Yeah I went and checked their website last night - there werea few decent pics of me and the wife, but at $25 each all I could do was laugh. I suppose it's because they are giving you the actual digital file, but if it's a jpeg, they can screw off. If it's not a RAW file then they have zero business charging that much (not that $25 is justified anyway...)

I posted a ride report in Road Cycling here.

Regarding Marathon Photo...kudos for the quick turn and a capturing a lot of shots of me with the exact same look on my face. Boo on the pricing. I sent the link to my Mom in case she wants to get one. I bet they'd get a lot more takers if they charged $5 - $10 for the electronic version of each shot...with a few package discounts.

Man some of you guys made some beast times into La Grange and Austin. We rode with Team Fluor (my buddy is an employee). He and I made it into La Grange from Rhodes (85 mile route) in 5 hours 39 minutes. We made it to Austin via the challenge route in alittle over 5 hours.

I tried to post some pics of my bike in the park, but I guess they are too large.

We ran into Orbit (the Astro's mascot) on our way to the park day 2. Unfortunately we were stopped because of an accident. Not sure what happened, but they life flighted the rider out. Marshalls did a great job of controlling traffic around the accident.

We (my buddy and I) by no means are super fast riders. We did our fair share of announcing "riders on your left", even telling riders how many riders were rolling past. But I got run over by several pace lines that didn't announce and simply yelled at me to hold my line as the first three riders are in the process of passing me, while I'm announcing I'm passing someone already. Oh well. Can't expect much different on a ride this big.

This was my third year riding. And by far I feel more accomplished this year than previous years. (Mostly because of the challenge route).

I posted some pics in that thread dstrong linked to in road cycling, but I posted some more pics and about our experience on my blog: Our first BP MS150 ? From Houston to Austin to Support the MS Society | the surly biker
enjoy!

Very Nice...Thanks

It was a good ride this year. I didn't break any speed records, but I finished. I started in Waller on the first day and rode through the park on the second day, ending up with 151 miles total.

This is me before the start Day 1:
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps86b25624.jpg

My obligatory park shot:
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps25e6f67b.jpg

And me finishing:
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps9f0d0735.png

Welcome to the starting line. (You can't see my pink socks though.)

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...50617561_n.jpg

That's a cool picture Donald D. I can't help noticing that the woman over your right shoulder appears to be unzipping her top.

Heard a rumor on Facebook that this year MS Society will be requiring riders to fulfill the $400 minimum fundraising before picking up their packets. Probably an attempt to weed out those who sign up but don't fund raise and just enjoy a weekend of free food and fun?

I think this makes sense. Our team supposedly had a similar requirement...I forget what it was...but at the team dinner the night before the team leader talked about how many people still hadn't met fundraising requirements. The MS organization puts a lot of time and effort into the event...if a rider has raised no money then there's no benefit to the purpose for the event.

I know there was a minimum when I rode the MS150 in 1995. But I don't recall the amount.

I believe that will be the case starting this year. It used to be that you had until a month after the ride to meet the minimum. But many people would finish the ride and stop fundraising. They really do put a lot into supporting the ride and the riders, so if a sizable number don't fundraiser it cuts deeply into what they actually make off of the ride and can use towards research and programs. I may be in the market to be changing MS meds soon...so the more they can put into research, the better! Thanks again to all of you who ride and raise funds to help those of us living with MS!

My wife and I will be doing again in 2015. Looking forward to it. It was a great time. It was tough for us to raise $800 minimum ($400 for each of us). I barely made it with like $450, and we ended up having to pay the remaining $75 or so to get my wife to $400. It's just incredibly hard when you want to participate but don't have a large pool of people to get donations from. Especially when you both know all the same people! (and especially when 13,000 other people in our city are all trying to do the same thing). Not to mention the $200 for registration.

Registration opens soon. You can follow BP MS150 on both Facebook and Twitter (I follow both) and get a lot of good info.

We're also signing up to do the Ready2Roll training series this year. Mostly for the added rides. We already know we can do it, but it's nice to get back into shape again.

This is what has stopped me for the last 5 years or so since I started riding. I don't have the pool of people to ask and I sure don't have $600 that I want to spend to go ride my bike.

Registration opens October 14th.

+1 for Ready2Roll! I did it last year and was in great shape for the MS150. I'm signing up again, this time with my wife. It will be her first MS150.

What can you tell me about the volunteer duties for the Ready2Roll series? Our captain told us everyone is required to do something for one of the rides (does this mean you work at one on one of the weekends instead of riding in it?)

I work for a large company so we don't have a requirement that everyone volunteer, but they do ask for your folks to help out. But I think the answer is yes, you would likely miss our on riding that day, unless you get somebody to volunteer in your're spot, maybe?

It depends on the team size and such, but generally they assign each team two rides where they are required to provide a number of volunteers. The number is based on how many riders the team has signed up. The volunteers don't have to be riders, they can be friends, family, coworkers, etc. The duties are usually either running the sign-in table, working one of the breakpoints, or driving a sag vehicle. My preference if I can get it is to work the sign-in table, because you can get your bike all ready and as soon as the big crush of sign-in is over, you can jump on your bike and still ride. Otherwise, if you are driving sag or working a break point, you will miss out on riding that week. If you have a well run team with people who will step up and do their part, generally you will only have to either be a volunteer or provide a volunteer in your stead for one ride out of the series, so it isn't a big deal to miss one out of 11 or 12 rides.

Ok that's pretty much what I thought.
We're a smaller company and don't have a large team - last year we only had ~20 people total, and not all of us did the training series. Not sure what the numbers look like this year.

OK, registered for the MS150!
Are we allowed to post links to our donation page here on BF?

I've seen people put links in their signatures.

Anyone else signed up for the Ready 2 Roll training series? I know it's kind of exclusive to a lot of oil companies, but just curious. They canceled the first beginner's ride tomorrow due to the cold and crap weather. But looking forward to starting the real trainers in 2 weeks.

My wife and I are signed up for it. I was going to go out and be a mentor at the beginner ride, but I am pretty glad they cancelled it. Riding in mid 30s windy and wet conditions is no way to introduce somebody to anything...at least not if you want them to come back the next week. I always say I have a 2 out of three policy with regard to ride conditions. I will ride any two of windy, wet, and cold...but not all three.

I'm signed up with my wife and daughter. I did it last year. Great preparation for the MS150. This will be wife and daughter's first time riding the MS150. Should be interesting. :eek:

I don't mind riding in the cold. It's the wet and cold that bothers me.