Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 3, 2003

Rain, Fog, and Cold
Could today have been anymore miserable? Nothing but wind, rain, and freezing cold. We spent the first half of the day climbing the Allegheny Range of the Appalachian Mountains. All 2,915 ft. Unfortunately, due to the weather – it was mad foggy – you couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of you as you rode, so what would have been amazing scenery was nothing but fog, fog, and – that’s right – more fog. The weather also messed everything up when it came to leaving the mountains. We all love coasting downhill, especially when you can hit speeds of 45 mph or above, like we did the day before, but NOOOOO. Rain and coasting don’t mix. In fact, rain + coasting = worst idea ever. Babak almost got run over by a truck because he couldn’t stop in time and ended up running a red light at the bottom of a hill. Luckily the driver saw him in time. Littler Pat was having problems too. He wore only his short sleeve jersey and the light “rain” jacket (meaning, it’s waterproof for the first minute of rain, and then you’re screwed) and started to turn blue when we were about 10 miles away from the lunch stop. Good thing some really nice people stopped to help us out and they offered to give him a ride.



Just when we thought things couldn’t have been worse, Mother Nature proved us wrong. It started raining so hard that we actually had to shuttle from the lunch site. We drove everyone the remaining 30 miles until we reached Greensburg, where we were warmly welcomed at the YMCA there. There was this great little kiddy play center thing (think Chuck E. Cheese), and we gave a short presentation on cycling and bike maintenance for their Special Olympics Cycling Club. Very nifty, although, I’m not sure exactly how qualified we were to give that presentation, considering that most of us have been on our bikes for, what…3 days? Speaking of which, it’s hard to believe that we’ve only been doing this for 3 days. I guess each day just seems so long that the beginning of the day seems like a past life by the time you reach the next city. I am in love with this trip. That is all.