Pre-Ride
3/27 and 3/28 – a 36 hour drive
35 hour drive with no stop to sleep. See, I flew to Columbus, OH to meet most of the riders. Then we drove to San Diego. I was just sleeping in the van when I could, which was only when I was at my very most tired. It was obviously ridiculous. At one point I was sleeping on the van floor, my best sleep for an hour or more. I had two dreams, one where a buddy was shooting at me with a gun (I was hiding behind a tree) and then he was throwing grenades. The second dream was marriage, but I was just having a drink telling a buddy I was getting married. The drive was with stops to eat, pee, and fuel up. I drove most of New Mexico with the night shift, passing off my drive at 7am, just into Arizona. I couldn't even think and don't even remember large parts. It was the most intense distance drive of my life, a true marathon of time in a small space without much movement or media. Yeah we sang some songs, the highlight really. Yeah we saw some things on the sides of the road and learned some stuff about each other. Yeah, you actually do get a good feel for people.
Nutrition is a concern at this point. The group likes to eat fast food like Papa John's and In-and-Out burger. I’m kind of a food snob compared to most people.
My van-mates were interesting. Katie was my buddy most of the time as we traded off our window seat in the middle of the van (better for sleeping). She also kept me awake with reasonably good music selections at 5 and 6am. Bryce reminds me of my old roommate Shawn Hafer. He looks, sounds, and even says certain things quite reminiscent of Shawn.
Arizona was the neatest sight we saw during the drive. The rocks were awesome. Cali has sand dunes east of San Diego, where a lot of movies are filmed to take place in the middle east. The weather was nice when we finally came to Cali. The rest of the trip was cold including parts of Arizona where the elevation was over 7,000 and there was snow on the ground (in late March!).
Now it is 9:15 pacific time and the whole group is together, having arrived in San Diego. Our place is a large open room of the Scripps clinic, which employs doctors and physical therapists. We are right next to Torrey Pines golf course. We have an amazing view of the pacific from our window and I will admit that there is something special about a California ocean view. In summary, having driven 36 consecutive hours, only sleeping in the van, I am more tired than I have ever been in my life.
3/29
Today I awoke without fighting waking at 7 something am, to a chorus of "good morning" from a few ladies (it actually sounded pretty good). It was just life, all of the sudden in your face without a moment to think, no moment to ponder, just life in your face, just fighting right away. It was just people right away and the games we play, the social interactions that make or break moments, no peace, no solace. At the same time, I could tell it was a good thing.
We had breakfast in our large common area, then passed out rider gear (jerseys, cycling shorts, rain gear, cold gear, etc). I wished I ordered a vest, which seems nice to wear over stuff, but I will make due. We talked about how the ride days and support days will go, in detail. Then a group of us drove to target to get some needed items. We had a lunch outdoors and got to toss the football around a little, with very amazing gorgeous weather around us. There were insects, but different than Florida. They seemed dry and happy, not swarming and unpleasant. After lunch, we had a discussion on the education we will provide, then broke into our groups (we are Lemon group). I like my group mates; everyone is who they are.
Being around this many people and bouncing between people really shows me that everyone is so flawed, that everyone is unpleasant to be around at times (well at least most people). But the summation of these characters is quite a luxury. Quiet people, total dude’s dudes, artsy hippie types, a couple really respectable guys, and of course totally normal people, like me (kidding… kind of). After group, we all went for rides in a couple different groups. I was with my van mates except Jeff wasn't there. We went down a huge hill, a longer downhill than the Daytona bridges, by far! Then we stopped and returned. I fell as we were turning around, having clipped my pedals in and then pedaled slowly off. A lot of cars were there and I thought "this is good, perfectly embarrassing, get it out of the way, just be super embarrassed, more the better." I got up and we started pedaling up hill. I knew it would be tough because my bike was not shifting in the back (somehow my wire was out, no tension). I had to stand the whole way up and it was intense, but I could have made it without stopping, which we did because the girls were trailing. When they returned, we let them pass and Bryce and I worked on my bike. I was thankful to him, but we couldn't fix it; we rode back. It was a gorgeous ride, probably only 5-8 miles. Afterwards, I went to the bike shop with Jess and Lauren. We came home, my bike having been easily fixed. Then we got a larger group to go out for dinner. We went to Whole Foods Market and I had some awesome brisket (my favorite food). We came home and that is pretty much it. Tomorrow I have to call the Fort Worth DO school to follow up on a minor event we hope to have there on 4/23. I also need to see what is up with my Vegas residency paperwork, including what I have turned in and what is due in mid-April.
