I had a great time on the MS bike ride, which took place about a month ago now. (Been busy, and the lappy was sick…)
As we got close to Grand Rapids, we saw a huge thundercloud (cumulonimbus, anvil shaped) over GR. Alisun’s mom was asking her, “Is it raining very badly where you are?” Nope, it was sunny and blue skies, except for that one big cloud. Weird localized weather. We were really lucky when we got to the exit because cars were backed up for quite a ways – but we were close enough to the exit that we could just pull into the rumble strip for a while and turn off at the exit — the accident was a bit farther up.
So their new house is looking pretty nice, they’ve settled in. We played Euchre and ate pizza, and at some point in the evening my parents got on iChat AV and met Gary and Linda for the first time, ‘virtually’. I also had a chance to test HD reception as I had brought a spare EyeTV 500 with me. They only get a few channels, but those look quite a bit better than the regular analog versions. Plus they get a few ‘weather subchannels’. Early to bed, beer helped.
Up early, got over to the high school a little later than I’d hoped. Registration was pretty painless. Met up with my ‘team’ (who I’d found through Mark, Tammy’s husband; she is my camp director and her day job is with the NMSS. Got all that? There’ll be a quiz.) They were sponsored by a local credit union. All told there were twelve of us and we raised over $12,000 if I remember correctly. Good deal!
First leg was nice. It was already a little balmy as temperatures that first day got up in the 90′s and lots of sun. We were pacing around 17 but it was all over the place. At the first rest stop all of the people working were really cool and they’d even made a bunch of PB&J’s for us. (At subsequent stops, we usually had to make our own.) Slathered on sunscreen and rode on.
About halfway to the next rest stop I ditched Mark, we were just moving at two different paces. I caught up to a few guys from the team who were going a little faster at the next rest stop. Joined up with them and they were funny; they would do like 20+ mph in the flats, but peter down to 15 mph on the hill climbs. Then they’d call me a monster for ditching them on the climbs. I’m just trying to maintain the 17-18 mph pace they agreed to go! But, whatever.
The stated ‘goal’ for these guys was their magic number, 1324. (This was a blonde in too-short shorts.) As it would happen, fate played a cruel joke on them and she had a bike issue just as we all caught up to her. Ha ha. Suddenly, the carrot was gone.
Next rest stop was in someone’s front yard. They had these tiny shetland ponies, or were they really huge dogs? Kept refilling the camelbak. Thought about busting out the helmet-cam but wasn’t ready to commit to that yet. Went on.
The Christian Motorcyclists group that helped with traffic was really cool. They were all very nice and one guy had even made a stop/go sign that he used.
I can’t remember if there was another rest stop, but I don’t think so, before #4 which was around 44? miles, for lunch. Right down by a lake and one guy had jumped in, bike clothes and all. He said the water was ‘warm, but still quite wet.’ Okay. Also saw a guy sitting over by the medical vehicles who looked like he was having issues but I think they were just checking in on him. His name is Kevin, he’s got CP, and he was riding a trike. Only one pedal and crank, that’s the side that works. Back to this guy in a moment.
Lunch was nice. Jumped in the line ASAP as it was getting LONG. They had a refrigerated truck to keep all of the food in. There had to be at least 1500-2000 people doing this thing, I have no idea. That’s a lot of food. Sat in the shade of a tree with our group, and more of them trickled in over time. The burgundy minivan was our team support vehicle, and a cute kid was our mascot. She was usually pretty happy, or conked out.
Busted out helmet cam, tried clipping on the mike but realized long after getting home that I’d plugged the mic in the wrong place. So, no sound for the maiden voyage of helmet-cam. Oh well. Got about an hour of footage. I kept the camcorder in the camelbak (Lobo)’s big pocket and the battery for the cam in the smaller, upper ‘slit’ pocket of the flap. The mic, though it turned out to be pretty useless, was clipped to a front strap on the backpack shoulder straps.
Right after leaving the lunch site we headed across a long dam and up a pretty sizeable hill which everyone was grousing about. Tell you what though, that one was NOTHING compared to one which I’ll talk about in a bit… we three guys rotated off as usual but after a while it seemed like the other two would fall behind me a bit. It was getting frustrating. At one point in the footage you can see where I pulled off to the opposite side just so I wouldn’t be in the way of other cyclists while I waited for these two. Grr… before our next rest stop, we hit the decision point. I think this was at mile 57 but I could be totally wrong, I have no idea, really.
