On June 2, 2014, Brother Eric Tien, Alpha Psi/Maryland 2015, and a group of 30 cyclists departed on a 70-day, 4,000+ mile bike ride across country from Portland, ME to Seattle, WA. The group pedaled across the country in honor of friends and family members who have lost their lives to cancer. The goal of the 4K for Cancer trip was to raise money and awareness for the Ulman Cancer Fund.
Tien first heard about the 4K for Cancer event from a classmate at the University of Maryland who had ridden in the event the previous year. His classmate eventually convinced him that he should participate.
“I had wanted to bike across the country for a few years now because my father had done it when he was younger. I just never planned it out,” said Tien. When I learned about 4K for Cancer I knew it was perfect for me. My aunt had passed away from Cancer so I wanted to do something to support my cousins and the rest of the young adult cancer community,” he said.
About a month prior to starting the trip Tien had just finished physical therapy from a previous back injury. Because of the physical therapy and end of the year final exams, he was left with little time to train. He also hadn’t been on a bike in nearly two years.
“It was definitely a challenge and a test of my mental fortitude,” said Tien. “We averaged around 80 miles a day. The hardest day was 123 miles through the Washington desert. It was 105 degrees! My group was the only one to finish. We woke up at 4 a.m. and finished a little past 8 p.m.”
Most days were not what Tien had expected.
“I thought that there would be time for a yoga workout or meditation in the morning after breakfast, and that we would wrap the day up at 5 p.m. and have time to go to happy hour or explore town,” he said. “That wasn’t the case at all. It was much harder than I thought. We were busy almost all day every day, and if you weren’t helping out with the various chores, then you weren’t being a good team member,” he continued.
There were also ups and downs along the way.
“At the beginning of the ride many of the riders were getting sick from sleep deprivation,” said Tien. “Our mechanic was one of those riders – he fell asleep while riding his bike – crashed – and ended up with a concussion. A female rider fractured her arm, but ended up riding 50 more miles before she could be seen by a doctor. Another rider had 17 flats in one day – talk about frustrating! But, there were good times too, like when a random person started talking to us while we were stopped to fix a wheel and ended up giving a $1,000 donation,” he said.
The final stretches of the trip proved to be the most challenging according to Tien as he wrote from the road.
“The biking is really tough now, lots of long days through the Rockies... and we're all continuously sore. No one mentioned the fact that we never have time to recover so our rest days are always heavily anticipated. People are starting to get sad that the summer is coming to an end, and everyone is desperately homesick at the same time. We all miss our beds, pets, ability to sleep past 7 a.m., etc.”
What were the most memorable moments?
There are too many great experiences to list,” said Tien. “All of the national parks we visited were some of the best experiences - Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier, Mt. Rainier, Olympic National Park. Waking up at 4 a.m. to bike to the top of Glacier National Park…We took the Going to the Sun road, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever done,” said Tien. “We had to get to the top before 11 a.m. because the road was too narrow and too busy to allow bikers. We all made it. This was an optional ride and it was also on a rest day. One of our teammates said she was sick of biking so she just decided to run all the way up and back down.
She ended up clocking 32 miles on foot that day...it was insane,” said Tien.
“The last ferry ride we took from Bainbridge Island to Seattle was also a memorable experience,” said Tien. “It was one of my favorite days. We were all having such a great time on the ferry, trying to celebrate our last few hours together before finishing our ride in Seattle,” he said.