3/30
Today started slowly in famine mode (my life with people is feast or famine it seems). I awoke and kept mostly to myself, just trying to get business done, but trying to stay social, not isolate myself. We had a lesson on the lectures for middle and high schools and then broke into our groups to learn the lectures. Our discussion about the lectures, what to change and what to keep, was really engaging. It felt good to agree and argue for the first time with these new people.
After group, we did bike maintenance to make sure everyone could at least change flats. Next I did event planning for April 23 in Fort Worth, but still didn’t have any luck. Not long after, almost everyone went out for a ride, this time heading north on gorgeous N Torrey Pines road.
It was a very nice ride, about 25 miles. I had some unspoken competition with some riders and it was nice to excel on the hills, where I passed people or maintained pace with riders who are better than me on flat ground. Life was fairly euphoric after the ride.
We left to go to our event at UCSD around 6pm. The crowd was a bunch of undergrads interested in health professions and global health. The demographic is totally different out here, with tons and tons of Asians, especially females. It is ridiculous, truly. We gave a talk by R4WH (Libby did it). She did well and was very concise and quick with it and handled questions. We sold some T-shirts and water bottles (Maggie shined at this).
Afterwards we got all confused as a group about what we were going to do. Someone had to go home considering our place locked at 9pm and it was 8pm at present. About 18 of us went to a bar and got fed free beers and even appetizers. We tipped the guy well. It was very nice to hang out with the guys. I told Jody and Heidi what my initial perceptions of their specialty choice would be (not what they have picked - ortho and ophtho respectively). It was interesting to see how much medicine we really talked, stories of cases we were a part of, etc, really amazing (first time on the trip this all came out). I had a couple beers. We left at around 10pm.
3/31
Today was the full group ride in San Diego. We did about a 25 miles as a group with all of us together. We went north from our location near Torrey Pines (at Scripps clinic) and first dipped our tires in the ocean. Actually the ocean just rushed up on us from behind and surprised most of us. I had seaweed in my back chain rings. All of our socks were soaked. Not deterred, we hopped on our bikes to do this little intro ride.
I fell while clipping in among cyclist traffic, and decreased my tire pressure a little. I later incurred a pressure flat and had to put in a new tube on the road. It was nice to have support of other people there.
On the way back, we went up the steepest most consistent hill of my life. It was adjacent to the one we did yesterday (on the busy road), but this one was in the Torrey Pines Sate Preserve, right on the ocean.
Later I went out with a few people for 6 or so leisurely miles to and from the bike shop.
The night was a nice jaunt to a Mexican restaurant (for most of us, others went elsewhere). It was a night of much discussion about religion, including an interesting talk I mediated between an Atheist (Sam) and a Mormon (Bryce).
I am sick, with some mild symptoms last night and worse ones right now. The left side of my throat is sore and I can tell my left eustachian tube is partly infected, though I don't have frank otalgia. I think this will pass easily considering the riding; we'll see.
Tomorrow is the first official day, some 55 miles. I have installed (with great thanks to Heidi), a computer on my bike. I doubt I will use it tomorrow as I need to program it. My major concerns are mostly accounted for. I feel independently capable of completing the ride, even without GPS or a map on me. The weather is supposed to be terrible, so I might wear my rain coat underneath my jersey, but that won't help much with my legs or water kick up into my face. It is also supposed to be cold, so maybe a layer under the rain jacket too? My pack is light so I might be able to carry some extra clothes/socks with me.
