Into Nebraska!

After 10 great days in Colorado it was time to go to Nebraska. We woke up at 5:30 and had breakfast with the Boy Scouts of Wray who made us pancakes and sausage. After two days in a row of hot breakfasts to start the morning it is going to be hard to go back to eating bagels every morning. When I woke up this morning I was so sore, and riding 100 miles was not what I wanted to do, but after a circle up and morning prayer we were on our way to McCook. I rode with Colin Schwartz from The University of Washington and Kyle Marpe from Purdue University. For the third straight day I was riding with someone new so I was excited for that aspect of the day. The three of us ended up having an absolute blast on the bike today.

During the rides we tend to get bored, so as cyclists we come up with different challenges for ourselves and today Colin decided he would challenge himself by pulling the entire ride today. What that means is he was in the front of the pace line the entire ride taking on the head wind and setting a good pace. All three of us were going very strong and going into lunch at mile 70 we were in a great mood. Mark set up lunch at an awesome spot along a lake, and because it was so hot outside we really wanted to go in it. So along with Kyle, Colin, Alex, Jeff and Austin we went into the lake and it wasn’t quite what we expected. The water was pretty green and the bottom of the lake was very gross feeling. We went out to about chest level and weren’t in it long before getting out in fear that we had all contracted a disease. Although the water was gross I am very glad to say that the 6 of us went in together, and then the three of us in my pace line suffered through the last 30 miles of riding with a wet pair of cycling shorts. The last 30 miles of the ride were going very well until we were about 8 miles outside of the city and one of the spokes on Kyle’s back wheel broke. This ended his day on the bike because without all of your spokes the wheel is off centered. So unfortunately Colin and I had to ride the final few miles into McCook without Kyle. When we arrived at lodging we noticed that we were short of 100 miles by just 4 miles so we took a few laps around the neighborhood and got our century ride in for the day.

Great Paceline, nasty water

It was a great feeling to ride another 100 miles and besides dropping my phone and cracking the screen at lunch today, I had another awesome day. The team got showered up at a local YMCA and then went back to lodging to hang out until dinner. We are staying at the United Methodist Church tonight, and a few ladies that go to the church sponsored our dinner. They prepared us delicious lasagna, salad and ice cream sandwiches. Everyone has a few hours to hang out, go do laundry and make runs to the store before doing a team event at 9.

During my free time I have continued to read my book and another quote jumped out at me today. The book really makes me appreciate what I have in life, and I know that I am very fortunate to get to experience a lot of things I do. The quote that caught my eye today was “Laughter is good medicine for the soul. Our world is desperately in need of more such medicine.” This quote is so true, and on this trip I think I have laughed more than I ever have in my entire life. We have guys from all over the country and some of the things that are said are absolutely outrageous. Kyle Marpe is hands down on of the funniest guys on the trip and riding with him today I was laughing more times than not. When going up hills he was yelling out crazy motivational sayings, shouting at cows, and coming up with outrageous stories just to get our minds off of pedaling. It is crazy what some people can come up with, and without laughter our time on the bikes would be a lot longer.  

After some free time we took a team trip to the movie theater which was sponsored by my Mom and Mike. Everyone thought it would be a good way to get our minds of cycling and relax and it did a pretty good job. We went and saw Despicable Me 2 and other than falling asleep during half of it because I was so tired it was a fun trip to the movie theater. I have been getting pretty close with one of my teammates from Iowa, David, and together we say some of the dumbest things so that kept us pretty entertained. 

When the movie let out around 11 we went back to the church to get a good night of sleep in. With another 96 mile ride coming up everyone needs their rest!