WISCONSIN!

After a few fantastic days in Illinois, we made our way up to Wisconsin, which came with its own set of weather and injury related challenges.

Wisconsin started out strong, with a nice ride into Milwaukee (below), which seemed like a pretty cool city. Like many of our previous cities, it was beautifully located right along the great lakes. The best part for me was the dinner that night. A food shack donated some amazing veggie burgers and I splurged on cheese curds, in honor of our new state. Cheese curds have to be the least healthy food known to man but they are delicious nonetheless.

The next few days were dominated by cold, wet rain.

The next event of note occurred on the ride to La Crosse. The first four miles of the day were easy, pleasant, and on a trail. Unfortunately, my ride that day ended after only four miles. The girl leading our group got a butterfly in her helmet and fell over trying to get it out. The person behind her fell and when I tried to stop I skidded out in some mud on the trail. I knew when I hit the group that it was a nasty fall. I laid there for a few minutes before sitting up and when I finally did, my vision was super blurry. Anyway, the EMTs came for the first girl that fell and told me that I had a concussion. I spent the rest of the day off the bike, but was luckily able to bike the next day.

Indiana, Illinois

So we also made it through Indiana and Illinois. Our ride into Indiana was a quick and beautiful one along the great lakes into Michigan City. Michigan City was a repeat host from 4k '09. It's a beautiful, creepy old church. Like, really creepy. I remember having serious trouble sleeping there in 2009 and it was just as creepy this year. However, I actually like Michigan City. It's got a beautiful lakeshore where we went to watch a beautiful sunset. We also walked along a nice rock path to a very nice lighthouse. The only real downside was the giant nuclear looking power plant right on the city skyline.

Our next day was into Chicago. This was a very exciting day because we were supposed to ride from Michigan City to Chicago in '09 but couldn't because of torrential storms. The ride was definitely a nice one, ending entirely on paved bike paths into the city. However, there were a lot of crazy bikers who almost killed us on the paths.

Our day off in Chicago was a great one. I saw the big silver bean that Chicago is famous for and stopped at a Puerto Rican parade. The parade was cool, although every fourth float was an advertisement for Wal-Mart. I did get a free t-shirt, which was nice.

We also went to the big art museum in Chicago, which had some really famous paintings, including American Gothic and that Edward Hopper painting of the diner. I love Chicago. If I wasn't so committed to living on the East Coast, I could definitely live in Chicago.

Michigan!

Michigan was a pleasant surprise. All I really knew about Michigan going into it was that Detroit is there and the whole rust belt thing, so I basically expected the entire state to look like a mixture of the worse parts of Baltimore and closed down car factories. As it turns out, we biked through a pretty cool, nice part of the state.

The first day into Michigan was our longest on the trip, 115 miles. I actually felt fantastic for pretty much the entire ride. There were some major logistical delays during the day which greatly complicated things. By 5:00 we still had 45 miles to go. Fortunately the sun did not set until 9:30, which is about when we finally rolled in. People we met during the day were also really nice and friendly. We were stopped on the side of the road changing a flat for a while and several cars stopped to ask us if we were okay. That definitely wouldn't happen in Baltimore, or at least it never has to me. Maybe people really are friendlier off the East Coast.

Unfortunately I spent most of my energy on that day and paid heavily for it the next day. Although it was only a 70 mile day to Lansing, I thought I was going to fall asleep on the bike. But we made it. Yay. We passed through a town called Hell on this day, which I thought was appropriate.

The following day to Rockport was one of my favorite of the trip. We were flying. Highlights of the day including seeing lots of llamas and getting an impromptu tour of a fire station that we stopped to get water at. The fire chief showed us all their trucks and equipment and even let us try on some helmets. We were also lucky enough to see a famous historical marker: The oldest roadside picnic table in Michigan. It was a pretty epic picnic table. We finished the day with homestays at a rider's house on a beautiful lake where we went tubing off the back of the motorboats. The tubing was pretty violent and difficult but was awesome.

The rest of Michigan was good. Stayed at some churches, ate some good food, biked along the Great Lakes.

That's all for Michigan. Stay tuned for Indiana.

OHIO

So I've been failing at blogging. There is so little time and internet access. But I am currently in Montana. I am alive and well and having a fantastic time. Fortunately I keep notes from which I can blog later. So here is Ohio!

We started out Ohio by biking into Cleveland, where we had dinner at a rider's house, which had a pool and was awesome. We stayed at a frat house at Case Western which was cool because we got our own rooms, but also felt kind of dirty because it was a frat house.