I am happy with the early relationships I’m building. Nobody is perfect and only the best of us guys don't get into trouble with egos and wanting to be the best, the center, the one that makes all others laugh. Yeah, we are a bunch of comedians and a couple of us are hard asses. It is precious to be balanced, to be right, so I forgive those that aren't, including me.
Ride Begins!
4/1 – 58 miles to Campo, CA – mostly climbing; camping at night
R4WH officially begins! It was a 58 mile day with a lot of climbing, from San Diego to Campo, CA. It was a night of camping outdoors in tents.
We awoke super early around 6:30am. The talk was all about rain and cold, and indeed it was a gray drizzly wet cold morning. Whatever, you can’t expect comfort on a trip like this. A large part of it is just keeping a good attitude.
We drove the vans to a site just outside of the busy part of San Diego, where the journey began. By the time we started, the weather was simply awesome, and I took off all of my cold and wet gear. The next big hype was all about the “6% 3 mile climb we were to begin with.” So we did that and it was fun. Then we descended on the longest downhill of my life, maintaining speeds well over 30mph for several minutes. It was awesome.
On the day, we climbed over 6,500 feet with a net elevation gain of about 3,500 feet (from ~1,000 feet to ~4,600 feet). I have never climbed like this before. I actually seem to be a good climber considering many cyclists much faster than me are really being dramatic about this day. For me, it wasn't so different than my 97 mile days in FL, just long and steady. I reached speeds unlike I have ever reached before, stuff in the mid-30's at least. Maybe one of these days I will get the computer programmed to see how fast I am actually going.
We had lunch at a cafe that was truly amazing. It had the best hotdogs I have ever had in my life, huge and with great toppings (tomatos, onions, relish, sauces, and more). I also had a burger and some fries, both of which were good.
The climb after lunch was more significant than the front end. We climbed a net of over 2,000 after lunch. I was fairly steady, noting a very mild pain in the left medial knee only with pulling back with the hammies.
The countryside was gorgeous with rocky and grassy mountains, not like I have seen before. It was dry and the weather was perfectly unpredictable. I shivered at times, especially at lunch, got super hot on long climbs. I had layers of clothing and had to change a few times. The clouds teased of rain and were strongly influenced by mountain peaks. For a mountainous dry region, the vegetation was plush and diverse. There were sandy areas, rocky areas, pretty grassy areas, and nice trees all mixed together.
It was disconcerting at times to feel a little lost, uncertain if still on the route (the hills really brought separation). I should have my mom mail drop my GPS. I stopped once and Nyberg came after a couple minutes, so I knew I was back on track. Later, I found Jody who had stopped and was glad to see me. We rode in together. In a paralell universe, I could ride with others, but I find it hard to ride with slower people and I don't attract much sympathy.
We passed by Tecate, a Mexican town but I didn't see the town, only the sign.
So here we are at the campground. It is chilly, in the 50's. I did have a hot shower. The food was pretty good really.
A couple hours ago, at dusk, we took a walk to the lake which was breathtaking of course, with mountains in the backgrounds and large rocks on the route. We walked up some of the large rocks before walking down to the lake. It was kind of foggy. This land is affected less by the season than the elevation, like many parts of the west, although season is crucial too. The elevation here is 4,600 feet roughly.
It is 8:30pm, I will soon sleep. This head cold is bothering me, especially whenever the weather or my temp is cold. When riding hard and with a high body temp, my throat hurts less. Hope it gets better.
4/2 – 72 miles to El Centro, CA – mostly downhill, hot
I awoke today after getting good rest in the 35 degree Campo outdoors. My sleeping bag served me well. I was a spry chicken this morning, bouncy in the cold, in the unforgiving elements, the moist dirt. I was cold and needing to get naked to change into bike gear, but still felt just damn good, even with my head cold. The lake was invisible from dense fog. I was one of the first dressed. Oh yeah and there were nice birds chirping as I awoke, chirping chirping.
