Day four started out like most of the others, up really early for breakfast, pumping up tires, dropping off luggage and heading out. There really isn't too much to say about most of the ride. It was mostly trail riding today.
Had a couple water stops along the way, and things didn't really get familiar till we got to Morrow, where lunch was held. It was awesome. As we arrived, the volunteers had several grills going. They had all sorts of burgers. Turkey, black bean, regular and a couple other types. I had a turkey burger and it was great. I think I also had some fruit and a banana, but I don't remember.
The official route had us getting off the trail a little south of Morrow, at a place called Foster. Instead, Matt, Adam, Ricky, Jennifer, and I all chose the flatter option of taking the trail all the way to Mariemont and then rejoining the official route again at the water stop in Mariemont. That water stop was sponsored by CR Architecture. There was a group of riders from that firm, I want to say 8-10 guys, they rode with us sometimes on our Tuesday training rides and I met some of them at one of the networking events. A whole group of strong riders, they managed to be towards the front of the pack all 4 days. We still had to climb that beast of a hill on Erie, but we managed to avoid some others in the Kenwood area.
I had not been resetting my trip meter on my bike every morning like I normally do. We passed the 300 mile mark just a couple miles before Morrow. That was an awesome feeling too. somewhere after the last water stop, I don't know where, but my trip meter reset itself! I don't know if I had an elbow on the button when I got down on the aero bars, or if I set my helmet on it at a bathroom stop. I do know from another rider in our group that the 4 day total was actually 345 miles, not 328.
It was a great feeling, leaving that water stop and knowing that we were almost home. I rolled into Eden Park right as the first police escort was about to leave. Two hours before I expected to be there and 1 hour ahead of my goal. I never imagined I would make it that far that fast. I even got there before the CR team! I wasn't expecting my parents to be at the finish line until 2pm so I decided to wait for the next departure at 2:30. I'm glad I did, not only so my parents could see me finish, but I was among the first ten riders in that group. It is hard to describe the emotions, when you are riding in a pack of 200 others and you are right behind 6 police motorcycles who are stopping traffic as you go through the city.
It was great having family and friends at the finish line. It was a great experience and maybe one I'll be repeating next year or sometime in the future.
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