Wanted to give everyone an idea of the people I've spent the last 70 days with: my 4K family. All are incredible people, and I am honored to know them. They are going to go out and change the world. So I thought I'd share a few blurbs about each person's personality, their role on the team, memories I have with them, etc. I think it will also be fun for my teammates and me to come back to later on to reminisce. If you want to read about each rider's personal connection to cancer and their reasons for doing the ride, click on their 4K page link. Turned out I had so much to say that I had to split the team up into 4 posts.. so here are the over-21 boys!
Dave Wolfe
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| Me giving Dave an obviously painful massage |
Dave Wolfe, called by his first and last name about equally, is a hilarious guy and definitely one of my sources of endless entertainment on the ride. He is very opinionated and ALWAYS has a witty and sassy comment to make that would leave me in fits of laughter. Early on in the ride he let Gina give him a mohawk and dye it blue, which totally completed his personality.
Dave is an endurance athlete who came from a background of running ultramarathons. I believe he said the furthest he's ever run at one time was 80 miles. That's CRAZY! He also has a lot of interesting facts about him that you'd probably never guess, for example that he used to be a cake decorator, and that he spent a year in Germany being a "manny" (man nanny). Going abroad and being a nanny is something I've always wanted to do so I was interested in talking to him about it... but he said it was a terrible experience. What he did get out of it was a fluency in German that he's managed to keep up until now. When we encountered some German tourists in Moab, we made him talk to them. He can also ride a unicycle!
One of my favorite memories with Dave was when our lunch was getting attacked by goats, and one of the goats managed to grab a packet of plastic silverware and run off with it. Worried that the goat would eat the silverware and hurt himself, Dave immediately jumped up and chased the goat around to get the packet out of its mouth. It was a hilarious scene.
One of my favorite memories with Dave was when our lunch was getting attacked by goats, and one of the goats managed to grab a packet of plastic silverware and run off with it. Worried that the goat would eat the silverware and hurt himself, Dave immediately jumped up and chased the goat around to get the packet out of its mouth. It was a hilarious scene.
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Dan Gray
Age: 26
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
4K Page
Age: 26
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
4K Page
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| Dan and I cooling off with cold towels on our heads after one of our hottest days |
Dan is a total Type B personality - totally laid back, go-with-the-flow, and always happy. As one of the ride directors, that definitely had a big effect on team dynamics. I'm used to having more structure and being upset when things don't go as planned, but Dan always just laughed about everything and was awesome at coming up with Plan Bs when we had to make a change.. and Plan Cs and Ds and Es etc. Coming from a background of several years as a camp counselor, he was great at being a leader for a large group, making logistics happen even in a group our size, and coming up with games for us to play. He's also very smart, and knowledgeable about many random subjects. He used his cleverness to introduce hilarity into his games for us. He and Nitkin, the other ride director, were close to total opposites in personality and leadership style, but I thought their strengths put together made for a really successful leadership combination.
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| He also pioneered the tradition of 5-star water van service! |
Dan quit his full-time job to go on this trip, and his goal was to maximize his time and see everything he possibly could on the way from Baltimore to Portland. It was his idea to go to Moab, Utah, which was a major change in years past. It seemed crazy at the time, but Moab, the Rockies, and Jackson, all results of the reroute, ended up being 3 of the best highlights of the trip.
Riding with Dan was likewise always an adventure. If he sees something while riding along that he wants to do, he stops and does it. He was probably the most laid-back rider on the team, and if you were in his ride group for the day you knew you were probably going to be one of the last groups in at the end of the day but also have a lot of fun on the way there. Oh and I can't forget to mention Dan's LOVE for Ohio!
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| The time Dan convinced his ride group to ford a river and walk through a giant soybean field instead of trying to tough it out on a stretch of gravel road. A true Oregon Trail experience! R.I.P. Dan's Oakleys. |
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| The time Dan stopped at a yard sale to buy this NASA monkey which then rode along in his Camelbak for the rest of the trip.