I was ready to get on the road, face the 70+ mile day we anticipated to be as hilly or more so than yesterday (there was talk of a “6% for 13 straight miles). I started just a minute or two after the pack, riding with Heidi, having some convo. We caught up with a group who was having some cleat trouble (Katie).
I rode most of the day with Katie. We stopped at a chocolate store that was closed. We stopped at a great view of the US-Mexican border with some other riders (Jenn and Roshan). We saw a border patrol guy wielding a large rifle, walking around in the desert.
After a predominately downhill ride (but still with some good climbs), we came to I-8, which we took eastwards descending for 10 consecutive miles. I probably reached 40mph, considering Jenn reached a confirmed 34 and I totally left her behind. The girls don't like to take the hills fast and I can't resist doing it, so this creates a separation. After getting off I-8, I found myself in complete and total desert with sand in all directions. It was sandier than Vegas, dustier. It was the Yuha desert. I peed there and let the other riders in my slower group catch up (Nyberg, Katie, Jody). We got onto a really bumpy road that was annoying, but lunch was only 5 miles away.
Lunch was a van in the desert, no shade, none. The sun was above us, pounding my freckled skin. I was one of the least dressed mainly because I can tolerate the cold of downhill riding better than most. Lunch was alright, then a departure with Roshan and Jenn. We rode hard on the crummy road for 20 miles, a fast 20, probably just a little over an hour in our three-person peloton. We reached El Centro and found our church without difficulty. Indoor camping it is, after lots of feeding and hopefully successful hydrating.
Notes:
I called mom and Riley and I feel like this brief telephone departure really put my ride into perspective.
Today was hot. I got sunburned to a medium degree in a couple places (face and upper arms).
I am still sick and I feel crummy, but I think it is mainly heat/dehydration.
We lost 4,600 feet of elevation today, going from 4,600 to 30 feet below sea level
I have never done an easier 70 mile day in my life (thanks to the descents)
4/3 – 74 miles to Yuma, AZ – again, hot and dry
I left El Centro with Heidi after a normal morning of packing. I told her I dreamed of going on a huge rant at my dad, which bothered me. We rode off casually and it was nice to just chat and relax. After a half dozen miles or so, the fast group that went to Starbucks caught us. We drafted off of them for fifteen miles at about 19 or so mph. It was fun and felt so easy. The land out of El Centro was flat and full of farmlands in both directions, although mountains painted the distant horizon in front of us. Riding and riding, farms gave way to the natural desert geography of the region. What was a cool morning (low 60's?) quickly gave way to 70's and potent direct sunlight. We came to a small water break in the desert at 25 miles. I had an issue with my cleats after I stepped in adobe clay and couldn't clip in and thus I was way behind, alone at the back, lonely. In my one man peloton I pushed forward pulling the ghosts behind me, remembering their struggle. I caught up to the slower group after about 8 miles, right at the beginning of the freeway. At the official lunch break, I met up with some of the riders I was with in the morning. We were right at the border and some people walked up and touched the fence. There were several Americans riding dune buggies in some sort of recreation area right by the fence. I had a delicious orange and a very satisfying avocado, plus great chips. I was trying to eat less to hopefully get light, plus keep some of these toxins out of me (powerbar, bluh!). I rode off with a group of two other guys, but they lost me and I was alone. I stopped for some camera time on the freeway right in the sand dunes. Soon a group caught up with me and I rode with them for the rest of the day. We came across some truly terrible roads, ones not even fit for mountain bikes, so bumpy. My handlebar actually came loose. I rode mainly with Sarah for the last 15 miles, including our entrance into Yuma, a hot Arizona town that touts more sunshine annually than any other place in the country. We made it to Gila Ridge high school we are staying at. It is pretty nice. Tonight I will shack up on the wrestling floor, gross but soft.
After arriving in town, we went to BW3 after drama over who would stay behind (because the doors locked). We watched some college hoops (Final four) and I ate a bunch of wings, which finally just became nasty because there is a lot more going in than just chicken (all that breading and sauce, bluh!). I had two beers which were satisfying, then we got some ice cream. Both hoops games were a disappointment, but getting out was nice.
