50-miler and my trip to Chi-Town

Hello, all!

I just got back from a week in Chicago where I was doing a service trip focused on hunger and homelessness. The trip was a part of the UMD Alternative Breaks program, which sends out about 25 substance-free, service-learning trips per year both within the US and internationally during spring/summer/winter breaks. In this post I'll fill you in on my training and fundraising progress, briefly mention my trip to Chicago and talk about some of what I learned that can be applied to the 4K.

This is how to work out, right?? Playing with Chelsea's Iron Gym :)

First, the day before spring break, Friday, I headed home after my morning class (afternoon class was cancelled) and took a casual detour of biking 55 miles. You know, something most people would do. I drove to the BWI trail we were at the previous weekend, which is right on my way home to Bel Air and no detour at all, parked there and biked 5 loops of the trail, which was 55 miles. This ride was more difficult than the previous week's because I was introduced to what a headwind is. It's not fun and makes a huge difference when riding. The wind is something you don't really notice when driving around but on a bike it really makes a big difference. It felt like the wind was against us the whole time which didn't make sense since the ride is a loop so it should be behind us for half the time. The temperature was also much colder, and it was cloudy. So the ride was definitely harder and less carefree and fun. It made me realize that this is exactly what the 4K will be like. Some days will be easy breezy beautiful, and some days will be more difficult whether that's due to the terrain, the many possible weather fluctuations or just rider exhaustion. There are tons of factors that will influence how the ride will go each day and it definitely won't be all fun and games.

An app on my phone that tracks my location history, showing my bike ride.
The blue dots are my locations :)

Anyway, I rode 3 laps by myself and then Chelsea joined me for my last 2, then did 3 of her own after I left. So we each did 5 laps but kind of at different times. My brother also drove up with Chelsea and ran one loop of the trail while he was waiting for me to finish. I was really happy with doing 55 miles as it's the first time we have ridden over 50 miles! :) Our shortest days on the 4K will be in the range of 55-60 miles and it's great to know that we can do that 3 months out from the start of the trip. I was also thrilled with my bike computer and loved being able to see my speed!! This way I'll be able to track my progress and try to improve my average speed.

My bike computer showing my total trip distance!

Oh, another thing...I'm just going to mention this because I want to brag about my pi-shaped chocolates. My roommates and I had a Pi Day party the night before this - 3/14. We made pi-shaped ice cubes and chocolates and also 5 pies (my mom made the pies - did I mention she's the best?) and 8 homemade pizzas. Our friend Ian also brought a chocolate mousse pie which was delicious. It was pretty nerdy but fun!

Pi-shaped chocolates :)

Fundraising -- I'm up to $6,168 and I've raised my goal to $7000 :) Thank you so much to everyone who has donated!! This money will be able to do some great things.

Fundraising as of 3/24/13

So, Chicago was pretty great. I had a lot of fun and we were able to do some good service. It was a group of 14 UMD students of all ages and majors. Among us were 2 trip leaders and 1 staff advisor. 

We drove in two big vans - a 12 hour drive including stops. What's crazy is that the route we drove is pretty much exactly the route the Portland 4K team will be taking to Chicago for the first leg of the trip. It was crazy to be driving by at 70-80 miles an hour thinking that I am going to be biking all this distance in just a couple of months. Baltimore-Chicago is going to take us 23 days. I also took note of the terrain and found that it was pretty much as I expected - western MD into PA is very hilly (should be fun as we'll just be starting out), Ohio goes from rolling hills to flat, Indiana is largely completely flat and the same scenery for the entire state, and getting into Chicago is very, very urban. Not sure what our plans are for getting into Chicago but whenever we arrive in a big city we have to be very careful to take the bike trails and avoid traffic. Obviously the roads we will be taking will not be the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes which we drove on, but the general route will be pretty much exactly the same, so that was interesting.

