We started the ride yesterday, leaving Manhattan for Hillsboro, NJ. We've hit 3 states in two days, so we're making progress rapidly. We're currently in Philadelphia, PA, enjoying ourselves very much. The ride today was beautiful, and slightly hilly-this combination really made for pleasant scenary. The weather has been wonderfully cooperative, and we continue to spread the word about our mission to raise money and awareness for cancer. Pictures will come soon! Stay tuned...
Greetings from Philadelphia!
Greetings from the City of Brotherly Love! We are currently in Philadelphia, PA staying at the Sheraton Hotel where Jon Kolinski's brother has graciously put us up for the night - a big thank you to him!
The morning began with a 6:00 am wake up call at the Thakkar house in Hillsborough, NJ. After packing the van and copying the route we had finished breakfast and were ready to hit the road around 8 am. The morning part of today's ride was a bit different from our first day with not much traffic and many more scenic back roads along with hills! After stopping for lunch in Doylestown, PA we continued on for awhile before merging onto a bike path that took us right into downtown Philadelphia. The streets of Philadelphia proved to be a little tricky to navigate but by 7:00 pm everyone had managed to find their way to a meeting point just up the road from the hotel finishing with about 80 miles on the day.
The Greater Philadelphia Illini Alumni Club catered dinner for us tonight at the hotel bringing us a true Philadelphia meal consisting of Philadelphia cheesesteak's, hoagies, soft pretzels and many other delicious foods ensuring nobody left hungry. The generosity and work that went into arranging this meal was appreciated by all - thank you Philadelphia Alumni!
We will cross into our third state in three days tomorrow as we head to Newark, Delaware. Be sure to check back then for our latest updates from the road.
On the road...
Hello from Hillsboro, NJ! We have completed one day of riding putting in over 70 miles today after a number of missed turns and detours. We departed Central Park in New York City around 8am this morning crossing over the George Washington Bridge and into New Jersey. The majority of todays riding was stop and go traffic with many lights, pot holes and missed turns. The group I was riding with managed to find the lunch stop around 2pm and then later had a nice holdover snack of pizza when the kind owners of Maria's Pizza & Restaurant offered us a free pie at a stop mid afternoon.
We arrived in Hillsboro around 5:45 pm where we are stending the night at Anish's home. His parents fixed us a wonderful dinner followed by cake.
Tomorrow we head to Philadelphia a distance of between 50 and 60 miles. Others are waiting to use the computer so I wont post them right now but hopefully within a few days I'll have photos posted in my photo album (see link on left side of page).
First day biking adventure
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!
NYC to Hillsborough, NJ
Hello!
My first blog entry and it is also the first night of our first ride! We left Central Park in New York City, with chilly but gorgeous weather, and rode through Manhattan across the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey. As it warmed up, so did the spirits of the 19 cyclists. We also had a guest driver who cycled across country last year, Anish. Without much physical harm, except the unexpected fall because I didn't clip out fast enough and the flying box that almost ran me over, we all made it to our destination approximately 12 hours later, some much earlier than others, due to misdirections and of course my favorite, cycling on the highway, one I never wish to experience again. It was a fabulous first day and I am excited for our trip to Philadelphia tomorrow...I am going to expereince my first Philly Cheese Steak!
Thank you to everyone who has encouraged and wished me well. I will try to post as often as possible, but due to our crazy riding schedules and locations I can't promise an everyday blog!
Peace, Love, and Cycling
Illinois in the Big Apple
With only around 32 hours of time in New York City, it definitely felt like the Illini 4000 was able to fill 33 of them. It all started Thursday night when the Illini 4000 team was invited to an event sponsored by the New York Alumni Club
Kelly Belford, a Uof I alumnus, was gracious enough to host us in her beautiful 14th floor apartment looking out on the Empire State Building for an evening of hors d'oeuvres, comradery, and relaxation. Just what the doctor ordered to alleviate the stress of and anxiety of our last day before the ride begins. As always, the life source of our organization lies within support from friends, family, and the community, and this kind of generosity from the our alumni and university community was both fun and greatly appreciated. Thanks Kelly. GO ORANGE AND BLUE!
As the team returned to the Chabad house, though, it was back to business. Having packaged our bicycles for the long train trip, there were still many adjustments to be made before they would be serviceable for the ride. This led to a late night bike bonanza in the back yard of the Chabad House, where we adjusted brakes, tightened handle bars, and of course, shaved John Kolinski's head!