Back at the HS (Gila Ridge), I played around in the basketball gym with a dodge ball. We were kicking it crazy, shooting hoops, and kicking it orderly. I later played catch. I was the only one of the six or so guys that did it all. Do you believe my first word was "ball?"
Tomorrow I will ride 70 miles again in this desert, fighting again to avoid any sunburn, which has been tough. I will also go to church before the ride since it is Easter Sunday. We will cross a mountain ridge and end up in Dateland, a place named after... yes, dates, the delicious fruits. I hope to eat some.
4/4 – 70 miles to Dateland, AZ
The day started early in the dark in the wrestling gym. A few of us were up for church, while the rest tried to hang on to sleepy time. In the dark, I rustled through my bag. A headband? My glasses? Chammy, sunscreen? So much to find and account for. I was out of the gym on time and enjoyed a little bowl of generic honey cheerios plus a banana. Being Easter Sunday, five of us got a ride to Church, which was at an outdoor service. They had communion and wine. Church isn't something I normally attend, but I really liked the group of people who had decided to go, especially Sara and Roshan, so I figured leaving for the ride late would be nice since I would ride with them. The service was good and everyone was friendly. It sort of challenged me to think about things I haven't thought of for a while, but I don't suspect it presented me with anything life-changing, and that is totally fine since I am happy. After service, four of us rode out on our bikes and soon caught up with another group. The scenery was simply gorgeous. It was green farm fields to both sides with distant mountains and a super crisp clear sky, all touched by 65 degree dry morning desert air. The route was very nice, with several turns all spaced out a few miles, quite easy to navigate. We stopped for our scheduled water break after 15 miles. I like to go for 30 at least before my first stop, but whatever, you have to compromise with people. At this point our group had grown to six riders, a peloton of too much inexperience for my comfort.
Five miles out of this break, Sara dropped off not feeling well; she has the cold I am getting over. I decided to stay back with her. We rode the last 50 or so miles together, chatting about this and that, stopping at our own pace. At one point we ended up on a terrible frontage road beside the interstate we were supposed to be on. We hopped a barbed fence and crept across the interstate lanes to find our proper place. We rode the final 11 miles on the interstate and had a nice tail-wind. We arrived in Dateland, the capital of the date fruit in the early afternoon, say 3pm. I had a homemade date shake which was delicious. I also had a small quiznos sub. Roshan, Bryce, Sara, Jody and myself were there. We left and found the place we are staying at, the Dateland middle school. It is awesome, with wifi at the playground, a nice gym full of basketballs, stuff to grill, schoolbuses some people were playing in, a house to shower in. It is nice. Tomorrow is my support day. I hope I can rest this left knee and that it is ready for riding in 36 hours.
Notes:
Today I rode slow, just taking it easy at the back of the pack.
I ate well, getting some cottage cheese and chocolate milk at the grocery, plus a pb-apple, plus awesome stuff in Dateland (shake and Quiznos).
Greatest challenge on the ride was heat and sunburn. I used a lot of sunscreen and covered what I could.
I enjoyed playing basketball for an hour after the ride, beating Roshan pretty bad.
I enjoyed kicking the soccer ball with Roshan and Sara after everything.
Scenery:
The desert scenery was characterized by mountains we always seemed to ride through but not over (flat ride). These mountains were very pretty, without any trees, rocky. There was not a cloud in the sky. There were a bunch of yellow flowers along the roadside. This little town of Dateland has an awesome little date store, but really nothing else. This desert is baron save for all the man-made grass from irrigation. The birds seem happy here. The sunsets are gorgeous. It is early April and I am burned. It burns; the high today was about 85 and there are no clouds, really no shade anywhere.
Earthquake:
Apparently as we left the date store to come to the middle school (some 0.5 miles), there was an earthquake that we didn't feel on our bikes. When we got to the middle school, the riders there mentioned everything shaking and asked us if we felt it, but again we couldn't tell on our bikes (probably thought it was a rough road, many of which we have encountered). It was a magnitude 3.4.
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