During the week we did service at the Salvation Army, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a food pantry called the Marillac House, a homeless women's shelter called Deborah's Place, and then a transitional housing facility called Cornerstone Community Outreach. We did basically whatever they needed, from packaging food, to cleaning their basement, to unloading trucks, to directly serving the homeless. We got to interact with several homeless people and it was very eye-opening. Every evening we had Reflection as a team which was a no-cell-phone zone where we reflected on the day's service and talked about the issues of hunger and homelessness. We also did team-building activities, watched a documentary called 30 Days on Minimum Wage, and had a debate on whether or not minimum wage should be increased. We stayed at the Chicago Getaway Hostel, which was great and I strongly recommend it if anyone goes to Chicago!! I don't have that many pictures of service since I was, well, doing service, but I'll come back and add a few when they get put up on Facebook!

Posing with a loaf of bread while checking bread for freshness at the Greater Chicago Food Depository

Other than service, we also got to tour Chicago. We saw the Bean, the Chicago River dyed green on St. Patrick's Day, and went to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower and apparently all Chicagoans still call it the Sears Tower).

"The Bean"

Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day!!

Me chilling in a glass box at the top of the Willis Tower - 103 floors up :O

We also got to get deep dish pizza - twice! - once due to a generous UMD alum who lives in Chicago and treated us all to dinner, and the second time at what is apparently the most famous Chicago deep dish pizza place - Lou Malnati's. 

Deep dish cheese pizza at Lou Malnati's

We also got Chicago Dogs while touring Navy Pier, and Garrett's Popcorn while in the city. Garrett's Popcorn is apparently famous and WOW.. now we know why... it was amazing!! I got the Chicago Mix which consists of cheese corn and caramel corn.

Chicago dog! Sport peppers, mustard, tomatoes, onions, and relish.
I don't really like any of those toppings... but I tried it anyway so I can say I have tried a Chicago dog.

The team at Navy Pier attempting a jumping picture.

Trying to train while in Chicago was interesting. I didn't have access to a gym or a bike, so I basically just went running every day. The only problem was that I wasn't allowed to go alone and the weather was between 14 and 18 degrees every morning (yes, it was freezing the entire week). Luckily, I made a new friend, Susan, who was equally crazy as me, and she joined me for early morning runs before our service days began. Our staff advisor Nicole and our friend Meenu also joined us for some of the days. Our hostel was in a very safe area and was located half a mile away from Lincoln Park and a really nice running trail that runs right along Lake Michigan, so that's where we ran every day. We dressed in layers and survived the cold temperatures... and there was only one day (Friday) that I couldn't go because wake-up time for running was 6:20 and no one wanted to go with me! I also did core workouts on the floor of the hostel a couple of the days. I'm pretty sure most of our team thought we were crazy for waking up early and going out in the cold to run but that's ok.

My new friend Susan and I enjoying frappuccinos in scorching 30-degree weather

Also, our staff advisor, who works for Campus Recreation Services at UMD, was actually able to get the whole team free passes to the DePaul University gym which was really close to our hostel, and we went as a team one afternoon. Their gym was actually amazing... they have awesome facilities!! A 1/8-mile indoor BANKED track, at least 3 times the cardio equipment at UMD's gym, racquetball courts, an indoor moving rock climbing wall, and several gigantic basketball courts, to name a few. A gym that makes UMD students jealous (The ERC at UMD is awesome) is very, very rare. On this day I was able to ride the stationary bike to hopefully keep my biking fitness up.

The trip to Chicago also left me with a lot of things to think about relating to group dynamics. Pretty much everything related to traveling was inefficient with a group of 14. Everyone wants to eat/rest/use the bathroom at different times, and have you ever tried making sure 14 people get in and out of the same metro car at the right stops? It's basically a nightmare. Well, on the 4K, our group is going to be 30 people! It takes a LOT of food to feed 14 people (we cooked dinner for ourselves 3 of the nights and made lunches each day) and it will take more than twice that to feed 30 people on the ride. I say more than twice because we will probably be eating more. That's a LOT of food, and it's a lot to ask for a donation. I'm very nervous about asking for food donations while we're on the ride. I don't like asking for things in general and like I said, it will be a lot to ask for. Also, getting 30 people up and ready in the mornings will be interesting, as will getting 30 people showered and ready for bed at nights. I'm sure we will learn to work well together, but it's intimidating to think about. I was definitely frustrated at times on the trip with how slow everyone was being, so I expect that my patience will be tested on the 4K, especially since the trip will be 10 times as long... I'll have no choice but to become more flexible, which will be a good thing.