The next day we biked to Sandusky. This was our first real bike ride in the rain this trip. It was completely torrential but we got through. Another highlight of Sandusky was the wig that our team obtained. Some of our team members volunteered with a local cancer center, organizing wigs for cancer patients. One of the wigs was not in usable condition so naturally our team members decided to take it out of the garbage. We all had some fun trying on the hideous wig.

Also for anyone driving/biking from Cleveland to Sandusky, I would like to give a shout out to the Blackbird Baking Company, that donated pastries of our choice to my riding group that day.

On our day off in Sandusky, we went to Cedar Point, one of the best amusement parks in the world. It has the highest, fastest, and best roller coasters anywhere. Unfortunately, my group got stuck on one of the roller coasters for a little while, but the rest of the park was filled with thrills and other awesomeness.

That's all I've got for Ohio. I'll work on the backlog in the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned for Michigan!

Penn Yan --> Niagara Falls

It's been a fun couple of days. The day off in Penn Yan was relaxing. We basically ate lots of food and saw the new X-Men movie. It was wonderful to sit in a dark, quiet, air conditioned room for a few hours.

The next day was an awesome one. I spent part of the day with a few teammates volunteering at the Rochester Hope Lodge. 4k supports the Baltimore Hope Lodge and volunteers regularly there, so it was interesting to see another Hope Lodge. For those who aren't familiar, the Hope Lodge provides housing to cancer patients receiving outpatient treatment in cities that are too far to commute to easily. This particular Hope Lodge was literally in a building that looked like a castle. Apparently it was built in the late 1700s and they were going to tear it down because no one wanted it so the American Cancer Society bought it. We were there to cook dinner for the guests and to hang out during their one year anniversary party. We spent a long time talking to some of the guests and it was really awesome to get to know them. We exchanged email addresses and I really do hope to keep in touch. One woman in particular, Helen, was diagnosed was stage 4 lymphoma. It was really nice talking to her and listening to her story. After Helen went to bed, one of the Hope Lodge employees told us that Helen had seemed really down and that after eating our food and talking to us for a while, Helen really seemed a lot happier. It means a lot knowing the the support we provide by visiting (and donating to) the Hope Lodge really does make a difference to people.

The next day, I rode in honor of Helen and the others we met at the Rochester Hope Lodge. It was a 60 mile day entirely along a trail right next to the Erie Canal. While 60 miles is short and the trail was dead flat, the day was actually fairly tiring. The trail was gravel so we got pretty tired, but eventually we arrived at our host in a town outside of Niagara Falls. My favorite feature of the church we are staying at is in the Sunday School room we are sleeping in. There is an upside down bin with the words "Box of Shame" written on it in child's writing. It's kind of sad and funny at the same time.

We spent a day off yesterday at Niagara Falls. We visited Canada, ate the worst eggs I have ever eaten, saw the amazing waterfalls, took a nap next to them and overall had a fantastic day.

It's thunderstorming now so we are trying to wait out the rain, still at the church with the Box of Shame.

First 5 days! (Baltimore --> Penn Yan)

Well it's been quite a week. It's been very tiring, very hot, stressful at times, but overall still fun.

Day 1 began with an early morning in Baltimore, where we loaded the vans. We biked down to Baltimore's inner harbor where a brief ceremony was held. We heard from some of 4k's beneficiaries and watched a $100,000 check be presented to the Ullman Foundation. We dipped our tires in the harbor. We dedicated our rides. And we were off. It was sad riding through the Hopkins campus for the last time, but we stopped and got a photo with the Johns Hopkins sign, which was nice. We were then lucky to have a 40 mile ride through a beautiful wooded path. It was mostly flat but there was a false flat that was pretty killer for about 20 miles. We also came across some sweet sculptures of bicycles and horses made out of bicycle parts. A highlight of the day was entering Pennsylvania and crossing the Mason-Dixon line. Overall, this was definitely a more pleasant and easier day 1 than in 2009. It was only 65 miles, and much less hilly. There was never a question in my mind about being able to finish.

Days 2 and 3 brought many more challenges, including a major heat wave and lots of technical difficulties with the bike such as not being able to shift into one of my front gears. The heat really gets to me so these days were just brutal and long and hot. The hills were rough but I had a great team of riders on day 2 that really helped me some of my slower spots. However, these days were very beautiful as we were riding along the Susquehanna River for a lot of them.

