Chris’ Journey

One year ago today I began my 1500 mile, 16 day ride from Jacksonville, FL to Holliston, MA. I had no guidance, no distance riding experience, and no idea what to expect. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was going to hurt like hell. Looking back on it now I have no clue what I was thinking. I had never ridden more than 80 miles in one day and 150 in two days.  Based on the first week I had planned I was riding over 100 miles every day. Luckily I didn’t realize the stupidity of my plan until it was too late to turn back.

My ignorance proved to be the best thing that happened to me. If I had known the immense pain my knee would be in on day 4 with every turn of the pedal, or the weather we battle through on day 7, or the climbs I had to ride up in PA, or the pure exhaustion I would experience every night, then the odds are that I probably would have been sleeping in my bed until 11 AM on the first day of spring break. At many points during the ride that is exactly what I wish I had chosen to do. Fortunately for me the ride was A. extremely fun B. Only 2 weeks, and C. helping a cause that was very important to me.  These three things kept me going every day.  While I hated being asked “Did thinking about what your mom went through keep you going?” thinking of her certainly was the reason I kept going. However, I can’t say thinking about the miserable things she experienced was what kept me going. What kept me going was thinking about the times prior to her treatment, the moments that I would always remember having with her. Whether it was playing cards with her at 3 AM in the morning because we couldn’t sleep or her yelling at me to clean my room and do my homework, these were the thoughts that kept the pedals turning.

My mom, my family, and I were very lucky that we are able to enjoy these moments together. She was extremely fortunate to be diagnosed and treated successfully very quickly. If the diagnosis had been made just a couple months later then she may not have been able to tell her she was proud of me for doing my own laundry today at college (without the help of Aislinn). Many were and are not as fortunate as my family and I have been.  Whatever you believe to be the reason for it, she was given a second chance at life through a number of different events that took place throughout her illness. My goal for my ride was to hopefully give somebody else, even if only one person, the gift that my mother received. I will probably never know if my ride had any direct effect at all, but I’d like to believe that it helped somebody in the way that many others helped my mom.

Initially we wanted to raise $10,000 and raise awareness for the disease. We wanted people to hear the word “Amyloidosis”, maybe even know something about it.  Too many doctors have never heard of the disease. Had it not been for a newspaper article about a woman with the disease that my mom brought to her doctor, she may have never been diagnosed. We hoped that people would at least know the name of the disease so that they could someday be their own advocate.  The outcome, as many of you know, was far different than the expectations that we had. We ended up raising over $55,000 for research and hundreds of people who had never heard of the disease could now tell someone else something about it.  Sometimes I like to pretend I actually did something significant for this rare disease. Every time I think about it, however, I come back to the same conclusion. That is that all I did was ride my bike from Florida to MA.

From day 1 I had all the help anybody could ask for in the world. I asked Aislinn to sacrifice her entire Spring Break to support me with anything I needed, she did it without complaint. I asked my friend Brad to make me a website for free; He made one of the best websites I have ever seen in his spare time. I asked my friends to help spread the word to their friends; they spread the world to their entire town. These people did everything for me, while I just rode my bike (something I love to do). People I barely knew were helping me raise money, spread the word, buying t-shirts, offering places to stay, the generosity never ended. There is a reason we exceed our goal by $40,000 and it was because of the support that people provided. The generosity of my small school in central MA, of my friends, or my cycling team, of family friends, and from my family was just unbelievable. I learned and took more than I gave turning this trip. I was shown the natural goodness in people, the difference people can make when they care, and how important family and friends are to me.

