We had a little under 5 days left to cover this last miles, so just over a double century a day โ it seemed doable. As we crossed the Mississippi River and entered Illinois, I was feeling a lot better than I had a few hours earlier โ the longer break on the other side of the river at the time station had really rejuvenated me. Katie, Doug, and Dawn were in the follow vehicle, and we proceeded to make our way towards Greenville, only about 45 miles up the road.
Along here Doug was Skyping with his wife, Allyn, and so I got to say hello to her. I also got another Dairy Queen strawberry milkshake on this section which tasted pretty good. On this section we were caught by several teams as well, so it was nice to see some other riders and crews on the road. I think one of the teams was a Canadian team. Getting a foot massage from Dawn in Greenville, Illinois. Next up we had a 50 mile stretch to Effingham โ the location of my next sleep break.
So was to begin another night battling the sleep and self-awareness demons. I do remember Doug getting me to do little sprints to help keep me awake, and him telling me what good form I had thanks Inetgrate Performance Fitness! I remember really battling to stay awake. I also remember becoming at least partially disconnected mentally in that there are some blocks of missing time.
I also remember when we got to a town before Effingham and I thought we were almost there and then was disappointed to find out we still had about 20 miles or something fairly significant to go.
When we got to the time station I was loaded into the vehicle and ferried to the hotel, where you guessed it, an ice bath was waiting for me!