Things began to look up on day 4. The heat was less intense as were were lucky enough to be on a beautiful path through the Appalachians that more or less avoided some of the more intense climbing. There were also lots of turtles on the path which was cool. Also, apparently a tornado had passed through that path a few days earlier so there were tons and tons of downed trees. However, there were still a few good climbs in there, but me and Team Greased Lightning got through them. One climb in particular was like a mile long wall, right at the end of the day. A frustrating part of the day was finding out that we had a 10 mile detour. Fortunately our mileage was only supposed to be 45 miles so it wasn't the worst day to have a detour.

Day 5, from Wellsboro, PA to Penn Yan, NY was a tough but fun one. We rode a total of 94 miles, the longest ride of the trip. For such a long ride, I felt surprisingly good for most of it, even if I was a little slower than I would have liked on some of the uphills. The biggest challenge of the ride was the headwind. It was just relentless and at some points it felt impossible to keep pedaling. But we powered through it, surprisingly fast. At around mile 67 we found out that we had a reroute in directions. That's when the day really got interesting. Basically, one of the turns on the reroute was not very clear so my group accidentally climbed a mountain and had to go right back down it. I was pretty unhappy with that whole situation, but after that we just began pounding out the miles. We were going 18-19 mph through a pretty hilly area and I wasn't feeling a thing, which was shocking as we were about 85 miles into the day. We didn't stop at all basically during the last 25 miles and they flew by. At the end of the ride, I basically laid down on the grass and couldn't get up. My muscles felt exhausted and I could barely stay awake through dinner. Other highlights of the day:

• Saw a live beaver
• At a bathroom break some horses came up to us and we fed them apples and grass and petted them.
  
• We saw rode our last set of miles along some of the finger lakes, which were really pretty.
  
• We met a cancer survivor at another bathroom break who made a donation to 4k.
  

Today we have a day off in Penn Yan, so we're actually hanging out in Geneva, NY, which is a cute little college town. We went out to breakfast and I'm pretty sure everyone in the group ordered 2 full meals. (I ordered stuffed french toast and eggs and toast!).

Less than 12 hours!

It's been a very hectic couple of days but we've reached the final countdown before 4k 2011 embarks on it's maiden voyage to Seattle! I had my official graduation dinner on Thursday, said goodbye to my parents on Friday morning and went to 2 straight days of non-stop 4k training.

It feels very different than last time. I think the excitement really hit in on our training ride today. We rode in our riding groups for tomorrow. I will be riding with my old friends Lizzy, Elan, Lauren, and Rob, and someone who I hope will be a new friend, Vanessa. At my insistence we gave ourselves a team name, because I love team names. We chose Team Expire, in honor of our various expired first aid certifications.

Tomorrow, however, we will be riding under a different name. Along our ride we came upon a very steep hill that caused one of our riders to drop his chain. It was too steep to restart riding so while we were walking up the rest of the hill with him a woman talking on her cellphone asked where we were biking to. We told her we were going to Seattle tomorrow to raise money to fight cancer. The woman then said told the person she was talking to on the phone that she had to go so she could talk to us. As it turns out, the woman, Jan, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October. She had a three centimeter tumor removed. We probably talked to Jan for 15 or 20 minutes about her cancer, her nervousness about her upcoming mammogram, the organizations that have helped her through her fight (including a beneficiary of the 4k, the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as another fantastic sounding organization called Hopewell Cancer Support, based out of Lutherville.) Before we rode off, Jan told us that we inspired her, which reaffirmed to me why I ride. With a unanimous vote, we officially renamed ourselves Team Jan.

When we got back from the ride, I felt more excited than I had this whole time for the ride. I'm ready to go.

Counting down the days...

I’ve been negligent in posting in this blog. But slowly but surely the 4k approaches. I feel like I’m in better shape than I was going into 4k09. It makes a world of difference actually knowing how to use the bike and how to use the gears efficiently and how to get into

the right mindset for hills. I barely notice hills that would have killed me training two years ago.

The bike is nice. I’ve named mine Mazal Tov. I considered continuing with the spaceship themed names, (My last 4k bike was the Starship Enterprise and my bike in Denmark was the Millennium Falcon) but this name just kind of stuck.

Riding Again

If you are reading this you probably know that I will be biking across the country this summer from Baltimore to Seattle with an organization called the 4k for Cancer. I hope to raise $6000 to fight cancer as a part of this ride, a fundraising goal I am fast approaching. This is my second time doing the ride. In 2009 I biked from Baltimore to San Francisco with the 4k and it was, without question, the best summer of my life. So here I am again.

