The following are pictures Jason sent me from Taiwan. Hopefully, he'll get to post some comments to tell us about them. Otherwise, he will post about them when he gets back. As for the cycling, the training begins as soon as Jason gets back.
Donation Totals
- Sarah - $300
- Jason - $175
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The Big Ride
We didn't update here as much as we hoped to before the big ride. That's probably because there wasn't much to tell. One of the training rides we planned got rained out and the other one resulted in my getting sick and running into a mailbox. Not exactly a stellar start to my cycling career. But the big ride has come and gone and we'd like to share it with you.
We spent Friday night eating pasta and getting all our gear loaded for the MS150. Saturday morning came early. We got up around 5:30 a.m. and headed out to Rhodes Stadium in Katy for the start of the ride. Given my mishaps the previous weekend, I was incredibly nervous. There were people everywhere. The MS150 was limited this year to 13,000 riders. That seems like a large number but it can't truly be comprehended until you see all of those bikes and people and all that lycra. In the sea of colorful jerseys, we met up with our fellow team members and the ride began.
We rolled out around 7:30 a.m. for the slow start of the ride. Until everyone spreads out a little bit, it's pretty slow going. Jason rides faster than I do, but he was really good about riding the whole thing with me, only going ahead of me until the next rest stop and waiting for me there. We made it through the morning okay, even skipping one of the rest stops. Lunch came at the end of a long hill. There were people everywhere. People were cheering us on for arriving at lunch and there were tons of cyclists pulling in to Bellville. Someone stopped us as we came in and told us where our team tent was. We got our bikes situated there for a break.
We loaded up on sandwiches, fruit salad, potatoes, and pasta, and relaxed in the tent while we grubbed.
Around 11 a.m., we rolled out of Bellville. I was feeling a little intimidated about the journey ahead of us before La Grange. As we were trying to get going, we got stopped at a stop light. We have pedals that you clip into and I was clipped out with my right foot but not my left. Someone cut in front of me as I was trying to get going and I tipped right over. I picked the bike up and got going. Jason was right beside me, so luckily I didn't knock him over, too. I was just a little scratched up on my leg and elbow, more embarassed than anything.
All along the ride, I was impressed by the number of people that were just set up along the side of the road to cheer on their riders. Even though most of them were waiting for someone specific, they cheered for all of us. There were also encouraging signs placed all along the route. My favorite small town was Fayetteville. They had a party going on along one of the storefronts and cheered for us as we went by. I was getting really tired at this point and the cheering helped. As we passed that group, I noticed an older man in a wheelchair sitting across the street. He had a sign that said something about "thanks for riding for me" and I knew from that he had MS. I guess he could tell I was dragging because he looked at me and said "thank you, keep going, you can do it". When I'm tired, I get more emotional, and I got a little choked up. That man got me through the rest of the afternoon.
The miles directly after the last rest stop were the most difficult. We knew we were almost to La Grange and there were some steep hills. I had to stop when we only had around 3 miles to go, just to make sure I could make it. I didn't speak for the last 8 miles or so. Pulling into La Grange, there were people along the sides cheering you on at the finish line of day one (the finish line is below, it was a lot more crowded when we arrived).
It was a long walk to the tent. We had ridden 81 miles in 6 hours and 17 minutes at an average speed of 13 miles per hour, so I was a little tired. We got to the team tent, where they had a place to put our bikes, cots lined up inside, massages going on and all kinds of food.
I went straight for a bag of cheetos and a coke and signed up for a massage. I sat in a camp chair behind the tent where Jason's co-workers had set up and basically didn't speak for 20 minutes. They came out to tell me I could get a massage and I didn't hesitate. Jason got a massage shortly thereafter and we both headed to the showers. I had never seen shower trailers, very strange.
I was just so happy for hot water and clean hair that I didn't mind the fact that I was showering with 6 strangers. They were curtained off and all, but it's still weird. I went back to behind our team tent and got to eating. They had BBQ sandwiches, baked potatoes, and turkey legs. I had a baked potato, but Bob had his first turkey leg. That's his daughter Caroline with him, they rode a tandem that we affectionately call Frankenbike2. It was a tough ride for him, but she had the best seat in the house, proppin' her feet up along for the ride.
Jason wandered around and took pictures. It's just a sea of team tents, with live bands playing in the park and people everywhere. This is where a lot of the bikes sleep.
When he got back, we went with some other folks on our team to check things out. We went to the St Arnold's tent and the Continental tent. The Continental tent has an airplane that's a BBQ pit. It was crazy. I ate some spaghetti there, which was really good. We went back to the tent just before 10 and got situated for a long night of trying to sleep between snoring and people rolling over on very noisy cots. I had to get up twice to go to the bathroom. 5 a.m. came really quickly.
We rolled out of bed, got our stuff packed, and went to get in line. We grabbed breakfast burritos on the way, too. They were really good. We waited in line for probably an hour, if not more. Here we are at the beginning of day two (it looks dark because it still was).
We waited with Maureen aka Mo, Bob's wife and Caroline's mom. She was faster than us but waited for us at each rest stop along the way, which made it more fun. The morning brought more hills, but mostly the fun ones, gradual uphills with great downhills. Just before Bastrop, I got up to 34 miles an hour on a hill. The only downside is that people get scared so they slow down and you have to slow down if you can't get around them.
We made it to lunch around 11 and ate subway sandwiches. It started to sprinkle a bit at lunch and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to finish out the ride, but the rain held off. We ate quickly and got back on the bikes. The afternoon went pretty quickly. Some of the hills were tough, especially once we hit Austin, but we rode up each and every one. We rolled into Austin around 2:35 p.m. after 70 miles, again at an average of 13 mph. Neither of us are talented enough to ride and take pictures without running into people, so we just have a picture of us after we turned our bikes in to be taken to Houston.
We finally found some folks we know, got our pins that you get for riding, and got some food. Here are Mo and Jason eating quickly so we could catch a bus to Houston.
And that is the story of our ride. Jason will probably post later with more information from his perspective. Overall, it was a great experience and I can't wait until next year. In the meantime, we're pretty sold on cycling and are looking forward to joining a local club and enjoying many more rides like this. We were a little sore on Monday, but nothing compared to how sore we thought we would be. Thank you to all of you who supported us in so many different ways. This is something I never thought I'd accomplish, much less enjoy, and I appreciate your help in making this possible. All of that, on top of the fact that you helped out with a really great cause.
Many Thanks!