My ride was a once in a lifetime thing. As I sit here in bed typing this I ache to be in Georgia with my cousin Andrew, my Aunt Judy, and Aislinn again. There are very few times in life, however, when you’re given the opportunity to do something that you care about. I was fortunate to have two full weeks of spring break and the full support of my family, school, and friends.  Just as my mom was presented with an opportunity when she read the article about Amyloidosis, I was presented with an opportunity last year. My mom took a risky treatment to help save her life; I stupidly convinced myself I could ride 1500 miles in 2 weeks. My mom was terrified of the result of the treatment and what would happened to her; I was terrified of not being able to complete the ride and letting everyone who had helped me so much down by failing to complete the ride. Some doctors tried to convince my mom that the treatment she was about to undergo was too risky; my parents tried to convince me that I was being stupid. Too many people are afraid of doing something because they are worried about what others say or are worried they cannot do it. For years I lived under this umbrella and I was scared to death of what my parents would say when I told them about my plan. As expected they initially shut me down. Thanks to the support I had they had no choice but to say yes in the end. I don’t think they regret that decision to this day. So I encourage anyone who has listened to me ramble, listened to me talk about my ride, and pretend I did something greater than I did, to not be scared of doing something they believe in. I had this idea one night when I was bored in October less than 6 months later we raised $55,000. I had the idea and the rest was everybody else’s doing. Take a risk with an idea you have, ask for help from your friends, and start brainstorming; once you do that you have no idea what could happen. A silly idea you have one night could make a world of a difference to someone you have never met. A year after my ride that is all I hope I was able to accomplish.

As of yesterday our donation count is right around $49,300! Which is nearly 5 times more than our original goal of $10,000! People have been unbelievably generous in helping us try to raise money. Our original goal of $10,000 was what we believed was a very high and unattainable goal. We figured we should say it high though because setting it low and at an amount we thought we could achieve just wouldn’t encourage us to try to get more.

When we broke the $10,000 mark before the ride were were shocked but figured the donations would begin to slow down. However by the time I left they were already up over $15,000. Half way through the ride they were at $25,000. When I got back they were at $40,000. And now Just under $50,000. Hopefully we’ll be able to break the $50,000 mark as donations continue to trickle in, but if not $49,300 is awesome!. Thank you so much to everyone who donated no matter how big or small. All the donations just kept adding up and somehow came out to be an amazing number.

Yesterday we also did a quick presentation at our school. It was nothing special, we threw together some pitures and talked for a bit about the trip and the disease. Hopefully they were able to understand a little bit more about the disease and what we did but who knows. In May we have to do a much larger presentation and will make a good slideshow/video for that. I’ll be sure to post it somewhere online or on this blog for people to see. Hopefully it will turn out nicely.

I will update everyone again when we reach the $50,000 mark! Which will hopefully be soon! Thank you all so much to everyone who donated!

Stephen

It’s now been exactly a week since I pulled into the church parking lot and rode through the 1500 mile banner. That moment and the 16 days of riding that lead up to that moment now seem like a dream to me. It is as if I was taken from reality during my vacation and abruptly thrown back into it last Monday. I guess thats how vacation always is, but for me it seems like I was in a whole different world during vacation. I was away from home, away from people I knew (for the most part), in a new place every day, and doing something that I did not find normal for me or very relaxing for me. While it is impossible to explain how it seems like it was a dream, I am sure that many of you understand what I mean.

That being said, I do still remember the trip very vividly. Watching the videos and looking at the pictures I can remember almost every single individual moment that was captured in some sort of media. Everything from being chased by dogs to meeting different people, to suffering up the steep and long climbs. The only thing I struggle to remember is the one day that was 130 miles, pouring rain, very cold, and windy. All I remember was that during the last 5 or so miles I was only thinking about the car and the town line. Then once I got into the car all I remember is that there was peanut butter EVERYWHERE. My pants, my hands, my arms, my shoulders, the seat, my mouth, Andrew’s hair. It was crazy. I thought I was just eating peanut butter, but I some how managed to do something with the peanut butter that caused it to go everywhere. Aside from my blurred understanding of that night everything else is very vivid.

Part of me still fails to understand exactly how I was able to do it. My longest ride ever before the trip was about 2 weeks before I started with a bunch of guys from my cycling team. I did about 85 miles. The day after that I did about 70 miles, and the day after that I did about 55. How exactly I expected/planned on riding over 100 miles for about 6 straight days I have no idea, but I had full confidence that I could do it. Looking back on it now, however, I have NO idea why I had that confidence. I guess because I had spent all those days of 3-4 hours on a trainer with my bike on it in the basement going twice as hard as I would be going on the 100+ mile days my legs were able to adjust easily to the long easy days.

