Hopkins 4K for Cancer

May 31, 2007

by Alice Li
It seemed as if all was right when we all finally nodded off last night, but Sandy’s cellphone began to ring. In fact, it refused to stop. Sandy had to shut it once, but within minutes it was up again. Yes, it was that time of the day – time to wake up. I felt as if I had just put my head on to my makeshift pillow too. Of course, like a groggy dinosaur, I can’t really remember what I did to get up or how I managed to put on my Hopkins4K gear. The breakfast provided by the Westminster Presbyterian Church was as delicious as the dinner last night. I think my favorite was the sausage dish, but a lot of people enjoyed the sloppy joes.

Even at the early hour of 7AM, a few of the church members graciously came to see us off. They told us we did end up on the local news last night! Unfortunately, we were all so tired that we slept through the broadcast. We linked hands for a moment of silence as we dedicated the day’s ride. Our hosts waved goodbye as we split into our assigned teams for the day. I hope our hosts liked us because I sure enjoyed their company.

So for today’s team, I was riding with KitKat (aka Catherine), Shantha, Drew, and Becca. Today was a 71.7-mile ride. It was pretty special because we were going to caravan into Cleveland at the 60-mile mark. This meant that the entire team would finish riding together into the city, in double file with a van in front and one in back.

I was very excited about this because up to now, I had never actually finished riding. The closest was the 95-mile day, on which I got to mile 84. So this was a very special day for me. Of course, it was very special for other reasons as well – such as my team, the Pink Ladies. We had the fastest rider of the team (our very own triathlete Drew Haberkorn), and myself Alice Li, the champion snail of the team. Needless to say, I was a little intimidated-- actually VERY intimidated. However, Drew was a gentleman and rode in the back. He and Becca, two capable speed riders, let KitKat, Shanta, and me set the speed of our ride.

Still, it was a struggle for me. When I try to ride fast, my upper left shoulder gets into a knot and starts to throb. It was pretty painful. In fact, I usually don’t mind the pain in my legs at all because my shoulder hurts so much more. Thankfully, every twenty miles at our water & lunch breaks, Drew helped to loosen the knot so that I could keep riding. And that is how I managed to enter Cleveland with the all of the members of the H4K team before me lined up in pairs.

I have to say, I’m sure the drivers in the lane next to us weren’t very happy. It is hard when you have so many possible causalities lined up neatly next to you. Thankfully, Logan, Drew, and Greg did a good job as the team escorts (group’s side armor), blocking traffic in intersections so that the rest of us could cross safely. We biked ourselves into Cleveland’s very own Case Western Reserve University. Case gave us the keys to Raymond Hall’s 4th floor and provided us with yummy dinner sandwiches. I actually decided to save mine for the next day and went with a few H4Kers to eat Korean barbeque. Since we like to make up team names, the bunch of us who went (Shanta, Michelle, Rob, Park, Olympia, and I), decided to call ourselves Team Kalbi, named after the Korean beef short rib BBQ. Trust me when I say, we ate a cow – hopefully, a very happy cow.

And that is the end of how Hopkins4K found itself in Cleveland.