Course: Payson, UT to Salt Lake City, UT
Distance: 80 miles
Terrain: Rolling hills
Conditions: Headwind
For anyone who’s wondering: the helmet strap tan line is
coming in beautifully.
We woke up early this morning to head out for Salt Lake
City. I started riding with a vengeance since I didn’t make rack point
yesterday. I knew that if I got today done, then I’d only be 30 miles away from
a day off in Park City. I rode with Derek and David. Derek is a fellow Horned
Frog but will be a junior, and David is a rising junior at the University of
Iowa. It was a pretty difficult ride considering the headwind and rolling hills
combined. There was also the factor of pure exhaustion setting in on everyone
that didn’t help motivation. We’ve biked for about a week straight with two
century rides without a break. It isn’t easy, but we’ve all been doing a great
job of pushing ourselves. We rode by a landfill towards the beginning of the
ride, which set in a queasiness that lasted for a good amount of miles.
We eventually made rack point on time, but immediately lost
motivation. We pulled about 10 mph on flats for the rest of the ride.
We arrived at the finish, which was a church gymnasium that was rented
out by Spirits and Spirituality, a local men’s group that was providing a
luncheon for us. They have their name because they meet weekly at a bar to talk
religion. We also ate lunch with representatives from the Children’s Tumor
Foundation. A couple there had brought their son, Travis, who had a tumor that covered
the majority of his body and cause one of his legs to grow longer than the
other. Travis was hilarious and loved telling us to remember “blueberry
pancakes” for some reason. He got a big kick out of us repeating it to him in
different voices.
After lunch we had a team dinner at a local sports bar,
which was sponsored by two people that did a ride-along with us today. Jeff and
Jennifer were their names, and Jeff is a five time Pi Alpha. It was an honor to
hear what he had to say about the trip. He advised us to drop the selfish
reasons for doing the trip, and realize that we’re doing it for Push America’s
values, not our own. He also reinforced something that has kept me going when
it’s tough to get on the bike some mornings. No matter how much I hurt, there’s
always someone with a disability that is going to hurt way worse than me –
every day for the rest of their life.
After dinner we went to the Mormon equivalent of the
Vatican. I’m not sure what it’s called, and neither is anyone else that I’ve asked,
so that’s what I’ll call it. Either way, it was pretty cool to see. There were
giant cathedrals and statues, and a reflecting pool. It was all dedicated to
the religion.
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