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Maroun Aboutayeh
Age: 21
Hometown: Gainesville FL
4K Page
Hometown: Gainesville FL
4K Page
Maroun was an interesting character. People were terrified of his driving at the beginning of the trip, but thankfully he calmed down. He's very studious and was applying to medical school this summer, but at the same time he can be really goofy. He won the award for Best Van Packer - he was the only one able to pack the van efficiently enough to keep the front row of seats completely open. Read: he was really good at stuffing peoples stuff into a small space.
He was also one of our mechanics and, like Porter, was constantly on call for concerns such as "my brakes don't work," "my gears won't shift," etc. He too spent long hours working on bikes. He was helpful and often took up long days of driving duties when we had complicated logistics or needed to go out and get food.
Being from Florida, Maroun struggled with hills and climbing at the beginning. But by the end of the trip, he was frequently leading his group up the climbs. Finally, Maroun wins the award for worst time management skills: one thing we will all remember about Maroun is that we were always...ALWAYS..waiting for him. He was the last person ready every single morning and for every rest day activity we did. It usually went like this: "who are we waiting for?" "Maroun...." 5 minutes later Maroun would come out, putting on clothes while walking, etc. We were even waiting for him for 10 minutes when we lined up to run into the Pacific and he was somehow in the bathroom.
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Chris Mayer-Bacon
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| Chris is 3rd from right - see how he's about a foot taller than me! |
At 6'4", this quiet guy towered over everyone and was by far the strongest cyclist on the team. He got his nickname, Thor, for being big and ridiculously strong. He demolished mountains like they were nothing, sometimes climbing to the top and then actually coming back down to ride back up with other people. On flat ground he was just unstoppable. I imagine it was frustrating for him to ride with people that were way slower than him, but he never complained. Sometimes he would go off on his own and get to the host hours before anyone else. It was always great to draft off of Chris... no wind gets past Thor! Here's Chris doing squats.. with Gina on his shoulders:
Chris is very much into routines, and he actually had the self-discipline to consistently wake up 15 minutes earlier than everyone else and do push-ups, crunches, and dynamic stretches in the dark while people snored away around him. I can tell you that while at home I'm very dedicated to doing pushups and core work on the same day as other workouts, but on this trip I NEVER had the energy to do that, nor did anyone else on the team. But there was Chris every morning, quietly doing his strength workout.
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| Chris had a ton of bandanas, and he started doing this style about halfway into the ride...it always reminded me of a floppy-eared dog. As long as he was protected from the sun!! |
Chris is very softspoken, but when he did speak up, it was often a short, muttered comment that was absolutely hilarious coming from him. We loved all of his comments and observations.
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Andrew Nitkin
Nitkin, called by his last name because we had two Andrews on the team, is a very interesting guy and I can't say I've ever met anyone like him before. He's very opinionated and headstrong, fiercely patriotic, fun to hang out with, and a strong cyclist. He was one of the ride directors and I was pretty intimidated by him before the ride because he sent out messages with really intense training regimens and diet plans. Before the ride started, he had just returned to his home in Connecticut after spending a gap year skiing and working in an upscale hotel in Aspen, Colorado.
Nitkin was one of the more experienced cyclists on the team, having been on the cycling team at Bucknell where he went to undergrad. He sort of expected the rest of the team to have a similar background and came into the ride ready to be super intense and race across the country. On day 1 he was trying to teach me how to draft and paceline. But when he found out most of us were there to chill and enjoy ourselves, he relaxed a little too. Besides, relaxing gave him time for his goofy personality to come out. He could often be found doing weird bird-like dances on his bike ("The bass dropped. I had to dance") or obsessively drinking chocolate milk. He once drank a half gallon in one sitting.
Nitkin sadly lost his dad to cancer, and was doing the ride in honor of his dad's love for activity. Nitkin inherited his dad's special affection for the Rockies. He was talking about the Rockies nonstop until we got there, and would get ridiculously "amped" whenever he did talk about them. I got to ride with him the day we saw the Rockies, so that made it extra exciting for me.
