Monday, June 17th, 2013 @ 6:00PM

Total Time: 7:23.22(About 9 hours total)
Miles: 111.87
Avg Speed: 15.1 mph
Max Speed: 43.2 mph
Status: completed

The first century ride of JOH. Man that was a really rough ride. 112 miles to a small town going on the loneliest road with no cities in between does some weird things.

I started my ride as a sweep. that means that I would be the final paceline that did not pass any other riders and helped assist the crew that the exact number of cyclists pass through. The ride started pretty normal. The terrain was flat, and there were some farms and mountains that were in the distance that intrigued me initially. I only say that now because that???s all Nevada had to offer. Unlike my time in Costa Rica last year, the one road had a lot of variety and there was constantly beautiful things to look at especially wildlife. Here, the roads were barren, dry, no animals (well there is occasionally road kill here and there).

About 15 miles in, I be an seeing names of random people on the desert ground. It was cool because it gave those individuals an opportunity to cement their names for many years to come. Knowing me, I would have put RQ there if I had time. But on mile 20 all the cyclists were around that area collecting Dickson the desert. Until I placed my feet and joined in collecting the rocks, I realized that this was originally a lake with all of the water dried up. After collecting rocks, we then wrote out JOH ???13 on the terrain. It was a cool and gratifying experience. We were not the only JoH team that did this, many other teams also followed that tradition and I saw the teams when we continued riding.

After finishing with the activity and all the other cyclists gone, my pace line continued cycling. This was around 9 AM. We saw the road ahead and it looked like a very steep climb. Luckily it was not steep but we had to gradually climb uphill. It tool a while to make it to the top and it was pretty tough to experience the factor of the heat in the desert. There was no shade on this ride, so the sun was constantly beaming at us. Since it was 9 that was when the heat began to affect the cyclists.

We eventually made it to the top and met up with another pace line. One of the guys was struggling and asked if he could switch with me and become a sweep. I accepted and went on another pace line. When that occurred, we booked it on downhills, and flat terrain. The ride was pretty much standard affair with the occasional uphills, downhills, and flat terrain. The tailwind was also helping us with the ride.

I felt pretty good and felt the day was conquered until I hit mile 80. One of the guys on crew said I was sweating out salt and I had to down a bottle and some Gatorade before I rode again. Beeping impatient want wasting a decent amount of time at lunch I got back on the bike again. My stomach was filled with a lot of fluid and lunch (this really made spinning unpleasant), my front tire constantly kept getting flat so I had to frequently pump air in the tires after every 10 miles, and I had to go to the bathroom. Many factors came hitting me like a pile of bricks and I began feeling overwhelmed. One of the other guys in my pace line was also struggling and another kept his pain internally.

Back to mile 80: we had a long steady hill and some of the mountains looked pretty nice. After passing through the mountain for about 5 miles we hit some downhill terrain and it was really relaxing.

Eventually we hit mile 100 and my paceline was celebrating because we accomplished a feat of breaking 100 miles. That celebration short lived since we knew we still had 12 miles we had to finish. Like with most rides with JOH, the end of the rides test people both physically and mentally. This was no no exception to that rule. More factors began to add on to the precious ones, and some of these factors never really seemed to phase me before. False flats began to be more frequent, downhills made me expend more energy, and near the very end; I ran out of water with 2 miles to go, and the terrain began to become a steeper hill. I was spent and had no energy. I wanted to finish. The heat and the flat tires were not going to defeat me this day. I kept pushing to Austin. The town was barren and there were still more hills to climb. I was really exhausted and lodging was at the top of a steep hill. I had to push really hard to the point I was screaming so loud that everybody in the small 250 population of Austin heard me. I eventually made it to the top and got off my bike gasping for air and in years. It took a while to recover bit I did it.

The town of Austin was a ghost town. There was one main road and very few houses on the hill and that was it. I really never believed that places like this actually existed in America. It was such a culture shock.

After the recovery we had dinner with the Austin Ladies Club at the end of the day. They provided us some Thanksgiving food. It was phenomenal. Mom if you are reading this try to make a grape salad, it has sour grapes, yogurt, and brown sugar.

Now I have to make sure I am in good shape for a 70 mile ride to Eureka.

Posted by Reggie Quaye
Categories: Journey of Hope, Philanthropy