Blogs

It's been 2 days since the end of the ride...and I am still not recovered. I am consistently hungry every 2 hours, tired, and still a litte sore. It took us 3 hours to clean out the vans and sort through the chaos so that next year's ride would have some clean, undamaged supplies to work with. We were reminiscing about the ride, which was a lot of fun to see everyone's view of the ride. The consensus has been that it was very successful.

Yesterday, we biked into DC. The ride started off on a rainy day and ended on an even rainier day! We biked 86 miles from Front Royal, VA into the Lincoln Memorial Monument followed by a thunderstorm. We huddled under a tree while the bikers rode in. It was really exciting to see the Washington Monument as we rode in on the Washington and Old Dominican bike trail. We could see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Monument as we biked over the Potomac River. At that point, the rain didn't matter nor the fact that we didn't have a place to stay for the night.

We made it to Columbus yesterday. We were joined by some portions riders. We left from a park in Loveland, Cincinnati. Almost the entire ride was on a beautiful shaded bike trail and the best part being that it was completely flat.  The ride was about 105 miles. Lisa's brother hosted us for an amazing BBQ dinner and of course we ate way too much again. Today is our Global Health Day at the OSU College of Medicine from 11am-1pm at Meiling Hall.

Hey everyone. I know it's been a while since I've written; a combination of no internet and not enough time! Right now we are in Sedalia, MO at the First United Methodist Church. We actually just crossed into Missouri from Kansas today as well though there wasn't really a "Welcome to Missouri" sign, which was disappointing. Kansas was long and flat and I think we'll glad to have made it through the state. Sedalia is a much bigger city than we were all anticipating when we saw it on the map, which I guess is part of the of the fun part of biking across the country.

Today was an event day, which means every rider gets the day off. We were all looking forward to this day because we heard such great things about Telluride. The day before we rode 60 miles from Dolores, CO. It was one of the prettiest rides so far. We rode uphill for about 50 miles. At times, the mountains and valleys were playing tricks on me because I thought we were going downhill. However, riding along side the Dolores River and seeing the current move in the opposite direction confirmed that uphill was where we were going. We reached a max elevation of 10,400 feet.

So I know the last time I wrote I complained about the wind. And this time I might be complaining about the hills, even though they are better than wind. Actually it's not so much that I'm complaining about the hills, it's more that it does feel like we climb every mountain.

Yesterday I was on crew, which meant I was driving one of our vehicles. And at every stop, all the riders would complain about the wind. Today I rode and I was one of the riders complaining about the wind. Hills and winds are definitely (obviously?) the worst part about biking. One good thing about hills though is that they make my thighs burn so much that I stop thinking about how much my derriere hurts. Another good thing about hills is that what goes up must come down and riding downhill is fantastic.

Today we left the Sin City and started on a long stretch of much less populated places. After three days in a row of climbing and 80+ mile days I think the whole team needed a break. Unfortunately the rest day was filled with lots of errands: laundry, grocery shopping, answering emails, etc. However we all went out for Korean BBQ for dinner and it was many people's first time so that was pretty exciting. After dinner most of the team walked along The Strip and caught one of the water fountain shows at the Bellagio (check it out on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/RideForWorldHealth).

We biked 25 miles in the cold rain to get to Stanley Oswold Elementary School in Walnut, CA. We gave our very first presentation to five 2nd grade classes on ways to be healthy. They were very well-behaved and very knowledgable about nutrition and exercise. We were very impressed! We were even fed a warm crockpot lunch at the school, which was exactly what we needed to start the 50-odd mile journey ahead of us. There was a 90% chance of rain and possible storms. Sure enough, not even 5 miles into the ride, the rain began. Follow that with winds, thunder, and lightning.

Today was our first official ride with 24 riders (19 national, 5 portions)! We began our ride from Torrey Pines State Beach, SD. It was a surreal moment for everyone, but especially for those who spent the last year preparing for this moment. Unfortnately it rained through the night until 6AM. It was cold, misty, and full of ocean breeze. We were all optimistic and very excited to start our journey that not even bad weather could bring our moods down. We lined our bikes up on the beach with our full uniforms on, ready to start the coast-to-coast ride.