MIT Spokes 2025

Day 43: Maybe my heart just aint in this 🤷🏾‍♂️

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MIT Spokes

in

Denver, CO -> Black Hawk, CO

Ishaq on the blog, and we’re gonna keep this one short and sweet. Yesterday we had a great learning festival un Denver, but the real highlight gotta be what happened after. Yes the alum dinner that you can read all about in another blog, but even more epic, Joseph and I went on a spontaneous 10:30pm movie excursion to watch Superman. Absolute cinema 🙌. Lex Luthor truly taught me that I’m not hating to my full potential, but some of his actions were down right diabolical.

Post Superman

In other exciting news, we finally got a new car! Amy the white 2025 Chrysler Pacifica has now been replaced with Bertha, the grey 2025 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid. And today will be Bertha’s first ride 😎

Our new car Bertha!

Getting up this morning was quite the endeavor after getting back at 1am. In the morning, I was groggy and complaining about the impeding ride. Our host said to me that it seemed like my heart wasn’t in this trip. I proceeded to think about that for the first 20 miles 😐. The main challenge of the day is out first climb into the rockies. But first we had a great stretch on bike trails around Denver, and thanks to our host’s recommendation, I was zooming with my slightly overinflated tires. Greta and I met a chill biker named Joel at the second rest stop. His son was actually in the 2024 Tour de France, riding for EF, but we didn’t get his name 🥲.

After quite the hefty rest, I set off on the climb alone. 18 miles, 4300 feet, somewhat reminiscent of Shenandoah on day 3. I, however, am a changed rider, making this a little baby climb. I locked in and and just pedaled bruv. I wont lie, the final stretch to the peak had me huffing and puffing, moving at 3.5 mph, but we made it alright. All the other spokies has similar experiences, and it really goes to show just how far we’ve all come.

Denver view with a guy on a Specialized bike 🤩
View heading into the rockies
Amanda’s Cat

Pulling into our host Amanda’s house near Black Hawk, I was hungry but energized and we all played games as we waited for greta in the van and all the other spokies to finish their climbs. The day ended with a top tier pasta dinner and some good games of horseshoe in the backyard.

TBH, theres def a lot of other stuff that happened today, but c’est bon. My heart definitely isn’t in this blog thing.

Comments

3 responses to “Day 43: Maybe my heart just aint in this 🤷🏾‍♂️”

  1. noisyaglet6881514261 Avatar
    noisyaglet6881514261

    There was a day in Missouri where Cleo tentatively asked me at the end of the day, “are you enjoying spokes?” and that really put the way I talk in perspective lol and made me realize I needed to buck up and enjoy the ride. So I get you, hope the beauty of Utah helps with the hard parts of spokes – rebecca

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  2. John David Hagood Avatar
    John David Hagood

    Lol when I was biking from Osawatomie, KS -> Council Grove, KS we got caught in a torrential downpour in the morning while I was on the Flint Hills trail alone. My bike and I were covered in gravel and I was shivering from the cold rain wondering where everyone else was. I finally met up with Sophia on the trail and we waited out some of the storm dripping wet in a coffee shop with a Jehovah’s Witness guy trying to convert us. We left while it was still raining and I got my tire caught on a train track that curved on the highway. Sophia didn’t see me fall so then I was left bleeding in the pouring rain. When I finally got to the lunch spot, not even half way done with the century we had planned for this day, I collapsed on the grass. Cleo, the driver for the day, then said to me “I don’t think your heart is in biking any more.” WELL NO SHIT I JUST NEARLY GOT HYPOTHERMIA IN THE RAIN AND FLATTENED ON THE HIGHWAY IN KANSAS OF ALL THE STATES. The rest of the day consisted of Sophia nearly getting washed away in a flood and us having to reroute over 40 miles of the most washed out gravel roads I have ever seen all in the characteristic Kansas headwind. So yeah, it happens.

    -JD

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    1. John David Hagood Avatar
      John David Hagood

      P.S. Love ya Cleo. No hard feelings 🙂

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