Day 61: That's a PR

Course: Hagerstown, MD to Bethesda, MD

Distance: 70 miles

Terrain: Rolling hills

Conditions: Road hazards

Today was supposed to be the easiest day of them all. I was riding with Reggie and Derek. There were about 5 pace lines that had all agreed to just saunter through the miles and soak it in together. We would stop to get fast food and sit and eat it on a patch of grass and just talk to each other.

None of that happened. My pace line may as well have been the sweeps for the day. The actual sweeps also may as well have been in our pace line. Everything went awry within the first 30 miles. First, I got a front flat. It was my third of the trip and I hadn’t had a flat since Grand Island, Nebraska. 5 miles later I got a back flat. I hadn’t had a single flat off of my back tire thus far. Shortly after that Derek got a flat. 10 miles later Reggie got a flat. Then, Derek got another flat. About 5 miles later I got my third flat of the day. That’s 6 flats in 30 miles. We were at least 20 miles apart from the next pace line. All of my flats were due to shards of glass in the tires. I got three flats in 30 miles when before I only had two in 3800 miles. Personal record broken. The rest of the day we played catch-up.

We were sprinting at about 22-23mph for about 20 miles and never saw another pace line. We missed rack point but were still allowed to continue. It stinks to not have had the day that I expected, but I sure did make it memorable. At least, my tires did.

We’re currently staying at a super nice high school. We’re lodging in a wrestling room and after about 20 minutes of napping people began to wake up and have a giant free-for-all wrestlemania. Everything is padded so people went nuts. Guys were getting body slammed and full nelsoned and all. Once we settled down and showered we went to an all-team dinner with the other two routes and the Build America team.  We had some great BBQ and tried to chat it up with the other teams…..tried.

Tomorrow is the last day of this journey. It’s hard to believe that it’s here already. Cycling has sort of become my “job” and to think that I only have 10 miles left is crazy. I’m psyched for the arrival, but I never want to leave the guys I’ve befriended here.