Like Friday, this morning started nicely with a nice breakfast with the team (Ferris State has the most awesome food service) and then we hit the road promptly at 6:20 a.m. with cool temps and mild winds.
My how that changed as the day moved on! It wasn’t long before Team Joe’s was facing some headwinds and heat. We hit our lunch stop at 9:30 a.m. (yes, but believe me we were hungry) and then went after the much tougher second half of the ride. For me, things were fine until the last 10 miles of our 109 mile day largely because I didn’t fuel up properly during the ride. Don’t tell Lisa McDowell but I chugged down some major Pepsi on this trip in order to get a quick sugar hit. Of course, our new Wellness Coordinator, Paige, reminded me that better nutrition was available.
I will do much better tomorrow but I refuse to try Lee Benjamin’s Beet Juice. There is nothing that sounds good about that!
After the team came in during the mid-afternoon, we all headed off to our hotels to get ready and return to the school for the annual WAMmy Award Show which is a wonderful tradition to honor the riders, top fundraisers, top teams in fundraising but, most importantly, we honor our wish kids. We had many wish kids there tonight including two, Jack and Emily, who were our emcees for the evening. They were awesome. Team Joe’s did great coming in 2nd in fundraising in the Medium-sized team. We will get that first place next year! But, in the end, it’s the kids that are the real winners because our fundraising makes wishes come true.
Tomorrow is our final day and we are all tired but looking forward to arriving at MIS Speedway to the Heroes Hurrah at the finish line where we will be greeted by thousands of kids and families and supporters. We will happily jump off those bikes and enjoy the accomplishment and the kids and families who have come out to express their support and appreciation. We will also meet our adopted Team Joe’s wish child for this year’s WAM, Noa. Can’t wait to meet her. Noa had a liver transplant last year and she had her wish of going to Hawaii. How awesome.
Good night all. A good day. 94 miles awaits us tomorrow so it is our shortest day but it is supposed to be hot….
