Wednesday, June 12th, 2013 @ 7:30PM

Total Time: 3:37.11
Miles: 46.54/48
Max Speed: 33.1
Avg speed: 13.4
Status:??racked due to flat tire 2 miles away

Today definitely had its highs and lows. So far most of the days I have cycled everybody was able sleeping in hotels. From here on out we will be going to other places to sleep. On this instance we stayed at a middle school basketball court. We all woke up at around 5 AM and we had a sponsored breakfast from Erin, the lady who sponsored our lunch the previous day. The food was great and we were then scouted what the terrain would be for the day.

The ride was a pretty simple ride for about 37 miles. The terrain was nice to look at and the shoulders we cycled on got really narrow and when trucks drove by, cycling got pretty scary at times. Other than that the ride was very easy and I was fairly confident that we do not have t deal with anything difficult since we were 5 miles away from the destination. I was way off with that statement and I would later learn to never underestimate the terrain that I never encountered.

After my pace line left one of our last pit stops, the roads began to incline for a long time. I was not used to cycling for a long time then go on a hill so the terrain was tough to ride through. Another factor that added to the ride being unpleasant at the end was that this was the first time in my JOH trip that heat would cause me to lose more energy.

Luckily I was able to pass through these hills and it wasn???t long for me to encounter another problem: my tire for flat for the third time this trip. I was getting really frustrated and I had 2 miles left, due to some time constraints as well as mis-communication I got racked and had to ride in a van. For me I was really angry because I was close to finishing another day.

The frustrations did not last too long because JOH North had another arrival in Jackson, but this time was with a police escort. The arrival had us going to another sponsored lunch/friendship visit. Arriving was an overwhelming experience since many people were cheering our entertain e when we rode in the camp. After the introductions, I had 2 chili dogs as well as some other food. I also interacted with a lot of the individuals with disabilities and signed many autographs for them. The experience was amazing and I felt like a star. The impact of these friendship visits cannot be expressed in words. All I can say is that they are powerful and the fact I can be able to make an individual smile genuinely, it makes me feel really good to be able to do that.

After leaving the camp, we were all given the harsh news that we have to cycle 2 miles to a high school and the route that we will encounter will be a very steep hill, similar to some hills in San Francisco. The chili dogs began to sit in and that made me feel worse. As I was about to begin, one of the other cyclists told me that my rear tire got flat again. That makes 4 flat tires this trip. When I told Drew about the tire they said I could ride or be racked. I considered getting racked, but It did not seem fair that I didn’t try to attempt the hill that 27 other people will ride. I did not sit well to back out and take the easy way so I rode on the tire and it flattened over time. When we rode to the hill, it was definitely the toughest thing I did so far this trip. Going up, I lost my breath halfway, my legs were shot, if I stop, I will be rolling back down the hill. This reminded me of my days when I did XC in HS and my actions in XC had unpleasant memories due to my mindset when I ran. I wanted to dismiss that part in my life and I was able to roll up this hill. The hill reminded me of one of the little bumps on why I wanted to do JOH. As my Project manager Nick Brady said, ???JOH is the ultimate test physically and mentally.??? With this test, I was able to pass this one.

Dinner was sponsored by Bart at a diner called Mel???s and his sponsorship, the sponsored lunch as a place JOH north visited since 1988. Here I ate a lot of pasta and drank a lot of water.

The reason I ate so much was that tomorrow, all the JOH cyclists will be riding our toughest ride for this trip. The destination is Lake Tahoe and we will be passing Kirkwood. The ride is going to take the entire day and it is 95 miles long. Tomorrow is not going to be easy, we will all be cycling 12000 feet of elevation on a mountain so its going to be the longest and highest ride I will have at this point in this trip. I am not going to lie, I am very worried about the ride that I will be embarking on tomorrow because of how much the ride will affect the cyclists. Committing to a long ride like Kirkwood will expend a lot of energy both physically and mentally. I really want to finish tomorrow and be fine. With that note I am going to bed to anticipate the challenge for tomorrow.

Posted by Reggie Quaye
Categories: Journey of Hope, Philanthropy