What I do understand is why I was able to finish. I had some of the most amazing people around me helping me every day. My cousin Andrew was a huge part of why I was able to make it through the first week of crazy long days and awful weather. Having someone there with me for almost every mile hept my legs moving. I honestly don’t think I could’ve managed to ride through that first week the way I did without him with me. In those 8 days he went from a recreational cyclist to one of the best “wheels to follow” (someone to draft off and help you get a little extra rest while riding) that I have ever seen. While he struggled when he came back to ride the last two days with me because of the hills, he was a huge reason why I was able to get to those last few days.

He was why I was able to keep riding and finish every day. But people like my Aunt Judy and Aunt Debbie were why I was able to stay hydrated, stay fueled, stay on track, and they reminded me that I wasn’t finishing this for myself. After riding all day I would take a nice hot shower and get in my bed for the rest of the night. They got me dinner and brought it right to me, they unpacked the car, they made everything in my life easier. All of my aunts and uncles were amazingly supportive throughout the trip and I was fortunate enough to see a lot of them at one point or another. They are awesome.

And of course Aislinn. Without Aislinn who knows where I would be right now. While there were a few small mistakes made between the two of us throughout the trip. There would have been a lot of small mistakes and a few huge mistakes if it wasn’t for Aislinn. She made sure that all the directions were correct and accurate, all the roads were safe to ride on, all my water bottles were filled every time I met up with her on the road, all my clothes were dry and ready to me worn the next day (or that same day), all the hotels and places to stay were organized and confirmed, all the meetings with Amyloidosis patients along the way were scheduled and confirmed, all the bags and clothes and things we needed were there, the list goes on and on. I basically worried about getting myself dressed in the morning and riding my bike while she did everything else. She is unbelievable.

Here are some random stats? facts? observations?

Total Miles: 1509

Average MPH: 15.7 MPH

Total time on the bike: 96 hours 7 minutes

Average Cadence (RPM)= 85.2 rpm

Total number of revolutions: 491, 263 revolutions

Longest day: 130 miles, Day 7

Worst Day: Day 7

Hardest day Mentally: Day 7

Most rain: Day 7

Most wind: Day 6

Most snow: Day 15

Most climbing: Day 11

Hardest day physically: Day 11

Best day: Day 5

Best weather: Days 1,2,3,5

Best Pull (Turn up front blocking the other from the wind): Day 16, Brad and Jake

Best “Throw Down”: Day 16

Best moments: Meeting Judy Collins, Judy Lessard, and Jay Helwig

Worst Moment: When my body shut down with 5 miles to go on day 7.

Worst wrong turn: Day 2 and Day 16

Strongest Headwind: 30 mph

Nicest people: Georgia and South Carolina.

Meanest dogs: Georgia and South Carolina.

Number of times I wanted to quit: Undefined

Weight Lost: 7 pounds

First ride since the trip: Yesterday

Miles in the week since the trip: 23.1

Average MPH since the trip: 20.6 mph

Total time on the bike since the trip: 1 hour 7 minutes

I will come up with more random things to say on my next post which will be Tuesday. I will also give an update on the amount of money that has been raised. As many of you know it was well above my original goal. Thank you all for reading. There will be another one up on Tuesday so check it on Tuesday again.

Stephen

 I never understood how fast it took Stephen to complete about 15-20 miles, one day I dropped him off and we had discussed a meeting point about 20 miles away. So I assumed I had enough time to go get gas in the car and buy another poster board (somewhere along the way we lost our first poster with all the distances on it) and meet him on time, let’s just say I assumed wrong. Stephen had been waiting for me in the freezing rain for about 20 minutes and to top it off it was the one day we were not able to call each other. Now you would think I would have learned my lesson and for the most part I did, but there were a few other days when the communication skills were lacking and it took me awhile to estimate the amount of time I actually had. Part of that was because every day was a new set of maps and more unfamiliar places.

