Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 21, 2003

"There's a KC in Kansas too?"
Our day started off with a delicious breakfast in the basement of the church we stayed in last night. My group (Team Boody, named after a town in Illinois) rolled out and promptly took a wrong turn onto Interstate 70. We calmly rode along as eighteen-wheelers whooshed past at eighty miles per hour, unaware that the prescribed route called for us to bike on a smaller road that paralleled the highway. When Wiejie, Renee, Gloria and I saw Rajeev and Rich riding on the safer roadway, we realized our mistake and got off the highway at the next opportunity.



We managed to luck out with respect to wind direction; it blew at our backs for much of the day. I personally felt more energetic than usual as I cycled through the final section of western Missouri, a phenomenon I attribute to the trail mix I was eating in place of Powerbars. We’d had the mix donated from a cheese shop in Sweet Springs, and I think it lent me a special set of magical cycling powers. Perhaps trail mix is healthier than Powerbars, or perhaps there were some “special ingredients” sprinkled in with the nuts, fruits, and chocolate bits. Whatever the reason, I felt pretty danged powerful.



I felt powerful enough, in fact, to temporarily abandon the leisurely Team Boody and join a faster-moving pack of cyclists for the stretch between the water break and lunch. We rode in a paceline for most of the way. Lunch, originally scheduled for the fifty-mile mark, wasn’t found until we had biked nearly sixty miles. Pat Danaher—remember that there is no better way to make a pack of cyclists angry than delaying their access to food!



Team Boody experienced a reunification after a long lunch nap in the park. Wiejie is the leading Boody member in terms of falls, cuts, nicks, scrapes, and general disaster. This day was no exception. As we approached a set of train tracks that were set at an especially nasty angle relative to the roadway, Wiejie misjudged his line of attack and went crashing to the ground. Always unfazed, he picked up his bike, wiped off the blood with the heel of his glove, and recited “Wiejie’s Axiom.” “Whatever does not kill me, only makes me stronger.” At the rate he’s been going, Wiejie will be invincible by the end of the trip.



The outskirts of Kansas City were unimpressive, or as Sumeet would say, “Man, this place is bootleg.” Perhaps we missed the vibrant city center, perhaps we saw an unusually large number of hobos…I mean no disrespect to Kansas City. We simply didn’t see anything special. We arrived at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, where we had air conditioning and access to a computer lab. Too tired from the day’s riding to actually talk, several 4Kers began to instant message one another in the computer room.



As a final note, we wish to welcome back Eric Snow to the 4K gang. He arrived tonight after a gargantuan one-day drive from New York City to Kansas City.



Josh Robinson