Well, that's all for now. Spring Break ends today and it's back to normal life tomorrow!! Luckily, my family is going to Florida for Easter so I'm leaving for that on Thursday! Have a great week, everyone!!

FAQs

In this post I decided to answer a few questions I get asked frequently!

Why are you doing this?
I'm doing this for two reasons - one for the cause, and one for the experience. Cancer is a cause that's important to me because I lost my grandfather to cancer in November 2011. He had pancreatic cancer and was sick for about 2 years. He was such a strong, kindhearted, robust man, and the weak figure he became was indicative of how debilitating cancer really is. Secondly, I love exercise and adventure. Last summer I had an internship and while it was a great thing to be able to put on my resume, I was usually pretty bored and didn't like spending every summer day in a windowless, freezing lab running tests. I longed to be outside exploring. I also realized that this is the last summer I will have to do something that is not work. No, I do not think I am going to cure cancer by biking across the country; that is not my intention. Instead, I think that biking across the country is a great way to show solidarity with cancer victims as well as inspire others. The physical exertion of biking so many miles each day represents the physical struggle cancer victims face, and the team unity necessary to conquer mountains and wind represents the hope and encouragement required to fight this debilitating disease. I also know that this experience will challenge me in all ways - physically, mentally, and interpersonally, and I expect that facing these challenges will improve my character.

What do you eat?
We will get all of our food donated. Typically breakfast will be provided by our host, lunch will be sought out by the van drivers from a local establishment along our route such as Subway, Chipotle, a supermarket, or fast food, and dinner will either be provided/donated by our host or also donated by a local food establishment. Other than being aware of which hosts will provide us with breakfast/dinner beforehand, we won't know day-to-day what we will eat that day.

Will you wither away into a stick?
No. I've heard great things about the dinners at hosts that are provided by members of the community. In the event that we can't get food donated, we do have an emergency card provided by the 4K. Cycling will burn between 450 and 600 calories per hour for my weight, translating to burning well more than a daily caloric intake in one day. However, the human body, being awesome, adjusts to intense conditions and will learn to get by on fewer calories. Obviously also the good news is that I can probably eat whatever I want without any concern of gaining weight. I am kind of worried that after my metabolism slows down, when I get back and am no longer biking all day, that I'll gain weight. I'll have to be careful about that.

Where do you stay?
We are generally hosted by churches, but also sometimes homestays, schools, or colleges. We will usually sleep on the floor, but in homestays/ college stays we will get beds. We obviously prefer homestays, but not all communities are willing to or have the resources to provide homestays to 30 unknown college students. We bring with us a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad. We make every effort to find hosts that have showers and laundry, but occasionally showers aren't available. Yuck! We also have a lot of repeat hosts that love the 4K and look forward to us coming back each year.

How do you bring your stuff?
We don't have to carry anything on our backs. We have two support vans (called SAG vans - support and gear) that drive with us and carry our stuff. One of the vans usually looks for lunch while the other scouts out the route and chalks in the road for riders to be aware of when a turn is coming up. 2 people drive each van each day, and we switch off. We are allowed 1 small duffel bag (supplied by the 4K) and 1 backpack. We don't have much room at all, but then again we won't need much. I've been told that we probably only need 1 outfit of normal clothes since we only have one rest day per week and no one will really care if we wear the same thing since we'll be hundreds of miles away from our last location. I also kind of anticipate sleeping in my biking clothes because we wake up really early! It's going to be SO weird for me to only pack one or two outfits of normal clothes and to leave everything else behind for 10 weeks!! The only things I will probably carry on me are water bottles (on my bike), my phone, and an emergency $20. I'll also have my mini tool kit attached to my bike.

What if you get a flat tire?
We will carry extra inner tubes. We all are supposed to learn how to change flat tires, but if something more serious happens, we have a Ride Mechanic that will be called to help. We also have the vans which will have more tools and gear to fix the problem, and/or take the bike and rider to the nearest town for help.

