While the Illini 4000 route changes every year, one spot remains a constant hit — Rockville, Indiana. The reason? Quite possibly our biggest fan ever, Randy, has been hosting the team for 16 of the 17 years of I4K’s existence. Our annual trip to Rockville has become a beautiful tradition, and was greatly enjoyed today as we took on a shorter stretch of the ride with great enthusiasm to meet our host. Another relatively uneventful ride day, the somewhat bland Midwest provided another mental challenge for our riders to meet as we pedaled through the corn fields getting ever closer to Champaign-Urbana.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 62.4

Elevation: 1,826’

Points of Interest: Command Coffee, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Hendricks Regional Health Hospital, Rockville First United Methodist Church

Quote of the day

Tales of the Trail

The team braced themselves for another somewhat chilly day in Indiana this morning as we layered up for temperatures in the upper 40s (in June??? What a time to be alive). Helpful in warming us up was another morning activity run by Tommy, who led us through some cross country style dynamic stretches, which all of the runners of the team greatly appreciated. We rolled out in three groups, two of which made an immediate coffee stop at Command Coffee in Indianapolis. Once we were well fueled, we were on our way to be as efficient as possible in getting to our stayover early to spend as much time with Randy as possible. 

We took two quick rest stops at Walmart and Dollar General (the team has become huge fans of Dollar General). We rode through Danville, IN, the birthplace of one of our riders, Emma! Other than her birth hospital, notable sights of central Indiana were somewhat few and far between. Neal provided some eventfulness during the ride by getting pooped on by a bird — they’re really out for us this week! — but aside from some missiles from above, our team steered pretty clear of trouble. The easy riding of the Midwest has blessed us with fewer bike issues and crashes, which we’ve come to greatly appreciate. However, even if the road is straighter and flatter, strong focus still needs to be held within groups. A sort of tunnel vision while riding can certainly become possible, which is why we take frequent rest stops and regularly rotate who leads each group. Keeping things fresh and interesting can be a challenge in endless fields of farmland, but games of  “my cow” and lots of singing can help pass the hours away.

We always seem to find our strange coincidences on the road; today we had two unexpected interactions along our trip. One group met the wife of the pastor at Rockville First United Methodist Church (RFUMC), our stayover for tonight, at a gas station along the route. All three groups today also spotted the Doddie’5, a group of British cyclists who are also riding across the United States. The Doddie’5 route travels from San Francisco to New York City, spanning 3250 miles over the course of about a month, and raises funds for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which funds research to search for a cure for Motor Neuron Disease. It was incredible that our paths crossed for a day, as their team was heading into Indianapolis the same day we were leaving. We exchanged waves and a very brief cross-road conversation — if anyone on the Doddie’5 team is reading this, we hope you have a safe and wonderful rest of your trip here in the United States!

The team arrived at RFUMC in the early afternoon and were greeted by Randy, Linda, and Martha immediately. Most of the team got to meet Randy for the first time, while some of our riders had traveled to Rockville before, either on a previous I4K ride or the 70-mile “Ride to Randy” held back  in February for his birthday. We were greeted with snacks, showers, and even the opportunity to go for our first swim of the summer! An enormous shoutout to every member of the RFUMC community who helped prepare a delicious dinner for us — some members of the team were nearly in tears from the amazing quality of the food. 

After dinner, the team was treated to Love Bags, a gift from Randy, where we each filled a massive plastic bag with as many snacks as we could possibly fit. We also participated in rock painting, which was incredibly relaxing and fun for everyone before bed. Some of us will be leaving our rocks behind for RFUMC to keep, while others plan to take their rocks across the country, possibly leaving them at meaningful spots along the route or bringing them all the way to San Francisco. Once again, the endless love and kindness that the communities we visit provide for us never fails to amaze our team. We are constantly grateful and in awe of this journey we get to experience, and please know it would not be possible without every single person supporting us along the way. Randy, thank you endlessly for everything you do for us — we already can’t wait to see you again next year!

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s rider: Maaike Niekerk

How are you feeling today?

I’m feeling really good! I’m very happy, we just got to use a pool for free which was phenomenal. It was very good, very healing. My legs don’t hurt, my bike is fine… My body and my mind are good, so I’m feeling very good. 

What make and model of bicycle are you riding?

