Yes I have decided it is worth riding about this day... I know it's been about eight months since I did this ride, but I still want to write about it. Afterall, I put a lot of effort into those days of riding (certainly more than the amount of effort I've put into writing about them), and more importantly, encountered a lot of amazing people who helped me along the way in numerous ways.
I know my memory of these days will be spotty at this point, but I do have a few notes jotted down here and there, as well as photos that will help me out. Not to mention, it's pretty hard to forget four days when you cycled something like 500 miles.
But since it has been so long indeed, let me do a quick recap of what this ride was all about, as well as how the first two days went.
Pre-ride
As the 4K 2014 ride was drawing near the end, my teammate Emily Lipsitz (who just graduated from Denison, so congratulations on that) and I made plans for her to drive to Chicago to visit me sometime in September. Unfortunately it turned out that when you're not on the 4K, you have to pay attention to things like school, work, and daily life. It became clear that it would be difficult for Lipsitz to come visit me in Chicago. Of course the next logical step was for me to say, well why don't I just come out to you on my bike? So began this week of madness, of six days of riding and one day of rest in the middle, spanning three states, two hosts in the middle, some 800 miles of riding, endless rows of corn, and of course more Subway and Jimmy Johns sandwiches.
Day 1
I don't think I could have asked for a better day to start this tour. I had good wind almost the entire day, and aside from one short stretch, the roads were very safe and almost empty of traffic. Although 130 miles is certainly nothing to sneer at, the miles passed quickly and without incident and even at the end I felt fresh and ready for more.
I suppose the worst part was that I felt lonely sometimes during the day, but messages from my teammates got me through. I also got to meet Caity and Jin, my generous hosts for the night. Caity is a 2011 San Francisco alum, so while things were awkward between us for about 0.001 seconds, it ended as soon as we started talking about the 4K and trading stories. Fortunately, Jin was familiar with how 4K alums are and made it clear that it wasn't an issue for me and Caity to talk non-stop about the 4K.
Runner / person extraordinaire Caity
Day 2
After a great first day, the second day proved to be much more difficult. Despite the fact I was headed west to east, which according to wikipedia and google is the same overall direction as the large wind patterns in North America, I had a headwind the entire day. I remember even at the beginning of the day thinking that this day would be incredibly difficult, but fortunately thanks to messages of encouragement from my teammates and friends, I kept spinning.
This day also had a dark episode in its midst. When I got to the Cardinal Greenway, a beautiful path of around 40 miles, I found out that minutes prior to my arrival a cyclist had been not paying enough attention as he crossed over traffic and had been killed. Although I can't be positive, I'm fairly certain I actually saw the ambulance carrying his body drive away in the distance. A dark reminder of the dangers of cycling for sure.
Unfortunately the day proved to be too tough for me, as I was not able to finish all of my miles. Long story short, I got lost quite a bit and discovered myself much further from my destination for the night than I should have been. My hosts for the night, Brian and Lori were kind enough to pick me up. While at first I was incredibly disappointed, I thought it through and decided it was the right decision to shuttle. It was quickly becoming dark and while I had planned for the possibility of biking at night, because I was lost now there were roads that I would have had to take that I hadn't cleared yet in terms of safety. In a more comical sense, I figured it was the hallmark of a true 4K ride to get lost and have to get shuttled at least once. Plus this way I got to spend a little bit of time with Brian and Lori and chat, so for all these reasons I decided I would shrug off the fact that I hadn't been able to finish. I managed to complete about 150 miles, which I felt good about.
My silly hosts, Lori and Brian
The very sweet Ava
Day 3
Finally the day that got me all the day to Denison. Fortunately this was the shortest day in my ride at approximately 100 miles, which is certainly a long distance, but compared to 130 or 150, isn't so bad. So in the morning I didn't rush too much - I slept in a bit, I took my time to eat a big meal of oatmeal, pet Ava, talk to Lori (Brian had left early for work). It was a nice mini break after two long days of riding.
Unfortunately, I was a bit too relaxed, because next thing I knew it was almost noon and I had yet to leave. Like I said, this day was a relatively short day of riding, but still it was a terrible idea to leave only at noon. So I quickly said goodbye to Lori and started my ride.
One thing this day of riding showed me was how cycling friendly Ohio is, especially compared to Indiana. During the first two days of riding, which were almost entirely in Indiana, most people I encountered had looked at me like I was some kind of alien. Granted I probably looked a bit weird, decked out in tight shorts, but as soon as I crossed into Ohio people would talk to me about where I had come from, where I was riding to, etc. During the 4K we had talked about how Ohio seemed very cycling friendly because of all the bike paths that ran from city to city (and not just within a city), and this day definitely confirmed what I remembered.