How long does it take?
70 days. June 2, 2013 (Baltimore) - August 10, 2013 (Portland).

How many miles do you ride per day?
An average of about 75 miles per day. Our shortest day is around 50 miles and our longest day is around 110. We will do approximately 10 centuries (100 or more miles in one day) throughout the trip. I'll have exact numbers on this in about a week!

How many hours do you ride per day?
Anywhere from 4 to 12 with an average of probably 8. We will start as soon as the sun comes up, especially on hot days! Our goal will always be to arrive to the host before the heat of the day. Heat exhaustion is a major concern.

How do you get back?
We are on our own to get back. Some people can drive the vans back. I plan on flying, and shipping my bike back through REI.

What does it mean that you're Leg Leader?
It means Chelsea and I have the best legs on the team and everyone has to try to make their legs look like ours.

Just kidding. It actually means that we are responsible for planning the route for 1/3 of the trip. We have the second leg which is going to be approximately: Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and part of Wyoming. We're still figuring out the start and end dates of our leg because of some changes being made to the route as a whole (i.e. Cedar Point and Utah! The Portland ride hasn't gone there before). We are responsible for choosing where we will stop, where we will stay, and what roads we will take. We need to confirm our arrangements with hosts initially, one month prior, and one day prior to our stay, at the least. While on the ride we will responsible for riders knowing the route, i.e. giving out cue sheets and making sure everyone understands where we're going before the day begins, as well as keeping up morale on the team (particularly difficult for the second leg as the honeymoon phase will have worn off, not to mention we'll be in very hot areas with not a lot of interesting attractions). We'll also be the contacts during that time between the hosts and the team, and will need to make sure everyone is respectful and polite to hosts. We do have many years of history of this ride to look back on and have many repeat hosts to contact, but we are making a few changes and have been responsible for creating a new route and finding new hosts in those cities. This week we are working on finalizing our route and will be contacting hosts in the upcoming weeks! We would like to have all hosts confirmed before May so that we aren't going crazy during finals week.

Hope these FAQs are interesting to read and answer some questions people may have! I'm currently in Chicago for an Alternative Spring Break. It's freezing, but a lot of fun. I'm blogging from the lobby of our hostel where a lot of people are hanging out, and I can hear about 4 languages being spoken right now, none of which are English :) Those of you that know me know I love eavesdropping on other conversations in other languages, so obviously this is great. Will post again about training and fundraising stuff quite soon :)

XOXO,
Mary

4K for Cancer Donors :)

View 4K for Cancer 2013 Donors in a larger map

Relevant:

Emus, airplanes, and 44 miles

Today Chelsea and I biked 44 miles! We went to the BWI Airport trail, which basically surrounds the entire airport. It's an 11-mile loop and we did it 4 times. The trail was GREAT and the ride was AWESOME! 

Loading up the bikes to drive to Baltimore.

Our bikes are AMAZING!!! This was our first time riding them other than around the parking lot a little. I seriously can't even describe how sleek and fast they are, and how much fun they are to ride. It makes a WORLD of difference from the mountain bike I ride around to class. Actually, I've been getting frustrated while riding to class lately, because I feel like putting in so much effort but still going really slow. I get passed by other bikers a lot, and I think to myself, hey, I'm the one biking across the country.. I shouldn't be getting passed. But now I understand that a road bike seriously makes an enormous difference. For the first few miles it was kind of scary - the bike felt really thin and light, and was totally responsive to the slightest movement. Of course, these are super good things, I just had to get used to them. I also had to get used to the riding stance (hunched over) which is different than what I'm used to with my regular bike.

The trail was beautiful! It was all paved and had some mild hills, but nothing too crazy. The weather was beautiful - about 55 degrees and sunny -- definitely the nicest day of the year so far, and there were a ton of other cyclists, runners, and walkers out. A lot of families with little kids too, a couple of which we almost ran over once or twice. We took about 4 hours to do the ride, with a 15-minute lunch break and two 5-minute water breaks in the middle. That's pretty slow, but a lot of times we had to be cautious of pedestrians, wait to cross streets, etc, and we were also still getting the hang of our bikes. We got progressively faster over the course of the ride, except for our last lap which was a little slower because we were definitely getting tired.

