Daddy's MS150 2008 Recap

The “I don’t have anything to prove 150”
or

“Man vs. nature – How 150 miles can feel like 200”
This was a different kind of year for the MS150. This was the fifth time I had done the ride and I felt like I was in pretty good shape for the ride. I had been logging some decent miles, training a couple of times a week and riding some pretty good hills. But there was one factor that made this year’s ride more challenging, even for some of the most experienced riders I spoke to – the wind!

But let me begin at the beginning. The team that I’ve ridden with the past few years folded, so I wasn’t on a team this year, at least not officially. The great group of riders that I’ve met in the past year from Brenham are all members of the Apache team, so I hung with them the entire time. They decided to start from Waller, which was a new official starting point this year. It’s a shorter ride than normal – it cuts about 25 miles off the route – and I didn’t really want to do it. Weeks ago when I found out about the Waller start I could hear the potential for ridicule: “Waller Weenies” or “Waller Babies.” You get the idea. But just like last year when my team began from The Woodlands, which ADDED miles to the route, I decided to be a team player and go with my group. It turned out to be a GREAT decision.

We left from Waller just after 8am on Saturday. My wife, Kristi, and my kids, Kayci and Noble, came out to see me off, which was a really fun way to start. It was a little chilly with temps in the upper 40s, but it warmed up quickly once we got going. The beginning of the ride was just incredible. There were wildflowers and honeysuckle on the side of the road that smelled awesome and there was no wind to speak of – at least not for the first few miles. Then we turned onto FM 159 toward Bellville and the wind kicked in. At first it was only coming at us from the side. At the first rest stop the wind picked up an MS150 tent right in front of me and blew it UP a hill, almost hitting two volunteers before it came to rest on a pole. The first leg of the ride was actually pretty nice. I got into a good cadence and averaged about 19 MPH for close to ten miles.

We got to the lunch stop in Bellville just after 10am. We stuck around for about 45 minutes and then got on the road again. And that’s when the real challenge began. From Bellville, the route takes a northwest turn which, on this particular day, happened to be directly INTO the wind. After Bellville, there’s a lot of open prairie, which meant LOTS of wind. A couple of rest stops later I got curious and busted out the iPhone to look up the National Weather Service page. It said that the wind was 17 MPH sustained with gusts of 20-25 MPH. But other than that, it was truly a gorgeous day and I still felt great. At the rest stop we all watched as a yellow helicopter flew over.

A few miles down the road, the entire route stopped due to an accident. That helicopter we saw turned out to be a Life Flight chopper on the way to the hospital. Never a good thing… I stopped briefly at a little barbecue place in the small town of Industry to say hi to a friend and coworker from Germania. She offered me a barbecue sandwich, but my ham sandwich from lunch was doing evil things in my tummy, so I passed, reluctantly. It smelled SO good… (I did have a little taste, though!)

I’m going to skip right over griping about the wind here. It was there. It was strong. Yada yada yada. Next stop – Fayetteville. As I rode into town, I saw a sign with my name on it that another friend/coworker had put out. I stopped and looked all over for him, but he later told me that he had gone in to take a nap. I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time because a nap sure sounded good right about then. So I kept going. Fayetteville is always a fun town to ride through. The people there always come out and do a great job of cheering us on with bubbles and music and cow bells and pom pons and signs. Truth be told, I enjoy going through the cheering section in Fayetteville more than I enjoy the cheering section in La Grange at the end of the first day.

The stretch from Fayetteville to the final rest stop was where the ride began getting tough. There are some really good rolling hills that can be pretty fun to ride in good weather. In fact, some of the longest and best downhills are in that stretch where you can just coast for a couple of minutes and relax. But not that day. Rolling down the hills I should have been getting up to 22 or 24 MPH. I was surprised when I looked at my cyclometer and saw that I was only going 16 MPH. Downhill.

Finally! The last rest stop on the first day! By the time I dragged in to the last rest stop I was exhausted. Riding against the wind the way we were, you can’t really coast to take a rest. And it’s really tough to get into a high gear to make any time. You’ve just got to keep it in a mid to low gear and keep pedaling constantly. I took about a 30 minute break at that rest stop. There were still about 11 miles left to go and it was nearing 3pm. I was not making good time at all. The next 8 miles or so were very slow – for everyone. Everyone seemed to be taking it a lot slower than normal and no one was talking. It was just really, really quiet.

Then, finally, the route took a left turn toward the south at Highway 77. Suddenly, the wind was at my back and I got a sudden burst of energy! I kicked it into gear and averaged 21 MPH for the next four miles – all the way to the finish line at the fairground in La Grange. Those last four miles were exhilarating. I had no problems with the hills at all. Those four miles were my favorite part of this year’s ride, hands down.

