Pan Ohio Hope Ride day 1.

Today was a great day. The ride started at 7:30 am with a police escort through Cleveland. The first 20 miles were fairly flat and some was down hill. I filled my bottles with Gatorade instead of just water. At the first water stop (20 mi) there were plenty of power bars, clif bars and food available. I made sure to eat a banana and some frozen grapes even though I wasn't hungry.
Lunch was at the 40 mile marker. Grilled chicken strips, penne and Gatorade. It wasn't much, but I was still feeling full at that point.
I caught up with two other Cincinnati riders at lunch and rode the rest of the way. Jason had cancer in his left leg and they actually had to remove his left quadricep muscle. So he is doing this whole ride with only one good leg. His brother Joe is riding with him and pacing him and being a windbreak so that Jason can draft behind him in windy conditions. Another water stop, more food. At about mile 58 were riding through farm country. While it may be pretty, the smell is another matter. Dairy farms and pig farms reek especially bad in 90° weather. While riding along we could actually see a wall of water crossing the field before it hit us. It was cold and it was wonderful. We rode through some moderately heavy rains and lighter stuff for probably the next 6 or so miles. In some ways it felt like being a kid again, riding through the rain. 

We made it to the last water stop sometime around 2:30 and only had 7 more miles to go. We had dried out for the most part. All except our socks.

I don't know what time we actually made it to our destination at The College of Wooster, but I got all checked in and just in time too. While i was getting settled in my room another torrential downpour came through.  My dorm room isn't all that, but I really feel for the people who chose to camp out in tents. One of them, another guy named Joe pitched his tent and an hour later it was flooded. He is going to be sleeping on the floor of someone's room tonight. At least he had some sort of pad to go under his sleeping bag. I wouldn't want to be sleeping on a concrete floor with a 100 mile ride tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was actually better than last night. Yay for carbo loading. Going to bed early tonight so I can be up at 5am.  Rolling out of here at 6:30 so we can hopefully avoid some of the heat tomorrow.