“What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”

Today turned out to be an AMAZING and rewarding day. We kicked off the morning with a happy birthday to Jenna (today is her 20th birthday!). Today we rode from Quesnel to Prince George. Today, I dedicated my ride to Michelle from www.projectmichelle.org who just recently passed from cancer, but in her fight spearheaded a movement of bone marrow registry enlistment (of which I am also on) which now nears 20,000 people signed up from her efforts.

We kicked off the morning ride, and I had told Lance that I’d ride with him so we stuck together the whole day. About 15 miles in, Lance had unbearable saddle sore pain so we agreed that if he continued to ride that day, I would ride with him out of my saddle so he wouldn’t be going through it alone. We pushed through—and a relatively easy ride became a much more difficult one. Our legs never got a break, and even on the downhills our legs were tight trying to keep ourselves balanced. Nevertheless, we eventually made it to Prince George, without sitting in our saddle after that first 15 miles, and I officially have a new record of 65 miles of out of saddle riding.

We met up at PG’s local bike shop and were greeted by Dorrie, our host for these next two nights. She had prepared mini ciabatta sammies, which were the perfect post-ride snack.

After putting our bikes inside the bike shop for storage during our rest day, we headed to the local pool for a shower. Turns out we had longer than expected before we had to meet for dinner, so a few of us guys went for a dip (or dive) in the pool. I jumped off the high dive board for the first time, and the experience was exhilarating! I had at least 3 seconds of hangtime before hitting the water. After we had showered, we headed to Dorrie’s house where she and some other of her family members had prepared for us a delicious meal including turkey, stuffing, beef stew, salad, pasta salad, potato salad, Italian sausage, freshly smoked salmon, and pizza.

Dorrie also has kept a scrapbook from every year she’s hosted T4k riders!

I had the fullest of full stomachs tonight. After dinner is when some of the craziness began. So the Texas 4000 tradition is that in Prince George, many of the riders shave their heads. In the past years, only the Rockies riders have kept up with this tradition, but tonight, not only have our Sierra team been the first to get our heads shaved, but also set the new record of teammates getting their heads shaved (formerly the record was 16, today Dorrie shaved/cut all 21 (23 including DJ & JeeHyun) of our heads!). I ended up getting the mohawk—which I’ll probably adjust to just a buzz, but in the spirit of the team, I will keep it for a few more days. Some of the designs were utterly ridiculous, but our team definitely had a fun time, and tonight will be one to remember… a team united by new hairstyles.

Megan’s reaction to how much hair was cut

Alaska Bound!

Sarah getting her hair chopped

UFC Fight btw Steve & Jon

New man

After this, our team sat out with Dorrie in her backyard where she got the chance to get to know us better and find out our reasons for riding this summer. We each shared our stories and laughed and cried together for a good hour—just being real and supportive of eachother.

I could tell that our Sierra team left an imprint in her heart. Tomorrow, she’s taking our team wakeboarding on the lake, and we get a day of relaxation and fun. I’m excited to get a full nights of sleep, and give my body a rest. Today has been a truly great day. The quote above was written on past riders’ calves as they rode out of PG in memory of Dylan, who is Dorrie’s nephew, who fought and passed from lung cancer at only sixteen. He fought hard, and continues to be an inspiration to the citizens of PG—in fact, every year there is a ride in his honor. So far, PG has been amazing, and I only expect it to get better. Until tomorrow… take care, God bless you all. Live for today.