Day 61: Four Moments from Today That Really Stuck Out

By: Annie Phan

1. Early in the day, I went a bit ahead/to the left of the group to take some flattering photos of everyone in the morning light. Somebody said I was like Greg, who’d done the same when biking with us. I’d just like to clarify that I’m not like Greg. Greg races. Greg bikes through Utah alone at midnight. Greg is a 33 year-old British man who is very fast on a bicycle. Nonetheless, I have included the flattering photos below.

Our shadows in the morning.

Our colorful crew for the day.

2. Yesterday, someone asked what my favorite color was. I would have to say it’s the whole spectrum between two colors - the first being the color of my spork, and the second being that of Kate’s green shirt with a van on it. We all have color-coded sporks that Kate gets upset about when they are mixed up. I have started to keep mine in my backpack to avoid conflicts with her. It’s a very pleasing minty green color. Kate’s shirt is also green, and you can probably find a picture of it on the blog somewhere because we do not have many clothes. Today while we were biking, there were many little shrubs lining the road that were a green somewhere within my pleasant-spectrum, and I very thoroughly enjoyed looking at them.

Pale green bushes lined the road for most of the ride. You can see a few of them here, atop one of the many summits we conquered today.

3. Today I spent a lot of time riding with An. Something I noticed several times throughout the day is how ridiculously low her cadence is. It is literally about 30 RPM. A few times I tried to replicate this high power approach, and each time my leg muscles would immediately seize up in confusion and anger, admonishing me for overestimating their strength. Then I would gear down about 5 times and continue watching An press onwards with inhuman strength. I fear her.

An, looking majestic on the open road.

4. Our last big ascent of the day was Pinto Summit. This was after about 70 miles of biking, including two other summits and a “small hill.” At this point, we were pretty beat. An and I stopped on the side of the road for some water and to breathe a little bit, and she helped me come up with the following Spotify queue to get hyped up to the summit. Lemon, How Far I’ll Go, The Climb, I’ll Make a Man Out of You, Let it Go, and Just Around the Riverbend. On the way down I played The Ecstacy of Gold four times in a row. I hope that the people at Spotify know to ignore these types of listening binges as they craft my Discover Weekly playlists.

A great deal of satisfaction accompanied this photo.

See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya.