Thoughts from 75 miles on my bike

All went VERY well yesterday as day 2 of the MS150 ride went on as planned. Many kudos to the MS150 organization as they did a wonderful job preparing changes (at very late notice) for yesterday. If you didn't know the rain had come on Saturday and cancelled all of that day (and evening) you would not have known it. I know they worked VERY hard and it went off (as far as I'm concerned) without a hitch. And the traffic getting to La Grange was not nearly as difficult (or stressful) and I thought it would have been.

As you may know, on the second day of the ride, there are usually two routes you can take - one is the "challenge" route (which goes through the park and consists of some pretty tough hills). The second route is called the "lunch express" route - which basically takes HWY 71 into Bastrop. I've done the park a few times before, and having re-injured a bad knee this past October doing the half marathon in San Antonio, I had decided a few months back that I should not do the challenge route this year. Well, let me tell you, the relentless WIND made the express route (in fact, the whole ride) a little more challenging than usual. We had a pretty stiff head wind the whole 75 miles (well, except for about 100 yards where the road winded around and we got a full tailwind!). Regardless, the trip was fun, challenging, and encouraging all at the same time. I want to leave you with three snippets of memories I have from yesterday:

1) twin tandem cyclists
I rode up behind a set of tandem cyclists. Both of them were father/daughter teams. The one on the right was a younger set; the girl was probaby 8 or 9. She was doing quite well and you could tell she was enjoying the day. On the left was an older set; the girl was 21 (she had said it at one point) and she was also enjoying herself - telling about her plans for college and afterwards. I don't think the two teams knew each other. Yet I marveled at the mirror image; it was also a bit of a time machine. I could see how the right team could be the left team in a few years. And I prayed that it would be. A family that cycles together stays together. :-)

2) hand cyclist
I have seen this guy a few times on the Chevron-sponsored training rides and saw him again yesterday. I passed him a few times on the ride yesterday so I can only assume that he either gets a sag once in a while or never stops at any of the rest stops (or lunch). This guy is amazing. It was hard enough for me to do it with two legs, I can't imagine doing it with two hands. My hat is off to him! :-)

3) wheel-chair bound dude with big grin handing out strawberries
At almost the end of the race, I came upon a tent with a few people cheering riders on. That's always encouraging. What really caught my attention was one guy who was in an electric wheelchair. Now this wasn't the kind of wheel chair that had two big wheels and two little wheels. It had four little wheels. The most interesting part of it was that he made it to where he was just up on two wheels (I suppose to make him tall enough to reach cabinets). But he was up on these two wheels cheering us on and moving the chair forward to offer riders strawberries that he had on a tray. It made me smile. I so appreciated his effort to cheer us on. His smile was so beautiful! :-)

So, there you have it: three smiles from a ton stored in my head from yesterday.

One last story, I was at a rest stop toward the end when an older gentleman (probably in his late 60's) came in and was taken to the medical tent. I had put my bike near the tent so I saw him as he came in - with some contusions on his face and pretty bad cuts on his knee. He had obviously gone down pretty hard. He had road rash around his eye, what looked like he would have a black eye, a cut on his eyebrow which would need stitches, and (when he pulled away the ice pack from his nose) looked like what would have been a broken nose. What I was surprised at was his remarkably cheerful disposition. Now that's the mark of a true cyclist!

To end this on a happier note, I was also happy that I got to catch up with a friend - who was kind enough to pick me up and take me back to Houston - but first was taken to see his Austin house renovations (and got to use a shower, praise the Lord), and got to see 200+/- beautiful acres in Paige, TX.

What's next for me? I think the MS150 waves to wine might be in the cross-hairs!http://bikecan.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=BIKE_CAN_homepage

All for now,
Lisa