Frequently Asked Questions About The Ride
Why are you doing this?
I’m not really sure what made me join the 4k last time. I saw a poster for the 4k and at first I thought that it sounded crazy. But a little voice inside of me kept saying “Why not?” My family has lost some very close loved ones to cancer so fighting cancer is a cause that is quite close to my heart. The idea of doing something big to fight cancer called to me. I can quite honestly say that I would never have signed up to bike across the country without the cancer-fighting aspect of the ride.

What organizations does the 4k raise money for?
The 4k raises money for several different organizations. Two of our biggest recipients are the Hope Lodge and the Ullman Foundation. The Hope Lodge provides lodging for cancer patients receiving out-patient treatments at hospitals that are far from their homes. The 4k regularly volunteers at the one in Baltimore, which is a truly fantastic place. Many cancer patients come from hours away to receive treatments at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland. Staying in hotels is costly, especially at a time when medical bills and loss of work can make finances especially tight for cancer patients. Commuting several hours each way multiple times per week is exhausting. The Hope Lodge provides a place where cancer patients can stay and a welcoming community for caregivers and patients during a very difficult time.

How does biking across the country fight cancer?
The mission of the 4k for Cancer is threefold: to spread awareness, raise funds, and foster hope. During our ride, we will go into many under-served communities and spread awareness about cancer prevention. Secondly, our ride will raise hundreds of thousands of dollars this year that will go towards many fantastic organizations. Finally, volunteering is an important part of the ride. Throughout the ride we will volunteer at many different places, including Hope Lodges. (I am actually responsible for organizing all of this).

How many days is the ride?
Around 63.

How many miles per day do you bike?
It varies depending on terrain, but generally somewhere between 70 and 110.

What route are you taking?
Our route is not finalized but mostly likely, we will start in Baltimore, go up to Niagara Falls, bike along the Great Lakes from there through Cleveland to Chicago, up to Minneapolis, across South Dakota, to Yellowstone in Wyoming. From there we will head north to Glacier National Park in Montana and will ride pretty close to the Canadian border until we hit Seattle! In total we will ride over 4,000 miles. (That’s why our route might seem a little funny. We really want to make sure we live up to our name “4k” and actually ride 4,000 miles, even if this does not mean taking the most direct route.

How many riders are they? Are they all college students?
We have approximately 30 riders. Most are current college students or will be recent grads. We also have a few riders who are a few years out of college. The most common school for the riders is Johns Hopkins. We also have a number of riders from other Baltimore area schools like UMBC. A smaller, but still significant number of riders, come from further away.

Where do you sleep?
Usually we stay wherever we can find free lodging. This includes churches, YMCAs, high schools, community centers, and colleges. When all else fails, we camp.

What do you eat?
Everything! Legend has it that the average 4ker eats 4000 to 5000 calories per day to make up for all the riding! Most of our food is donated, either by our generous hosts for the night or other stores and restaurants.

What do you do when it rains?
The 4k rides, rain or shine. We do get off the road for dangerous conditions though, such as lightning and severe hail.

You must be really athletic.
Not in the slightest. I hated running and any sort of athletic activity in high school and I detest the gym. I do like biking though.

What’s the best part of the 4k? What’s the worst?
I’m sure different riders would have different answers to this, but my favorite part of the ride was the community dinners. Almost every night we would have a dinner in the community we were staying in where we would give a presentation about the 4k and cancer. I loved meeting different people, hearing their cancer and non-cancer stories, and eating their very different food. It is certainly a different way to see parts of America that you would not otherwise see as a tourist.
The worst part of the 4k is waking up at 4 am.

Do you ever want to quit?
The thought occasionally crossed my mind. Usually around mile 70 of a 100 mile day, when I would be hot, tired, and sore. The thoughts were usually fleeting though. One of two things generally kept me going: My fantastic teammates or thoughts of the people I was doing the 4k for. Somehow, failing the 4k would have been failing them in my head. I definitely had days where I swore that I would never do the 4k again, but I obviously am not following through with that. There were definitely some days that were very hard, where I hated myself for deciding to do the 4k, where I was sore, tired, hot, hungry, sweaty, dirty, out-of-breath, bleeding, etc. But ultimately, the good of the 4k outweighs the hard and miserable one hundred times. There is very little I would go back and change about the experience of the 4k.

What about the mountains?
There are some pretty large mountains between the east and west coast. We hit the Appalachians around day 2 and those are definitely difficult. They are short mountains, but they are very steep, especially for inexperienced riders. Then there are the Rockies. In total, on the ride to San Francisco, we reached 12,183 feet in elevation and maxed out at around 26 consecutive miles of climbing. It was tough, but it was my favorite part of the trip. It’s beyond beautiful and nothing compares to the feeling of biking to the top of the Rockies.