Today we started in Brookings and now we're in Eureka, a bit over 100 miles south. Today was Day 7 of this "epic" ride and my body is feeling it!
It's really hard to write a lot, because I'm so tired. We're staying at a friend of Joe's tonight. The other two guys are already getting ready for bed, but here I am, typing away. It's like Jody said, that's why they invited me along, so I can record their achievements, not mine... That's just one of the countless jokes going on back and forth between Jody and me, and it's what is making this ride fun. Not much else about it is, trust me.
Jody, or should I say "10-time Ironman" Jody, rides a bike like he's walking on water. Like he's breathing air. Like he's brushing his teeth. Like he's eating a piece of chocolate cream pie. Effortless. It's sickening, Truly sickening.For the past two days (or has it been three?), I've been staring at his back, at his back wheel, and his chain. I've been sticking to him like glue, as much as possible, so that I can get through the day as quickly as possible. You see, if I were riding at my pace, I'd finish about one or two hours behind him, no doubt about it. But riding at his pace, I finish just as it's getting dark, and not alone, which is what I want.
Now that there are three of us, rather than four, the riding is a bit more complicated. We can't ride in two teams of two, for instance, so we either ride all together, or at least one of us rides alone.
Today, for a good part of the ride, Joe was by himself. He got off to a slow start and also had two more flats (back-to-back thanks to a sneaky piece of glass), but he finished really strong. I don't know how he did it, but he's been riding since he was born, so all that experience helps. I don't have that many miles of riding under my belt, so if I had been in Joe's shoes today, life would have sucked.
Yeah, so the plan is to keep following Jody to the finish line. But that won't be easy.
At one point when we were riding today, he told me a story about a trail-running partner of his and how he could never really break her. (Just what I want to hear while I'm riding with him, right?) Yeah, so I guess when she needed a break, she would say something like "I need to tie my shoe." Of course, her shoelaces didn't need tying, but that got Jody to stop momentarily.
We stopped for some fuel (food/drinks) with about 40 miles to go today. Jody said he wasn't planning to stop for the rest of the ride. That was bad news for me, since I prefer to stop every 20 miles or so, being a rookie... So when we hit Trinidad, after 20 miles, I was really hoping we'd stop, even just for a few minutes. But no, Jody just flew on past the exit (we were on the freeway) and kept pedaling away. At that point, I was really running out of gas. Or was I? I have no clue. The point is, we didn't stop and he was upping the pace. It was a nightmare...Even when I told him I had to pee, he said, "Not a good place!" and kept going and going and going. So I tired to trick him:
"Hey, Jody! I need to tie my shoelaces!" I yelled up at him. Didn't work. 10-time-Ironman Jody kept pedaling. And all I could think was "10-time Ironman, 10-time Ironman... What the hell I am doing trying to keep up with a 10-time Ironman?"
My right leg is pretty sore from my hellish ride today, but I'm pretty confident I'll be OK in the morning. Tomorrow we're going to try to add another 100 miles to the odometer, so that we end up in Laytonville or so. And the following day, we hope to be in Santa Rosa.
As we crossed into California today, we had to slow down for a moment to ride through a checkpoint. The lady waved us through, but I said to her, "I'm back home!" and raised my right arm like I had won a race...
I even shed a couple tears a few minutes later, for whatever reason. It was obviously an emotional moment for me. Part of that was sheer joy for having made it that far. Part of it was thinking about some of the people I'm hoping to see in a couple days who I haven't seen in at least two years, the last time I was in California. Tears of suffering, tears of joy.
There are so many hours in the saddle, so many thoughts go through my mind. I sometimes picture certain colleagues, friends, and students from back in Japan hovering above my head in little balloons cheering me on. I want to finish this ride for myself, but also for them. I want to be able to hold up a sign at the border that says, "Dekita!" (I made it!)... But that's still so far away. Ugh.
That's why, pretty much every morning, I say to the guys: "Hey, let's go for a ride today." As if I haven't been doing this over and over for the past week...
We've actually met some people along the way doing far crazier things than us.
One couple from Holland drove their car from there to Vladivostok, took a ferry to South Korea, shipped their car to Vancouver, and are now driving to Baltimore...
We also heard about a guy who rode his bike from Michigan to Bolivia. But Jody and I kind of laughed when we found out that he covered the 8321 miles (or whatever it was) in a year, which works out to an average of about 22 miles a day... We do that in an hour... Well, Jody does.
And then there's the couple who already drove 5000 km west from their home in Canada to Vancouver, and are now on their way to ... Panama! Wow!
Anyway, it's late, so I gotta jump in my "bed." Take it easy and talk to you again soon.
Life's been Hell lately, but life is still good!
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