I got to La Grange at EXACTLY 4pm. Not my best time, but by no means my worst, either. At La Grange, one of the first things I did was go and get a much-needed massage. Then I grabbed up the free baked chicken dinner that they have for the riders and went to find my Brenham rider friends at the Apache tent. We hung out there until they had all gotten their massages and had eaten dinner. Most riders in the MS150 camp in big circus-style tents or camp in their own tents. Living just down the road in Brenham, we had planned on driving home to sleep in our own beds. So we did, and I got to see my family and get a good night’s rest. After the long day, it was rejuvenating.

INTERMISSION (go get yourself some popcorn and a nice cool drink at the concession stand)

The next morning was just plain chilly. When we started riding toward Austin on Sunday it was 38 degrees. Luckily, I’ve got some cold weather gear for just such situations. However, since it was supposed to get up to the upper 70s, I didn’t want to dress too warmly and get overheated. So I wore my windbreaker and an insulated skull cap under my helmet. Once we really got moving I stayed pretty warm. It was those first three or four miles that were a little … numbing.

On the MS150 day two there are basically three routes – a short “express” route on Highway 71, an intermediate route and the “challenge route” that winds through the steep (but breathtakingly beautiful) hills between Beuscher and Bastrop state parks. My riding group planned on doing the shorter “express” route. I originally figured I’d split off and do the challenge route like I normally do and meet up with them at some point later in the day. But the forecast said that the winds would be equally as strong on Sunday as they were on Saturday. So I changed my plans. The wind had taken its toll on me more than I expected the day before, so I wasn’t real excited about battling wind AND hills on day two. I had never ridden anything other than the challenge route before, so I thought it might be a nice change of scenery to take the express route with my team.

The express route is nowhere near as scenic as the other routes, but it is quite a bit easier. The hills are long and rolling, unlike the short steep hills on the “regular” route. But on this day easier was good because the wind kicked up about 8am and it never let up. The only real challenging hill came just as we were entering Bastrop. There’s a really good, long uphill on Highway 71, but I was feeling well and climbed it without much trouble. Training in the hills around Brenham really paid off! We hit lunch in Bastrop at 10:15. One of my best friends from my teenage years was there serving sandwiches to all the riders with her law firm, and it was good to see her and say hi.

I don’t know whether it was the energy drink I had at lunch or just that I got in a groove, but after lunch I felt really good and managed to maintain a really good cadence, despite riding straight into the wind. In fact, all my riding partners kept a good cadence as well and we rode in what’s known as a pace line for most of the rest of the afternoon.

We got to Austin at just after 2pm, which is respectable – especially considering that we were once again fighting strong winds all day. My family was there to see me cross the finish. I can’t even express in words how it felt to finish a long ride and then to look over and see my wife, daughter and five week old son waving to me. Kayci drew a picture of me riding my bike on the front of her shirt and wrote “Daddy Pharaon.” On the back she drew a bunch of hearts and wrote “Daddy’s girl.” He wasn’t wearing it, but she also drew a picture of me on my bike on a little shirt for Noble. We threw my bike in the back of my truck and had a great lunch at Rudy’s, one of my favorite barbecue restaurants. Then we went home. It was a great ending to a great day.

All in all, this year’s ride was the hardest MS150 I’ve ever ridden. Two days later as I write this, my legs are still sore and I’m still a little exhausted. I feel like I rode more like 200 miles, and I discovered that riding against a stiff wind for two days feels a lot like riding in sand for two days. But it was definitely a very good challenge, and I really appreciate that. I’m going to take a week or so off from riding just to recuperate, but I’m excited about riding with the great group of riders here in Brenham so I won’t be off for long.

I want to thank everyone who supported my ride this year with contributions to the National MS Society. Thanks to all of your support I raised over $1400 in pledges this year to fight Multiple Sclerosis. If you would still like to donate, you can do so until May 1 at http://ms150.org/ms150/donate/donate.cfm?id=198767

I have a friend at work who has MS and knew that one of my previous employers has MS, but this year it got a little more personal. A few weeks ago, my cousin was diagnosed with MS. So thank you, really, for helping to raise money for research to end this disease.

I also want to thank God for giving us some beautiful weather to ride in. Sure it was windy, but it wasn’t hot and it wasn’t rainy. Thank God also for giving me the ability and the strength to ride and for letting me love more and more this thing that I do. I’m looking forward to next year already!

-James