The next morning, Rabbi Blum and his two daughters sent us off with his Blessing, and the epic 4000 mile journey that is the Illini 4000 had begun! After a quick breakfast in Central Park, the team braved the Manhattan Streets heading North West to the George Washington Bridge. Though a little shaky at first, we were soon to find our feet. Amongst all the starting and stopping, the traffic, and closed entry ramps, it was all worth it to traverse the George Washington Bridge and gaze across the Hudson at one of the World's most famous of cities.
The next 60-70 miles would prove to test every aspect of our fledgling team's training and ability. The city put up a fight, throwing in some unlabeled streets and closured due to construction, but in the end determination prevailed. With the last group rolling in around 7:00pm, the team arrived at the Thakkar residence, where snacks, beverages, and soft grass galore were waiting to cradle and nourish our tired bodies. The Thakkars are the parents of Anish Thakkar, co-founder and director emeritus of the Illini 4000 last year, who also came out to drive our support vehicle for this inaugural ride. We can't thank them enough for all they have done for us this year, and for the organization as a whole!
And so, tomorrow we begin again, this time to Philladelphia. Can't wait to see what it has in store!
New York, New York!
We made it! The Illini 4000 is in the Big Apple!
Most of the team arrived yesterday by means of either Amtrak Train or in the Support vehicle. The train departed from Union Station in Chicago Tuesday night, and after 20 hours of riding the rails we finally arrived yesterday evening. Jon, Amy, Matt, Connie, and Rachel braved the long journey crammed in a support vehicle along with most of our equipment (Big thanks to them), and Sandra, Andrew, and Yiming met us in New York!
The team is being put up in New York by the Chabad House near Columbia's Campus just a few blocks from Central Park. It's a great location and only a stonesthrow away from our starting location! A big thank you to Rabbi Blum for letting us stay.
Also, we'd really like to thank Mr. Mooney of Mooney Chevrolet in Dekalb, IL., who has been kind enough to donate our support vehicle for the trip.
It's incredible to be here in New York, enjoying our last day of rest before we take off tomorrow morning. Time to go tune up our bikes! See you all tomorrow!
It begins!
Hello friends, family, donators, and anyone else reading my blog. I finally decided to start my blog as most of the team is at Union Station right now getting ready to leave for New York. After a lack of plan for those of us driving the support vehicle to New York, including myself, I convinced Jon that we should wait until the morning to begin driving rather than leaving at 10 pm when the train leaves and driving through the night. Therefore, after months of having May 20th in my head as the day I leave, it is now May 21st. This seems to work out because I am not yet packed. Since I live in a central location of some Chicago suburbs, the other drivers and our van will come to my house tonight and spend the night here. We'll then get up bright and early to begin our drive. I have to say, I'm glad to be driving because it should take about 13 hours to drive to NY, whereas the train is scheduled to take about 20 hours. We'll have 5 drivers which means I'll have time to read and try to sleep, although I have never been successful at sleeping in any type of moving vehicle.
Right now, I feel pretty excited about this trip. I have been planning for it for so long that it seems almost unreal to be starting tomorrow. It hasn't really hit me yet. I'm a little nervous about the first few weeks of biking because I haven't had much time to train lately. I've been so busy with finishing up school, moving out of Urbana, and savoring the last days of college that training became less of a priority. I noticed my lack of in-shape-ness yesterday when I became out of breath after playing tennis for a little while and running a few laps around the tennis courts. I guess I'll be pretty sore these first few weeks.
I hope to keep blogging as much as I can throughout the summer and I would love to receive comments and emails! It's hard to say how often we'll have internet access but I think it will be pretty often at the beginning as we go through lots of major cities. And now I should go pack!
i want to ride my bicycle...
whoa nelly.this is it...we'll be boarding the train to our NYC launching pad in just a few short hours. my recent dreams involving tire levers and road signs are a sure sign that's it's time to get moving.before we set off i want to say thank you to everyone that has supported both myself and the rest of i4k team. your donations, help with preparations, and words of encouragement are highly appreciated and are just the ticket to get us started off right.
T-7 Days!
It’s hard to believe that in just seven days we will be meeting in NYC to begin this summer’s journey. Between work, training and other stuff this past month has been absolutely crazy and I’m really looking forward to taking life at a slower pace, meeting new people and hitting the road for our cause. Training has been going alright and despite a slight twitch of the knee about a week ago I’m feeling great and ready for a change in scenery!
