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BP MS 150 - CycleTour


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Houston to Austin, Texas
United States
National MS Society
65F / 18C
Sunny
Total Time = 10h 20m 41s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Wake up, eat some oatmeal and meet the team. Drive to Rhodes stadium in Katy. Little stretching and some pics, then we're off to the starting line.
Event warmup:

None really. Just got in among the masses and started off at a nice, comfortable pace. This is a ride, not a race ... right?? ;-)
Bike
  • 10h 20m 41s
  • 150 miles
  • 14.50 mile/hr
Comments:

The ride was tough. I felt great when we were done. Lots of people had to catch SAG wagons. Fortunately, I fought through the pain and didn't have too. This was a great mental test for me. Also showed me I've got a long way to go on hills before Longhorn HIM in Austin.
What would you do differently?:

I didn't really plan to do this event until a month ago. I definitely need more time in the saddle, but "everyone" was hurting on day 2. Not too much I could have done differently, but need to ride...lots. I didn't do a good job with nutrition, which may have caused some of my problems. Next time I will have a better plan and follow it. I'd decided to rely on the aid stations, which would have been fine if the team had stopped at them. Instead, we'd only hit one or two, so were running 2 - 2.5 hrs with no stops/food.
Post race
Warm down:

Get off the bike and meet our families at the finish line. We went to a friend's lakehouse on Lake Travis, hungout and watched The Masters. Good times.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Not strong enough on hills and didn't know I was doing the event in enough advance time to really plan for it. Also, not really knowing what to expect on two days of back to back long rides.

Event comments:

Great event for a great cause. Would definitely do it again, but being on a team made a huge difference.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2008-04-14 12:00 AM
Biking
10:20:41 | 150 miles | 14.50 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Average
Day 1 covered 77.7 miles at an average of 14.7 mph. The late morning/afternoon wind was crazy nuts - 20+ mpg with gusts up to 35 straight into our faces. Other than that, the day was beautiful. The first 20 miles were very crowded, so lots of talking to keep from crashing. Around mile 20, saw a person who'd gone down hard. They had him/her on a backboard. Lots of road rash. Later heard they had a cracked elbow if it was the same person. Ride had 12-13000 people - that's a lot of people. We arrived at La Grange at about 12:30, but one of our riders had fallen 3 hrs behind us, so waited for him to catch up. Showered in the trailers and went to the fair grounds, where most participants stay (we were about 5 miles away in rv's in a campground - much better than sleeping on the ground in tents). Drank beer. Ate food. Met people. Good times. Got back to the RVs and made nice with the people next to us. They had a team out there. Their head chef's wife has MS and was doing the ride. He smoked 50# of brisquit and 30# of chicken plus sides for only about 16 people, so invited us to join in. Turn out, he does competition cooking and man was it good. We were living large. Their cooking team is the Texas Tornados. Day 2 was colder - started around 42. Put on leggings, a wind breaker and full fingered gloves. Fingers still got cold but was ok everywhere else. The saddle hurt bad for the first 5 miles, then the pain went away. We did the first challenge route. About mile 10 I started to cramp. My team dropped me, so I was riding alone. Wasn't sure if I'd make it to the finish. Kept pushing til I got to The Park (beginning of challenge two) for a planned connect with the team. Two other members were taking the easier route, so decided I'd do the same and reconnect later. Met my other two team mates at the lunch stop. Got to refuel and rest a bit, which helped the cramping. We formed a 3 man paceline, and they pulled me for a while. Before long, we were at 50 miles and I was feeling OK - knew then I'd make it to the end. In a pace line with 8 miles to go when things got crowded. Me and two teammates got into each other and nearly went down. Combination of bad things went wrong - crowd suddenly slowed leading to overlapped tires. I ran off the shoulder trying to avoid a crash but lost control. That's when we started bumper bikes. Could have been ugly. We crossed the finish line at 12:47. All of our team lined up side by side to cross. It was pretty cool.
Wind: Strong with gusts
Course: Course starts out flat and gets increasingly hilly.
Road: Rough  Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Bad
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2008-04-14 6:40 PM

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Expert
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Spring (Houston), TX
Subject: BP MS 150


2008-04-14 11:22 PM
in reply to: #1337782

Veteran
521
500
Subject: RE: BP MS 150
awesome....great cause, I am training for my 4th year. My 150 is in September.

My mom with MS and I thank you.

I ride for her.

K~
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