2008 MS150

As many of you know, I take a spinning class at the gym three times a week at 5:30AM. Most of the time I just keep to myself and don’t really converse with anyone. My water bottle has the logo of the 2007 MS150 on it and one day a guy named Tim who sometimes rides next to me, asked me if I had registered. I replied that I hadn’t and wasn’t sure about riding in 2008. However, he persuaded me to ride with the Texas A&M Ol Army Cycling team.

Fast forward to Friday the 10^th. I looked at the weather forecast for Houston and Austin for the weekend and the overnight lows on Sunday morning had gone from upper 50s to lower 40s. Also the wind forecast had morphed from a SE 10mph wind (good!) to a North 10mph wind (bad!) I had everything packed at home and Tim had taken my bike to the trailers that would transport the bikes to Houston. I had a Friday meeting that usually ends around 11AM. After the meeting, I decided I needed to locate some warm weather clothes since I didn’t have any. I ran to Target, but they had nothing. Scampered to Wal-Mart and the only sweatshirts I could find were 2XL Texas Longhorn sweatshirts. So I had a decision to make. Do I risk pride and photos that would be shown for the rest of my life? Would my A&M team slash my tires and leave me alone? Or do I freeze my butt off for the first few hours of Sunday morning? I figured pain was temporary, so I left the sweatshirt on the rack. However, when I turned around, there was a clearance rack of non-problematic blue sweathsirts. And for $3? That was an easy decision. Some kid in Malaysia was going to get his $0.02

I parked my car in the garage and made my way to the transport buses. I gave Tim a call to see where he was at. I was supposed to meet up with him in Houston. He was going to be meeting a friend of his named Wayne, who was going to drive us from the Omni Hotel in Houston, to the stadium to pick up our bikes, to the Red Roof Inn a few miles away that would be our starting point, back to the Omni for dinner, then back to the Red Roof to call it a night. Well, as luck would have it, Tim was on the same bus I walked onto. We rode to the Westside Omni in Houston and quickly found Wayne. He drove us to pick up our bikes and then we fought traffic to the Red Roof Inn. I got my room and jumped back in the car to get some dinner at the Omni. We walked around the expo they have going on. Tim bought a lot of gear including a new bike seat, but the only thing I found was a dri-fit shirt to work out in. The talk of the evening was the wind. It became the typical “How big was the fish you caught?” story. First it was the winds were going to be 10mph, then 13mph, then 17mph, then 20mph! I decided not to worry about it and figured it is what it is and I’ll just deal with it. We quickly found the pasta buffet and sat down to wolf down the carbs. The Ol Army team walked right next to us and handed out our jerseys. It was time to get back to the Red Roof. Got to my room around 7PM and packed up my stuff for the night. I had to be downstairs by 5:45AM to get my gear into the truck that would be meeting us in La Grange for the overnight camping.

Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 5AM. I got up, gathered all my gear, and headed downstairs to meet the rest of my team. My gear was loaded up on the truck and we all rode about 1.5 miles in the darkness to the official starting point of our team. After a quick team picture, we rolled out at 6:45AM. Its hard to get into a groove when you are in a large pack of cyclists, but quickly the pack thinned out and I was riding about 16mph. The wind slowly began to pick up and it started to get worse and worse. I made it to the first rest stop at 22 miles and quickly found the bananas and Gatorade. I was bummed to see that there were no Oreos. Back on the road I found a husband/wife/son group that had a radio going with some good tunes like The Beatles “Back in the USSR”, Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream”, and Van Halen’s, “Runnin’ with the Devil.” I decided to trail this family until Bellville (the first day lunch stop) to pass the time. I arrived in Bellville at 9:51AM. 45 miles in just about 3 hours including a rest stop. I grabbed my peanut butter sandwich, cooked potatoes, and ice cream sandwich and settled in for lunch. The wind was starting to whip around and the talk around lunch was centered around the wind again. I made up my mind that the longer I enjoyed my lunch break, the faster wind would be in the afternoon. Just as I had suspected, the wind was getting stronger and it didn’t help that our route was slowly starting to turn to the NW. I stopped at a few rest stops along they way and I was happy to discover a few Oreos at one of the rest stops. The route winds through many small towns who go out of their way to accommodate the 15,000 riders. Many of the residents are in wheel chairs and say Thank You for hours and hours on end. This is why I do the ride. Among some of the other sites you see along the way are fiddlers, bagpipe players, and many small families just saying Thanks. At the final rest stop about 11 miles from the finish, I chose to just sit and relax for about 20 minutes and just lay down on the ground for a bit. In the middle of my period of laying there, I suddenly hear a “SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS” I look around and the guy next to me says, “Oh man, that sucks.” SON OF A….you have to be kidding me! I don’t run over anything and I get a flat tire while eating Sun Chips? Ugh. So I change my tube and hit the road again. However I’m really nervous now that I don’t have a spare tire. But that nervousness quickly went away as the route took a left turn and went directly South. Suddenly the wind is at my back. The 13-14mph with the howling in my ears had been turned into a quietness and 25mph. 8 miles of this was pure heaven and the quietness of the road slowly turned into cheers and cow bells as I arrived in La Grange at 3:30PM. 96 miles in the first day. The weather (minus the wind) was absolutely perfect. Crisp cool morning with 72 degrees in the afternoon.