One guy (Al) came with me, the other one (I won’t mention his name here, as I still respect him) decided to stick with the 75 mile course. We picked up to about 18 mph and were doing pretty well. Got about 4-5 miles into the course and we catch up with that guy Kevin again. I was seriously impressed. Here’s a guy with CP and a bum leg and he’s doing the HUNDRED mile loop on the first day? Dang.
Century loop rest stop was cool, got our pins and saw Jim Freer, who was kind enough to cap my scratchy shifter cable end for me. Also met a guy who, truth be told, kind of reminded me of the comic book store owner from the Simpson’s. But hey, he was nice enough to volunteer to do the event, so that’s what matters, right? 
Back on the road. Heck of a long leg this one was. We stopped by the lake to get our picture taken by this lady who was pretty cool, especially because I hadn’t checked the camera settings and it was recording a movie. Oops. Finally got a ‘picture’ and were on our way. Passed this REALLY disgusting scene a while later where someone hauling the ‘best’ kind of fertilizer had apparently spilled some of it in a huge, thick puddle on the ground. Fortunately we did NOT have to ride through this, just past it. So the smell didn’t linger for TOO long. Got some NICE hills in there too. This was definitely the more enjoyable of the two century loops.
We were sure glad to see the place where the courses rejoined. Next rest stop was at an orchard or vineyard or something, I think vineyard… was starting to look a bit ugly but the weather held for us. We didn’t stay long, just like 5 minutes, and were back on the bikes.
I’m hazy on the next bit but I think this is where we took a bunch of county roads at right angles to each other while it sprinkled a tiny bit, and I got a phone call but the reception was terrible and I think it was a wrong number anyway. Frustrating to have to stop for that though.
Now here is where it gets NUTTY. We cruise down this huge hill a little while later. Keep in mind that we’re on the main course again. Of course, a huge hill DOWN probably means a big one going UP… anyway, we start going down this Dead End road. Okay…? Then between some big cement dividers, pulled aside so bikes can ride through (sort of.) Then over some pretty new looking wooden bridges, over a river or a marsh or something.
On the far side, after some nasty mud, was the WORST HILL EVAR. It curved around deceptively as it went up this hill that just… didn’t… end. For a long time. I mean, the majority of the people we passed were off their bikes and walking them up this thing. Oh well.
At the top was a very busy road, where people were doing like 55 mph. Not a lot of shoulder to ride on either. This whole leg was kind of lousy, but it was probably the only thing available. Not many turns and we came to the last rest stop, for us this was probably about mile 92 (for others it was 67?) and they were GRILLING burgers and hot dogs. So nice. Not very well organized but who cared by this point. You just found plates and walked around in circles until people put buns and meat together for you. Back on the road within about 15 mins.
We kept up with a guy doing 22-23 for a while and Al was right there with me. We got into Holland a little while after this. The sun had come out again for the last 5 miles before the previous rest stop and beat down. Made it through all the slow streets in Holland ‘south’ and got to Hope College. Called Alisun and Linda who were VERY close by and they showed up in no time flat. Very nice. We drove back to GR for some much needed R and R.
I have to confess I cannot remember what we ate. I think it was pasta of some kind. Carbo loading. What I do remember, is kind of gross, because I went to bed early, I was all excited for the next day, and instead I ended up being kept up and out-of-sorts for the better part of two hours from like midnight to 2:00 am. Which HURT because I had to wake up at around 5:30 to drive back to Holland for day two. Ate an apple or two and hoped I’d recover. (Needed Immodium AD, ikywim.)
Got to Hope. Got the bike off the car and set myself up. I’d brought a spare pair of shorts, in case. (I ended up putting those on after the first leg of day two!) Looked for medical guys. Asked if they had Immodium. Nope. They would get some for us if they had time. They didn’t. Grr. Ate another apple. Definitely a cooler morning. Nice mood and banter on the first leg with Mark and about 4-5 other guys from the team. Good way to start out.