For anyone in the Oneonta area, I will be speaking about my experience as a member of The Illini 4000 (both last summer and as I prepare for this summer) at the Davenport United Methodist Church this coming Sunday at a brunch following church services - all are welcome to attend!
Thanks to everyone who has continued to donate – it’s still not too late!
my sleeping schedule is all off
So on Thursday night, I stayed up all night packing to leave. I got home Friday at around noon, and fell asleep around 8pm on Friday night. I woke up at about midnight and couldn't get back to sleep, so I left my house at around 5am Saturday morning and went for a bike ride to the lake and back (around 40mi). I got home at about 9am, fell asleep at about 11am, and now it's 4pm Saturday afternoon and I just woke up. What the heck?
Also, Chicago's streets are awful. If I lived by the lake I would never bike anywhere except down the lakefront.
On Your Marks, Get Set...
Our bags are being packed, our bikes tuned, and our butts massaged as we make our final preparations for the summer. Less than two weeks time stands between us and the start of our ride, and with finals out of the way our focus has shifted from what questions will be on our Underwater Basket Weaving 101 exams to how each of us is going to fit everything we need for an entire summer into a back-pack.
It's the beginning of a new chapter for the Illini 4000 as we shift from training to the real deal, and we'd like to sincerely thank you all for the amazing geerosity we have experienced. To our friends and family who give us love and support, to the communities and organizations that make the ride possible, and to all of our supporters who help us get one mile closer to finding the cure, we thank you.
Be sure to check in every now and then for more frequent journal updates as well as the rider blogs to see what we're up to as we await the starting gun on May 23rd! Daily updates will begin once the ride starts, so stay tuned, get hooked, and tell your friends.
What the Future Holds
5 hours and 24 minutes ago, the last official training ride of the 2008 spring season came to a close, and in less than one month we embark on 4000 mile journey across the country. With that in mind, I can't help but speculate what the future has in store.
For a large portion of the school year, my feelings towards completing a second Illini 4000 ride could be described as apprehensive at best. Was I ready for such a once in a lifetime experience...again? Would the same exhilarating uncertainty still be there, and would this new experience dampen my memories of the old?
In truth, at times I do feel sort of like an anachronism, an observer displaced in time. As I watch my teammates growing, improving, and learning in their preparation for the summer ahead, I also see last year's team, myself among them, asking the same questions, overcoming the same obstacles and riding the same roads. It's an overwhelming feeling both unique and familiar, an emotional amalgamation that can only be described as new.
However, after months of working with such an amazing new group of people, I came to an important realization. While certain things about the ride will always remain the same, it is the people that make this trip so amazing; the riders, the communities, the supporters, the Portraits Project participants, all brought together through the fight against cancer, and that is something that can never be replicated, never be duplicated, and never be equaled. I look forward to growing and learning with my new teammates, and using my experiences to help guide and improve our decision in the future. I look forward to interacting with communities, people, and cancer patients from all walks of American life. I look forward to the road ahead.
Polar bears, wild chases and stealth
The weekend of camping was good exposure to figure out what kind of routine needs to be developed over the summer. I now know what items will be necessary and what to expect on a typical day.
I drove the van on Saturday and on Sunday managed a 40 miler with John and Ben breaking the wind for me. My knee feels pretty good! Minus a few small twinges of pain, it's becoming the knee I always knew it was.
The rule of 3 works out nicely. The three of us got to ride past a dog with unbelievable stamina and a penchant for chasing riders as well as a dog that resembled a polar bear in many ways. Luckily the second dog was slower than a polar bear and didn't harass us too much. After the first dog, we were cautious about riding past places with dogs and tried to sneak by their houses without their knowledge.
One thing we didn't get to do this weekend was to interact with those who have experience with cancer. I don't know what to expect on that front. It will almost surely change my perception of the life I live and they way I live it.
here we go...
