150 miles? Check!

Hey there, old bloggy, old buddy, old pal. We did it - 150 miles! This year's challenge was neither heat nor wind, but hoards of cyclists and rain. And we dealt with it through perseverance and creativity.

Friday

On Friday, we loaded our bikes on semis and took a bus to Duluth. I posted some photos on the blog on Friday from the bus, including one showing my wrist bands for the weekend. The gold one is given out to anyone who has raised at least $1,000. It is your key to short biffy lines at the rest stops and access to special treats. Thank you, donors!

Veronika, in the shadows

Stacy

Once we got to Duluth, Stacy's in-laws (Travis' parents) picked up about a dozen of us. They fed us and found places for all of us to spend the night. 

Saturday

In the morning, Travis' parents and a friend of his from high school drove us to the start of the ride in Proctor, just south of Duluth. We ate the traditional pancake breakfast and headed out. (I can't post the pancake video here, apparently. Let me know if you want the link and I'll send it to you. People who get my email updates will get the link, whether they want it or not. Ha!) I saw the Finnegans jerseys at breakfast. I liked the saying and at first thought that the bottles were real.

Team Finnegans

Saturday was beautiful, weather-wise. It started in the low 50s and ended in the mid-60s. We were rerouted at the beginning, skirting Jay Cooke State Park, instead of riding through it, because the bridge and trail are still being reconstructed after getting totally washed out in last year's devastating floods. (Don't live around here? The floods were on TV because animals escaped the zoo, including a super-cute seal who was all over the news.)

As is typical, the start of the ride is a little crazy. Some big downhill portions, a lot of adrenaline, and some crashes. Most of the people had minor scrapes and cuts, but there were a few people who were seriously hurt and had to go to the hospital. I think that the MS Society needs to consider capping the number of people who participate in this event. There are so many riders that it can get really congested in certain areas. It also doesn't help that some riders, regardless of what everyone is told, don't announce that they are passing or stopping - - things that are pretty essential when riding in a group of about 4,000 people. We came to a complete stop twice on Saturday - for about an hour total - to allow for ambulances to clear the trail. 

Waiting for the trail to clear

A ton of people had flat tires during the weekend. When I was standing in this line, I glanced down at my tires and realized that they were really worn. It was sort of surprising that I didn't have any flat tires recently, considering that there were cuts in the tires, little chunks of tire missing, and a couple of little rocks embedded in the tires. When I arrived in Hinckley, our overnight stop, I got some new tires on. The guys from Gateway Cycle were super great, and gave my bike some extra TLC for free.

Once we were in Hinckley, we went to our team tent. Every team that raises over $25,000 gets a big tent, with tables and chairs under it. Our tent captain, Tara, brought us delicious food and drinks, as always. I ate enough snacks to feed a horse. I was categorized as a VIP this year because I raised over $3,000 last year. I skipped my free VIP massage again (and gave my pass to some guy who looked like he needed it more than I did), and cruised in the VIP tent to see what delicious snacks were waiting for me there. (Cheese! And wine that I didn't drink. There were also some veggies, which were a nice touch after eating a lot of PB&J and bananas en route.) While I was in the tent, look what I found! And this wasn't even from this year, when I totally kicked fundraising butt! 

One of the top fundraisers of 2012!

After we took a team photo, we went to the hotel, where I threw a firm, slightly louder-toned, yet not enraged, fit with the front desk clerk who told me that, despite the fact that we had reserved a non-smoking room, that they only had smoking rooms left. Remember my misery last year? And remember what I do day in and day out, professionally? Yeah. So. Anyhow, she magically found one. The last one, she assured me. It was being held for a "special circumstance." That means, I think, that they purposely slot anyone they can into a smoking room, because they know there is high demand for the non-smoking rooms and only give them to people who are insistent. C'mon hotel people. There is a freakin' demand for smoke-free hotels - meet it! I digress. So, we got a room designated as a non-smoking room. It could have been called the thin-as-paper-wall room, though. I want to know why about 75 people were getting ice for roughly 35 minutes at 1:00 in the morning... Regardless, it was much, much better than last year, and I slept for most of the 6.5 hours that I tried to sleep. Most people zonk out after riding their bikes 75 miles. I wish I could do that. 

Sunday

On Sunday, the people I was riding with got together kind of early, to try to beat the rain. No such luck. It was raining by the time we collected our bikes from the big field of bikes, and rained for about the first 35-37 miles. There's a picture of me early on in the day, riding in the rain, taken by the photographer used by the MS Society. I might buy it. I look remarkably chipper. I think this must have been before we stopped to change Tim's flat tire. (This! After I purposely bought new tires so that I wouldn't have to change a flat in the rain! It actually was okay, but this is when I got really wet, despite my shoe covers.)

The rain stopped right as we rolled in to lunch. By this point, we'd split up into two groups of three, and one lone rider (sorry, Tom). After eating lunch, I was miserable. My wool socks were working admirably to keep my feet sort of comfortable, but my padded bike shorts were thoroughly soaked, the pad acting like one horribly soaked cloth diaper. My hands were turning white and were numb from riding in the rain in 50-degree temps. At least I was in better shape than the people who were lining up to take buses/vans to the finish line. I was wringing out my gloves and debating whether to leave Tim and Shannon and leave a few minutes ahead of them to warm up a bit. 

Our motto of the day, when we were making slow progress and whenever any of us wanted to stop at one of the schedule rest stops, was "it's not a race." We decided to embrace that and, in the break in the rain and the relatively clearish radar for the next couple of hours (we hoped), we went to a laundromat, kept on the clothes we needed to still be decent, and put the rest in the dryer. I put newspaper in my shoes to try to dry them out. Technically, I owe Tim and Shannon a couple of bucks and a hot cocoa, but I think I sort of owe them my sanity, too. I felt so much better for the rain-free roughly 20 miles after that.

Tim

Here's a shot (below) of Shannon and Tim during our respite from the rain. When we were changing Tim's flat tire in the rain earlier in the day, a ride marshall guy on his bike stopped to help us. He asked us, "Why do we do this shit?", meaning why do we ride in crummy weather like this. Shannon said, "This is why," and showed him her jersey, which says "I ride with MS." I told Shannon I wanted to try to get a picture of it when we were riding. Three of the 31 riders on our team have MS and many, many more of the riders do, too. Sometimes you just know about because it is mentioned in passing. Other times, it is somewhat apparent, based on mobility issues or jerseys like Shannon's. There are also a lot of people who ride who are, well, very unfit. Some are developmentally disabled. Some ride really crappy bikes. Some are really young - - - we had a few teenagers on our team again this year. The point is that it is very inspirational to ride with so many people devoted to a common cause.

So, we were riding on this part of the trail, which tends to be hard, mentally. It's between Wyoming and Hugo. Shannon and Tim were slowing down and my back was bugging me pretty unenjoyably, so I rode ahead. And then it started raining again. All the way to the finish. (About another 17 miles.) But at least I knew the end was near. In Hugo, I found Adam and Brett and made them let me ride with them. It was great because both of them had music on their bikes - - industrial music from Brett's bike, Slayer from Adam's bike. Not my typical music, but it was nice to hear something that sort of distracted me for the last seven miles. I think I amused them with my story about how, during my 10 solo miles, I was trying to lose two guys who were drafting behind me, "but didn't come by it honestly." So, we made it to the finish, although I accidentally lost them at the last traffic light before the hill, so I finished alone. It felt like a good, strong finish, worthy of the medal that they give all participants. 

Next up? I guess I'll train for the week-long MS ride I've got in July.