I inhaled a hotel breakfast: fresh waffle, cereal, juice, banana, and a cinnamon roll; still feeding hunger after the previous century ride and also preparing for the next one. It was certainly superior to the cold packaged food found at the campground that never seemed to say good morning.

We collected our bikes and were on the road around 7:15 AM. I was thankfully less saddle-sore than on the second day from previous years, which kept my spirits up getting started. The first 7 miles of rolling hills set the tone for the day. They’re awfully fun speeding downhill, and almost as fun racing back up if you have enough momentum and strength to climb to the next peak, but otherwise they’re just awful. I had to fight up many of those hills, along with several others throughout the day. Day 1 was much flatter; had the Day 2 route been used the first day I think it would’ve been easier, but on the second day it was just mean.

We stopped at most of the rest stops for gatorade, bananas, and sugar to keep the body working. We rarely stayed long, typically just enough to fetch fuel and our breath.

I rode with Hans and Kurt for most of the day. We held our own paceline (where Hans most often pulled) and connected with other trains whenever possible to try to keep the speed up.

The sun was out baking the skin more today which contributed to sapping my energy a little faster, and between that and the cumulative exertion, later in the ride I was feeling the effects. Because I’m a pansy, I was partly hoping the forecasted thunderstorms would roll in and “force” me to take the 75 route instead of the 100 mile turnoff — such thinking probably kept the sun out, and around mile 50 I had to make the choice to ride the 100.

I honestly don’t remember much of the ride at this point. There was lots of pavement, some more rest stops, but mostly I just focused on just moving forward. Kurt and I ended up together for most of the last 20, which was great for switching turns pulling, but I lost him returning to the last 7 miles of hills. Again with the racing down and fighting up with the last bits of energy in my body.

I rolled in approaching 4 PM. The finish line held a group of volunteers and riders cheering those coming in, participatory medals were passed out, and I dismounted and walked up the hill to my ride home.

Body and brain were done.

Here’s a few more cameraphone pictures of my deterioration during the day.

We hit the hotel for showers, then Olive Garden for handfuls of carby breadsticks and pasta. Back at the hotel, Serenity was on for some entertainment while preparing gear for tomorrow, and now (7:15 PM) it’s about bed time, which I’m procrastinating a bit while I can. Just for you.

Today the weather was kind, which helped my performance. It stayed between the low 60s and high 70s and was overcast all day, which is perfect for me — the heat burns me out quickly. The humidity was high which made breathing harder, but that cleared a little after some drizzling that lasted a little after passing 65 miles, and I popped some pseudophendrine pseudoephedrine to combat the general allergens (lots of cut grass, farm-land, nature…). Around the last quarter of today’s 100, my legs started burning pretty badly from the aggressive riding. The Gatorade we’re constantly downing wasn’t enough to keep the lactic acid from building up, so I upped my intake of bananas; the potassium helps. After a rest stop for some fuel, rest, and leg massaging (sadly had to do it myself), a few miles of high rpm spinning (85-95) seemed to clear the pain.

I took some ibuprofen at the end to head off any additional pain, and I think I’d like to try and get to sleep before that wears off. I’m pretty beat, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. The 75 and 100 route share paths until about mile 50, so I might wuss out at that point and just do the 75 if my legs are empty. Cursed legs of meat.

About 3,500 people apparently came out this year. I don’t have any fundraising totals for everyone yet, but thanks to many generous donations, I’m bringing in $940 for the cause. Thank you all!

Here are a few pictures taken from the camera-phone today.

Lessons learned:
• 50 miles is longer than I remember
• I need to pack more food with me so I don’t bonk at a measly 30 miles, and water isn’t enough - I have to go back to drinking Propel while riding
• Strawberry shortcake makes the pain worth it (it tastes better that way)

Overall, the MS 150 went very well, but it was not without hardships (long distance aside). Friday, we headed out for Columbia to complete registration and grab our hotel room for some sleep before Day 1. We stopped for dinner on the way, but spent more time than planned at an Italian restaurant stocking up on carbs. We ended up arriving at registration too late to complete it that night, so we just checked into the hotel to sleep as much as possible before taking care of event check-in and riding the next morning.

I’m not a morning person, and it really showed Saturday. I don’t know of a good way to wake up knowing you’ve committed to ride 100 miles that day, planning the better part of the day on the bike. Anyway, we got into the event grounds early enough to finish registration, meet up with our team, and cram more food. We walked out to the route start among the first couple hundred riders and hit the road around 7:30.

One of the things that help me spend so much time on the bike is that I have shoes that attach to my pedals (kind of like skis) so I can pedal 360 degrees of the crank instead of just pushing down. Unfortunately, among the mass of riders shoulder to shoulder starting this ride, I found I couldn’t clip in on the right. Not a good way to start at least 150 miles for the weekend. I was still able to hook my part of my right cleat into the pedal so I could push down for about a third of the stroke on that side, but was still largely relying on the working left leg. Around the time I was able to figure this out, a fast line of riders was coming from the back. I wanted to clear the surrounding crowd so I could more comfortably experiment with the pedal, so I joined the faster pace line.

Likely motivated by the same insanity that makes me think riding all weekend is fun, we stuck with that pace line, skipped the first rest stop at 10 miles, and didn’t stop to check out the pedal until the 20 mile rest stop. Between the awkward stroke and the 20 mph average, my legs felt unusually tired for only 20 miles, but they improved with some stretching and time spent fixing the pedal and cleat. I was finally able clip in on both sides, which provide ability for an even stroke. Unfortunately, I just spent 20 miles wearing out my right leg, so the rest of the ride was spent trying to compensate again.

