So much EPIC

Let's just preface that this morning I was pretty sure I did not (spoiler alert) need another century with multiple thunderstorms, zero visibility, Drive-and-destroy, and dog attacks.


Ok. So Basically today I got up at 5am and I just felt bad and sore and confused and tired and I did not want to ride, and then we got our cue sheets and we had a 92 mile ride when I thought it was 80, and then Olivia and I started riding and the fog was so thick that we could barely ride, could only see about 30 feet in front of us, etc. It was just not going to be a good day. And I was sort of struggling, since yesterday was such a good day and I wasn't having as fast of one today, etc. But then we finally got to first lunch and I was about to enjoy my bread-peanutbutter-banana-pretzel-barbequepotatochip-bread sandwich (this is actually pretty normal for most bnbers) when the bomb drops: the road lunch is next to is the one we were supposed to turn on to and ride for 18 miles, but in fact it is all loose gravel and we cannot ride on it, so we are being rerouted and instead doing a day that ends as 106 miles. So we wait at lunch for new cue sheets to get printed, finally leave, and I still feel bad and tired, but then Olivia and I start to have ok conversations and it gets better. Oh I forgot to mention that we got chased by a dog sometime before first lunch.

Oh right so HUGE shoutout to Olivia for getting through this morning, I was really having a rough time til mile 45ish, Olivia you rock! Seriously when people make us to be better than we are and then we ourselves grow, that is the best.

New raps

I like riding with Olivia she makes me smile
Sometimes she sneaks ahead but it's not cause of guile
This morning I struggle-bused it for a while
But now we can SO ride 60 more miles!!

Whoa see that hill yea I wanna top her
Look at Olivia nothing's gonna stop her
Whole lotta cyclists are just pill poppers
But not us cause we're hill hoppers!

Because there were some big hills. Also doing this totally makes you appreciate the tour de France. Watch it in a whole new light. So yea, riding was fun but we started to see some huge dark clouds, and out in surprisingly really hilly Iowa, there aren't a lot of trees, so you just see and see and see and you can see a whole lotta huge dark clouds and rolling dim puffs above them and vertical midnight blue rain beneath them, it's incredible and beautiful and powerful and scary. So we are watching these huge clouds and then three little punk kids roll up on their bikes with a dog and say 'get em', and the dog runs at me but fortunately I grabbed my gatorade bottle and sprayed it in the face before it reached my wheel. Dogs hate Gatorade. Best thing ever. So then the sky explodes and there's just water everywhere and it is windy and we're riding so it stings so hard I would have thought it was hailing, but we don't care cause we're so hyped up and it's just kinda awesome that we're surviving this crazy impromptu century ride and all the wild twists (paige and us getting stopped on the side of the road by a reporter who had heard of bike and build and making local news?) and we're riding out the storm and the thunder and lightening a bit too visibly close for comfort and the rain is so hard that cars are stopped on the side of the road and we're just hammering it and shouting.

We reach second lunch, it's pouring, there's no room in the van so we both grab a granola bar and huddle in the trailer, then leave with Paige and Vidya right away. This zis where the rain slows a bit but also where Paige and Olivia get run off the road onto a pebbly shoulder by a black Mercedes. The rain is now gone, we're all singing and having fun, lotsa fun rolly hills, when we suddenly get onto unpaved ripped up road with dirt all over the rocks, and of course it's all just mud, get through that and are confronted with a backhoe, go on a detour road, finally get around the construction and find that this road is going to be way longer than the cue sheet said, and get up a few big hills when it starts raining and a few cars with no lights (and mind you, for 2:30 pm the sky is black) pass and a huge truck carrying an 'oversize load' mobile home on it and then later an alien-looking piece of farm equipment that is wider than a lane, speed down a hill. New rap:

See a big rig shout 'truck up'
Oversize load, yell 'what the f@?& up'
Man these hills certainly don't have my luck up
And now a backhoe, better buck up!

It soon gets crazy rainy and we can't see the road and Paige knocks on a stranger's door and gets an elderly couple to let us sit in their kitchen for twenty minutes and tell us about their grandchildren until the rain is a bit lighter, then we head out and the rain still hurts a lot but we're singing and screaming and at this point I am having the time of my life, just crazy, from mile sixty (back by the reporter and early raps) until the end I'm just euphoric, we're just so close and we know it and it's raining and we're singing and rocking it and I'm screaming

You say there's too much hydration
I say we're gonna bike cross the nation
You say you're having some frustration
I say no doubts I'm all elaaAaaaAation!!!!

I can't even explAin how much intensity. Just screaming screaming 'yeaA mount Vernon to marshallton yea marshallton 106 century yeaaaa century mAaaaaarshalllltonnnnn' it was perfect. Totally drenched I almost stripped in the host site by accident my chammys were so gross. And then we got to go to a super nice YMCA for showers and use a steam room and sauna and then the UMC here gave us the BEST dinner ever - pork burgers with bacon bits in them and the best cole slaw with corn and hardboiled egg and then five or six pies and corn on the cob and milk and so much fresh fruit and vegetables it was great. And I'm going to bed soon in a dark quiet room and I get MY OWN COUCH.

I cannot think of a better day. I fell asleep on a foam block in the YMCA waiting to get picked up, and sam gave me a back massage later, and it's a laundry day, and I got to spray that dog, and the hills were fun and I can tell I'm so much stronger, and my clean tshirt has at least ten bike grease stains, and I have a ton of gold bond on, and I wore my favorite bike socks, and I've tripped over my own feet six times in the last hour, and they had saltshakers at dinner, and man I feel so good. Goodnight moon.

Location:W Southridge Rd,Marshalltown,United States