2012 - MS 150 Bicycle Ride

Scott picked me up at the office at 4ish on Friday afternoon. We fought rush hour and construction traffic all the way to the Logan fairgrounds. Rich showed up shortly after we got there. After we set up camp and picked up our registration packets we all hopped in Rich's car to get dinner. We went to the Firehouse Pizza and Pasta place on the south end of town. Scott said his pasta what the best ever. My favorite part was the warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream. Back at our campsite we wandered around the fairgrounds after dinner for a while and chatted up with a few people that we knew. Brett Young showed up and camped with us. I was ready for bed by 9:30ish. I woke up before 6 to tinkle and then went back to my sleeping bag until after 6. I grabbed some breakfast and then got geared up to ride. Scott, Rich, Brett and I worked our way to the start line and got out on with the first wave of riders. We were still weaving around riders a bit when a fast moving train of Cisco riders blew by. Scott and I tried to tag on but their pace was smoking hot. We were able to find other riders to tag onto most of the way out but kept loosing them to the rest stops. We were buzzing along nicely when another fast train of riders blew past. I think one of them was my neighbor Dennis. I hollered but but he was busy gritting his teeth. Scott and I had a stratagem to ride to the 50-60 mile point before our first break. This first half of the ride was so beautiful and nice with no noticeable wind. Rural Cache Valley is really a spectacular place to ride a bike. As we were heading west to our first rest stop in Weston, Idaho the wind started to kick up and we could feel the heat of the day. We made a pretty fast stop and then had a tailwind for the next 5 or so miles until the course turned south and our face was right into a brisk, hot wind. Our pace slowed from about 22mph to about 15mph. A group of 4 Autoliv cyclists passed us going about 20 so we hopped on. We followed them all the way to the lunch stop. I was pretty hungry for my 10:30am sandwich. Scott and I choked down our food and went to the bikes. We debated whether to go or wait for the riders we had just followed. We elected to leave thinking that they would pass us soon and we could tag on again. No such luck. We rode the last 30 miles alone taking turns with our noses in the wind. We didn't realize until after we finished that no one passed us. We, on the other hand, passed a bunch of riders on this last stretch. As we rode by Scott's grandpa's homestead I got a short Cache Valley history lesson. Scott was emotional and teared up. My eyes were too hot and dry to tear so I just kept pedalling. We saw riders sagging with less than 10 miles to go (really). We finished strong keeping our pace between 15mph and 20mph. We enjoyed the enthusiasm of the finish area. It was 12:30, a half an hour off our goal finish time.We showered, cleaned up our camp area and headed for McDonalds. I got a large milkshake and Scott got a large smoothie. Fast minivan ride home. Scott said "well, there is another MS ride in the books."

Me with the finish line cheerleaders - I have the Dave Zabriskie hair thing going on