Home sweet home, the sequel!!! We powered through a 76ish mile ride from Kankakee to Park Ridge with the thought of family and friends ahead, some of which even met up with us along our route! We enjoyed an I4K alumni reunion dinner after the ride, which brought everyone from last year’s riders to some of the original group members together. With about two thirds of our team hailing from the Chicago area, many of us spent our rest day at home, enjoying Father’s Day and some peaceful time off with our loved ones. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 76.4

Elevation: 1,404’

Points of Interest: Bourbonnais, Old Plank Road Trail, Frank Lloyd Wright Home Studio, Des Plaines River, Centennial Trail, Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, South Gougar Road, Lyons Township High School, Elhert Park, Pleasant Home, Pickwick Theatre

Quote of the Day

Tales of the Trail

We rolled out from the Adventure Church of Kankakee after a delicious breakfast provided by our hosts and a morning activity hosted by Emma. Emma, who works at the Women’s Resources Center on campus and facilitates First Year Consent and Relationship Education workshops for freshman students, took us through a brief activity in which we practiced asking for consent by asking one another for sunscreen. Once again, we applaud our teammate’s random and amazing skills — it may be summer vacation, but there are always new things to learn!

The weather wasn’t nearly as warm and sunny as the day before, and we enjoyed cooler temperatures as we rode through country roads and some pretty farm fields. We hit the town of Bourbonnais fairly early on, followed by some nice bike trails before we eventually reached the Chicago suburbs. Van driver Olaf found us some lovely gas station rest stops — we’ve become huge fans of Casey’s and Speedway — and we fueled on team favorite snacks and drinks such as chocolate milk, discount slushies, and ice cream sandwiches.

En route to our second rest stop, we were met by Emma’s family featuring one of our favorite signs designed by her sister — “When in denial, gaslight yourself” (thanks for the encouragement Rachel!!!). Once we arrived in the suburbs, we started seeing some familiar places and even more familiar faces. Kev’s family greeted us at our third rest stop in La Grange, and provided us with an amazing lunch of Jimmy John’s, gatorade, and Jewel Osco cookies (the non-Chicago riders are learning more and more about this legendary “Jewel Osco” every day. Apparently it’s quite the place). 

The last chunk of our Saturday ride was a slow but steady 17-mile stretch to Logan’s home in Park Ridge, which saw plentiful stop signs and lots of traffic. We created systems within our groups to steer clear of cars, communicated clearly, and used the knowledge of our Chicago natives to help keep us on track. We rode through Dylans’ hometown of Oak Park as well, and were greeted by his parents and his adorable dog. We ended the ride at Logan’s house, where his family formed a welcome party for us complete with cheerful signs and cold lemonade — huge thank you to Logan’s family for housing and feeding us these last two nights, we so greatly appreciate it :) 

Saturday night brought a beautiful opportunity to talk with old and new riders alike as we had an I4K alumni dinner in Logan’s yard. Delicious food was provided by Logan’s family (thank you again!!!). A favorite feature of the night was LIVE MUSIC — you heard me right, LIVE MUSIC — provided by The Swingin’ Scholars, an independent  jazz group consisting of high school students, one of which is Logan’s younger brother Reed. The Swingin’ Scholars are not only incredibly talented musicians, but also accomplished a truly remarkable task: playing loud enough to drown out the endless drone of cicadas and planes flying overhead to and from O’Hare Airport. 

In other amazing news, we have been rejoined by our teammate Claudia!!! After taking some time off for an injury, Claudia will be rejoining us in the van on our ride tomorrow. We were so happy to see her at the dinner, as the team engaged in a very enthusiastic group hug and eagerly caught her up on anything she may have missed. Good jams, good food, and good people made for a truly phenomenal night, as we chatted with I4K founder Jonathan Schlesinger and multiple other alums. These wonderful people, along with the families of many riders, gave us advice and encouragement that will stay with us through the rest of our trip across the country.

Today was a rest day for us, and most of the riders took the time to stay home with their families, especially during Father’s Day. Those of us who don’t have family in the area spent time with friends, or in the case of Neal and Riddhima, watched Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.” We’re excited to hopefully get farther from the horde of cicadas tomorrow, and to enter another new state — Wisconsin! It’s bittersweet to leave our families and home state behind, but words of wisdom from our loved ones have given us the strength we need. We know we’ll be okay. We know we got this. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s Rider: Michael Bian

How are you feeling today?