Having ridden enough to learn how to ignore discomfort, I still wanted to at least complete the century the 1st day, especially since we had gotten off to such a fast start, so we still kept a decent pace. The route split for the 75 and 100 mile paths before lunch, which meant we had to complete our extra 25 miles *before* lunch since it was a shared location. I think we stopped every 10 miles or so at east rest stop for a quick stretch and some snacks and Gatorade, but only for about 5 minutes to not let the muscles get too cold. Around 65 miles we arrived at lunch (actually somewhat early) and spent about an hour for more food, stretching and rest.

The majority of the remaining 35 miles that day were spent riding into a head-wind in about 90 degree heat, which was anticipated, but still of course unpleasant. Riding into wind essentially subtracts speed in exchange for effort - our speed drops but we feel like were having to work twice as hard.

I spent most of Day 1 riding with one of my teammates, Hans. He and I rolled across the finish line for that day just before 4pm; much earlier than anticipated. Only one other century rider on the team (the “Hermit”) finished before us, which was a fun accomplishment. We checked in our bikes, roamed the event grounds for an early dinner and beverages, and waited at the finish to cheer on the finishing riders.

After so much activity, the body doesn’t really stop consuming energy, so after cleaning up by 6:30 we were hungry again, and went for our second dinner across the road from the hotel. I remember eating, but couldn’t tell you what it was; I’m sure it wasn’t on the plate for too long. We were back in bed by 8:45, exhaustion taking over any ability to stay awake.

I woke up to legs in pain (but still tried very hard to go back to sleep and pretend I didn’t have to ride), but downed some ibuprofen after I (finally) got out of bed. I spent an unusual amount of time Day 1 pulling on the pedals, straining leg muscles that rarely get worked that way. Consequently, there was little strength left there, on top of legs already tired from riding 100 miles the previous day. I sadly didn’t think trying for the century again wise, so I decided to only do the 75 in hopes of taking it easier so I didn’t do any serious damage.

To add insult to injury, Day 2’s first 10 miles were reasonably hilly, forcing my legs awake. As much as the first half-hour hurt, it was awfully fun to race down some hills at 40 mph! This day’s century route turn-off didn’t take place until after lunch, so part of me still wanted to hold judgment until checking time left in the day at that point, even though I was also wishing I just u-turned around the first 20 miles. Anyway, after arriving at the split that afternoon, I could not convince myself that an extra 25 miles was a good idea, and continued on the 75 path. I rode Day 2 with Kurt, who offered excellent support and motivation keeping me from calling it quits even when my legs felt that there was nothing left. Hans had sped ahead of us early on and expected to do the 100. Since all three of us were driving home together, I rationalized taking extra time at rest stops to rest. We probably had been napping at the last stop for about half an hour when I get a text-message by phone that Hans missed the turn off for the century and was waiting for us back at the finish, so there was some motivation to finally finish. It was around then that several others in our group arrived at the last stop, so we socialized a bit before riding again.

The last section of Day 2 followed the same way we started, so those fun hilly 10 miles we started with were no-so-fun hills for the end of the day. I took a break or two at some of the crests before continuing, and even had to walk the last quarter of the last hill, but we finally rolled back into the event grounds that afternoon - this time I think it was about 4:45.

Hans had been back long enough to get in line for a massage at one of the tents, and had already eaten. By the time Kurt and I showed up, we were just ready to get our bikes to the car and leave. We were still starving, so we stopped to get some food (and washed/changed), but finally began our trip back home. By car. In much softer seats than we spent most of the weekend.

I spent the majority of the weekend on a bike, but have not really shared any experiences about how beautiful scenery was, or interesting towns we rode through, or fun conversations we had. That’s largely because when you’re out there, hamming along on the pedals, pushing through exhaustion, I’m sorry to say you really don’t get much of that. My brain activity can pretty much be summarized with combinations of: road, pothole, gravel, faster, “passing on your left!”, ouch, bug, *&$#@, thirsty… and repeat. An odd excuse for fun maybe, but there it is. I didn’t make the 200 miles I hoped to, but certainly put in my time for 150+. The muscles right behind my knees are still suffering a bit, so that’s my punishment I guess.

Thank you to those that contributed to the National MS Society’s cause. 2,802 participants rode 150 miles over two days, raising more than $1.9 million to end the devastating effects of MS.

With your help, as of this I was able to raise $420 of my personal $500 goal. I still have until October to meet my personal fundraising goal. If you have not yet and would still like to make a donation,
you can do so with a secured online payment from my 2005 MS 150 Progress Page.

Here are some metrics for the weekend:

I’m kind of anxious right now, but mostly because I’m not quite prepared… I’ve not yet gathered all the gear and supplies I need, and with about 5 hours before we hope to leave, I still don’t have my bike! Now, that’s mostly my fault as I took it in late to get some work and a tune-up done, but I can still be frustrated because it was supposed to be done yesterday, but wasn’t. It’s expected to be ready before noon today - hopefully that’s true.

The distance doesn’t worry me as I’ve done it before, but I’m still certain it will be a significant amount of torture. Hopefully the hills are kind and the heat and wind aren’t too bad. Wanna come? I’ve got an extra registered number… I probably haven’t sold the experience well…

The point for all this is to raise money for National MS Society programs and research for a multiple sclerosis cure. Please sponsor me as I try and do my part for this event.

Thank you.