Day 38 - Great Bend, KS (2004 miles)

Today was a pretty tough day. I did a relatively small 70 mile day yesterday, and today was a longer 90 mile ride. While yesterday’s ride took just 4 hours, today it took 10 hours!

The main difference was the wind. From the time I got onto the road at around 7:00 AM to the time I finished at 5:00 PM there was continuous headwind. The first 30 mile section was annoyingly hard. With 60 miles to go, I wasn't feeling great. I pushed on anyway and got to Alexander, 20 miles further along. There I found a nice little rest area with water, restrooms and sheltered picnic tables. I refilled my bottles and took a quick 20 min nap on the picnic tables.

Then a slow, hard ride to Rush Center and I had completed 60 miles. At this point, I was considering just stopping here and getting a motel at a nearby city. I didn't think I'd be able to go all the way to Great Bend. However, I met a bunch of girls riding the same way. They were going to stop at Larned
(about the same distance as Great Bend, but a different route) and they didn't seem to be put down by the distance. So I decided I should push myself and go all the way to Great Bend. That ended up being a pretty good decision, as I was able to keep a much better pace from then. The wind had also died down a little, so it was a fairly nice ride. I also finished my second 1000 miles!
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I got to Great Bend, got a nice motel for $45, and had two dinners (since I didn't really have lunch).