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Day 5: Centerville to Fairfield
Welcome to day five! Planned for 68 miles, actual was just over 70.
Same as yesterday, beautiful weather, fields, yada, yada, yada. We are close to Missouri so the hills were of the rolling variety. Nothing too steep or long, just lots of them. Most of the time the downhill from the prior hill provided enough momentum to make it a good way up the next one. Just a little bit of effort was generally enough to make it to the top.
First town was about 16 miles in to the day. The breakfast stop was packed, so I bought a granola bar and a drink and ate my last Clif bar.
The next town, Bloomfield, was the meeting town for the day. Each day, one town is designated as the meeting town where support drivers are allowed in to town to meet up with their teams. It usually has the best selection of food vendors. The quest for the elusive burger was on!
I circled the town square. Guess who I spotted? The plain cheese pizza shysters from the day before. As I walked past I heard them claim they had plain and pepperoni available. I was not about to fall for their shenanigans a second day in a row and just kept going.
As I rounded the final corner of the square, there it was...the Davis County Cattleman's booth! $6 for a cheeseburger, bag of chips, and a bottle of water. Hallelujah. Now it wasn't the best cheeseburger I've EVER had, but it was pretty damn good at the moment. I was ready to get back on the road, but was distracted by the Amish pie booth next door. That was delicious as well.
Finally headed back out around 11am. It was getting warmer, but the fields didn't turn evil like yesterday.
Eventually made it to Douds, IA and stopped at the firehouse for a hot dog and Gatorade. While in Douds, ran into one of the other team members who indicated there was a big climb out of town. At that point there were only 15 miles left in the day, so I headed out with a sense of dread.
I decided to listen to some music to distract from the climb. After a week of skinny white twentysomethings blasting hip hop and fat old guys blasting Hank Williams Jr, the people around me were about to pay for the sins of the others. The hill started, so did my music.
Not sure what was in the hot dog, maybe amphetamines(?), but all of the sudden my legs were supercharged. I started passing people going UP the hill. That just doesn't happen. The Earth exerts a strong gravitational pull on me, I'm designed for downhills. But it was cool. Besides when you're blasting Motley Crue, you can't spin up a hill...the hill must be attacked. 😁
There were a few more decent hills but between the music, and the mysteriously laced hot dog, I knocked out the last 15 miles pretty quickly.
If you believe Strava, and you probably shouldn't, I've burned just over 17,000 calories so far.
Two more days to go.
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