One of our main concerns was the directions. Luckily, Georgia was a nice place to ease into the ride because there were not too many confusing turns (we really only saw about 18 million churches, some houses, and long roads).  The mileage on the directions was not always accurate and for the first few days it took awhile to get used to the style of the directions and I would have thought that by the last day I would be an expert at reading the directions. Unfortunately the last day was probably the most confusing day in terms of directions: Stephen went about 6 miles off the route and everyone took a wrong turn (luckily we all made the same mistake). But nonetheless, we did make our way to Holliston and we were not too late!

I definitely would not have made it to Holliston without everyone who helped me. Judy was an amazing help for the first few days and when she left I was definitely lost without her for a little bit. She bought the infamous lawn chairs for us (surprisingly I actually never got to sit in one for more than 15 minutes because every time I decided to get it out Stephen and Andrew would ride up and we’d be on our way).

After a few days by myself, Debbie joined me in the car. She told me so many great stories and probably the most in depth family history of the Youngs and the Wrights. As Debbie and I were driving through North Carolina and Virginia we noticed that in every yard there were gravestones. So we soon termed every cemetery a “neighborhood” because we did not see a single person so we began to think everyone was in the cemetery.

Without Judy and Debbie I would have been a mess. The second week I had another few days by myself but Stephen’s parents  soon relieved me and helped me out. By the second week I was a little exhausted (not physically like Stephen at all) and when I was driving with Stephen’s mom I stopped at a stop light thinking it was just a stop sign, then I proceeded to see if there were any cars coming and made my turn. Stephen’s mom then told me the light was red and I just went right through it, I had too many things on my mind and I had no idea it was a stoplight. We laughed about it the other day, but at the time I was so scattered. Fortunately, both the car and I made it home in one piece (I do not know how though)!

I am so grateful that Stephen’s parents let us undertake this whole project, at first it seemed like such an idealistic goal and now I cannot believe that we finished the ride. The support of Stephen’s parents throughout the entire process of the ride has been amazing.

One of the best parts of the ride was being able to meet Amyloidosis survivors. The stories of Judy Collins, Judy Lessard, and Jay Helwig were so inspirational to hear because they are all such brave people. Meeting each of them made me realize how positive they are and determined to beat this disease. 

Even though I was with Stephen the whole ride, it still amazes me how he was able to complete this ride. Some days he made it seem so effortless and at times I found myself complaining more than him. Despite the ups and downs, I think Chris’ Journey was an experience I will always remember and be proud of.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us! We could not have done it without you.

-Aislinn

Day 16 - HOME

The next blog will come tomorrow. I promise.

Wow. I cannot believe that I am done. It was an amazing trip and an amazing experience but I think I’m glad it’s over. Parts of me wish it never ended and parts of me couldn’t wait for it to end. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me along the way.

Today started off bright an early with an amazing breakfast made by the Cannone’s. We woke up around 6 and were at our starting point by 7:30. It was cold, cloudy, and exciting. My sister and her friend Kim drove in around 7:45 with my friend Brad Jurga, Steve Tirpak, and one of my best friends, Jake Shoemaker. It was nice to see some more familiar faces and finally made me realize that i was almost home.

Unfortunately today was no walk in the park in terms of riding. Shortly into the ride we began to encounter some pretty tough climbs. It was nice to have so many people around me motivating me. Dustin and Andrew were a little sore from yesterday and decided to ease off the pace a little bit and save up for the end of the day. We had a deadline to finish by 2 PM so we had to push the pace a little bit more than I would’ve liked. That pace had to be a little bit faster because we took about a 6-7 mile detour away from the route. We were suddenly in catch up mode and began to hammer our way back towards Holliston. I was extremely lucky to have everyone riding with me and helping me to the finish. Brad and Jake helped me so much all day after Steve decided to ease up for the finish as well.

I put everything I had into the climbs and the flats to try to get back to Holliston by 2. We did just under 6000 ft of climbing today which was the second most I had done in any day. It was a struggle. Luckily when we got within 20 miles of the finish another cycling friend of mine, Ian Rusk, came to the rescue and pulled us all towards the finish. We were in serious pain.

