Steel City Baby

Waking up this morning I was very excited to get the day moving and make my way into the state of Pennsylvania. Because the majority of my family is not only from PA, but form Pittsburgh, I was ecstatic to get into the Steel City. We woke up at 5:30 and like usual I was one of the first guys up, and ready to get on the bike to start our day. The Fairhaven Foundation sponsored our breakfast and it was a great way to start the morning. We had bagels, yogurt, fruit and granola bars, which is plenty to get our bodies ready for a day on the bike. As we get closer to the end of the trip the rides are going to get a little bit harder, and todays ride marks the first of many trickier rides to come.

I pace lined today with Colin Schwartz from the University of Washington and Derek Dedeker from TCU. I was excited to get another ride in with these guys because not only are they strong and fun riders but unfortunately it will probably be the last time I am able to ride with them this summer. The conditions for the day were said to be pretty crappy with a lot of holes in the roads, lack of shoulders and hills. Colin is from San Francisco so he loves the hills but Derek and I who are both from the south do not enjoy them quite as much. We left Niles and we instantly saw the crappy roads. There was one point where we had to cover over some pretty rough train tracks and then on the other side of them there were huge holes we had to get around.

I ended up getting kicked in the face during this

Riding 6 deep 

As the days pass I think all of us cyclists are beginning to care less about the actual riding and care more about having fun and enjoying the time we get together. Although we continue to stay safe and make sure we are obeying the rules of the road, we are slowly starting to disregard some of the stricter Push America rules. One of the rules of the road is that you are not allowed to ride in pace lines that exceed 3 people. This is usually fine but on the ride to Pittsburgh we thought it would be more fun to meet up with other pace lines and end up riding 6-9 guys deep. Doing this was so fun and actually made time go by faster. While we were in a 6 man peloton we were keeping a pace over 23 for close to 11 miles and no one seemed to be tired at all. Towards the end of the ride we split back up into our 3 man lines and kept the ride going. It got pretty tough as we approached Pittsburgh but once we went over a hill and I saw the skyline of the city and a few bridges I knew we were very close. We crossed the river and made our way down to a stage up location to get ready for our arrival to our friendship visit.

When we arrived at the base of the river we were greeted by our sponsor, Dino Taylor who bought Chipotle Burritos for the whole team. The burrito was an awesome meal after a tough ride into the city, and the view we got while doing it wasn’t half bad either. After eating we got ready to ride 5 miles down a bike lane, which took us right past Heinz Field, and PNC Park. I rode towards the front of the 26 man line and it was awesome looking back and seeing all of my teammates riding together. After a few minutes and a handful of near miss accidents with pedestrians and fellow cyclists we made it to Three Rivers Association, who works with people with disabilities and integrating them into adaptive sports. The team wasn’t able to hang out there long due to time but while there we had a lot of fun. The Build America team was back in the same city as us so it was very nice to see my chapter brother Nate. The two teams carried a few boats down into the water for some of the clients to take advantage of and then we mingled with some of the other participants. It is awesome to see someone who has a disability excel at something based on his or her abilities.

Riding along the boardwalk in Pittsburgh

We racked our bikes on the vans and made our way to lodging where we had to quickly get showered up and changed into our team tux for dinner. After being the first one up to the room I took the fastest shower of my life and made my way downstairs to get ready to leave. At this point in the day all I wanted to do was stay in the room and take a nap in the big comfortable hotel bed but delicious dinner is always hard to pass up. The team made their way over to bowling alley to have dinner and have a team bowling night. The bowling alley we went to was awesome because it was old school looking, something I have never seen before. The parents of a Pi Alpha from 2008 set up the night so it was nice to be able to relate to their son as well as them and talk about experiences. While at the alley we ate some delicious pizza and I probably bowled my worst few games in my life. Although I was frustrated with my lack of breaking 90 in three games I had a blast and everyone left with smiles on their faces.

I was very excited to go out and check out the University of Pittsburgh and downtown Pitt but I was so tired that didn’t end up happening. As soon as I got up to the room and laid down I was in for the night. I don’t think I have ever been as tired as I was and being able to have a good night of sleep in the bed was heaven sent. We have a full day of programming coming up in Pittsburgh and I get to see some family so I am very excited for what is to come!