I found my way to the team tent to discover some yummy peanut butter cookies and SUNKIST! In a cooler. Perfect. Signed in, grabbed my bags, and headed off to the showers. A 20 minute way was well worth the wait. After cleaning off, I headed back to the tent for my 30 minute massage…which was also well worth the wait. I think I fell asleep a few times. Finally I was able to get off the table and sit down to chat about the day with a few other Ags. Before you knew it, dinner was served! Brisket, sausage, salad among other things that ended up on my plate with another Sunkist from the cooler. I finished dinner around 6PM and decided to get my bed set up for tomorrow. Packed everything I didn’t need and got all setup on what I thought was a soft patch of grass. Right before the sun went down, Tim, Wayne and I decided to walk around a bit. As we made our way around, there were still people rolling in at 7PM. Everyone gave them a hand as they rolled in almost 12 hours later. Now that is dedication. I ended up walking past a Blue Bell ice cream stand, so I couldn’t pass up the Rocky Road on a cone. We stopped to hear the cover band play a few Doors and Beatles songs. By then it was darkness and we needed to head back. On the way back to the tent, we passed a team sponsored by Mattress Firm. Mattresses for everyone? I know where I need to sign up next year. Back to the tent and out at 9PM. I didn’t sleep well at all as I tossed and turned all night trying to find that sweet spot. Pretty soon 4:30AM was here and it was time to get rolling.

First thing, we walked our bikes to the front of the line. If we waited to walk there at 6:30, it would take us almost 90 minutes to get out of the fairgrounds because of the 10,000 other riders trying to get out. I should have thought to do this last year. Now it was time for pancakes. 4 pancakes? Damn straight. I was hungry. I was also thanking myself for finding that cheap sweatshirt. It was 41 degrees that morning. We packed up our stuff and got in line. Standing there for 40 minutes made it quite chilly, but soon the gun sounded and we slowly rolled out. Quickly and I mean QUICKLY, my hands were numb. My feet were numb. It was cold. As the sun came up, you could feel the warmth and the wind pick up. I blew through the first breakpoint as I figured I could relax at lunch.

I passed the guy playing the bagpipes that is there year after year, and before I knew it I entered the dreaded park. The park is considered the “challenge course” as it has rolling hills that traverse the lost pines area of Texas in Bastrop and Buescher State Park on Park Road 1C. Its hard, but its breathtakingly beautiful. If you get a chance, please take the trip on it. I stopped at the entrance to the state parks and ditched the sweatshirt. I really wanted to get some lotion on my rear as it was starting to get quite sore. I got my Butt-er lotion and headed to the porta potty. As I was turning around to get some relief cream, my glasses slipped. I quickly grabbed them, but PLOP into the blue water went my lotion. Dammit. Well, time to rough it. Off to the rest of the 11 miles in the park. Up and down the rolling hills, into Bastrop, and into lunch at 9:45AM. A quick turkey Subway sandwich and chips and it was time to get rolling again. The next 30 miles were a blur. The wind was fierce, but I was able to find a few packs of riders to ride with and before I knew it, the Austin skyline was visible. By then, we rolled up and down the hills of MLK Blvd, turned right towards the old airport, then under I-35. I called Lindsay to let her know I was about 2 blocks away and my brother in law informed me where they were at the finish line. This year I was going to try and find them.
Turning back onto MLK, the crowds exponentially grew to the thousands. I heard a lot of “Gig Ems” and “Whoops” from the A&M supporters and as you turn South towards the Capitol, the finish line is just ahead and the crowds grow louder and louder. I scanned the crowds for my family, but I wasn’t able to see anyone as I rolled across the finish line at 1:20PM. After crossing the finish line, I saw nothing but kids with their hands out for what seemed to be about 100 high fives. I finished! I quickly found my family by the finish line and gave everyone a hug and kiss. Bryson once again had his “My daddy just rode in the MS150 and I am so proud” shirt that Lindsay helped him make last year and Finley had her “I love Daddy” shirt on. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend. And to top it off? I had a cake awaiting for me at home. Once again, I got a little long on the recap, but thanks for reading. I’d love to do it next year and maybe I’ll have Lindsay along for the ride.

You can see lots more pictures here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=yv6aikp.2e2k5y89&x=0&y=3v1kx5&localeid=en_US