Day 24 will go down as our hardest day on the trip! All the other days have been difficult, especially in this last week, but Day 24 was knee breaking, thigh shattering, and nearly took some of us 9 hours.
The first half of the day was spent climbing two of our biggest hills of the trip! After TWO hours on the bike we got to the top of our 1,000ft climb and had only gone 11.1 miles. We were so proud of ourselves but we’re mortified that we still had so stinkin far to go. There is something so victorious and empowering about climbing up hills and getting to the top!
This morning before we left (it’s Day 28 now I’m a little behind on writing this) Robyn told us how getting up hills makes her feel like she wants the girls at the Refuge to feel! We feel like we can do anything and that’s exactly our prayers for the girls through their recovery! We hope these girls feel victorious and empowered by love and thoughtfulness of The Refuge Ranch! They can do anything they want and choose and they have a team behind them supporting them through their recovery and even into their time transitioning out of the ranch!
After the first mountain we climbed we were met with a TEN mile down hill that was a DREAM!!!!!!! I would truthfully do the hill again multiple times to slide down the other side but then again, it might be fun to just drive up and ride down haha sounds more resourceful!
After the bigger hills in the morning, we got back to the ocean!!! We spent about a week inland and we missed the ocean breeze (& the views) more than we thought we would! We spent all afternoon climbing steep baby hills and in my personal opinion, those are significantly worse than big steady ones that go for miles. The team jokes that Day 10 and Day 24 are like we run a full marathon and we get done our coaches are like “not good enough, get on the line it’s time for suicides.” Brutal.
I’m writing this a few days late like I said, on the back end of our hardest week of the trip. It’s crazy to look back and realize some things that I didn’t realize then! Even though the days were so hard, I freaking love these girls and that’s my biggest take away looking back. They are tearing up these hills and roads and I’m SO proud of their work ethic! They are passionate and so eager to fight for these girls, girls they’ll never meet but love with their whole hearts!
Something flipped this week and we went from ten girls who are individually passionate and riding for a big big cause to actual friends who I love and will probably cry to leave! ~and I don’t really see myself as the crying type~ I know the WEIRDEST things about them like Grace is allergic to dog saliva (no joke) and Christina is only sad when she loses service because she can’t check linked in at every rest stop. I know that Chloe thinks she’s psychic (ha.............) and Hadley is the lightest sleeper in the world. I know how every single one of them climbs up a hill and I’m still learning how each one feels encouraged! But I love them! And I’m SO PROUD of each and every one of them!!
We finished our day in a hotel celebrating Robyn’s birthday! We watched The Bachelorette (RIP to Connor S, PTP loves you) and ate Chinese takeout! Only two more weeks of this strange lifestyle we live! So many emotions about it but I know I’m for sure gonna miss it! BRING ON SoCal!!!!!!!
-Haley
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