is our first night with host families. I was able to meet my host family…and they offered me quite possibly the best hot shower I’ve had lately. I think my hair is actually clean for the first time on this trip. It’s the little things in life.

Day 8-Day 10

Day 8

Today we rode from Edmond, OK to Watonga, OK. Instead of having individual ride dedications today, we did one collectively for Bill Edwards, the coach who wrote our training program and who has been battling cancer on and off for awhile now. Bill’s expertise has been a huge help to us and we all hope he gets well soon. Mr. Culotta filmed our dedication and it will be sent off to Bill shortly. It was a beautiful sunny day outside, though not necessarily ideal riding. I learned today what the lyrics of Oklahoma mean when they say “the winds come sweeping down the plains” and “the waving wheat.” It is incredibly flat here and you can see so far into the distance it’s amazing. The roads weren’t labeled with names, so we missed a turn early on in our route, but the road we were on ran parallel to the one we wanted to be on, so we didn’t add any extra mileage to our route. In total, the ride was about 75 miles and the first group of riders rolled into Watonga around 1:30p. Watonga was actually our first mail drop, and packages were waiting for us when we arrived. For the family and friends reading these blogs, if you are debating sending a care package, my recommendation would be to go ahead and do it. Everyone was really excited to receive mail, and the snacks were greatly appreciated by everyone. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon and around 5p the pastor and his kids brought us dinner. They also said we were welcome to join the youth group on a trip to the roller skating rink. The riders jumped on that immediately and almost the whole team piled into the van to head to the rink. The rink was actually and old gym and had been around for a long time. Arguably no one was a particularly great skater (these were roller skates, not rollerblades), but we were all able to make it around the rink. Most of the group even participated in the limbo contest. I think the riders thought Texas 4000 could represent, but as soon as the 13 and up women started we knew we didn’t stand a chance. Velda Chain is a 69 year old, roller limbo professional. She has been on Letterman because she’s still limbo-ing at 69. We met Velda at the rink last night and she even offered a few of the guys some pointers. I don’t think our guys are quite that flexible, but I digress. Several of us knew going into the roller skating rink that this could be an unnecessary risk—images of people breaking wrists were dancing through our heads. People wanted to go though and there were major falls until about two-thirds of the riders had their skates off. But then it happened. A rider went down and didn’t get up. His ankle was hurting pretty badly and beginning to swell. At this point, it appears to just be a bad sprain. The rider is in good spirits but disappointed that he’s not going to be able to ride for a bit. When we got him back to the church at which we’re staying, we discovered that another one of riders had found the piano in the chapel. Apparently he’d been at it for at least three hours, and a bunch of us sat down for an impromptu concert. It was fantastic, and I look forward to hearing more of the musical talent from everyone over the next couple months. As I have been running around doing stuff ever since the trip started, I haven’t had much time to sit down and just chat with people. Today, however, I got to do just that on two separate occasions. This team is composed of a great group of individuals, and everyday I learn something knew that impresses me even more.

Day 9

Sag Day! Don't worry though--it wasn't because I was injured. We rotate drivers everyday so that everyone has a chance to drive, setup rest stops, etc. Despite the fact that I wasn't driving, it was probably my most difficult day to date. Our injured rider was in good spirits this morning though his ankle was still pretty swollen. When I got up in the morning, I packed my things and headed to the kitchen to get everything out for breakfast. While people were filtering in for breakfast, I saw lightning in the sky...not good. We checked the radar and there was a lot of red, orange and yellow directly over the highway we needed to ride to get to Woodward. Again, not good. Our hosts were very gracious though and let us stay longer than expected. This also presented an opportunity for us to give a presentation to the adult bible study group! We delayed our departure for a few hours when it had appeared that the storm had passed. Though it was a little windy and hot, the rest of the day was gorgeous. One of our hosts (Cindy) came and met us about 10 miles outside of Woodward and rode in with the group. We had dinner with the youth group and were able to give another presentation. I was really tired at the end of the day and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. I dedicated today to Dennis Manke, the son of the Velda Chain, the woman that we met last night at the roller rink. Past riders have told me that our journey will only be physically challenging for a short while, and that it will quickly become a mental game. I think I started to see that today. People get cranky and snap at each other. While nothing mean or aggressive may be meant by it, it is not always the way that it is taken. In a small group like this, it is difficult to figure out how to interpret some things. I was rather upset today about someone snapping at me after I made a request that he do something. Afterwards, to cool off for a bit, I found a quite corner at the church at which we are staying and just sat in silence. A teammate found me later and asked if I needed to talk. I explained in vague terms that I was upset and he reminded me that everyone is still trying to figure out everyone else on the team—some people know each other better than others, but regardless, we are all seeing sides of each other that most of our close friends outside of the organization would never see.