One of the highlights was when several hours into the ride I stopped at a gas station and talked to a couple of guys in a pickup truck. Unfortunately for cyclists the phrase "a couple of guys in a pickup truck" is sometimes associated with screaming "get of the road!" or driving past way too fast and close. But not in Ohio, as these guys were curious about my jersey which had the 4K logo on it, why I was doing this ride (they also thought I was crazy, but in a good way I suppose), and so forth. Such conversations, even if they were short and isolated, helped keep the loneliness away.
However, something new in Ohio that was not so welcome, at least for this ride, were hills. From my general cycling experience, Illinois is flat is as a table, Indiana is mostly flat, but Ohio is hilly. Maybe not Pennsylvania level, but still quite hilly - the Midwest as a whole is less flat than their geographical reputations would suggest. These hills of course meant that I was covering the 100 miles a bit more slowly than I had anticipated. Although the riding was beautiful, especially as a large part of it was on paths, it was taking its toll on my legs and there was less and less daylight left.
As I rushed through Columbus and found myself about 25 miles away from Denison, I had a rather comical companion for a bit, my first wheel sucker! For those of you who don't know, a wheel sucker is a cyclist who drafts behind another cyclist to take advantage of the slipstream, without ever returning the favor to the other cyclist. In case the name "wheel SUCKER" wasn't obvious enough, it's a rather negative term. Perhaps wheel sucking is acceptable when racing (although not really), but definitely not so courteous when touring or commuting.
What happened is that I passed the other cyclist as we were both climbing up a fairly steep hill. It was the first cyclist I had seen in a long time, so I initially thought it would be nice to ride with him for a bit. But then again he seemed to be moving a bit too slowly for me to make it to Denison before dark so I passed him, only to turn around about a minute after and find him riding directly behind my wheel. Apparently the chance to wheel suck me was the inspiration this guy needed to go faster, and he really wheel sucked. If we had been racing I almost would have been impressed by how closely he stuck to my wheel. Initially I didn't mind him drafting as I thought he might offer to let me draft in a moment, but nope. Perhaps I wouldn't have minded if I hadn't just biked some 350 miles in the past three days. I'll stop before I get carried away with this rant.
I had relatively smooth ride the rest of the way. Although most of the roads into Denison had no shoulder and were hilly and rather covered by trees, overall the drivers were great and patient and passed me safely. Unfortunately there was an exception in one impatient driver. I was climbing up a small hill in a wooded area where visibility was poor. The car directly behind me was being patient, waiting to pass me only after I cleared the hill and you could actually see whether there might be a car coming in the other direction. But the driver behind that car didn't want to wait, and attempted to pass both of us, only to discover that there was indeed a car coming in the other direction and be forced to swerve back into the lane. Fortunately a potentially disastrous accident was narrowly averted, but it was a grim reminder of how some people seem willing to risk not only their life but also the lives of others to save an extra 15-30 seconds. I'll always be mystified by the fact that cars seem to make normal people so angry and careless sometimes.
I kept spinning, aware that the sun was setting, and that I had to make it to a bike path that would take me all the way into Denison. When I was about a mile away from the path, Lipsitz called and asked if I needed a pickup because it was already dark. I politely declined, turned on my front and rear lights, and continued. Fortunately I have ridiculously bright lights that border on being obnoxious. So lit up like a disco ball, I cautiously made it to the bike path, ate a couple of energy chomps, and gave everything I had left in the last five miles.
Of course the moment I got into Denison I ended up lost for a few minutes. My phone GPS seemed to give up suddenly with no explanation and it was difficult to navigate in the dark. Fortunately after a few minutes and a few unnecessary climbs up a big hill, I managed to find Lipsitz, who was waiting for me with a giant cheeseburger with every kind of meat on it.
Guess which one of us is covered in sweat and grime
Lipsitz's caption for this picture that she sent to our 4K team, although slightly misleading as there were still some 400 mile to go in the Tour de Midwest
I felt relieved that I had made it, proud, thrilled, giddy even. However I also felt a bit nervous that I had only made it halfway, that I would have three more days of riding. My legs felt so dense and heavy I wondered how I would ever make it all the way back to Chicago. But hey these worries could wait another day and I would take full advantage of my rest day in Denison.
