4K by the numbers

If you know me you know I love some good ride stats! Here’s a look at our trip by the numbers and some other fun facts:

Mileage

Route total: 4,319 miles

Team total: 3,769 miles (averaged 69 mi per ride)

Personal total: 2,874 miles (averaged 64 mi per ride)

Shortest day: 10.94 miles (Mill Valley, CA to San Francisco, CA)

Longest day: 136.2 miles (Caliente, NV to Ely, NV)

Centuries (100+ miles): 8

Elevation

Route total: 182,510 feet

Team total: 157,793 feet (averaged 2,869 ft per ride). As a team, we climbed 30 verticle miles, or 5.4 trips up Mt. Everest!

Personal total: 119,861 feet (averaged 2,665 ft per ride)

Lowest elevation: -12 feet (Inner Harbor on Day 1)

Highest elevation: 11,793 feet (Trail Ridge Road on Day 40– this is my Garmin measurement, the summit is actually 12,183 feet!)

Least elevation in a day*: 276 feet (Chicago, IL to DeKalb, IL)

Most elevation in a day^: 6,791 feet (Groveland, CA to Jackson, CA)

Flattest day^: 416 feet over 43.68 miles (Grand Island, NE to Kearney, NE)

Steepest day: 4,373 feet over 36.72 miles (Orderville, UT to Cedar City, UT). This day was cut short due to weather– we climbed all morning and had to rack at the summit so there was essentially no downhill at all

• Honorable mention: Day 3 (crazy day in PA) and Day 40 (Trail Ridge Road)

Number of hors categorie climbs: 2 (Trail Ridge Road and Tioga Pass)

* This was technically DeKalb, IL to Princeton, IL, a planned 90-mile day (and a van day for me) that day was cut very short due to a thunderstorm

^ Random/funny note: I was in the van both of these days. Win some, lose some!

Speed

Average personal speed: 12.3 mph

Maximum personal speed: 46.9 mph (Escalante, UT to Bryce Canyon, UT)… I’ll break 50 mph some day!

Slowest day: 8.3 mph average (Orderville, UT to Cedar City, UT– also the steepest day in terms of mileage to elevation, we climbed all morning and then had to rack)

Fastest day: 16 mph average (Bryce Canyon, UT to Orderville, UT). Powered by high energy, threat of rain, and lots of downhill!

Time

Total moving time (on the bike): around 287 hours, or 12 full days

Average moving time: 5 hours, 10 minutes, 32 seconds

• Shortest moving time*: 1 hour, 13 minutes, and 53 seconds (11 miles from Mill Valley, CA to San Francisco, CA
• Longest moving time: 10 hours, 21 minutes, and 34 seconds (137 miles from Caliente, NV to Ely, NV)

Average elapsed time (host-to-host, with breaks): 8 hours, 29 minutes, 15 seconds

• Shortest elapsed time*: 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 8 seconds (Chicago, IL to DeKalb, IL)

• Longest elapsed time: 13 hours, 15 minutes, and 20 seconds (Green River, UT to Capitol Reef, UT)

Most efficient ride: Caliente, NV to Ely, NV. We were a team on a mission this day! 10:21:34 of ride time with 12:31:51 elapsed

Least efficient ride: Mill Valley, CA to San Francisco, CA. 1:13:53 of ride time with 4:58:22 elapsed, thanks to lengthy brunch and photoshoot stops :)

• Honorable mention: Day 1 and Day 15

* These were technically DeKalb, IL to Princeton, IL, a planned 90-mile day (and a van day for me) that day was cut very short due to a thunderstorm

Other ride stats

States visited: 13– Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia (very briefly), Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas (quick detour over the border and back), Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California

Person I rode with the least: Casey, only twice :( Not sure how that happened

Person I rode with the most: Bailey! 13 times <3

Total pedal strokes: 563,711

Average daily calories burned: 1,892 (my Garmin seems to chronically underestimate this but whatever)

Estimated total sweat loss: around 48 gallons (averaged one per ride day lol)

Hosts

Number of unique hosts: 56 (thinking of this as 56 people willing to take in a group of 30 strangers warms my heart every time)

Sleeping arrangements

Most nights spent in one place: 4, in Omaha

Hose showers: I think only 2 personally!

Ride days without any shower: 1 (but I went swimming and wiped down before bed)

Power outages at hosts: 2

Fundraising

Personal total: $8,068

Team total: $238,878

Subject to change! You can still donate here :)

Mishaps

Personal flats: only 2! Very proud of this, shoutout Gatorskins

Team flats: way too many to count, I think our record was 9 in one day

Personal falls: 1, running over Maggie on Day 36. No clip-and-tips, very proud of that too!

Team falls: wayyyyyy too many to count. Grace had at least 5 clip-and-tips during the training ride alone, I’ll leave it at that :)

Serious falls, requiring trips to the hospital: 4

Trips to the hospital: at least 8

Positive COVID cases: at least 20

Misc.

Team composition: 24 riders, 7 runners

Weather

• Rainy days: ~11
• Average temperature while riding: 83º
• Lowest temperature: 41º (Lee Vining, CA to Groveland, CA)
• Highest temperature (of my Garmin): 140º (Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT)

Personal day breakdown

• Ride days: 45
• Rest days: 15 (10 planned, 3 extra for COVID, 2 bonus due to route changes)
• Van days: 10 (5 in host van, 5 in water van)

Cinnamon rolls consumed: not enough

Favorite rides (it’s so hard to choose):

• Day 40: Estes Park, CO to Kremmling, CO, for the views and accomplishments
• Day 63: Lee Vining, CA to Groveland, CA, for the views
• Day 16: Crawfordsville, IN to Champaign, IL, for the incredible team support
• Day 56: Caliente, UT to Ely, NV, for the team accomplishments

Least favorite rides (also very hard to choose lol):

• Day 56: Caliente, UT to Ely, NV, for the difficulty factor
• Day 24: Ladora, IA to Des Moines, IA, for the COVID factor lol
• Day 6 : Confluence, PA to Elizabeth, PA, for the overall bad mental state
• Day 22: Princeton, IL to Iowa City, IA, for gravel and wind
• I was in the van but most of the team would probably say Day 64: Groveland, CA to Jackson, CA, for terrible roads, heat, and insane elevation

A closing note: most of the ride data was generated by my Garmin Edge 530 or Strava, neither of which are highly precise measuring tools (especially for things like heart rate, temperature, calories, etc.). But, I did use my Garmin consistently, and data for team metrics like distance, elevation, and time on the days I didn’t ride were borrowed from my teammates who also used Garmins (mostly Jack, who deserves a shoutout for being as dedicated to Garmin tracking as I was).

Also, 4K is not about the numbers at the end of the day. I found myself feeling a little disappointed that I personally didn’t bike 4,000 miles (or even 3,000 miles, for that matter), but we still did the damn thing!!! Even with interference from weather, injuries, hospital visits, COVID, and bad mental health days we made it from one end of the country to the other and built some incredible relationships along the way. That’s what it’s all about, and no numbers can quantify that :)

Until next time,

Lauren