i made it 50 miles...

The MS 150 Bike Tour... 450+ riders all piled up a Graceland, ready to take off for Tunica... but somehow I ended up biking the whole thing alone. It was a really nice day, but unfortunately there was about a 200 mph headwind the entire way to Mississippi, which made the ride extra difficult. Steve's bike, as I suspected, was awesome to ride. There were a lot more large hills on our route than I thought there would be, which wiped me out quicker than I would have liked. No East TN hills, but hefty hills, nevertheless.

So I am be-bopping along and suddenly, around mile 25, something hard and large hit me directly in the middle of my forehead. Probably a flying beetle or something. Anywho, it scared me half to death and I went flying off the road into the grass. I maintained composure and slowly let my bike come to a halt. Thank goodness I didn't crash. Flooded with embarrassment, I regrouped and got back on the trail, only after the group behind me stopped to ask if I was okay. Yeah, I'm fine- a bug freaked me out, thanks. It was a big bug!!

Note: There was an eclectic plethora of roadkill along the trail. I counted 3 armadillos, 1 opossum, 1 cat, 1 unidentifiable carcass with a tail, 1 butterfly, multiple cicadas, 3 turtles, 2 huge snakes, and 2 frogs .

Anyway, I made it to mile 35ish, stopping at each rest stop (about 10 miles apart) to down some H2O and eat something packed with carbs. I had to walk my bike up 2 of the hills- they were vicious. At mile 35.2, I decided I couldn't go any further until I got some rest, so I flagged down the SAG vehicle and hitched a ride about 6 miles to the next rest stop. They provided lunch there- I ate a turkey sandwich, chips and a giant Oatmeal Creme Pie. (yummers- haven't had one of those since middle school). Then the headache started. Dehydration? Probably. But I pressed on.


My goal was to at least make it to the Medtronic waterstop... on my BIKE and not the stupid SAG truck. So I pedaled another 9 miles and made it. My BFF, Betsy, was there screaming for me as were the other 30 Medtronic water-stop volunteers.

I was greeted with water and ice-cold rags. Awesome.

See Betsy in the sunglasses? She's da bomb.

At the water-stop: Kristi, Sarah, Me, Barb and April.

My head was really hurting at this point. My knees were cramped and my left elbow hurt. I felt like I could spend about 4 hours with a massage therapist at this point... maybe longer. I hung around for about 10 or 15 minutes, then I threw in my towel. They called a truck for me.

See me raising my trusty water bottle? Oh yeah.

Me and this nice lady on the FedEx team rode together in the back of this pick-up truck for the next 19 miles. I needed the rest. I pushed myself and I honestly couldn't ride anymore at that point.

Medtronic was water-stop # 5. When we arrived at water-stop # 7, I noticed that the terrain was incredibly flat. Finally! Ok, I am NOT riding a truck to the finish line. How many miles are left on this tour? Six. Excellent. Get me out of this truck. People who have MS suffer a lot worse things than what I'm gonna put myself through on this ride, so I'm biking to the finish despite my head, knees, elbows, shoulders, and other random parts. Yeah, the butt bones are hurtin'... It was a good decision to finish the tour, though. I had biked 44.2 miles before we got to rest-stop # 7, so the last 6 miles would put me right over 50... 2/3 of the way ain't bad. Especially since I've only been riding a bike for 2 months and my longest ride to date had been 15 miles.

That shower at the hotel was one of the best showers ever. We got a buffet at 5:30 filled with all kinds of pasta, which I inhaled. There was a presentation and awards ceremony at 7, then I headed to my room at 8:30. I was asleep at 9:00.

Below: part of the group after dinner

Well, due to Hurricane Ike hitting Tunica in the middle of the night, Day 2 of the ride was canceled. Well, dang. We could have biked, but the weather was too unpredictable to let everyone go out on the road. The tailwind would have been nice, though. Picking bikers up had bad weather struck again would have been a logistical nightmare. I hitched a ride home with a Medtronic friend and then the best part of the day came...

I picked Christopher up at the airport at 11:00 and completely surprised him! It was great. It's so nice to have him home.

More photos:

My athletic and much-faster-than-me-biker-friends:
Al Newberry- using Christopher's roadbike- he loved it
Jason & Laura Bodwell- Laura was 2nd female to finish the tour- she's awesome.

50 miles... I'll take it.