Day 45 - Mackinaw City to Alpena, MI - 97 miles - 636 feet of elevation gain

When you wake up and open the blinds and see the rain actually landed, well it’s very tempting to crawl right back in bed. We knew the chance of rain was 100%, but were hoping for a change. Breakfast at the hotel began at 7am so our start time had to be adjusted accordingly.

It’s really hard to know how to dress on days like this, because I know that I’ll get warm once I start pedaling. Inside the hotel I was cold, probably because the AC was set to 65 degrees. So I walked outside expecting it to be cold, but it was warm and humid. It wasn’t raining, but there was evidence it had been through the area on the roads. We left around 8am and the rain had stopped. For our first 20 miles I thought we might actually avoid the 100% chance of rain, despite the cloud evidence to the contrary. I opted to go with the rain pants, roll the jacket into the pocket of my jersey, and stick with the waterproof socks. When we reached the first SAG stop at mile 20, the rain from the sky had held off, but I’m fairly certain it rained sweat inside my rain pants. But just as I was grabbing my stroopwafel the drips started coming down. We quickly got on the bikes with me leading the pack, because I needed to stop at a rest stop 7.5 miles up the road to use the ladies room.

I’m fairly certain it has become obvious when I have to use the bathroom by how fast I pedal to get to a known bathroom stop. We stopped at one point to let the tail catch up, but as soon as they caught up I sped up again. It was really raining at this point, so at the SAG stop I had put on my rain jacket, but opened the vents. It’s a strange feeling to be soaked on the outside from the rain, but also to be sweating inside your clothes. It was a battle all day!

Another battle was keeping the rain and sweat out of my eyes. I need to come up with some sort of wiper or rain-x for eyewear. I tried biking with the my sunglasses on but eventually the drops become too numerous or they’d fog up when I removed them to wipe my eyes. I had no more pieces of dry clothing to wipe my eyes dry. At one point I rode with one eye closed because the water and face oils kept making it burn. By the end of the ride I stowed the glasses in my helmet and just kept my head down so the rain wasn’t hitting my face directly.

I made the call that if it was raining, we’d have lunch at a restaurant for a break to have a chance to warm up. I found a place 20 miles from our last SAG stop at mile 58. Between those two stops Zach got a flat. Across from where we stopped for the repair was a bike trail. The rain had slowed at this point. We decided to take the bike trail for as long as we could, then pop back onto the road to hit the restaurant. We tried to order food ahead of time, but they were too busy to take a phone order. Hot soup, a grilled cheese or hot dog, and some fries were just what we needed to fuel us to the finish.

I was so cold from my wet jersey at the lunch stop that I decided to switch sports attire. I grabbed my rash guard bathing suit top and wore that for the rest of the ride. The long sleeves kept me warm and it’s designed for such wet occasions. The rest of the ride was on and off rain, more on than off. But the final 5 miles was when it became really interesting. Someone turned the faucet on full blast, while at the same time putting the fan on high. We had a cross wind with heavy rain, what a motivator that was for picking up the speed! We went from 14-15 mph to 20-25 mph, with some kicking it higher. Everyone was just pedaling fast! Micah C. had a flat earlier in the ride but something triggered another one in the middle of this final push to the hotel. He just kept riding instead of trying to deal with it in the downpour for the last 2 miles. There aren’t any pictures or videos of this swirling rain, but there are some after shots of the smiling faces at the hotel. What a great way to build resolve and grit!