I woke up pretty early and enjoyed an enormous breakfast with the Withers family as Kathryn was adamant that I get the necessary calories. What I couldn't eat I packed with me in the cart to take on the road. After saying goodbye to Brock and Kathryn, I left with Trevar back to Brunswick where he dropped me off in the bank parking lot. Staying with the Withers definitely helped with my recovery following the monstrous run yesterday. My legs were the most sore they've been in a very long time and the run to Kent was no cakewalk at 33 miles. The day started with a long walk to the interstate crossing on the other side of town.
Pretty soon I discovered the first flat tire on the new cart. While fixing it outside of an equestrian center a friendly passer-by offered some electrical tape to help the cause. The patches didn't seem to stick very well and I decided to go for a new tube instead. About a half mile later I discovered the new tube to be completely flat and realized I forgot to take out the two quarter inch thorns that were stuck into the tire.
With the cart all fixed up I descended into Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which was quite difficult without a brake. The leaves changing colors made the park very beautiful, but it was pretty obvious that a National Park in the Cleveland metro area doesn't quite have the splendor of one out west.
After adding to the burn in my legs by climbing out of the valley I got onto a paved bike path that would take me almost all of the way to Kent. I eventually got to the suburban college town and realized I made the correct decision to take tomorrow off. I checked into the University Inn, mostly an apartment complex but with a few rooms checked out nightly. After getting cleaned up I walked around the very nice downtown area and realized I was way too tired to do anything. I went back to my room, cooked dinner on the stove and went to sleep very early.
Entrance to Cuyahoga National Park-before the descent
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