Day 5- Butler, PA to Youngstown, OH

Thursday, June 3

I’m starting to realize that right when things are at their smoothest is exactly when things seem to fall apart. Today when my group first left Butler, we jokingly said we would be the first group out and last group in. Oh, how I wish it hadn’t come true. But I’ll get to that in a minute. My group was mostly riders I’d ridden with before, including Andrew, Charlie and Krystina. Terrence was back again as well, with his chain restored for the second time (talk about some bad luck). I also had the chance to ride with Kieran for the first time, which was nice because he’s one of the more experienced riders on the team and he gave us some good tips on how to make the ride a little smoother. I had been experiencing some knee problems from the climbs on the previous days, and some of Kieran’s tips about keeping cadence and saving energy really helped alleviate some of the pain. He also taught us how to paceline, and I started to understand how some of those professional teams can make it across the country so quickly just from working off each other.
Unfortunately, we didn’t realize the drawback of pacelining until it was too late: you become oblivious of the world around you (especially road signs). We powered through the first water stop, patting ourselves on the back on being halfway done without doing much of any work at all. Then we made the choice to keep on plowing on through until lunch, having misread the directions and thinking we didn’t have to turn for almost ten miles. It was only after we’d crossed all that terrain that we realized we’d missed a turn right out of the water break. What was originally supposed to be one of the easier days on the trip turned into one of the more frustrating days so far. Getting lost is never a great feeling- especially when you’re on a bike and you have to make up all that ground with your own legs (and slowly). I really have to give some props to my group for pushing on through despite our little setback. We managed to get in not too long after the last of the groups had rolled in, even after adding 20 miles to our trip. I’m just happy that this wasn’t a 100 mile day, and that the rain held off for the most part. The cloud cover was actually a bit of a relief in light of the blistering heat of the previous few days. I’m really looking forward to biking through Ohio; as much as I love Pennsylvania, I can’t say I’ll be missing the Appalachians or the bumpy roads. It’s crazy to think that a week ago I was graduating from college, and now here I am chilling in a church right across the border in Ohio, having biked the whole way. Can’t wait for the next adventure!

-Chris Tait