MS150 Snapshot (or Snap-not?)

I have a lot of thoughts about this past weekend that have been kind of hard to concisely put into words, and now it is late on Monday night and not the time to try to start thinking of the words. So, I will share a hodgepodge of some photos from the weekend, most of which have shown up on Facebook or my team's Instagram pages already. I realized that I pretty much took no photos myself. Whoops.

I put ridiculous amounts of foam on my bike before putting it on the truck. I usually ride my crummier bike, which got damaged last year on the truck. I forgot to tape the foam on, so only about half of it (the foam) made it to the starting line. (My whole bike made it.)

We had some inevitable dawdling at the start. I was grateful that Alicia took a picture of me with Tim, who has been my friend for 25 years. And that I got a picture of Alicia and me together, too. We spent a lot of time bonding over jersey designs and ordering processes these winter.

In the event of any confusion, this is the one with Tim.

This is the one with Alicia.

Speaking of jerseys, aren't our new
jerseys pretty amazing?!? We got so
many remarks on them while riding.

I was trying not to spill my coffee on either of them.

We have two real dynamo fundraisers on our team. Dave Steensgard is one of them. He couldn't do the ride this year, but still raised money for the MS Society as a "ghost rider" on our team. At one of the rest stops, there was a sign recognizing his contributions. I really like Dave.

Renee was on our team last year, too, but couldn't ride this year. She also still raised money for the MS Society as a "ghost rider" with us. I love that she pointed out that Keyvan and Sterling (in the bottom right) made it into this photo. They were on our team last year, but rode with Sterling's new employer's team this year. I totally understand their social obligations in that regard. (Although I gave Keyvan crap, pointing out that *he* didn't go work for Sterling's company.) I ran into them a lot during the ride and loved talking with them.

This is most of our MS150 riders this year. Our friends and family team really is one big family. I'm very fortunate to know these people. I have such amazing people in my life, overall, and it is great that the trend has continued with my recreational and volunteer activities.
 

For our tenth anniversary, we had a lot of cake, thanks to Kari, Danaca, and Kelly. Here is one of them (below, and actually it is just a photo, not actual cake). Kim, who founded our team (and cuts my hair!) is the one with her arm around me. Stacy, who is our friend for whom we all started riding 10 years ago, is holding the cake with me. Kelly organizes all of our snacks, drinks, and dinner in Hinckley - - no small task! Keisha is a long-time rider and all-around great person. Everyone in the photo, but me, went to high school together (and maybe even junior high). People in the Twin Cities don't always move away (like how I had to escape my home town), and a lot of them still hang out with people they've known since they were kids. This fascinates me.

The four of us pictured below have done the MS150 every year for the past 10 years. Travis is Stacy's husband and has volunteered to help fix people's flat tires and provide first aid for the past couple of years. He's done the Ride Across Minnesota with me many times. (The first year I did it, he was the only person I knew, and vice versa.) You may recognize him as our trivia emcee. Stacy and Kim always help with trivia, too (and so does Keisha! (see above)). [Can you embed parentheses within parentheses in a blog post that was supposed to be short??]

My teammates seemed even more thankful than ever this year to have a team captain. (One person even bought me a beer, and another bought me lunch!) Is it because they know that I'm thinking of retiring? My friend Susan gave me this card when I got home from the ride, which sort of continued the wave my feeling the love.

So, maybe someday I'll process the thoughts that are rattling around in my brain, besides thinking of a polite way to share my observations about senna dosage and port-a-potty life, all of which is part of a continuing research project to more comfortably participate in the Ride Across Minnesota in July. TMI? Eh, you're used to it.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo