My wife and I couldn't sleep the night before, so at 2 am we decided to start driving to La Grange. We arrived at the Knights of Columbus at 4 am and slept for a few hrs in our car until people started arriving in droves shortly after 6 am.

I was the guy wearing all-white w/baggy mesh shorts, tennis shoes, and full commuting setup (bike weighted about 55 lbs. with loaded trunk bag + panniers, full fenders, front + rear racks, 4 lights on the front, 2 on the front fork, and 2 in the rear). In the trunk bag and panniers I was carrying 2 u-locks, a spare chain, a full hex wrench set + other bike tools, spare change of clothes, suntan lotion, a box of granola bars, and 2 big bottles of fluids. Basically I was trying to simulate conditions on an unsupported tour where I would need to do all repairs on-the-fly myself if necessary. I didn't need stop at any rest stops - if I was hungry or thirsty I just stopped on the side of the road and ate my food and drink from my trunk bag. The only official stop I needed to make was for lunch in Bastrop (where I refilled on fluids and devoured sub sandwiches).

The time I saved by not waiting in lines at the rest stops kind of made up for my low average speed. I know it was completely unnecessary to ride with all that weight, but I just wanted to prove to myself and to some of my friends (some who scoffed at me for riding such a heavy setup for the MS 150) that yes, you can do this ride with a full commuter / touring setup and no fancy cycling shoes or special team kit or anything like that.

Anyways - I saw a few guys on mountain bikes with knobby tires tackling the Challenge route, which is 10x more hard-core than anything I did.

I left the starting point in La Grange around 8:30am and arrived at the finish line at 4:30 pm. I took the Challenge Route and rode the entire way (did not have to walk up any hills and didn't take any SAG rides). Wind was a definite killer, though, and so were the hills (I am not used to hills at all).

This was my first MS 150, and I got the privilege to meet several cool folks during the ride. A few people rode up to me and started chatting about bike touring and commuting and some guy asked me if my bike was made in France (?) Thumbs-down, though, to the jerk who rode by and lectured me on how I was pedaling too low of a gear (he was riding a light racing bike in a 6-person pace line at the time, while I was pedaling alone against the wind).

A few months ago I had installed 44-33-22 mountain bike cranks (I already had a 11-32 cassette), and believe me I used every last bit of those low gears hauling 55 lbs. up the hills on the Challenge route. The thing with having a heavy loaded bike is that everyone passes you on the uphill, but man oh man do you rocket down the downhills. The last downhill on MLK toward the finish line in Austin was also a blast.

I hope to do the MS 150 again sometime. Next time I plan to ride straight from my house to the starting point so at the end of the ride I can say that I rode directly from my house all the way to Austin.