Columbus & our first service day

Greetings from Columbus!

Yesterday we rode 64 miles from Butler to Columbus. They were very straightforward and enjoyable. Temperatures were pushing 82, which was hot for some, but still not too bad, and we saw partly cloudy skies. We had some rolling hills for the first 20 or so miles, followed by 40 nearly flat miles after that. 

I dedicated the ride to my great-grandmother, Caterina Natoli, who died of cancer before I was born.

BTW Sharpie is really hard to get off your legs.

Butler to Columbus route.

One thing we have really been enjoying is the A+ chalking job done by our teammate Ashley. She has been subject to van duty for a week and a half. During this time she has become an expert chalker, even though she's chalking with her left hand. Wrong turns and getting lost have significantly decreased since she's been on the job.

We were a little worried about getting into Columbus, given our experience with the last big city we biked through: Pittsburgh. However, it was the polar opposite of Pittsburgh. We were thrilled to find out that Columbus is extremely bike friendly!!

There is a beautiful paved trail (Genoa Trail) that comes into the city right around the border of it, bypassing the major roads. We got to be on this for about 10 miles. The only problem with bike trails is it's nearly impossible for the van to chalk, and sometimes the directions can get confusing due to a lack of signs on the trail, random forks in the trail, etc. However, we all did well with the trail yesterday and no one got lost.

Genoa Trail

Getting off the trail, we were on a major road but it had a bike lane. Bike lanes are very rare but they are awesome! Studies have shown that the simple existence of a 6-inch painted line actually makes bikers and cars respect each others' space. For the remainder of our time getting into the city, there weren't too many turns, and drivers were very courteous. Ohio drivers > Pennsylvania drivers. Also, Ohio > Pennsylvania. (In case you didn't notice, as a team we officially hate PA)

We are staying at Jared's frat house just off the Ohio State campus. The frat house is, well, a frat house... and it leaves something to be desired in terms of cleanliness. It also doesn't have air conditioning and it's pretty hot. I wasn't thrilled about spreading out my sleeping stuff on the dirty floor, or using their showers, but I'm trying to be a good teammate and not complain. After all, beggers can't be choosers.

Our stuff all spread out in the frat house.

Last night some of us got to shower at Ohio State's Rec Center, which is AWESOME. I must say that Eppley at UMD sets the bar high, but Ohio State's was cooler. It was interesting to see the campus, since Ohio State is one of the few schools in the nation that is bigger than UMD. It looks even more like a mini city than UMD does! At the Rec Center we took amazing showers (every shower is amazing but this one was perfect)... and... drum roll please... we got to use real towels!!! When the guy at the front desk offered us real towels I think we drooled. In case you missed the memo, everyone uses quick-dry towels (they take up less space and will dry in time to be shoved into a duffel the next morning), which do the job but leave something to be desired. Using a fuzzy towel for the first time was amazing!!

Back at the frat house, some of the girls and I discovered a ... gasp .... hair straightener!!! It was an amazing find. We giggled for a while then did our hair. We felt like girls for the first time in 14 days! Yay!!!


After that, we went to an MLS soccer game: the Columbus Crew vs the Montreal Impact. Ashley and Dan had managed to hook the entire team up with free tickets - normally priced at $28! We had great seats and it was more of a success than my last appearance at a pro sports game (a Celtics game at which I fell asleep). I actually knew what was going on since I do like soccer and I used to play it. It was also dollar beer, dollar brat night so it was bound to be a good time. The team enjoyed the game and afterwards we headed to Jared's apartment (different than the frat house) for a party.

Columbus Crew game!

This morning we loaded up the van with 15 of us and headed to Cincinnati for our first service project. For the first time in 4K history, we presented a scholarship in person. The recipient was Philip Shanks, a 19-year-old boy who suffers from testicular cancer. He is currently undergoing what we hope is his last week of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants. Philip was tired from his treatment when we came in, but he was able to get up and join us for a while. His sister read the essay he wrote to win the scholarship, and we presented him with a giant check. 

Seeing the look in his eyes at how grateful he was put things in perspective and reminded everyone while we're riding. After all, the money we raised goes directly to these scholarships. Sometimes when you fundraise you don't get to see what happens with your money, but this is an example of when we definitely got to see it in action. And it was very rewarding. It was humbling to see that Philip was just a normal guy with the same interests and motivations that us young adults have, but unfortunately he has cancer and has to go through aggressive treatments that tire out his entire body. We are all so, so fortunate to be healthy enough to go on this ride, and I think we definitely realized that.

The team with Philip and his check.

By the way, Philip has a YouTube channel that is pretty popular! Here is his video entitled I have Cancer.

We stayed and socialized for Philip for a little while, but left pretty soon to let him rest. By the time we did leave, we were all ravenous. I mean we were about to eat anything in sight. It turns out our metabolisms have CLEARLY sped up, and they didn't go back to normal just because we weren't biking today. We made a beeline for the nearest food establishments. We gave our spiel to try to get food donations, and got free Potbelly's and Noodles & Co! While in line for Potbelly's, Chelsea and I were looking at the menu trying to decide what to get. Chelsea said "let's get the item with the most calories on the menu." I adamantly agreed. Then we looked at each other and started laughing because that was basically the opposite of what we would've said to each other a few weeks ago, before the trip. Only on the 4K....

Upon getting back, we relaxed for a bit and regrouped with the rest of the team, who had pretty much just chilled for the day and gone out to get burgers at some point. For dinner, we headed over to the office of a company called Navigator. They have another office that is the next door neighbor of the Ulman Cancer Fund office in Baltimore, and are big supporters of our program. When they heard we were coming through Columbus they knew they wanted to invite us over and feed us!

They had printouts of our route on the tables. Wow... we still have a ways to go!

The dinner was catered by City Barbecue and it was amazing! They also had cookies from a local cookie place. As Paul put it, when you see individually wrapped cookies, you know they're gonna be good. And they were. We got to talk to several of the Navigator employees and other supporters who joined us for the dinner, all of whom were eager to hear about our ride. A lot of them do a ride called Pelotonia across Ohio, which is another fundraiser, this one for the James Cancer fund. 

The founder of this ride is the director of the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center and distinguished research physician Mike Caligiuri, who was in attendance at the dinner. He gave a little speech about how 30 years ago, if you had cancer, you were definitely going to die. That's obviously not the case today as we have millions of people either living successfully with cancer or living cancer-free after beating the disease. He said that a cancer-free world is possible, and efforts like ours are helping us reach that goal. It was very inspiring. Then some of us shared why we are riding and what this ride means to us. It was a very meaningful night!

We would've liked to continue socializing much later, but unfortunately we had to turn in early because we have a big day coming up... our first century is tomorrow! FYI: century means 100 miles. We will be riding 106 miles tomorrow from Columbus to Eaton, OH (wait... we're still in Ohio?! Ugh). The good news is we will be on a nice trail for over 2/3 of the way. The bad news is there are some confusing twists and turns on the trail that the van will not be able to chalk for us. 

For most of the team, this will be our first century (me included), and many of us are very nervous. As long as no one makes any wrong turns to turn a 105 mile day into a 125 mile day, I think we will be fine. It's all mental. Stay tuned to see how it goes!! :)