We began our journey this morning from Central Park and 12 hours later we were all at our destination of Hillsborough, NJ! It was a long day, 60 miles of city biking and then 10-15 miles of beautiful greenery and a river. Biking out of Manhattan and into the suburbs in New Jersey was full of potholes, traffic, missing directions, getting lost and biking many extra miles, and surprisingly hills. Right after we crossed the George Washington Bridge we went down a pretty steep hill which seemed to last for 5 minutes. There was a stoplight in the middle of it and I wasn't completely sure my brakes would stop me in time, but luckily they did. Unfortunately, Dana didn't stop as quick as me at my tail and we had a very minor collision.
The great thing about city biking was the amount of practice I got dismounting and mounting my bike. When we were biking in New York this morning, I tried to never clip into my pedals because I was afriad I wouldn't clip out in time for the next stop. By the end of the day, I was comfortable clipping in and out at each stop as well as stepping off the saddle at every stop with one foot still clipped in. This is an easy task for most bikers, but just this morning I was far from having this ability. I feel pretty good about that accomplishment.
Just before the last leg of our trip, we were offered free pizza and gatorade from Maria's Pizza, a local pizza shop with very generous owners. As soon as we arrived at our destination, which is Anish's house (Anish was one of the founders of Illini 4000 and did the ride last year), there was a table of delicious snacks, followed by what I'm confident was the best meal of the summer. An amazing Indian dish, pasta dishes, salad, ets. I was very impressed and satisfied.
Overall, it was an intense day but the weather was great and I was never very frustrated when things didn't go right. I'm surprisingly not sore, just a little sunburned, and I'm excited to bike to Philidelphia tomorrow! It will be a shorter and less dense ride. Our cue sheets will also be easier to follow.
Liya, I hope your MCAT went well today!