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| Nitkin's reaction to seeing the Rockies on the horizon |
Thanks to his super intense personality, Nitkin often said hilarious, sometimes ridiculous, but always memorable quotes. We secretly wrote them down and kept them in a Twitter account the entire summer... we didn't tell him about the account until our team banquet on the last day. He really got a kick out of it. Here are a few examples...
- How you do anything is how you do everything. (this one was his favorite)
- I'm so amped right now that if you put a lightbulb in my mouth it would light up.
- You may be patriotic, but I love America.
- We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life.
- Death is a preferable alternative to communism.
- These are not your average glaciers, these are giant chunks of ice.
- Don't worry, danger's my middle name. Nah, it's William.
- If you destroy your tan line, you destroy part of who you are.
Even though Nitkin was a way stronger cyclist than I was, we ended up riding together a lot which I'm sure probably helped me improve. And even though we came from very different backgrounds (or perhaps because of it), I had a lot of fun conversations with him over the course of the summer.
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| Paul and I on my birthday |
Paul was definitely the friendliest person on the team. While everyone at some point found some reason to be mad at each other, I don't think a single person was ever mad at Paul. He's so nice that it's impossible to be mad at him. He was known as the team teddy bear because he was always smiley, gives the best hugs, and also kind of looks like a teddy bear :)
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| Paul and I when we were riding partners on Day 1 of the Rockies |
At 27, Paul won the award for oldest rider, but that didn't mean much. He always liked to have a good time, and if you ever have a question about a beer or you want to drink one with someone, Paul is your guy. He is happiest when he's sitting with friends with a cold drink in his hand.
Apart from his teddy bear niceness, Paul also wins the award for fastest and best flat changer. Towards the beginning of the trip Paul got a ridiculous number of flats, and basically he became a beast at changing them. Coupled with the experience, he's also very strong, and since he is always, always willing to help, he quickly became the go-to flat helper. Can't get the tire off? Go to Paul. Spent 10 minutes trying to get the tire back on? Paul can do it in 30 seconds. If I had to guess how many flats Paul helped me with it's probably 6 or 7.. and that's just me! His record for flat-changing was under 3 minutes by the end of the trip, which is pretty impressive.
Other than that, Paul and I had a lot of great conversations which I really enjoyed. He is great to talk to. An awesome listener, has a lot of good input, and he's also hilarious. He always knows the right time to crack a joke. I'm definitely going to miss him, but luckily he lives close by in Baltimore!
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Andrew Porter
Porter, called by his last name because we had two Andrews on the team, is an awesome guy with a really caring personality and adventurous spirit. I'd like to spotlight his beard, which he never shaved the entire trip. It started out nonexistent and by the end was making him look so much like a homeless person that I wouldn't let him go in to ask for food donations by himself because I was afraid he wouldn't be taken seriously.
Porter was one of our mechanics, but he went above and beyond when it came to taking care of our bikes. Bike maintenance is no joke, and there was always some problem with someone's bike. While others got to relax or go to bed early after a long day of riding, he was often found quietly working on bikes.
He never complained about helping anyone, and I even heard rumors of him going around checking on people's bikes and doing quick tune-ups without them even asking. He's very knowledgable about bikes and bike maintenance and proved to be an invaluable member of our team. Without him, half of our bikes would not have made it to Portland.
Porter is a man of few words and doesn't like to talk about himself much. However, he's really observant and a total goofball. He was one of the pioneers of the game "Lick or Lick".... in which you are dared to lick something. Special shoutout to Porter because he got sick from licking a bike tire....
He's a really strong athlete, but always chose to take his time on the road, preferring to take in the scenery and take every opportunity to explore.
He always steps up to take responsibility, and was often found cleaning up after people, doing little things that needed to be done, or cooking food.
He was also one of the more mature guys on the team and would casually point out the nonsense in some of our plans and suggest improvements.
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