Day 62: Senioritis

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Baker, NV --> Ely, NV

61.53 miles, 5,367 ft elevation

Nowadays, when you see a mountain in the distance, you don’t really go “oh, pretty” but “oh boy, I have to climb that guy in a few miles, don’t I?”

Not much to report today. The Nevada mountain ranges have begun. Despite being a “short” distance ride, we hit around 4.3k elevation gain. JD made an analogy yesterday that stuck with me. I feel like we’re dragging our feet to the finish line, limping. Nevada’s ranges don’t help much.

My cut, censored

The first thing I did this morning was graze my hand on some pesky barbed wire that was by our campground while taking down the tent. It left a nasty gash. I dripped blood all the way to the bathroom. I’m glad I didn’t fall into the wire because boy did the finger alone hurt.

Often on shorter days like today, we’ll eat lunch at our destination. Spokes is like gas though. It fills up whatever container we provide. So, our aspirational noon lunch turned into a 3 pm sandwich.

Varsha made a delicious dinner of spring rolls. Tonight was my first time seeing shrimp this trip. I’ve never been the biggest fan of spring rolls, but after a summer without fresh veggies, one bite of this spring roll and I was a goner. I made a small plate, poured myself an iced grapefruit Spindrift, and called my sister Sienna. After my call, I joined the team for some melted ice cream.

Since there isn’t much to report today, the least I can do is pull a rabbit from my hat and present some endearing gimmick. I can do no such thing. I’m all out of glitter.

Any long-distance, endurance athlete will tell you about the wall. For marathon runners, this is around mile 20 of the race. I assumed that given we were doing endurance^2, that is (daily endurance) x (75 days of cycling), we were at least saved from the wall of the second variable in this equation, the drowsiness of an entire summer. However, we have officially hit senioritis folks. The loneliest road emphasizes our lackadaisical, fatigued state. Our water breaks are taken on the shoulders of highways. Our destination is close enough to make the last two weeks mandatory, but far enough to gnaw away at the mental. Kind of like chafing.

This all said, our team spirit hasn’t been sagging. We’re simply bumming around together. When I opened the door to our motel room later tonight, I found my six friends comatose and packed on the two beds. Varsha lifted a finger from the duvet and directed me to a quart of ice cream soup. If there is camaraderie to be found in energetic, victorious moments, there is also camaraderie to be found here in Ely, Nevada, poolside.