Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 2, 2002

Day One (71 miles) Baltimore, MD to Wayn
The Hopkins 4K for Cancer begins today, Sunday, June 2nd 2002. At 8:30 in the morning the group formed up at the house of commander in chief Ryan. After packing the 2 donated Avis minivans with everyone’s luggage, spare bike parts, tents, sleeping bags, and other various things we all head off to JHU’s Garland field for our formal send off. Many of the riders’ parents were there, as well as representatives from some of our sponsors and the American Cancer Society.

After taking group pictures and saying goodbye to family and friends the ride commenced by taking a short trip down to the Inner Harbor to ceremonially dip the rear wheels of our bikes into the Atlantic Ocean. Then the real riding began. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, well at least in terms of the temperature and sunshine. The problem was the gale force westerly wind, which we would have to ride into for the entire day. After a few hours of riding and about 35 miles, we pulled into Western Maryland College for lunch and a short break. At this point you could tell that most of the riders were hurting; battling a headwind for 30 some miles over rolling hills isn’t the most fun of things to do. All of us got a good break though and were soon ready to head on and finish the ride. This part of the trip would take us another 40 miles to our final destination of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. This part of the ride took a little longer then the first segment, as photo ops at strategic locations such as the Mason Dixon line and in front of a sign that read, “Don’t let Lyme make your dog a lemon” were a must. We finally pulled into the Waynesboro YMCA at around 8 pm and sank into dinner donated by Boston Market. Overall it was a pretty tough day, compounded by the winds and people still getting a feel for their bikes (9 out of 24 people fell), but everyone is still in high spirits and ready for tomorrow’s ride.

-Gary Lambardo