Blake's Journey: Day 59: Flirting With 50

Course: Uniontown, PA to Cumberland, MD

Distance: 70 miles

Terrain: Steep hills

Conditions: Humidity

Max Climbing Distance: 7000 ft.

Max Speed: 49.2 mph

Today was the last of the “big” days of the trip. Every since we finished Kirkwood people would talk about “that one climbing day towards the end.” I decided to ride with Michael Walton and Stephen Blythe. Whenever we ride together we call our "team" pace line the Pine Trees. Don’t ask why, because I couldn’t even tell you. We started out as the last pace line but worked hard all day. The hills were difficult, but nothing we couldn’t handle. It was awesome to know that we had come so far. 8% grade hills felt like 6% most times. My only goal since leaving Kirkwood has been to break 50 mph. A lot of people share that goal with me. My previous record for speed was 48.5 mph that very day. Since then we really haven’t had the hills to reach it.

We climbed for what seemed to be hours, and eventually got to our first summit. We descended and I gained speed as quickly as possible. I went into a tuck position and was feeling it. I knew I could do this. When the hill bottomed out and I checked my speedometer, it read 49.2 as my max speed. Frustrating, yes, but I knew that I would have more chances. Every mountain pass that we scaled ended up with the same answers. 48.7…48.6….49…..48….it was ridiculous. The day ended in vain as I never broke 50, but I danced all around it. I was still satisfied knowing that I have come so far in my ability to quickly go up AND down hills.

The Pine Trees finished as the 3^rd pace line and it felt great to know that the rest of the trip would be easier.

Later that night we went to dinner with the Cumberland Rotary Club and had amazing burgers, hot dogs, and fried ice cream. The people there were a lot of fun to talk to and very interested in what we were doing. They held us in a pretty high regard. I’m going to miss feeling famous.

When we got back to lodging we had a gag gift exchange. A lot of guys got some hilarious presents. I gave Colin an autographed (and framed) picture of myself with an inspirational message. Since I’m kind of known as the guy with little emotion, I was given a shirt that says “I had fun once…….it was awful.”