With the move to Antigua last summer, I was unable to keep my string alive of riding in an MS 150 annually. We also moved this summer and I missed the Wyoming ride I have done in the past in August, but was happy to find the Alabama version of the ride was the last weekend in September! The other pleasant suprise is that we didn't start at 6,000 feet, and go over some 8,000 foot passes! We started at sea-level and climbed all the way up to maybe 200 feet above sea level. The reason that is so important is that for a normal MS 150 I will have put in close to 1,000 miles of training prior to stepping on the bike! This year I put in a whopping 150 miles or so...that might be generous. So there was no telling how the body would react! Fortunately it worked well, and got even stronger the second day, as long as I didn't try and adjust where I was sitting on the seat!
On day one we followed the wrong arrows...and added about 16 miles to the ride when we came to a sign "DEAD END"...fortunately the guy I was riding with and I followed the wrong arrows another time and cut 12-miles off of the ride...we ended up right at the prescribed 75 miles for day one!! :)
The school I am going to had a small team of 4 and we raised over $3,000 to help the fight against MS. As many of you know that is a cause near and dear to my heart as Vonnie's father Dave has been diagnosed with the disease for going on 10 years now. I look forward to the day when I am able to do the Oregon ride and he can be at the last rest stop to give me the sustinence to make it the last few miles home! :) If any of you would still like to donate to the cause follow the below link...for those of you who want to be sure I rode the miles before sponsoring me, you can follow it now too! MS 150
For all of you who sponsored me this year!! THANK YOU very much and I hope to see you next year!
-Justin
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1 comment:
Oh my goodness am I so looking forward to reading more on your site!
I'm an MS 150'er in Houston. Last year was my first one and I've just registered for the 2009 ride. Registration was cut off at 13,000 riders-- in 7 hours!
My first jump into blogging was all about my cycling adventures, but now I write about lots of other stuff, too. I can't poke around much and read more on your site now... but I'll be back tomorrow to check out what else you have to say.
PS My sister in law, thehappyhousewife.com sent me a link to your site b/c of the MS 150 connection. Can't wait to read more!
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