I ride a Trek Domane. It’s an AL4. If you’re an astute reader of the journals, I have the same bike as Olaf, but his is a 2024 model and mine is a little older. So the paint’s a little different, but we both have red bikes so they’re twins. My bike’s name is Bichael, named by my best friend Zoe, and I love Bichael. Bichael has never let me down. Great bike, great bike. Recommend the Trek Domane — ten out of ten.

Before joining Illini 4000, how much bike training had you done, and did you have any other athletic background that you feel prepared you for this ride?

I had not done any road cycling at all… but I’ve been biking since I was four. That’s all because of my dad. My dad would bike with my sibling and I to school every single day and back, so I did a lot of biking. I think that most of the preparation, though, came from doing long distance running since I was 13. I did cross country and track through middle school and high school, and it was super fun. I think that’s where I got all the endurance training, for sure, and all the mental training, because I had some really good coaches that really prepared me. So I think the endurance training really carried over, and I did a half marathon in April that definitely prepared me a little bit. But no road cycling training.

What has been your favorite part of the ride so far?

That’s hard to pick, because the days are so fulfilling. I’m not gonna lie — the phrase, “live life to the fullest,” has never really hit for me, but now it’s really hitting. We do so much everyday that picking a favorite moment is very hard. I would say the Appalachian mountains I really loved. I really like climbing, and part of why I joined I4K is I wanted to do something that was very physically and mentally hard, and the mountains are very very hard! Because I4K is a team activity and we’re all riding in groups, climbing the mountains makes you realize how much you appreciate your teammates. We had a very hard day, 7,500 feet of climbing, and Neal and I just rode side-by-side up one of the mountains, and we just appreciated each other for it! I couldn’t get through it without Neal… I couldn’t get through it without having the group there. It made me really realize how much I appreciate my team and it was very fun, very hard, but it was very rewarding.

Is there anyone you’re doing this ride for, or any specific person you think of when you’re on the ride?

Cancer has been a huge thing in my family, like really really big. The big one is my mom —  she’s a cancer survivor, so that’s who comes to mind first. I’ve also lost all four of my grandparents, so I think about them a lot for sure. I think they’d be very proud of me… I’ve just kind of seen how cancer has impacted my family and how it’s also impacted a lot of my friends’ families. So the cause is super meaningful to me. But I think I’m also doing it a little bit for myself, and kind of just taking a break from other things has been really good for me and has been something I’ve wanted for a really long time. In the least selfish way possible — I’m doing it a little bit for myself too!

Is there anything you want to say to the people who are cheering you on during this ride?

I genuinely consider myself to be the luckiest person alive to know the people that I know. My friends and my family and my people are just the most beautiful people I have ever met. There are so many times — I think I’ve gotten better at this recently — I just look around and am just like, “look at how beautiful these people are! I know such wonderful people!” I love my people, I miss them every single day, I think about them all the time. My family, my friends. And this absolutely would not be possible without them. Everybody’s been so kind and so supportive. A lot of people when I told them I was doing this were very worried, and I take that as a compliment — at least they care about me a lot! So yeah, I love you, I love you, I love you. I miss you all, and I’ll see you all soon I guess… And also thank you to everyone who donated! It makes my heart so happy — even anybody who didn’t, thank you for your kindness.

Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?

Well first of all I have to talk about the journals, because people reading the journals makes me so happy… the comments make our day, they make the riders’ day. The riders are reading the comments and are getting so excited. So thank you to anyone who reads the journals, it’s so lovely and we work on them so hard… Also — and this is gonna be awkward because you’re sitting right here — but Riddhima is the best! I can’t imagine how they just had one person do the journals in past years, so big thank you to Riddhima because she is the ideal journal-writing partner in every way and we slay at the journals together. Aside from the journals… a lot of people have said this — which is how you know it’s true — we have the most beautiful team. Our team is amazing, and I would never bike across the country with any other group of people. I just think it’s so cool how everybody on this team so openly expresses love and gratitude… and we’re all just so aware of how lucky we are to be doing this and how awesome it is to be doing this, so I love our team! Our teammates are amazing. We all have our little spots that we fall into, our little niches, and we work together so well, we love each other, and we take good care of each other. So, our team is very special, thank you for reading the journals. Yippee yay! And you can quote me on that!

(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)