Day 20: Chicago, IL to DeKalb, IL

• Distance: 18.07 mi
• Elevation: 276 ft
• Dedication: Mary Ormond and her family
• Ride group: Grace, James, and MJay
• Host: St. Paul’s Episcopalian Church

Shortest 4K day… ever? Today we biked a whopping 18 miles from Mary’s home in Lilly Lake to DeKalb. We actually drove through DeKalb trying to get back to Mary’s from Chicago last night, it’s so close.

We had a very slow morning because of our low mileage day and because we weren’t sure when our host tonight would be ready for us. We didn’t roll out until 11:30 which meant we had time for a team meeting, a wonderful breakfast, a quick little photo shoot courtesy of Casey, and a thorough clean-up of the Ormond’s home before leaving.

As we do with all hosts, we invited Mary and her family to join our dedication circle this morning. After two days with the Ormonds most of us were familiar with her story but I still think most of the team was crying as she talked to the group in our circle. As I mentioned in my last post, Mary is actively fighting stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). She was given five years to live when she was diagnosed and is currently at year eight. However, she is currently in palliative care and likely will not be here to host the 4K teams next summer. She asked us to dedicate our rides not to her but to her daughters, who will inevitably lose their mother at a young age like so many children of women with IBC. She also read us the names of her friends who have passed from IBC and their children. It was very emotional, but we were soon all smiles as their dog, Blitzen, went nuts during our team picture on the porch.

Our ride was incredibly easy. Most of it was on a nice shaded gravel trail and was essentially flat. I got to chat with Grace for a bit which was nice because we haven’t had much one-on-one time yet! The entire team ended up stopping at an ice cream stand called the Dairy Ripple, where I got a coffee float and the young man working kindly filled our bottles with ice water. From there we just had a bumpy ride down some rough roads and then a few miles in the most pathetic bike lane I’ve ever seen before we reached our host.

After a delicious spaghetti dinner, I went to Goodwill with a small group to buy fun t-shirts for the demolition derby. Most of the team had gone earlier in the day when I really needed some alone time, but we managed to get our gear and only be like 20 minutes late to the derby :) Demo derby is a big deal in St. Mary’s County but somehow I had never been! We had a lot of fun watching all the races, picking cars we wanted to win, and laughing at the guys who were dressed in cut-off tank tops and jorts. They got some good reactions from people in the crowd, too!

Other random things:

1. Top Gun has had a chokehold on this team since seeing it in New Philadelphia. A few of the guys have shaved their beards into mustaches and we’ve been giving each other call signs. Mine is Mother Goose because as the only female director I’m the de facto mom of the group :) One of my favorites is NKA (no known allergies) for Bailey, who had a surprise allergic reaction to some Advil on Day 3.

2. I got a smaller duffle! Collin was using a smaller 2020 bag but decided to upgrade to his extra large 2022 when he met his mom along our route. The smaller bag is definitely harder to pack each morning but is wayyyy easier to carry and has forced me to send some unnecessary items home.

3. It is so. hard. to keep the vans clean. The water van developed an abhorrent smell on Day 3 that refuses to go away. It’s bad enough that after three weeks we’re all still disgusted by the smell, especially after the van sits in the sun for a while. If anyone’s driving the water van, the windows are usually down.

That’s all for now, until tomorrow!
Lauren