{"id":152760,"date":"2019-08-06T14:23:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T18:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=152760"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T18:21:13","slug":"cyclopaths-complete-3500-mile-bike-trip-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/08\/cyclopaths-complete-3500-mile-bike-trip-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cyclopaths\u2019 Complete 3,500-mile Bike Trip for Charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four UConn medical students are getting reacquainted with their own mattresses after spending eight weeks bicycling across the country.<\/p>\n

\"Justin,
Day 56: Homecoming at UConn Health (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Liz Rodier, Keanna Chang, Justin Hoffman and Yoga Kammili reached Atlantic waters in Old Saybrook Monday, it marked the completion of the 14th<\/sup> Coast to Coast for a Cause, a cross-country bicycle tour that has become an annual UConn School of Medicine tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great,\u201d Rodier said, moments after she and her three second-year classmates arrived at UConn Health Sunday. \u201cIt feels like we\u2019ve come a long way, but it\u2019s very surreal to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Keanna,
Day 1: The Pacific shore, Anacortes, Washington (coast2coastforacause2019.home.blog)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Come a long way they did. The 3,500-mile journey started in Anacortes, Washington, June 10. It took them mostly along a bike route known as the Northern Tier and included two stints in Canada. Glacier National Park and Niagra Falls are among the notable landmarks they experienced along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned on this trip was, we\u2019re definitely able to do a lot more than we think we would be able to do, because looking at this summer as a whole, I don\u2019t know how we did that,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cBut it\u2019s really just one day at a time, and you can do what you have to do in that day, in that moment, to get yourself through. If you look too far out, it can seem insurmountable, but just take a little bit of time and you can get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yoga,
Day 56: Victory lap at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford (coast2coastforacause2019.home.blog)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year\u2019s cause was the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, which provides a free summer camp experience for children with health challenges. The students stopped there Sunday morning, even though the detour added a few more hills and miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 110% worth it,\u201d Kammili said. \u201cIt was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campers all came outside their cabins and cheered for us and high-fived us as we rode by, so that was really great to see them,\u201d Rodier said. \u201cOur contact at the camp, Justin, gave us a tour of the camp, described everything to us. It was really, really cool to see the tangible aspects of what we\u2019re raising money for. And he told us lots of stories about campers and it really touched our hearts. It was very emotional to be there, but very incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medical students historically refer to the summer between their first two years as their last free summer, because there\u2019s no significant time off for the rest of medical school.<\/p>\n

Aside the physical and mental demands of two months of cycling and missing family and friends, the riders, who nicknamed themselves the \u201cCyclopaths,\u201d had to endure flat tires, summer storms, mosquito swarms, and the occasional choice between unpaved trail and busy roadway.<\/p>\n

\"Liz,
Day 3: Washington Pass (coast2coastforacause2019.home.blog)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA large part of it was, if one person was having a bad day, the other three almost knew exactly how to keep them sane and keep them motivated,\u201d Kammili said.<\/p>\n

Chang added, \u201cThere were a few days we were all just having a bad day, and I think it helped for all of us to just be miserable together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the trip the riders posted photos and daily updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hoffman said what he was least prepared for was pedaling into the wind, which he said \u201cis awful and can really ruin your day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Keanna,
Day 27: On the road in North Dakota (coast2coastforacause2019.home.blog)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere were like 10 days out of the whole trip where the wind was going with us, and those were glorious,\u201d Chang said. \u201cBut then the headwind days, I\u2019ve never been so frustrated in my entire life. It\u2019s just because you\u2019re pushing against this invisible force, it doesn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some days the students logged more than 100 miles, and at night they would either camp, pay for modest lodging, or stay with a Warmshowers host. Warmshowers is a worldwide community of people who offer their homes for touring cyclists to stop for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the people who hosted us and fed us, they were beyond kind,\u201d Kammili said. \u201cThe kindness of strangers has just been unbelievable. Biking across the country, people say it\u2019s a great pace to see the world, and that\u2019s true, but I think the best part was just the number of strangers who would come up to us and just start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yoga,
Day 49: Niagra Falls (coast2coastforacause2019.home.blog)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four young adults rolling through town in full bicycle gear often was a conversation starter among the locals. Rodier said they would hand out makeshift business cards to help tell their story, and it led to additional donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn our web page we\u2019re watching our fundraising meter grow as we\u2019re coming across the country,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s really encouraging and really cool; we\u2019re seeing names we don\u2019t recognize on our donor page. That\u2019s so awesome people are getting behind what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pedaling may be over, but the 2019 Coast to Coast for a Cause is still accepting donations<\/a> for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, and will continue to do so for several more weeks. So far they’ve raised more than $16,000 toward their $20,000 goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four UConn med students spent their last free summer pedaling Coast to Coast for a Cause, raising money for a camp for medically challenged children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":152761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-152760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 03:35:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152763,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152760\/revisions\/152763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/152761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152760"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=152760"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=152760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}