Saturday, June 8th, 2013 @ 2:01AM

Today was a pretty interesting day. All of the members of the North route went on a practice run today. For many of us, this was actually the first time they rode on hills. The day was pretty simple, crew wanted us to cycle 26 miles with some hills and this also have many of us an opportunity to cycle in a pace line of three people. Going into the day I was nervous. (Well I usually am generally) but as soon as kickoff hit for this trip, I was ready to go.

The first 10 miles was pretty flat and my pace line had a great opportunity to check some of the terrain. Unfortunately I do not have any photos.

After 10 miles I hit one of the many conflicts that I was going to hit today. My rear tire had a small rock lodged into the wheel and my tire got flat. I got upset because I began to get into a groove and had plenty of momentum. Luckily Push America brought a guy who was known to everyone as ???The Cycling God???, Dean (he is a cycling coach at some college, don???t remember at the moment), came from out of nowhere and helped me replace my tire. 5 flat tires and I still have trouble fixing them.

The troubles didn???t really end there and the terrain began to present the JOH cyclists hills. The hills were not steep, but they were very long and that took out plenty of energy to me and the cyclists. A good takeaway from that was that we were all able to go through the hills and get a reward for going down some pretty steep hills. Some of us were going as fast as 45 mph and it boosted adrenaline for traveling that fast on the bike.

The ride was great and it was also a good opportunity to cycle in a group since I never really did that before. Also being part of the pace line reminded me of the teamwork and chemistry that is important in team sports that I participated when I was younger. I felt pretty reminiscent the more I think about those dynamics of a good team.

Tomorrow the JOH cyclists will be officially kicking off at the Golden Gate Bridge and cycle 75 miles. Its basically going to be what we did today times 3. These first four days will be the toughest days and I cannot wait for the challenge.

I am blessed to be living another day and am able to cycle safely on this crazy trip.

EDIT: I will try to make an update on my time in Oakland one of these days

Posted by Reggie Quaye
Categories: Journey of Hope, Philanthropy