Day 10

A short day! We had a quick ride today from Woodward to Buffalo, OK--only 35 miles! We rode through rolling hills and saw quite a few cows...and windmills. I hadn't yet gone out on this trip and just cruised at a quick pace, but today that is exactly what I did. It felt great. I dedicated my ride today to Rudy Youell, a friend of my family's who had prostate cancer and who helped my family a lot when my dad was diagnosed with it as well. When we arrived in Buffalo, our drivers found a pizza shop and asked if they would be interested in donating lunch for the group. They said yes and then we found out they were also feeding us dinner tonight! The owner warned us he makes a mean cherry cheesecake which he would be making for dessert tonight...I'm doomed. The pizza was some of the best I've had, and I'm sure whatever we have for dinner will be awesome.

Day 7: Rest day in OKC, OK

Today was our first (much needed) rest day. I think most people slept in until 10 or 11a. I couldn't sleep anymore though, and I was up at 7:30a. So I went running for a couple hours. For me, there is something meditative about running, and it was nice to get away from the group for a bit to reflect on everything that has been going on the last couple weeks. After my run, we headed to the airport to pick up our teammate who was joining us late and then three of us went out to lunch together. The rest of the afternoon was then spent running shopping errands to Academy, bike stores and the like. I checked three different cell phone stores to see if they had the tracking devices you can put on your bike so people at home can follow where you are; however, none of them carried the devices, much to my chagrin.

Upon return from shopping, a few of us tackled the vans and trailers. As a point of reference, each route has a 15-passenger van, a mini-van and a trailer. These vehicles are used for rest stops and to transport our gear...which means they have a tendency to get very messy very quickly. As we've been out for a week now and the vans hadn't yet had a good cleaning, there was quite a bit of work to be done, but four bags of trash (or so) later, we finally had them back to their pre-ride condition. Then it was time to tackle dinner. The options were to cook or see if we could find a restaurant to donate food. I find it really challenging to ask people to donate. I am not sure why but its something on which I know I need to work. So this evening, I decided to practice. I called a local Chipotle and asked to speak with the manager. When he got on the phone I told him who I was and what the organization was doing and asked if he might be interested in donating dinner for the team. And then something interesting happened. He said yes! I realize that to some people this may seem a silly story, but for me it was a big step out of my comfort zone. I am grateful for the opportunities like this along the ride which are enabling me to stretch beyond my level of comfort and to meet some amazing people who want to support the cause.

Day 6: Ardmore to OKC, OK

Today I dedicated my ride to Bonnie Freeman, a friend of my family's who is now a breast cancer survivor. Each day we dedicate our ride to someone and when we get tired, sore, etc, we think of that person and what they had to endure. Today was one of those days when most people were thinking hard about their ride dedicatee. We thought the route would be ~100 miles, but that turned out to be a minimum of 110 miles and up to 130 miles. I happened to be in the group that ended up doing 130 miles, and I can assure you that we did not make our day that long on purpose. Myself and three others took a wrong turn at a key intersection on route 77 and ended up on route 7 heading east. I didn't realize this at first because I was too busy chatting with one of my teammates. By the time we realized we were off course, we were 5 or 10 miles from where we needed to be. One of the guys I was with had an iPhone, so we used the maps in it to locate where we were and find the most efficient route for where we needed to be. The "efficient" route turned out to be a bit longer than expected and by the time we arrived at the 40 mile team rest stop, our computers indicated that we had already ridden 59 miles. Oops. Although the four of us were behind, we eventually caught up to about 4 more riders about 100 miles into our ride. That small victory definitely took some of the fatigue out of one's legs. We had a lot of critter spottings today. Our two van drivers captured a couple of tarantulas (and let them go) for our first rest stop and while we were "lost" this morning, we had a herd of cattle run along next to us. I also saw a few Longhorns and several turtles! The amount of roadkill has still not ceased to amaze me either.

