Pushing On

After my 80 mile day on Wednesday, I made a great deal of progress over Thursday and the long weekend. I managed to ride 98 miles to Huntington, Indiana a hot Thursday. Then Friday, I did my all-time record of 124 miles to end up at Rensselaer, Indiana. I was really proud of that ride and it got me right where I wanted to be. The day included fixing my fourth flat of the trip.

While fixing the flat, I realized some of my bike spokes were broken, which basically could create a domino effect and destroy the whole wheel. I’m not sure where I broke the original spoke—quite possibly back on the hills of Pennsylvania—but it started doing damage to some others. If I continued on, I’d really run the risk of damaging the bike’s wheel.

After 124 miles of riding, I was beat anyway and was pleased to find that Rensselaer had a bike shop in town. Since it was the Fourth of July, and pretty late anyway, they were closed, so I made plans to go there first thing on Saturday morning.

The next morning, I had to walk to the bike shop which was about 4 miles away. They had the parts I needed but the guy there didn’t know how to fix the problem, so I bought the parts and fixed it in the shop, which isn’t really all that uncommon in shops. Most bike shop owner and employees want to help whatever way they can.

This all got me started late—at noon—so I was really pleased to see at the end of the day that I’d done 109 miles. Also Saturday I rode from Indiana all the way to Pontiac, Illinois.

My goal is to hit Muscatine, Iowa by Monday night so I can arrive in Cedar Rapids by Tuesday afternoon. I am on target for this to happen.

I am happy to report that, including checks, we have raised approximately $7,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation! We are extremely close to 75% of our goal!

To make a donation, please go to www.livestrong.org/grassroots2008/1300milesforhope

Thank you to everyone, once again, for your support in its many forms!

Thanks,
Justin