First of all, thanks to all of you for riding and raising funds to beat MS! I was diagnosed with MS in 2006, so thank you for riding from all of us with MS.
We started at our house, which is about 94 miles from LaGrange. Joined the route at Clay and Barker Cypress. Day 1 sucked...3 flats...2 of them were slow leaks that took a while for me to realize that it shouldn't be that hard to ride. We rode very well, and averaged in the high 17s to Bellville, feeling good at lunch. After Nelsonville on Day 1, the heat and my MS combined to make it a real challenge for me, but I managed to finish in a very unexciting 9 hours. When the temp gets above about 78-80, it is like somebody flips a switch and fatigue just starts building in my legs. As long as I stop to cool down periodically, I can keep going, but I just can't do 15-20 mile stretches without a break anymore when it is over 80 and sunny. Lots of time fixing tires and lots of time spent trying to cool off in the shade really hurt our pace, but overall, we finished strong with my wife doing a lot of the pulling in the afternoon.
Day two was like a carbon copy of day 1, except I didn't have any issues with flat tires. We took the express route since we just haven't done enough training this year to want to do the steeper climbs without being a nuisance to those around us. We hit lunch just after 9am and then it was like a repeat of day 1. It got above 80 and my legs just started to shut down on me. We still made a good pace to the finish and crossed the line a couple of minutes before noon, but the stretch from lunch to the finish was pretty painful at times. My quads literally were trying to seize up on the big hill right before 71 after lunch. I dropped down to 4.5mph at one point and thought briefly that I was going to have to stop and walk. I am sure the photographer got some Tommy Voeckler-esque shots of me grimacing and trying to force my legs to keep going near the top.
All and all, it was pretty good weather and a good time, but for many reasons this year was more difficult physically for me than many of the previous MS150s I have done (this was
#15 ). Every time I got frustrated or upset at my lack of ability to keep up the pace I wanted, or had to ask my wife to slow down (yes, I was humbled to that degree both days), I just took a moment to look around and reflect about how many people were out there riding, raising money, volunteering, cheering, etc. for all of us with MS, and I was able to just push the negativity away and keep going. So thanks again to all of you, and if you see me out there next year, feel free to ask me to take a pull, as it is the least I can do for what you all are doing for me.