Ian, Brad, Jake, Andrew, Dustin and Steve finally made our way onto familiar roads as we entered Hopkinton. I was running on pure adrenaline at this point. My legs had no energy left in them and I probably wouldn’t have finished without the help of everyone riding with me. As we neared the finish we were joined by a few more cycling friends of mine from MRC. Cookie, Todd Savage, and my Aunt Judy all joined us for the last few miles. It was nice to have a big group to roll into the finish with.

The finish itself was awesome. The number of people who came out to welcome Aislinn and I back was unbelievable. Thank you so much to everyone who was there, wanted to be there, called me after I got there, anything. It was so nice. Two of my best friends, Adam and John, held up a big paper sign for me to ride through at the finish. I braced for impact as I hit it but luckily it tore very easily.

I then had the pleasure of meeting everyone who came out and supported me. I hope I was able to thank them all enough because I owe them all so much thanks for everything. Especially to Mary O’Donnell and Dr. Comenzo who came out to welcome me back. Mary O’donnell is the President of the Amyloidosis Research Foundation and has done so much to help me organize everything. She has been wonderful. And Dr. Comenzo is one of the best Amyloidosis Doctors in the world and we owe so much thanks to him for everything he has done for people like my mom. It was such an honor to finally meet them both.

I also need to thank everyone who rode with me today. Some of them woke up before 4 AM so that they could ride the whole day with me. It meant a lot to me that they were willing to give up their entire day to help me.

There are so many people I need to thank and I will never be able to thank everyone. I will try to over the next few days as I do my “Ride Summary” and my “debrief” and my “Thoughts” and “Reactions” and “Impressions” and “Observations” and a total sum up of the trip. I will write a post tomorrow during the day and a few more spread out over the next week or two. And Aislinn will be doing a post as well.

Until then I am going to sleep. Here are the pictures from Day 15. Aislinn will upload the pictures from Day 16 tomorrow.

Day 15

Thanks for reading. Thanks for everything.
Stephen

I put almost everything I had left after 2 weeks of riding into today. We started around 9 where we left off yesterday in 29 degree weather. The “we” included my cousin Andrew, Dustin, and myself on bikes and Aislinn and Mattie Pancoast ( Andrew’s girlfriend) in the car. It was nice to have Andrew back riding with me again. He is a force on the flats. Unfortunately he was not feeling very good this morning but he was still a huge help.

After a few miles of riding we encountered the beginning of a long day of climbing. We were all going different paces up the climbs so we regrouped every few miles. Despite the hills I had a good pace of about 16.4 mph after 20 miles or so. The bad news was that my legs were sore and tired. The worst news was that I flatted again and of course forgot my saddle bag with all my extra supplies in the car. Aislinn and Mattie brought all my stuff and we got the flat changed pretty quickly and were back on our way. At this point we were a little bit behind schedule so we had some catching up to do.

For the next 15-20 miles before lunch we were essentially going up hill the entire time. It hurt. We were quite spread out by the time we got to the top so we regrouped and headed down to lunch. And when I say down, I mean down from 1,700 feet to 200 feet very quickly. I reached my max speed for the trip at 48.2 mph on that down hill. It was fun.

After lunch we rode about a mile to the NY/CT border to get our photos for the 2nd to last time. At this point Andrew and Dustin jumped in the car for the next 25 miles or so. They were lucky to miss the biggest climb for the day which was a struggle. It was at that point that I questioned whether I would actually be able to finish the day. But I think the only reason I was hurting so bad was that I was putting everything I had after 2 weeks of riding into the day. It hurt but it was fun.

Dustin and Andrew started again at the top of the big climb and rode almost all the way to the finish. But instead they decided to get lost and climb up some random hill before getting picked up in the car by Aislinn and Mattie. I actually ended up in the right place after 89 miles and about 5600 feet of climbing. I had put everything I had left into the day as I planned. I ended up with a 17.7 mph average, my second highest of the trip I think. And it was one of the tougher days of the trip. In the top 5 for sure. Andrew and Dustin did an awesome job of getting over the hills despite the fact that they never ended. Without them I would’ve died today.