Us with our bikes on an overpass :) I believe that's the B/W parkway.

Chelsea gazing victoriously at her kingdom (BWI airport)

We also made a new friend! 20 miles in, a guy we had passed going the opposite direction a couple of times asked to join us and we did the last ~20 miles together. His name was Nick and he was a really good cyclist, and was super nice and friendly. We told him about the 4K and he was super supportive. He taught us a bunch of tips and tricks that would probably have taken us quite a while to figure out on our own. For example, one tip is that when you are going through a turn, put the inside knee up; if it's down, and the turn is steep enough, you can actually contact the ground and wipe out, so it's just a good habit to get into. He also gave us tips on shifting and told us about some other nice bike trails we can try. We were also way too slow for him.. so it was nice that he stayed with us! P.S. He told us we "looked the part" of serious cyclists with our awesome bikes and gear, so we considered that a major success ;)

A couple of interesting things we learned:
- There is an emu that lives on a farm on the side of the path, that paces back and forth along the fence between the hours of 3:00 and 5:00 pm every day... seriously.

Emu casually pacing next to bike trail.

- We get HUNGRY. Two PB&J sandwiches were barely enough to hold us over.

Pit stop. PB&J for the win!

- Biking outside is easier than spin class or biking on the stationary bike... because of downhills!
- Getting a new seat is necessary.... ow. The mega padding in cycling shorts is kind of embarrassing because it kinda looks like a diaper.. BUT it's 100% necessary. And I still definitely need a new seat. Luckily Andrew's parents ordered me a hand-made seat that has 4.5-star reviews and is specifically made for women. Super thankful, and excited to get that!!
- I need cycling glasses... glasses are 100% necessary not just for sun but also for wind and bugs (yeah I ate my first bug today). Today I wore my regular sunglasses but I may have looked slightly ridiculous biking in Coach aviators.
- A hobby exists that consists of photographing airplanes as they land.... there were 8-10 people waiting with fancy cameras and tripods set up that would photograph airplanes as they came in for landings. These people were there for hours!

We tried our hand at said hobby but decided to stick to biking.

- Little kids don't understand "on your left" and will probably just run directly into the path of your bike no matter what

As we were collapsing next to Chelsea's car after finishing the 44 miles, an ice cream truck coincidentally pulled into the parking lot. It was an amazing stroke of luck. We ran with reckless abandon to the ice cream truck and got the best ice cream of our lives. A man sitting nearby had the nerve to say "It's a little cold for ice cream, isn't it?" Yeah... not when you just biked 45 miles.

Post-ride treat :)

The best part about the day was that we were really having FUN the entire time. It was seriously enjoyable to cruise along on our bikes, and I enjoyed "feeling the burn" when it got tough. I think it's safe to say I'm extremely excited to be able to do this every day this summer :)

Training otherwise: Has been going very well! I've been sticking to my plan and was thrilled to actually see results today while biking. We were pretty proud of the fact that we were able to do 44 miles with pretty much no problem.. I don't think we would've been able to do that one month ago. We are on track to do at least an 80-miler before we leave. Also, the training game is fun and is keeping everyone motivated. Unfortunately, being off of Facebook until Easter, I am missing the updates in our 4K Portland Facebook group about who is winning! I rely on Chelsea to keep me updated. Last I heard, Team Dan (which Chelsea and I are on) was losing to Team Andrew by ~300 points, but Chelsea and I each racked up 142 today, so we are hoping we may have been able to pull Team Dan into the lead!!

Fundraising: Current total is $5413!! Thank you everyone who donated in the past week :) I'm behind on my thank you emails but will catch up with those tomorrow!

Leg Leader updates: Sometime in the middle of this week I stopped what I was doing on the computer and realized the irony of the tabs I had open. For example:

Casual email

Normal

Indeed, in the past week Chelsea and I have begun our Leg Leader duties and have started planning the route from Chicago to Jackson Hole! It is going to be a lot of work but it's really exciting. I'm really happy to have this leadership role, as it's been probably 3 years since I've had a super exciting thing to plan. Having this diversion from school is also great. I love being able to divert my attention to something 100% non-bioengineering related. It keeps me from going crazy and getting overwhelmed by school. I get really excited about route planning and all the possibilities, and it's going to be a ton of fun, albeit also a ton of work.