Tonight and tomorrow (our first rest day!) we'll be staying at Oklahoma Christian University. The folks here have been awesome and we're so grateful for all their help and letting us stay...and the accomodations are awesome. They're putting us up in the university's apartments, which are basically brand new, with a full kitchen and washer/dryer for every 3-4 people. That is a nice ratio, if I do say so myself. I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, though I don't know how long I'll actually be able to do that given that I've gotten (sort of) into the routine of waking up early again. My plan is to do a 10-mile run tomorrow, and I think at least one of the guys is going to join me (he ran for UT). This evening, the Starbucks that is next to our apartments gave us free drinks, and I am not sure words can do justice to the feeling I had when I sat down to sip my tea. It was incredibly relaxing.

Tomorrow as I mentioned will be our first rest day and it will also be the first day that Team Rockies is complete. The father of one of our team members had a heart attack a couple weeks ago and had to go through surgery. He's stable and doing well now and encouraging her (our teammate) to get out on the ride. Apparently he was telling all the nurses and doctors about the ride and he is very excited to see his daughter be out on the road with us...and we're all excited she's coming!

Day 0 to Day 5

My apologies for the delay in updates loyal readers! It has been a wee bit crazy here on the ride front, so I’ll start from the beginning to get you up-to-date. As a point of reference, I make this post on Day 5 of the ride (Ardmore, OK).

Day 0

To the untrained eye, Day 0, which included our send off from the fountain at UT and the ride from there to Cedar Park, went off without a hitch. The reality of the situation was that everything that needed to happen happened, but not without glitches. First off, the person organizing the send off called me at 4:30p the day before to tell me what the schedule was and, oh yeah, we need to use your vans. Then she called me back at 11:30p or so to let me know the team was expected to do stuff and that she was going to email me a schedule for the day which never materialized. The riders showed up to the fountain at 8:30a, on time and ready to ride…only to have it start pouring, and I mean pouring, rain. There has never been a send off with rain and though it stopped raining right before we rolled out, at least we can say that the 2008 team is out to break new ground for the organization in more than just the fundraising category. The media did show up and both I and the ride director for the Sierra route were interviewed and ultimately ended up on the Sunday morning news. After a few speakers at UT, we rode to the Capitol and took pictures and then headed to City Hall where one of the council members said a few words. Then we headed to Jack & Adam’s and Bicycle Sports Shop to take more pictures. Both shops helped us with gear and bikes. The planners hadn’t thought about lunch so a few quick phone calls had to be made and we rode to Schlotzky’s to eat. From there we rode over to Business Suites, where the Texas 4000 headquarters is located. After another quick photo with the folks and words with the folks there, we finally commenced our 25 mile ride from Austin to Cedar Park.

My ride today was dedicated to my father who had prostate cancer and has been cancer-free for about 11 months now. As the ride was only 25 miles long, we figured we wouldn’t need a rest stop. However, not to far into the ride, one of the guys I was riding with was struggling because of the heat, and a little over half way through the ride, I ran into a few more riders stopped at a gas station getting drinks. Apparently one of the riders parents had brought them water along the road already too! Everyone eventually made it to Cedar Park safely. In talking to one of the 2007 ride directors the next day, I discovered that that year two riders got heat exhaustion on that same 25 mile ride. They also had not had a rest stop. One of my recommendations for next year’s group is to make sure there’s a rest stop even though its only a 25 mile ride. When it gets hot, water disappears fast!