With our first 70+mile ride/team campout just a couple of days behind us, I feel like I have finally gotten a taste of what the summer has in store for both myself and the rest of the team. I am not yet completely sure how I will end up filling this space throughout the ride. I want to be able to stay connected and to share my experiences with my friends and family, as well as with all those who will visit our team's words as supporters in our fight against cancer. However, because what I will eventually see, do, and learn along the way will become so vast that I could not possibly share it all, I hope that I will be able to provide small snapshots of my excursion. These snippets of our transnational trek will, I'm sure, become a compilation of my progression as a cyclist, my ponderings as I pass stretches of changing (and seemingly unchanging) scenery, observations of both the similarities and differences between the 17 states that we will travel through, and a newfound understanding of how cancer impacts Americans and the attitudes that surround this impact.All that said...This past weekend as I pedaled, I realized that the only possessions I had with me at any given moment on the road, for the most part, were the clothes on my back, a helmet on my head for safety's sake, some hydration and nourishment, and my set of wheels. It got me thinking about just how much "stuff" I left behind, and how unnecessary it all is. I am very much looking forward to becoming comfortable living with a lack of all the extraneous items that surround me daily. There will also be difference in the amount of resources available to us (showers, a wide variety of foods, constant internet access...etc.) This idea of a lack of resources can be connected to the main reason for participating in this ride in the first place. Our choice to give up some of the inessential resources that we have grown attached to will bring awareness about more important and much needed resources that will serve as tools for furthering cancer research and providing support for patients and their families....90 miles next time :)
Weekend Training Ride
This past weekend, the Illini 4000 team did an extended ride out to Kickapoo State Park, where we camped overnight, and rode back today. The eighty miles on Saturday were pretty nice-the wind was with us for the most part, and the practice helped boost our confidence as a team. Today's ride was very challenging, particularly because of the headwind. Fortunately, Praveen is now training with us. He pushed Ben and I along in the lead group. After the ride, we filled up at Allen Hall, with a delicious Sunday brunch. We ate like kings!
The canines were out in force, and had some crazy form of endurance. One kept up with us at about 19 mph for over half a mile! An older dog with white fur also became curious when we stopped at an intersection-he was old enough not to pose a threat, and his persistent howling provided comic relief.
I'm looking forward to the trip. I think meeting people struggling with cancer will really change the tune from how cycling-centered the training rides have been. This past week, we saw the documentary of last year's trip, where the riders spoke about how affecting it was to meet people who've battled cancer, or are currently battling cancer. This trip will really open our eyes!
Blazing Saddles
After months of knee pain I'm finally back in the saddle.
Tuesday: 10 mile ride down Lincoln, along Windsor and back.
Thursday: 17 miles going north past Crystal Lake. A quick loop and then return. Windy ride with Adnan.
It remains to be seen if the knee is going to be inflamed from today's ride.
Crazy Dogs!
Today's ride was nice. I managed to get about 20 miles in after my lecture ended, at around 5:30 p.m. The sun stayed with me through seven o'clock, so Spring is definitely on its way!
There were many canines out enjoying the weather also, which made for some additional excitement this afternoon. Two came after me from the same farm, and nearly caught me, since I was riding into the wind! After escaping their attack, I headed back toward Urbana. On the way, a large chocolate lab decided I needed some company, and chased me down. With the wind at my back, he kept up with me for about a quarter mile before he finally ran out of energy! I was lucky to get away clean on both counts. I hope my luck stays with me for the ride!
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Cyclist
Spring is actually hitting Champaign in a few days. It snowed yesterday and I'm ready for weeks of plus 60 degrees. Just over a month till we ride and I'm more than excited to finish up this semester and hit 4000 miles of uninterrupted pavement. I only hope that I will take all that I can hold from this ride and keep wanting more. There is no doubt that this will change the way I perceive our country and the battle against cancer. One more month. Patience.
Spring?
Hello and Happy Spring! Despite the snow flurries and chilly temperatures we are just over a month away from the start of this summers ride. I’m excited to have the opportunity to ride again and am looking forward to meeting everyone in about 37 days!
Outdoor training got off to a slow start due to the weather. I was finally able to get outside the first week of April and have been riding outside ever since, although not continuously. I rode to Sidney and back last Sunday for a round trip total of 57 miles and was planning on riding to Cooperstown yesterday however the weatherman had other ideas when he invited a cold front to town for the day. Personally, I blame Punxsutawney Phil, even though it’s far surpassed the six weeks since he saw his shadow I'm pretty sure he had something to do with it. Despite the cold and wind I did manage to go out and ride 20 miles mid-afternoon. It’s suppose to warm up over the course of the week so hopefully that will equal some quality training time!
Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far, it means a lot to have your support.