From sea to shining sea

August 8th, 2013, 68 days after dipping our back tires in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, was the day we finally arrived at the coast and triumphantly dipped our front tires in the PACIFIC Ocean.

Okay, it was less us dipping our tires as it was us charging full speed in to the ocean with our bikes.

We biked about 60 miles north along the coast, starting in Tillamook and ending in Astoria.

First glimpse of the Pacific.

Clouds and water to our lefts!

We stopped at Cannon Beach, 42 miles in, to do the celebratory tire dipping. 

Riding into the town of Cannon Beach

Following our chalk to get to the beach.

We waited for all the groups to arrive before carrying our bikes onto the beach. We wanted to all get to the Pacific together, as a team.

View of Cannon Beach as we were waiting for groups to arrive.

Sarah passing the time while we were waiting by braiding Jen's hair (yes, laying on sandy pavement is 4K OK) 

Me looking out at the beach with Mom written on my legs.

Several parents were there to meet us, and Venkatesh, a 2012 Portland alum now living in Seattle, made the trip down to take pictures of us with his nice camera. 

It took us WAY too long to line up in a straight line (typical 4K), and we spent another 5 minutes waiting for Maroun (we literally were always waiting for Maroun the entire trip, no matter what we were trying to do). When we finally counted 25 bodies and 25 bikes and were in a somewhat straight line about 10 yards away from the water, we yelled our cheer as loud as we could. 

Passersby and beachgoers were slowly flocking to us, totally intrigued as to what kind of strange event had brought a bunch of crazy people onto the beach. When they found out, lots of strangers were gathered around us, all smiling, taking pictures of us for their personal memories, and asking us questions about our journey. Parents grabbed their children from running in front of us as it became evident that chaos was about to ensue.

As the cheer came to an end, we became more and more excited and yelled the cheer louder and louder, with tons of energy and anticipation in our voices. Finally, we finished with the final "Who are we?! 4K!!!" ....and ran screaming with our bikes into the Pacific Ocean.

Yes, salt water is TERRIBLE news for the finishes on our nice road bikes. BUT, we just biked across the country. There's no arguing with that.

After a lot of laughter, hugging, cheering, and splashing each other in the water, we returned to the sand and popped champagne to celebrate!

After that ensued a 45-minute photoshoot where everyone handed their phones to other people and took a million pictures. And of course I had to get the classic bike-over-the-head shot.

I love this picture!

My 4K family

As you can see, everyone was all smiles. It was such an exciting moment. To know that all 25 of us, by the power of our own two legs and our hearts, made it from coast to coast. Atlantic to Pacific. It was an incredible feeling that cannot accurately be put into words.

It really was true that we left Baltimore as a team of strangers, and arrived in Portland as a family. As I looked around the beach, I realized how much each of my teammates meant to me. How many memories we shared while spending long days goofing around on our bikes, and how much I was going to miss each and every one of them. It was a bittersweet moment as we realized we all only had two days left with each other before we went our separate ways.

The last 20 miles were pretty solitary as there was a narrow shoulder and we couldn't talk to one of each other, so I spent that time reflecting on the summer and what it meant to me. More on that in my reflection blog post :)

That night in Astoria, we had our banquet at the Rogue Brewery in Astoria, which we paid for with a team budget generously donated by family of teammates. 

In typical 4K fashion we were running so late that we didn't have time to shower before going to the banquet, so we showed up in our cycling clothes. Of course that was 4K OK, but the public probably wondered what we were thinking.

The banquet was fun and the food was really good. I don't have a taste for beer, but those who did said the beer was awesome too. After we stuffed ourselves with a ton of food, we played a game of Team Hot Seat that the ride directors and Team Comedian Dave White had come up with. It involved each person standing up and being asked one question in front of the whole team. Most of the questions alluded to something funny that had happened involving that person over the course of the summer, or was something the team was curious about regarding that person. It was definitely embarrassing for some, but the game had everyone in fits of laughter.

That night we had four cabins at a KOA, so we all got beds! We were all so tired by the time we'd showered that we didn't make a route for the next day. So we went to bed blissfully aware of what our second to last day of riding would bring...