Tomorrow is the final day. I am relieved, tired, sore, and slightly saddened. It has been an awesome trip and an amazing experience but I am certainly ready for a break. Tomorrow I will hopefully have a decent group of 5-10 guys riding with me to bring me to the finish. They’ll be the ones that get me to the end tomorrow. Which will be at 2 PM at the First Congregational church in Holliston around 2 PM tomorrow afternoon. I am very excited for 2:01.

I will continue to write a blog tomorrow and over the next few days, mainly with a summary of the trip, and some observations of different states, and random stuff like that. I’ll change up the style. In fact, Aislinn has promised she will be writing a blog some time in the next few days. So make sure you hear her side of the trip.

We don’t have many pictures from today but I will post them tomorrow. I’m tired. I need to go to bed. Early morning tomorrow. Thanks to my sister’s friend Alyson Cannone, we are out of a hotel for our final night. The Cannone’s were kind enough to give us a place to stay and an awesome dinner. So tonight should be a good night sleep before one final push to the finish. I look forward to finishing.

Thanks for reading.
Stephen

Today was awesome. It was short, not too hilly, and it provided us with good weather (for the most part). Since it was a relatively short day we got a little bit of extra sleep this morning before making our way to the first stop of the day. We drove to the tri-state rock where New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania all meet. So after hanging out in 3 states for a little bit we finally decided to put New Jersey and Pennsylvania behind us.

The day started off in Downtown Port Jervis with 35 degree weather and cloudy skies. It was good to have company again with Dustin beginning his 3 day trip with me to the finish. Less than 5 miles into the ride he was already causing trouble by complaining that his hands were to cold and had to switch. But after that he was a champ for the rest of the day.

A little less than an hour into the ride we were surprised by snow. It was weird. It would snow really hard for a minute then stop for a minute. Then really hard for a minute then stop for a minute. This was all happening as we began our first and really our only climb of the day. It was a nice long 2-3 mile climb with a few steep points. Once we got over that everything was good. The snow stopped, the sun came out, the temperature went up, and the road went down.

We ended up having a long morning, logging 55 miles by the time we got to lunch. Dustin was doing awesome and gave me some extra motivation and company all day. We ended up having lunch in New Paltz, NY at The College Diner. It was good food and a good break.

After lunch Mr Weigl (Dustin’s dad) left us and we made our way across the Hudson River and into Hyde Park. While in Hyde Park we found another cyclist from the Culinary Institute of America to ride with. It was nice to get some miles in with him. But he peeled off as we got to Hyde Park. We actually ended a decent away past Hyde Park by the finish close to Rhinebeck but we got a picture with the Hyde Park sign and are saying its the ending point for the day to make it easier to follow. We ended up doing 77 miles at 15.7 mph average. It was a very nice break for the legs. Tomorrow is suppose to be really hilly so I’ll need all the energy I can have.

Here are some pictures from today:

Day 14

Here are pictures from Mr. Weigl while he was with us.

Thanks for reading.
Stephen

Today was a tough day. We started a little after 9 in Lambertville, NJ with clouds and rain in the forecast. The route for the day took us right along the Delaware River on both the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania side. I essentially was on the same road all morning. The good news in the morning was that the first 40 miles were extremely flat. The bad news was that it was cold, rainy, and windy after about 30 minutes of riding. It brought back some bad memories from the previous week.

After being miserable for 35 miles I had the pleasure of meeting another person who has battled Amyloidosis for lunch. Jay Helwig was one of the first people ever to go through a stem cells transplant for Amyloidosis (the treatment my mom had). He did that nearly 15 years ago and has been in complete remission since he had the treatment. It is impossible to tell that he ever went through such a terrible treatment. He is in unbelievable shape for someone who has battled the disease. Being one of the first to get the treatment he had to do almost all his own research and advocating. He is such an inspiration to everyone. Seeing someone who has battled the disease and be in such good shape nearly 15 years later is unbelievable. If my mom is in that good of shape in 15 years than that would be amazing. It was such a pleasure to have lunch with him. Unfortunately I was so cold and wet that I mainly listened to him and my dad talk, but he had so much to share with us. The treatments have really come a long way since then.