I was a bit peeved at Al and (nameless) because they didn’t wait for me at 7 am, they had figured I would catch up to them. I did at the first rest stop, which was in some kind of park, but… I don’t know, I had always had this mistaken impression that teams were supposed to ride together. I know that teams splinter off into subgroups based on friendships and rider abilities, but for the first leg? Seemed like a ‘team’ thing to do, ride together. Whatever, I guess.
So, first rest stop, caught up, those two were about to leave, fine, I pulled on those second pair of shorts and off we went. We were at the next rest stop before I knew it, at some kind of campgrounds. Lots of people in line for the bathrooms, oho! Guys! Trees! Nature. So anyway. back on the road. Saw an ambulance but it wasn’t the MS ride, it was at someone’s house.
At some point the notorious 1324, whom we had seen at this last rest stop, and intentionally left before, caught up with us. The idea being that she would be this carrot who would keep everyone going at a better pace, just to keep up. Heh. Well, (nameless) saw her at the tail end of this huge pack (which we dubbed the Pelleton) who went by us doing about 19+ and he starts WHIPPING up there to keep up. I had no problem but we ditched Al for a while. Reversed roles…
So the next rest stop was at a small bike shop. They were saying, ‘look out, this next leg is a long one’ but I don’t think it was any longer than most, it was maybe 12 miles. Chica took OFF with the group almost as soon as we got there. They said, ‘forget it.’
Next leg? Odd slant road with a guy on a tandem with his kid. Which was cool, except the road was dangerous and not much passing, and he was trying to be all macho or something and speed up when you’d get close (he had a mirror.) Hello, moron. We’re doing a regular pace here and you’re cramping our style. Finally passed dumbo and child. Some cloudy weather but nothing terrible. Waved at the support van as they passed and they almost stopped thinking we needed help. Or was this the time that they didn’t recognize us as they passed. Heh.
Lunch stop! Elementary school. More nicely set up than the day before, or maybe just arrived at a good time. Med vehicle driver — got Immodium yet? ‘Nope, and guess what? I’m having the same issue myself…’ Guess what, dude? A) Not helping, B) TMI, C) Don’t care, I’m the one on the bike here. Whatever. Keep eating those apples, for the pectin. Saw Tammy, she looked busy as usual.
Once again noted that 1324 was making ready to go and used this as a means to get the gents moving. We kept up okay for a while, their group pulled away less quickly this time, which was a good sign that our pace was better. Passed some Sunday drivers coming out of church…
Can’t remember loads about the next bit. I think this was the rest stop where they kept telling us to make sure we saw the misting fan, and where we ditched (nameless). Al and I were doing maybe 18 at this point, not bad. Next rest stop before we knew it, and nameless caught up after a few minutes. I talked to 1324, who was from the Holland area, and made everyone feel either old or out of shape by laughing and saying she’d only just taken up cycling like 2-3 months before. Hah.
Al and I decided to go for the second Century loop. Think tumbleweeds. Long stretches of desolation. Well guess what. This stretch went for almost.. I want to say 17 miles before the rest stop. We went to an ice cream place as a detour because we just KEPT NOT GETTING THERE. I busted out helmet-cam again. Turns out we were maybe 2 miles away.
Second Century loop rest stop. Same comic books guy (do they just stick him there because he’s less social?) and another pin. They were laughing because we were the last two idiots to be on the loop on the second day, though we’d just seen another guy leave before us.
Not 1 or 2 miles out from that stop, I get a front flat tire. I probably just let it get too low, snakebite. I’ve done that once since, too. Oops. It’s fricking hard to keep those tires inflated… anyway, it starts raining. Al jumps in, I have a spare tube, he helps bigtime to get the tube on, just as we start pumping with my crappy hand held pump, SAG vehicle shows up. Nice! They have a real pump with a gauge. I should’ve pumped up the rear — I was worried about it the whole way.
Finished the last 10 miles or so and people were still playing music and cheering, got the medal, went to the cafeteria and ate the remnants of the food, woot. Pretty tired. Saw the guy get his hair cut off because he met his pledge goal and said that’s what he would do if he made it. Called Alisun and they showed up a while later. Changed, headed back to Chicago.
Woot. First MS 150, did the double Century, raised over $1500. Thanks to all who helped me reach that goal, I will wear my MS jersey with pride!