Sunday, June 5th, 2016

And no, that is not among the entire team. Just me, myself and I. New York has not been forgiving to myself or my teammates. To start, Illinois and New York are completely different! A small hill in New York would be considered a mountain in central Illinois. On day 3 we had about 3800ft of climbing within 65 miles. That was one day I was wondering what I got myself into. Throughout the past week the elevation gain/loss has gotten better. Or maybe we’ve gotten stronger!

Now back to the title of this post; flat tires! I jinxed myself when I was talking about never getting a flat during the 700 miles trainings. I got my first flat on the first day just sitting at a gas station. They just kept coming after that. Like Pringles say, “Once you pop, you can’t stop!” It’s amazing to see what caused your flat whether it is a nail through the tire or the tiniest shard of glass. Today was our last full day in New York (thank goodness!) and New York won’t let us go without some memories. 14 flats to be specific. Among the team, we had 14 flats causing major time delays and ultimately shuttling the last 30 miles to the stayover. With one of my flats I decided to replace the tire to hopefully prevent more flats.

Tomorrow we cross into Ohio and I can’t say that I’ll miss New York. Hoping for better roads and less flats in Ohio!