The team dream
Sitting by the reflecting pool at the east end of the Nation-
al Law Enforcement Officers Memorial – on the side opposite
where the Unity Tour arrival ceremony had just concluded –
members of Howell Local 228 found this to be just the place for,
well, reflection. Their group of 17 that included five Local 228
riders partnering with 12 officers from federal agencies in New
Jersey wanted to share this moment together.
Cycling might be an individual pursuit anywhere else, but in
the Unity Tour it’s a team sport.
“When you have that big group together, it’s really kind of
the essence of it,” Local 228 member Joe Markulic commented.
“There’s nothing like it. You work with some of the people, but
then you team up with others. And when you are breaking from
the ride, you are with thousands of other people that you never
met before.”
Markulic completed his seventh tour with a team made up
mostly of officers who had done the Tour before. They told the
two first-time riders about the feeling coming into the memo-
rial to finish the Tour, and how that once-in-a-lifetime feeling
comes every time you complete the journey.
“It’s an amazing feeling just seeing people out there support-
ing you,” he added. “People out there really do support us, and
A Pause of Allegiance
it’s something you’ll never forget.”
In a year more emotional than most for law enforcement, the
emotions spent getting from there to here vary for many riders.
But there was one that Markulic couldn’t avoid, and it kept the
team going.
“First of all, there is pain,” he explained. “But you just keep
thinking, ‘I gotta keep going.’ The officers we ride for paid the
ultimate sacrifice, so a little pain shouldn’t affect us.” d
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