Chelsea and I began by reading the 2011 Portland Ride Summary, which is a google doc that documents where they stayed, amenities they had available, and how each ride and overnight stay went. This was extremely helpful because it tells us what we should keep and what we should change from their route. For example, they went through a town in Wyoming that had a population of 5. They noted that there are no amenities and the people have had bad experiences with cyclists, and that the 4K is not welcome back in this town anymore. So, we will be routing through this town when we get to this area. We also talked to Dan (ride director) about potential larger changes to the route. For example, we want to get to Arches National Park in Utah, as well as Cedar Point. We also need to figure out the start and end dates of our leg so that we can plan specific dates and begin calling potential hosts. 

The 2011 Portland ride summary contains daily summaries..... such as this

Chelsea and I are in charge of Chicago, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado (just a little corner - we go into Denver and then north), and Wyoming -- a span of approximately 23 days. From what we've heard so far, the roads in Iowa are terrible and we need to find a better route - but there are very few options in Iowa. Last year's route through Nebraska was great and we will be copying most of that, but we need to be wary of keeping daily mileage below 100 as much as possible due to the heat. Their route through Wyoming is also good and hosts were great, but the elevation gets tricky and changes may be seen in riders' health. We will probably not reroute through Utah but will plan a rest day in Colorado and will take a day trip to Arches National Park by car. By my next blog post, I should have a rough route to post here :)

Also, on Friday, all of the UMD 4K riders (from all 4 rides) as well as a few alumni gathered for dinner at Jason's Deli. It was great to meet fellow riders.. there are actually about 14 of us from UMD! We also got to talk to one of the Leg 2 leaders from last year's Portland ride which was extremely helpful... he gave us some very useful tips.

Well, that's all for now! One week from now is Spring Break, and I am going to Chicago with Alternative Breaks and will not have access to a gym, so I will need to get creative in my training. More on that later. Thanks for reading and for the support, and have a fabulous week!!!

XOXO,
Mary

11 pm, Transport Processes midterm at 9:30 am:

and all I want to do is route plan for the 4K. This could become a problem. 

#excited

3 months from this moment

I will have completed day 1 of cycling across America!! 😳

Super exciting news!

Super exciting news!! Chelsea and I have been chosen as "Leg Leaders" for the ride!! This means that we will essentially plan 1/3 of the trip. We are responsible for selecting the route and setting up the accommodations for the second third of the trip: Chicago to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I am so excited! We had to do a brief application in order to get chosen, and I mentioned in my application that if we were both chosen we would like to work together (there are 2 leg leaders for each segment of the trip) because we are an unstoppable power team, which we are ;) The good news is we have 12 years of history to fall back on with the route and the hosts along the way. If anyone reading happens to know anyone that lives along an approximate straight line between Chicago and Jackson Hole that might have access to accommodations for 30 people and would like to support a great cause, please let me know! :)

TRAINING - has been going pretty well! Except for the end of this week when I was extremely busy and skipped 2 days (more on that later), I'm completely back into my normal training routine and my ankle is feeling 99% better. The only thing that still hurts to do is to twist it all the way to the left. Now that I finished Downton Abbey, which is what I used to do while biking, I've found 2 new ways to make cycling on the stationary bike interesting. The first one is basically that I just put some music on shuffle, and cycle to the beat of the music. I change the resistance for each song so that it's at a tough level - such that I can keep it up to the beat of the music but that it keeps my heart rate up and is a challenge. So for faster songs, it's faster cycling and less resistance, and for slower songs, slower cycling and more resistance. The second way is that I put on mostly upbeat songs, and put on a high resistance during the verses and bridge of the song, and during the chorus, I lower the resistance and do a sprint. Both of these ways are both challenging and enjoyable, and biking to the beat of the music helps me keep a constant pace. It also keeps me focused on the workout, and since it's enjoyable it also makes the time pass quickly!

