It’s Day 3 of the ride, which marks the longest amount of time that the team has consecutively biked together. While we may still not have things perfectly down, a certain collective eagerness and determination fuel our efforts. Today’s route passed through three states — from Pennsylvania, through the upper tip of Delaware, and into Maryland. We experienced continuous highways, winding and narrow mixed-use trails, and plenty of rolling elevation. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 77

Elevation: 2,957’

Points of Interest: Bellevue State Park, an adorable street market, Entering Delaware and Maryland, Thomas J. Hatem bridge

Quote(s) of the Day:

(Again, our teammates should be stand-up comedians. We couldn’t pick just one.)

“Construction isn’t real, it’s literally a construct.” - Claudia

“That was a lot for 11am.” - Anthony

“Tommy, your kickstand scares me.” - Riddhima

“Every part of that bike scares me.” - Tommy

“Necesito snack.” - Izzy

Tales of the Trail

Since the team is still a bit behind schedule on packing up and getting ready at the beginning of each day, Olivia (one of our Ride Leaders) informed us yesterday that we would be waking up at 4:40 a.m. this morning. Despite Kev’s best efforts with “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus on blast, spirits were somewhat low given the long day of riding before us and the tiring one that prefaced it. 

Nevertheless, things looked up the moment we rolled out. We branched out onto wider, smoother roads with fewer traffic lights than yesterday’s urban streets of Philadelphia, enabling us to make quick progress over the first 15 or so miles. The route also took us in and out of park trails, which threw some tight and quick descents at the team that we handled without much difficulty. 

At the second rest stop, we celebrated Tommy’s 21st birthday with a surprise card signed by the team, some cookies, and a slice of cake (props to Claudia and Dylan for orchestrating that from the van!) We also exchanged ride anecdotes — one group met a Senator from Delaware and another stopped at a delicious lemonade stand in a small street market.

The team dedicated today’s ride to Andrew McDonough, whose story is the root of the B+ Foundation (one of our beneficiaries). We found out that he’s from Wilmington, Delaware —  a town that we passed today — the ride seems to be filled with heartwarming coincidences like these, and we look forward to many more. 

From there, we tackled a series of repetitively tough rolling climbs and descents. The uneven terrain of the East coast becomes more apparent to our Midwest-accustomed riders with each day, but we welcome it as an opportunity to warm up for the longer ascents of the West. 

Quads burning, we rolled into our third rest stop high off of our sense of accomplishment at having gotten through that particularly difficult bit of the ride. Unfortunately, the Thomas J. Hatem bridge that would kick off the final section of the climb was undergoing some construction, which meant the van had to shuttle groups across it and drop them off at the bottom of our steepest climb yet. 

The team did an admirable job of working around this. Dylan and Claudia once again led the commendable charge, coordinating the packing and navigation of SAV to be as efficient and safe as possible for everyone.

The chaos eventually subsided, and groups gradually made their way up to our stayover, Hartford County, MD’s Fellowship for Christian Athletes Headquarters. Under the grey cover of impending rain, the efforts of our climbing were rewarded by swift descents and adorable cows grazing in the surrounding greenery. 

We may sound like a broken record, but today was a long day in many unexpected ways. We are learning so much about the physical, mental, and social aspects of biking across the country. One thing we can say for sure is that the end of every day is an incredibly rewarding source of improvement, whether in the personal or team sense. As the team journalists, we also want to acknowledge and appreciate the lovely comments we’ve been getting — we love reading them and they motivate us to keep writing at the end of days like these :)

Maaike would like to note that Riddhima sustained some minor injuries today and still powered through journaling like a trooper. She’s a little concerned and extremely impressed.

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s Rider: Dylan Hendrixson

How are you feeling today?

I’m doing good, I drove the van today. It’s a rest day [for me], so the legs are still sore, but it was a good day.

What model of bike are you riding?

It’s a Cannondale Synapse, I don’t know much more than that. I was trying to get the orange and blue, so I have the orange and blue there, the water bottles, the shoes. I tried to get the whole getup. 

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?

Outside of this, on my own I was running, but I had injured my foot before this. Before that, I was running half marathons. But outside of that, I’ve biked a lot. At least since middle school, like consistently to get to class, and then all the way through now. I like biking, that’s really why I did this.

What’s been the most memorable part of the ride for you so far?

New York was really cool, because I drove the van up, so it was like, “oh, we’re gonna get there, we’re gonna get there,” it took so long. Getting there was really cool. But I think yesterday in particular, we biked past the “Rocky” steps. We got off, we ran up. It was a lot of fun. I thought that was nice, just like, “oh, we’re here!” We can just take a little time to have some fun. Because obviously it’s long days, it’s a lot of work. But it’s nice to be like, ok, we can actually still have fun. It’s still a fun thing. 

*Riders over the age of 21 take turns driving the team’s support van, which includes all of our gear. Today was Dylan’s day to drive.*

You were the van driver today. What was that experience like for you?

One would think it’s the easy part, right? You’re not biking. It’s kind of hard, because you’re doing a lot of the chores that no one else can do, because everyone else is riding. Early in the morning, I got the PB & J stuff…there’s a lot of like, people get flats, people fall…I’d be very flexible, because there certain things where like, we said we were doing this but then things just had to change. But I think we picked some good spots, at least the first two stops were really good. It was really helpful to have Claudia, I don’t think I could have done it without her. It’s good that we looped her in, because it is really annoying that she couldn’t [ride], but being a part of the team and helping out really takes her mind off of that.

Do you find yourself looking forward to your days driving the van?

I would say personally I’d prefer to be on the bike. There’s lots to think about, and that’s kind of why I’m here. But it is a nice break, so I guess I kind of do look forward to the break part. 

Is there anyone specific that you’re doing this ride for, or a reason why you’re riding?

I think the main reason I’m riding, which is probably different from everyone else — I did have a middle school teacher I rode with for a summer camp, we’d bike the city and stuff, mostly day trips during the week. He biked across the country, and I was like, that doesn’t seem possible. You hear like, someone’s done an ultramarathon, and you’re like, oh my gosh. Everyone says that thing is hard, but you’re doing something an order of magnitude harder, it’s wild. So I always thought that would obviously be cool to do. My freshman year [at UIUC] I heard about it, but I missed the sign-up, so I’ve always been waiting to do it. I’m kind of doing it more for the challenge of it. That’s my personal motivation.

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

My takeaway so far is staying flexible. My takeaway from this has really been more of a team working aspect than the riding.

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

I’m really hoping there’ll be less accidents going forward. I guess maybe trying to straighten those things out would be big. Because those things really slow us down, but also you don’t want anyone to get hurt. 

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