This day should just read “head wind”. What a killer of a day this has been. Constantly pressing into a head wind was hard work. Have to push so much harder to maintain an average speed. The crew were shattered today. Last night was freezing cold for some reason. I’m always warm so it didn’t bother me much the guys suffered. I wore full tights and long sleeved top to cycle in. Today we rest in Springfield. Home of Abraham Lincoln and of course The Simpsons. Haven’t got quite as far as I had hoped today but it was either a very long day to a rest area or rest a little earlier and have a nice camp site. Tomorrow we will push out running towards St. Louis. I’m hoping the wind drops a little. The problem with long straight roads is that once the wind is against you, it’s against you for the next 20 miles straight. Over the last two days I have listened to music for the first time since being in the US. Playlist included
• linkin park – hybrid theory
• Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA And just to camp things up a little bit.
• Joseph and the amazing technicolored dreamcoat.
Yes, each one of these songs was sung at the top of my voice. America has not seen many 6’3, 15 stone tattooed fellas singing show tunes at the top of their lungs. The locals got a real treat.
The main aim of today was to get Saj to sing the carpenters while we looked for the campsite. He wouldn’t sing it, even though I know he knew all the words!
How to Travel in USA Photo Gallery
Everyday we wake up and check the comments people have made. We check the donations from over night. Thank you for your continued support. Tomorrow we will run. I made some adaptations today to my padded shorts and stuffed a sponge down the back of them Seemed to work pretty well. It’s fine until I stop to talk to someone and it looks like I literally “sh*t a brick”. It’s not a good look at all but helped me stay on the bike a few hours more. We are still edging closer to the 5000 likes. I think one big push could be close??? I’m struggling to think of ways to describe long straight roads…. so today there were once again, long straight roads. You would be forgiven in thinking you had gone in a circle, many of the roads look like another. Miles and miles of corn fields with roads dissecting then into perfect squares. The pictures show a few different things. One is my hat from today when I rested at lunch. The marks on it is the salt drying from my sweat. It was a good day running today. I am able to push quite well in the morning and generally getting about 30 miles in and then resting for lunch leaving me with a smaller couple of runs in the afternoon. I’m finding the running easier than the cycling, I couldn’t tell you why. I dread each day getting on the bike. Run days are about 10 or 11 hours. Bike days have been 12-15 hours. For those tracking us we are about 1 day behind schedule. I wanted to try and get abit of the mileage back today but I was too tired. Yesterday beat me til I had nothing left. I was empty at the start of today from the wind yesterday. Hopefully somewhere I can catch up. Nothing over 20 miles is enjoyable, every step drags and the noise of your trainers hitting Tarmac starts to send you slowly insane. The miles from 20-50 are lonely boring miles. Every member of the team ran with me at some point today, it’s great when they do that. Even not talking but having someone there just makes each step a little easier. One of the pics I have posted is from the bike yesterday, it shows the magic sponge. Don’t knock it til you have tried it! The other picture is a sign we passed today. 1907 miles to LA. It should just say “a long chuffing way Boatwright!”. I was joined on my run today by Kimee Armour. Kimee is a para athlete who is competing at the para games in two weeks. She is competing in the Duathlon. She saw me running this morning so went home and came out for a training run with me. It was brilliant. We are just outside St. Louis this evening. A few people have asked what I’m eating…. well, it depends, but generally I’m eating as much as I can. Breakfast is fruit salad with yogurt and granola. Mid morning maybe a coffee and protein bar. Lunch is a turkey wrap or chicken sandwich. Afternoon I’ll grab anything with calories….doughnut/cake/chocolate. Evening meals have been salads, chilli or spaghetti bolognese. That’s a pretty normal day. Alongside this is a lot of water and Gatorade! Another question I was asked is where people can see my progress. Just use the live tracker on samboatwright.com that’s the best way. Back on the bike tomorrow with my new best friend “the sponge”. Keep doing what you’re doing your end and I’ll keep moving this end. Sam
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