Other exciting training news is that I bought an exercise ball for working out! A lot of core exercises are made much better by using an exercise ball :) So I'm going to revamp my strength training workout that I've been doing 2-3 times a week.

Also, last Saturday, the roomies and I went on a rock climbing outing! We went to Earth Treks in Rockville and it was super fun. I'd only been to a rock climbing gym (is that what they're called?? idk) once and that was approximatelyyy 8 years ago. I am actually pretty scared of heights and falling so I was kind of nervous. And it didn't get any better as the day went on! I was nervous every time and was shaking pretty much the whole time I was climbing, haha. Still super fun though. The roomies had fun too and Rachel, who didn't think she was even going to get on the wall, ended up making it all the way to the top! We were actually SUPER sore for a good 2-3 days after climbing!

Other than that, our awesome ride directors have planned a training game for us where they split us into two teams and we earn points for our team by working out. We get different amounts of points for different activities. The game will run from March 1-31 and the winning team gets prizes! It's a pretty cool way to keep us motivated! So that started yesterday.

The only thing is that certain workouts get more points than others. So I will be tempted to do the ones that get me the most points! But I think I will stick to what I've been doing, even if it doesn't get me the most points, because I've been enjoying that and it's been working well for me.

I was the last person in the pool at 10 pm on a Friday night.

FUNDRAISING - Pretty good! I haven't been actively fundraising in a while but I'm still getting the occasional donation coming in from people who got my fundraising letter. My current total is $5163. I probably won't be actively fundraising much until after Easter. For Spring Break I am going on a service trip so I unfortunately won't be home to fundraise around my hometown. I definitely want to do a car wash in Bel Air, and Chelsea and I have plans to go to various bike-centric areas of DC, set ourselves up with a poster or something, and see if any bike fans want to donate.

Otherwise - This week, school hit me like a brick wall -___- Up until this week it had been smooth sailing and at times I even felt bored. I mean I had enough free time to watch all three seasons of Downton Abbey, heheh. But this week it seemed that all of my classes caught up to speed at once, and I was really swamped with work and exams. I do not enjoy being at the Kim building (UMD bioengineering building) well past dark 3 days in a row, nor do I enjoy seeing 3 am four days in a row! We also had an orchestra concert on Tuesday (Chelsea is in orchestra with me - she also plays violin). We played Brahms No. 4, Beethoven Egmont Overture, and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. The concert went really well, most notably Brahms, which was a very hard piece for the orchestra to learn. I put in many hours of practice on the tricky violin passages. This coming week is going to be busy as well - 3 exams and 2 quizzes, on top of regular homework - so I'm just going to put on my blinders and charge ahead until Friday, when some epic relaxation will be taking place.

SIDENOTE: The season finale of season 3 was HORRIBLE!!!! To avoid spoilers, I will just say that they killed off a very important character, and I think Downton Abbey is done from here. There is no way the show can be good after this. It's like, akin to taking Michael Scott off The Office, except he dies. Ugh. I loved you so much, Downton Abbey. I can't believe you would do this to me </3

Also, last Friday I entered an abstract into a competition for the 1st annual JHU/UMD Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Research Day. Everyone that entered would present a poster at a poster session, and six abstracts were chosen to do oral presentations as well. I found out Saturday that I was chosen to do an oral presentation. The event was Friday (yesterday), so I had less than a week to prepare a poster and presentation on top of the already-busy school week. My graduate student Omar helped me a ton with the preparation and stayed at work late 2 days in a row to coach me on presentation style. Yesterday was the event, and about 25 people from UMD traveled up to Hopkins for the event. Everyone did really well and the posters and presentations were really cool. So many interesting projects being done by undergrads. I was pretty nervous to present, but my presentation actually won first place! There is a $300 cash prize :) I am very happy to have had this opportunity!

Me with my award!

Countdowns to exciting stuff:

Spring Break - UMD Alternative Breaks service trip to Chicago: 12 days
Easter - Florida!: 26 days

Annnnd of course,

Double digits!!

Can't believe it's just about 3 months away!! Have a great week, everyone!

XOXO,
Mary