I’m doing great! Had a live band, Logan’s party was great — great food, great house, everybody was super nice. It was really cool to meet the founders of I4K. 

What make and model of bicycle are you riding?

I ride a Nashbar frame. I got it off of Facebook Marketplace. It was built by a guy in his mid 30s, then he was having a kid, and he needed to get rid of the bike, so I was the one that he got rid of the bike to. I think it’s like a mid-2010s frame. Nashbar is known for their forks, which I learned through Logan. They made frames for a while too, but I don’t think they make them anymore. But it’s nice…it’s carbon fiber, it’s very smooth, but you feel everything. So on some of the roads, like that one day when we were on the “butt blaster,” I felt it. 

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 played a lot of soccer in middle school and high school, so I already had a bit of an athletic background. College, my freshman and sophomore year, I was super into body building, because my roommate was a wrestler and I’d work along with him. We’d do a lot of high intensity stuff, and I think that was very good. My junior year I did a triathlon. It was an experience, because I showed up with no training. I signed up because it was free, and somebody else paid for it… I had a blast. That was about two years ago. I wasn’t super big on the training before this. I learned about I4K through some of my Stevenson high school classmates. So I was like, “oh that’s cool,” and then after junior year everything worked out with med school, so I was like, “might as well do something fun.” But I did the workouts, Rose sent them to me and all that. The workouts were definitely tough, but nothing compared to the actual ride. 

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

I actually really enjoyed Washington D.C. That day going into D.C., I think we went through Delaware, and I was really surprised by how nice Wilmington was. I think Delaware is kind of underrated, because nobody talks about it, but it was such a nice town, and really pretty. D.C. was great too, because I got to meet up with one of my buddies from college. I hadn’t been to D.C. as an adult, so seeing all that as an adult, I think it gives you a different perspective than when you’re on like, a middle school field trip.

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

There are two. One was my grandfather, who passed about 11 years ago from stomach cancer. It was one of those things where you knew something was wrong for a very long time, and he didn’t go see a doctor because he was like, this can’t be happening. He was kind of in denial, and that delay in treatment I think is what ultimately caused him to pass earlier than he needed to. Another person is Charlotte Graham. She was somebody that I knew through piano in high school, and she passed from pediatric brain cancer. It was tough to see somebody so young and so full of life pass away so tragically. It really left an impact on me as to why I wanted to do medicine, and why I believe that cancer research is important, why I did the research that I ended up doing while I was in college. Because ultimately, I think there’s so much that we can do as a society to help people with these diseases. I wanted to be somebody who’s contributing to that in some way, and I thought this ride was a really good way to do that.

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

I just wanna say, I really do appreciate it. The small acts, you know, the text messages, they mean a lot. I’m surprised by how supportive people are. At first, people are like, “you’re crazy,” and then they’re like, “how can I help?” Which has been really nice. And to the strangers who I don’t even know, but they’re still so kind, and so helpful, they’re willing to share their stories. The fact that people from so many different walks of life can connect over this one thing is special, and I think that’s something that’s very rare. 

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

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Albert Camus, he’s a French philosopher… There’s a very famous quote to him, and pretty much the gist of it is that in the bleakest of times, he had the strength to keep on going. He called that period in his life, that was his “invincible summer.” That’s kind of been my motto, an “invincible summer.” It’s like, things are tough, but you keep going, and day to day there’s so many things that happen that are outside of your control. I think I’ve really learned to just be patient, and to deal with the stuff that happens. Also, part of that “invincible summer” is like, yes I am doing something crazy, but it’s something that I will look back upon fondly. And I don’t think it’s something that I would ever do again. So that’s where the invincible summer comes in, it’s like you are there, and I think for the summer, a lot of it is just living in the moment. When I was back in Chicago, doing my pre-enrollment stuff for med school, I was just like, “man, I kind of wish I was on my bike.” Because you’re so free. You’re not invincible, you’re essentially homeless. But that doesn’t make it less enjoyable. You just feel like every mountain you climb and every mile you bike, you’ve earned it. That’s how I’m trying to approach this summer.

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