The afternoon began a little better weather wise but much worse hill wise. Over the next 55 miles I did just under 4000 ft of climbing and I don’t think I was on flat ground once. I was either going up or down. I swear it was up way more than it was down. About 20 miles into the afternoon I met up with two of my aunts and my uncle from my dad’s family. It was awesome to be able to see more people and even better to have them ride with me for a little bit. I was even having trouble keeping up with my Uncle Tom for his first 100 yards or so. He is just such a stud. It was nice to finally be able to ride with people again for a few miles. Especially with so much climbing all afternoon.

Tomorrow I once again will have someone to ride with for the day. One of my good friends from school, Dustin Weigl, came down from MA to ride the last 3 days with me. He is just getting into cycling but will be able to ride about half a day for the next 3 days with me. The company is awesome. Then tomorrow night my cousin Andrew is coming back to ride the last 2 days with me. Then Sunday I should have a good group of about 10 or so. I will post details for those of you planning on riding with me tomorrow night.

The legs are getting very sore and tired now but I am very confident I will make it through the next 3 days. Knowing that I’m so close gives me the little bit of extra motivation that I need to get over these hills. Some of the ones today were unlike anything I’ve ever ridden before. Most of them aren’t very long, but they are STRAIGHT UP and there are 18 million of them.

Here are today’s photos, tomorrow I will get some more photos of people. Oh and I need a New york sign. We couldn’t find one today. But we did get the Port Jervis sign. We will be sure to get the New York sign when me leave New York on Saturday.

2009_03_19

Thanks for reading.
Stephen

Today was a good day. In fact it was a very good day. We got to sleep in a little bit and woke up to fog everywhere so it looked like it wasn’t going to be fun. But by the time I got started it was sunny and warming up. Unfortunately my legs didn’t have a chance to warm up before I ran (or rode I guess) into a nice long 2-3 mile climb. My legs were tight and sore from yesterday so it was not pretty. After nearly 10 miles I was averaging about 15.0 mph. As soon as I got over that hill though, I “threw it down.” I dunno why but my legs felt GREAT on the flats and real gradual climbs, but AWFUL on the bigger climbs. So I was either going 25 mph or 10 mph.

By the time I finished the 34 miles in the morning I was averaging 18.0 mph. It was sweet. I felt a little sore and tired but overall felt strong. We stopped for lunch near Valley Forge where we met up with my parents for the rest of the day. I doubled up on lunch and was fueled for the afternoon.

The afternoon was looking to be just as good as the morning with near 60 degree temps and sunny. But it turned out to be even better. The slight side/head wind I was battling all morning (not really battling because it was slight, but it sounds cooler when I say battle) became a tail wind. The final 37 miles went by extremely quickly. For the first half of the afternoon I was averaging 19.3 mph before falling to 19 mph by the end of the day. That was only for the afternoon though, I had an 18.5 mph average for the day. I “threw it down.” Though I did have a tail wind, and I did only a little more than half as much climbing as I did yesterday, and I only did 71 miles, and it as perfect weather, and yes i enjoy writing in incomplete sentences and run on sentences, it’s more exciting that way. But I am sure that I will pay for today’s effort tomorrow as I have my final 90+ mile day.

I’m assuming tomorrow will be more of the same with lots of hills. But the weather is suppose to be bad too. Luckily it looks like it will be the last day of bad weather until the finish. Only 4 more days of riding. I’m excited. And tired. And sore. And sort of bummed.

Tonight’s home stay will help me recover though. We (Aislinn, My parents, and I) are staying with some of our best friends from when we use to live in Paris. It’s been a long time since we saw them and their neighbors (who were also some of our best friends in Paris). We had an awesome dinner and are having lots of fun. Tomorrow night we are back in a hotel though.

Until then here are today’s pictures. They’re not exciting. But I did get into New Jersey where we ended today! Woo

Day 12

Thanks for reading.
Stephen