"Holy shit! Welcome to the Twin Cities!"

This was what a dude said to us as we were rolling into St. Paul earlier this evening. He had asked where we had biked from, and this was his response when we told him both our starting point and our eventual deatination. We told this guy Philly and San Francisco, which we don't always do. When we're hoping for a short conversation, we just tell people where we began that morning and where we're ending that eveninv. Today, that would have been Pepin, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Minnesota, an 82 mile ride during which I sweat more than I think I ever have. (No exaggeration.) But we gave the guy on the street of St. Paul the real info, maybe because we were at an intersection and we knew the chat would be kept short, maybe because he told us he also had a bike made by Surly, a company based here.

Today was hard, as was yesterday. This heat. I've been humbled to get a few responses to this blog in which people have told me they've reminded themselves about us when griping about their own heat wave related issues. I was even more humbled today when I read that the runner Amy Palmiero Winters was the first single-leg amputee to complete the Badwater ultramarathon this weekend. Some of you have heard me talk about Badwater: 135 miles, uphill, in Death Valley, in July. The ultimate.

I hope to keep Amy in mind over the next bunch of weeks. For now, we're here in Minneapolis staying at the home of Aaron's old pal Maddy. The debate at hand is whether to stay here for one or two full days off. This will be discussed in more detail tomorrow. Feel free to weigh in.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.3