After getting into Cedar Park, several of us drove back to Austin to take care of last minute odds and ends. I finished packing my room, got the rest of my Tx4k papers together and took a shower. Meanwhile, I’m starting to get tired and hungry, which are generally not a good combination…especially when you’re about to go to dinner with your parents and bf who are all meeting each other for the first time. Yikes! Dinner went well though. We went to Trudy’s and the food was just what we needed. Afterwards we went to Amy’s Ice Cream for dessert. Then it was time to drive back to Cedar Park and get some sleep.

Day 1

Morning came way too early as it seems to be doing lately. We had slept in a couple of well air-conditioned gyms at the school and it was difficult to get myself out of my sleeping bag! The ATLAS ride folks had bagels and fruit for everyone for breakfast. This may seem like a small thing, but as the person responsible for making sure the team is fed and happy, it is great to have someone else worrying about providing a meal. We packed everything into the trailers and with the sounding of an air horn, the 2008 ATLAS ride commenced…as did the 2008 Texas 4000 ride to Alaska. Though one of the coaches we had at our training camp did the dedication for the ride, I personally dedicated my ride to my grandfather who I never met because he passed away from lung cancer when my dad was in college. For the first twenty miles or so of the ride, I rode both by myself and with a few other 2008 Tx4k riders. All I remember from the first rest stop is that they had Smoothie King smoothies. I approved. I rode mostly by myself for the next 10 miles. Leaving the next rest stop I rode with a man named Ed who had recently gotten into cycling and we chatted for the next 10 miles. After the next rest stop, I met a professor of one of the riders on my route. It turned out he also had an MIT connection—he’d done his grad work there! I really enjoyed riding with non-Tx4kers. I do not mean that in a negative way. It was just nice to meet new people, listen to their stories and why they were doing the ride. The last 10 miles of the ride I rode with a couple of the 2008 Tx4k-ers from the Sierra route. My parents were at the finish line to see me and enjoy the post ride festivities. We took a bunch of pictures and then my parents left to drive back to Austin and I went back to being the ride director. After packing the trailers, I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the alumni who were camping with us that night. They had great stories from their years and a few sage pieces of advice. The ATLAS ride finished in a vineyard and the team stayed in the tasting room and out on a patio area. The patio area was donut-shaped with a roof over the donut and open in the middle. I put my sleeping pad and bag down in the middle and lay down to fall asleep. A few minutes later, one of the other riders shut off the lighting for the patio. I think the stars turned on when he did that. It was one of those moments that take away your breath. There were so many stars and they were so bright. It was beautiful and I felt so fortunate to have the opportunity to be there.

Day 2

This morning we said goodbye to the Sierra team and turned to the north. We had a tail wind for the entire 91 miles, which was fantastic. We made incredible time to Stephenville and one of the riders got the local Dairy Queen to donate burgers (and a salad for me) for a snack. We were housed in the dorms, which meant everyone got a bed. I was looking forward to sleeping the bed, but I was prevented from maximizing that opportunity. We got word that a storm was moving in from the north and was expected to hit us in the early afternoon the next day. In anticipation of this, four riders and I stayed up until midnight or so moving almost everything (gear, food, etc) from the trailer to the vans. Fortunately, we all enjoy each others company, so the work was very enjoyable. My ride today was dedicated to my grandmother who passed away from lung cancer.

Day 3

Today was 110 miles from Stephenville to Grapevine, TX, home to a couple of riders on the 2008 team. My ride was dedicated to my grandmother who had liver cancer. We woke up around 4:45a in order to get an early start to the day. We decided to have every rider stop at every rest stop so we could keep everyone in the same general area should the storm hit. The folks that checked us into the dorm came and watched our ride dedication before we left. We were off on the road by 6:35a or so, and because the weather was so nice, we actually did rest stops every 25 miles. Doing this really made the morning fly. One of my concerns going into this ride was that the team would be really annoyed that they had to stop at every rest stop. However, no one complained. Everyone seemed happily occupied at the rest stops and we moved quickly through our route. At one point, I and three others made a wrong a turn. Fortunately, the road turned into the road we were supposed to be on, which was very convenient but meant we missed the last rest stop. The four of us went on, but we quickly got grumpy as our water bottles drained and hunger grew. We were going to stop at a gas station but we didn’t see one for the next 14 miles. Weird. Anyhow, we got into Grapevine and it only rained on the four of us a little. The rest of the team had followed the directions…sort of. They eventually got lost too and added a few extra miles. Basically we were all tired and hungry regardless of the time we arrived at our hosts’ house. The hosts (my bf’s family and the family of one of the riders on the other route) had an amazing amount of food ready to eat when we arrived, and honestly, I think that was key in making everyone happy after such a long day. Dinner was great. The company was great. And sleeping on a bed was also great. We had all passed out by 11:30p at that the latest.

Day 4

Today we rode from Grapevine to Lindsay, TX, and I dedicated my ride to my grandfather who had melanoma. My bf’s dad rode with us all the way, which was awesome. The weather was nice with very little wind in the morning. We had to be re-routed slightly at one point because it turned out the road we were supposed to take was gravel and then again towards the end of the trip because we realized that we had directions to the wrong high school. The drivers for the day handled everything really well though and had routes for us that got us safely to our destination. This evening people were playing football and ultimate frisbee in the field across the parking lot from the gym. I was surprised (and happy) to see so many people with so much energy. One of the riders’ families also came out to say hi. I think everyone is enjoying themselves so far, but we’re aware that we’re being spoiled with all the food and beds!

Day 5

A few of us slept outside on the grass last night. It was some of the best sleep I’ve had on this trip. I love being out under the stars. Today I dedicated my ride to Lynda Chisman, a good friend of the family who is a breast cancer survivor. We were on the road by ~8a this morning enroute from Lindsay, TX to Ardmore, OK—and our first border crossing! I was riding sag today, which means I was cycling behind our last rider. A few miles into the ride, someone needed to use the restroom, so three of us pulled over at a rest station. While the other two girls were inside I waited outside with the bikes and was approached by an older gentleman who asked where we were heading. I told him and mentioned we were doing a fundraiser for cancer research. He told me his wife was a breast cancer survivor of 15 or 20 years and wished us luck on our journey. While I know that cancer affects a lot of people, I am continually amazed at just how many people “a lot” is. The latter part of our ride today was through a state park, and we’re going to try and get back to swim there this afternoon. During our ride today, I discovered that another one of my teammates also has dual citizenship with Ireland. Small world! When we got into the church, one of my teammates and I went for a short run, and then I followed it up with a short core workout. One thing that I have quickly learned about my teammates is that they are a very hard core bunch and I seem to always be able to find people to do core workouts, etc, with after a ride (except for maybe the 110+ mile day into Grapevine).

twas the eve before day 1

and all through my room, not an article of stuff was present, not even a shoe. well, that's not exactly right, but you get the idea. we officially leave austin in less than 24 hours. i got up this morning and went for a quick 5-miler. after an even quicker breakfast, i tossed my running shoes and the last random items into my bag and headed off to the storage shed to drop off my bag. rockies team represent...all 19 rockies riders who will start the ride tomorrow (one will be joining us a week late) had their stuff at the shed by 10:30a. then we commenced the oh-so-fun activity of packing the trailer. this is it.

this afternoon i met with my advisor to tie up any lose ends on my research and then i gave my car to a friend from college to "take care of" for me over the summer. he and another friend from college will be making sure my car manages to have some fun but not get into too much trouble. i then had a 2-hour meeting to go over last minute logistics for the summer. in the middle of the meeting i got a phone call informing me that i will actually be speaking at the send off tomorrow morning from the fountain/campus. awesome!

camp tx4k day 4

SHOPPING! that's what i got to do all day. we canceled the ride this morning because people have been tired and had a lot of stuff to get done before we leave. this morning was a much needed day to sleep in...so its a good thing i got a text message at 6:40a, which scared me so much i almost fell out of my bed. after that i was awake. fortunately, 6.5 hours of sleep still feels like a lot to me so it wasn't a problem. i went for a quick run and then commenced packing. actually, that's a lie, it was more like i experimented with packing. i had never used a stuff sack before and decided that since i'd recently bought one i should probably figure out how it worked. i stuff all my clothes in it, tightened the straps and tossed it into my duffel bag (we are limited to a 1'x1'x2' bag for the summer). i then proceeded to sit and stare at my duffel bag in awe for a good 5 minutes. stuff sacks are amazing...two-thirds of my bag was still empty. that felt pretty good.

