The Genesis

It’s Monday, the 6th of February. It’s dark and there’s about two and a half hours before the sun comes up. I’m sitting up in bed wondering if I am ready for this; and I am debating on laying back down to let the sleep consume me for a few more hours before my alarm wakes me up for work.

Why would I be awake at 5:00 AM on a Monday morning? There are two ways to answer that question. The short answer… I want to get a workout in before I have to go to work. The long answer… commitment. I have to stay committed to this training no matter the cost. I have a very busy schedule in what college graduates call “the in-between” of graduation and finding that which seems to be imaginary to someone fresh out of college; a career. I have a lot behind me and even more ahead. That’s why I need to stay committed. Though it has not been easy, getting the base mileage for this biking adventure is something that I find to be very vital to our time on the road being successful. This idea becoming a reality depends on how the next three months of our time is spent and not wasting that time will take commitment.

The reason I titled this blog “The Genesis” is because it’s exactly that, the beginning. All three of my colleagues and myself are in the beginning stage of this trip. Though months of planning and training are under our belts, we have yet to take flight (literally) with this. We are still running through ideas of what we need to bring, what we want to bring but will not need, and where we will put everything once the list is final. We have a lot of great friends and family supporting us on this trip from home, and along the way. It’s even rumored that some of those friends and family will be joining us on part of this trip, however those details are yet to be determined.

Anyways, I will give you a brief backstory of how  I came to be part of this, potentially over-determined, and extremely ambitious crew. I do in fact have a history of cycling, starting with my dad buying me a race bike at 12 years-old and training me through high school to compete in events anywhere from northern Pennsylvania to upstate New York. My racing schedule came to a halt after graduating from high school and starting up college in the summer of 2012, though I continued riding until I went to Houghton and signed up to their cross country program. I met Jiwan through a friend on the team who was a year ahead of me and we have been getting along better than anyone else from day one. I ran competitively for my two years at Houghton with Joanna as one of my close friends, or as she likes to say, “running buddies”. Tim came along following graduation, as one of Joanna’s friends from home, and he started coming around to the college after he found that there was a lot that him and Joanna had in common. Getting to know each other, we all found this trip as a common goal to take the adventure of a lifetime.

Being in the beginning of this trip, I am both anxious and excited. I look forward to telling you all more about the coming steps we take to complete this trip. Am I ready? Well, in the words of Travis Rice, “[I am] as ready as I’ll ever be, I guess”, to take our journey to the next steps.

• Chaz (In the picture with this post, Jiwan is cheering me on during a cross-country race)