Bike and build

I met this cool group of college students who rode their bikes from Providence Rhode Island to San Francisco, stopping to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity sites all along the 3,500-mile route. There are actually several different routes for cross-country bikers that you can see at their Web site: www.bikeandbuild.org.
Shockingly, most of the 31 riders who did te Providence-to-San Francisco trip, were not bikers when they started the trip.
And not shockingly, they became bikers along the way.
Fun facts I learned about their trip at their celebration party at Buca de Beppo in San Francisco: Everyone got flat tires though one girl made it all the way to Nevada before getting her first -- which I think is akin to pitching a no-hitter until the bottom of the ninth.
One trip leader, Jeff, had 13 flat tires in one day. But fellow riders say he is a "patcher" and not a tube changer. Of all the spills, and apparently there were many, only one person had to go to the hospital after a particularly nasty fall that knocked him out for a few minutes. He ended up in the hospital a second time, too, but it was precautionary. He returned to finish the ride with the group. Most of the women on the trip said they gained weight during an entire Summer of cycling. I asked how this was possible and one woman said: "Well, muscle weighs more than fat. But we also ate a lot."
Theroup was inspiring. And it was a good reminder that will -- even moe than skill -- goes a really long way.