Day 8 - 480 Miles To Date - Chilhowie, Va

Where do I even begin? First off, yesterday was so awesome being in Blacksburg and having a short ride. 32 miles seems like absolutely nothing now. We got to pick our groups for that day and it was a lot of fun taking pictures and enjoying the rolling hills of Virginia Tech. A lot of my track friends were still there so it was nice introducing everyone and having all of my friends hang out together. When we got to Blacksburg we did a mini service project with the New River Valley Bike Kitchen. They find old and used bikes and either repair them or sell the parts to make bikes for people that cannot afford transportation. They were super nice and it was a really cool experience and we learned a little bit more about bikes. Shout out to Pizza Hut and Subway for their generous help in giving us dinner and lunch in Blacksburg, and also Panera for all of the bagels for breakfast! It was also wonderful having another mail drop in Blacksburg, especially the randomly assorted things from my dad.  My favorite gift thus far however, are the handmade cards from Renee Snyder’s daycare class! They are so cute and I am so happy that they are tracking my way across the country on their map. Also, special thank you to all of my friends that were super generous and let us use their houses and showers in Blacksburg, we appreciate it so much!

Today was super eventful I probably can’t even remember everything. We started off around 7am in one group, and eventually split into two hybrid groups of two original groups around 30 miles. For the first part we rode as a big group pushing each other along. At one point, we pulled off to wait for everyone to group back up and a man offered us bottles of water, which was super nice! We took off, but a few miles later he was following us in his truck and pulled off to talk to us. His wife and son were with him and he opened his trunk and said he killed this rattlesnake that was right where we were sitting! We were all pretty freaked out, because if something had happened it would not have gone well at all. He showed us it for a little while then we were on our way again. A few miles later, Draper, Evan, Holden, and I took off at a little bit faster pace to try to get cell service for the vans to pick up one of the girls with a knee injury. We rode about 10-15 miles and still couldn’t get service and then we saw lightning, so we pulled off and went up to a man’s house to use his land line phone. He told us to take shelter from the storm on the porch, but it only lasted about 10 minutes. We got in touch with a van and told them to pick up the girl a few miles back. We continued when the storm stopped and arrived at another water stop that turned into a lunch stop at about 45 miles. We chilled out for a while and got our energy back and took off once again, only to be met by a 3.5 mile gradual climb up a mountain. I was feeling pretty good after lunch and took off at my own pace on the climb and it felt pretty nice.  We got to the top and it was awesome, we were greeted by a band playing bluegrass, a beautiful view, the vans, and ice cream/stickers we could buy. At this point, we were at 62 miles and it was down to three of us because Draper broke a spoke on the way up the climb. Draper let Holden use his wheel the day prior, so Holden returned the favor and let him finish out his first century using his wheel. We barreled down the other side of the mountain after taking a break at the top and tried to avoid potholes while still trying to go fast. The views down the mountain were beautiful! Just miles of mountains and rolling fields full of cows, my favorite animal. Draper got a couple flats along the way, but we had a great run of about 30 miles just drafting off of each other and each taking turns taking the headwind. We were cruising! I think draper clocked 14 minutes for 5 miles on some part of that stretch, and into a headwind is pretty impressive. Eventually we got to another water stop where we stocked up on water and granola bars for the final 23ish miles. We wanted to chill out on the last part a little bit because our quads were killing us and we were just completely drained in general. There were still several long, gradual hills left before our final destination, but eventually we got to the church in Chilhowie, Va. The final clock read 108.08 miles with a speed of 13.8mph which I was pretty proud of for our average. I think a total of 18 people completed the century, with 4 van drivers, 2 bike falls, several knee/hamstring injuries, and a few flats and broken spokes. It is still our 8^th day and hopefully the entire team will have a century in the books soon! Even though a lot happened, the ride was absolutely beautiful in the mountains and valleys of southwest Virginia. If I think of anything else, I’ll edit this post…but for now I need sleep and to get excited for only 60 miles tomorrow! What a treat. Thanks again for donations and keeping up with my blog, you all are awesome and I’m having a great time so far!