One Big Update

So I haven't updated since Farmington NM (12 days and about 1,000 miles ago) and a lot has happened.

On an important and very tragic note, a leader on the Providence to Seattle Route, Paige Hicks was killed a week ago. She was hit by a truck in South Dakota. This is a horrible thing for me to blog about, I know, but I need to. I didn't know Paige personally, but I know what kind of person she was. It takes a certain type of person to sign up for Bike and Build. On my route I've gotten to know 32 of this kind of person and I love them all. I'm sure that Paige was kind, caring, compassionate, daring, adventurous, smart and overall focused on creating a society that was better for all people in it. Paige's death is a tragedy not just for her family, her friends, and her fellow riders on P2S'10, but for the entire Bike and Build community and the world as a whole. There's and Navajo Native American Proverb I remember seeing in Santa Fe that says "When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in way so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice". All I've heard about Paige makes me sure that she did this.

I feel like everything else I'll write about in this entry in insignificant compared to what I've already written, but I need to write about it as well.

First, I'm going to talk about defeat. Overall Bike and Build is one giant confidence booster. There are mountains to climb, and we climb them. Its hot outside, and we sweat. We push ourselves mentally and physically every single day and at the end of the day when I look back on what I accomplished I feel so good about it. However, not every day ends in accomplishment. There are two rides I did not finish, and on both those days I felt utterly defeated.

The first was the ride day into Santa Fe. I biked the first 30 some miles to lunch, and then I got in the van. I got in it because I had horrible saddle sores. Saddle sores, as gross as it is, are basically sores on you butt from the friction on rubbing against the seat hour after hour day after day. Everybody gets them. Even Lance Armstrong had some this summer on the Tour de France. On the way into Santa Fe mine were so bad that I was almost brought to tears every time I sat on the seat. I got in the van, and as soon as we passed the first rider on the road I cried. Defeated.

I got in the van a couple weeks later on the day into Jacob's Lake. This time I was sick. I've had some kind of stomach virus, and at only mile 16 that day I knew that I wasn't going to make it 80 miles. The girls I was riding with had asked me several times if I wanted to call the van and I said know, but it got to the point where I couldn't push it anymore. I was sick, and hurting and all I could do was sit on the side of the road holding my stomach in tears and wait for the van. Defeated.

So yes, I've ridden in the van for about 85 miles, but I've biked over 3,000. I hope not to have to get in the van again, but I've accepted that its okay to get in the van. Bike and Build is very hard on your body and if you're really hurting, you need to take of yourself.

Yesterday was the hardest day so far for me. It was 94 miles. We had a really bad head wind that was blowing us backwards, and we climbed a lot. I finished and I was so proud of myself. However, I had no idea how I was going to bike 108 miles today. I did it though, and it was actually a much easier day then yesterday. We had a tail wind for part of it and we only had one major climb, which was a mountain pass. I'm still pretty bad at climbing but I'm slowly getting better.

I'm still having an amazing time on Bike and Build. It is definitely the coolest thing I've ever done with some of the coolest people I've ever met. It has its ups and downs, but at the end of the day, every day, I can't imagine spending my summer doing anything else.