a couple of us then went to costco to start the first of several shopping trips which needed to happen before we leave. we loaded up on everything from trash bags and laundry detergent to pasta sauce and black beans. the picture to the right shows some of the goods being unloaded from the mini van into the crates in which the food will be stored in the trailers. it was an impressive shopping trip. after unloading everything i went home to do some things before the evening meeting. i arrived at my house around 3p and was sitting down to lunch at 3:30p when i got a phone call saying i needed to be at walmart with a credit card stat. awesome. i threw away half my salad and headed to walmart. it took a good hour for me to get in an out of there, but this was mostly because i had to fill out all sorts of paperwork to enable us to get a tax exemption at the store. the evening meeting went well. some of the folks from the pr firm that is working with us were there to talk to us about dealing with the media. we have gotten a lot of press coverage here in austin lately, which has been great. a lot of people are hearing about the organization and hopefully at least some of them will join us for the ATLAS ride on saturday (the first official day of our ride). after the meeting it was off to fiesta for some more food shopping. its already 11p and i still have to pack my bag for the summer...everyone is required to drop off their stuff tomorrow morning at 10a. we're so close to leaving!

camp tx4k day 2 and 3

camp day 2 (yesterday) i fell and bruised my rear. three other people from our group fell at the same place and we also had a 3 person pile up. it would be a great story if there was some man-eating pothole, but really it was just a blind curb. we hadn't had any big falls yet, so i suppose it was bound to happen. fortunately, aside from a few bruises and scrapes, everyone is ok.

yesterday evening, some of the alumni hosted us for dinner. we got to relax poolside and grill. the food was delicious and the company was great. the alumni had some good pointers and great stories! today is camp day 3. the picture above is us circling up for stretching before the ride. we only went out on a 40 mile ride today, but we hit lost creek, barton creek, ladera norte and far west. for those not in the austin area, those are some of the biggest hills in the area, and they will make your legs burn. the picture to the right is the view off the top of ladera norte. there was a decent sized group of us who went up it, but there were only five of us who wanted to go down it afterwards and then back up far west. of those five people, four of them are on the rockies route. represent. unfortunately, however, we've had one rider leave our route. she'll be joining the 2009 team though, so she'll still get to go on the ride eventually!

this evening we'll be having another meeting and dinner. i need to start packing and i need to get some sleep. my bf told me the other day i didn't need it (he was serious). i told him i just hide the tiredness better than other people. we're not riding a ton right now, all things considered; however, spending all day out in the sun and then showering and starting with other work that needs to be done is very tiring. one of the alum at the dinner last night told me that saturday will be a huge relief. when i asked her why she told me it was because we've been planning this trip for so long and to actually start will just take a weight off your shoulders. i suppose it puts another one on at the same time though because of daily logistics. it will be a challenge of living constantly in the present and not in the future or the past.

first day of camp

we kicked off camp texas 4000 tonight with dinner and a meeting. i can't believe we're this close to leaving. fortunately, people have been very on top of things over the last 9 months, which means a lot less stress now than there could be. dinner was hot (with that many people in a small space) but it went well. almost the entire team was there, including the out of towners, which was the first time that had happened.

on an unrelated note, i was talking to a friend who asked if i was excited about the ride this summer and, of course, i said yes. it was interesting though to try and explain myself (aside from the obvious getting to ride my bike everyday for a few months explanation). i have always loved to travel. however, when i moved to hawaii, it was the first time i liked coming home too. i'm not sure how else to explain that though i know i have tried to in the past. when i moved to texas, that desire to travel came back stronger than i have probably ever felt it. this (that the inability to sit still came back), i have decided, is interesting. i suppose i now have the next 3 months of my life to contemplate why.