MS150

I finished the MS150 for the second time! It was even better this time because I got to ride it with Kristin! The NICycling team left NI on two coach buses around 3pm on Friday to drive down to Houston. We stayed at a hotel about a mile from the start line. Saturday morning the alarm went off at 5:15am and we ate breakfast, got changed, checked out and loaded our non-cycling stuff into the truck that would meet us at the half way point in La Grange. At 7am our team left right from the hotel parking lot, which was great because we were able to avoid the huge mass start (did I mention 13,000 cyclists do this ride?). The weather was great and we had a nice tail wind most of Saturday. We stopped at the breakpoint at mile 25 for refueling and then for lunch at mile 50. After lunch we stopped 2 more times and got to La Grange around 3:30pm.


Alan, me, Kristin and Cory at the finish of Day 1 in La Grange


Here are the showers on Day 1 there are semi trailers!


NI Tent

Our team had our own tent, food, port-a-johns... which was great. After some showering, eating, a massage from Russ and relaxing it was time to get ready for bed. We were up the next morning around 4:15am, threw our bicycles over the fence to hold our place in the start line, and got in the pancake line. The start was packed, we're lucky to have such a great tent spot because it puts us in the front of the line. I've heard if you're in the back it can take up to 2hrs it get out of La Grange!

We pushed off around 7am, I had some trouble clipping into my pedals, all the mud from the day before was clogging them up. After I cleared out my cleats I had to walk around at the breakpoints and lunch in my socks so I wouldn't re-clog them up. It wasn't that bad walking around in socks, but I would have preferred shoes in the port-a-johns... We took the challenge route and went through Bastrop State Park which is beautiful, but has some challenging hills. We stopped twice before lunch, at lunch and twice after lunch and got into Austin around 2:30pm.

It was wonderful experience. I love riding through the little towns and seeing everyone out in the streets cheering. And all the people with MS who came out and thanked every rider who came by, brought tears to our eyes. And riding it with Kristin was great, it was a lot more fun having someone there to ride, train and celebrate with. :-)


Russ and I at the finish line