MS-150

Last Saturday, I rode in the MS-150 bicycle ride in New Bern, NC. The minimum to enter was to pay $35, plus to raise an additional $200 toward finding a cure for MS. There were multiple length rides you could do on Saturday and Sunday. I wanted to do the max on each day, 100 miles.
I started the day with a few of my coworkers who had come down to ride. (that's me on the right) They tend to ride a little bit faster than I do, so I wasn't going to spend the whole ride with them, but I would ride with them to the first rest stop.
We started out pretty fast, and made it to the rest stop, 12 miles out at just under 19 miles per hour. I let them go on when they were ready, so that I could wait for my friends Bonnie and Kathy, and the people they were riding with.
They showed up pretty quickly and we headed out 12 people strong. We formed a paceline, and took turns fighting the wind at the front. We planned to average about 16.5 mph, and that's about what we did. I was feeling good, so I took several many mile pulls at the front of the line. After the 2nd rest stop, the 75 mile route and the 100 mile route split, and we lost half our group to the 75 mile ride.
By the time we got to the 3rd rest stop, at around 35 miles, we had picked up 2 more people along the way. Basically, you get about a 1 or 2 mile per hour increase in speed, because you are in the paceline and all drafting off each other. If someone is riding alone, a little slower then the paceline is going, then, when the paceline passes them, they just duck in and draft off the last rider in the line, and join the line, if they want.
By the way, what is at the rest stops? At each rest stop, they have water and gatorade and several different kinds of food, like bananas, orange wedges, cookies, granola bars, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. On a big ride like this, there's a tent from a local bike store with a mechanic at each stop as well. There are also porta potties. People get there, and leave their $1000+ bikes off on the ground, or propped against a tree, or standing against the curb, and go get more water or food. The honor code runs strong, and no one messes with anyone else's bike, or not so that I've ever heard.
Between the 3rd and 4th rest stop, we had a few people who were a little enthusiastic pulling at the front, and they were going about 18+ mph. It was also a long ride to the 4th stop (16 miles) and we were getting pretty tired by the time we got there. Fortunately we were past the 50 mile mark. This was a lunch stop, where we got some wraps and a bag of potato chips instead of the other stuff. It was a pretty pathetic lunch stop. A ride I did back in early June had a lunch stop where you had pasta, and salad, and baked goods, and cans of soda, and lots of good food. We talk about the speed and realized that most of us didn't want to go that fast and agreed to rachet the speed back to 16.5.
When we got to the 5th stop, Libby saved me. I was starting to overheat, even though I was drinking plenty of liquid, and not going too hard. It was about 85 degrees. Libby is a personal trainer, who runs a spinning class. She went and got a bag and put some ice in it, and put that on the back of my neck, and on my head and forehead, and temples, and all over. After a few minutes, I was feeling much better. She also had me put some more sunscreen on my face, so I started calling her mom.
There was another 12 mile ride to the next rest stop, but I dragged it out. Everything starts to look the same, and you just keep peddling. It was all flat, so you never really get a break coasting down a hill, but you never have to slog up a hill. I would stay in a gear a little higher than then the rest of the pace line and peddle 3 or 4 times, then coast, and repeat many many times.
Rest stop 6 was at around the 78 mile mark. After we passed the 75 mile mark, we all knew that if we had chosen to just ride 75 miles, we'd be done by now. Oh well. You live with your choices. I iced myself down again, and was feeling a little better. Libby was trying to help a woman who had rotator cuff surgery 4 weeks before, who had decided to ride anyways, and was in amazing pain, but wanted to finish the ride. Once you really decide to do something, it's amazing the lengths that you will go to finish it.
Of course, I was going through a similar thing. I was very hot, and tired. My hands and feet were getting numb every few minutes, and I wasn't really able to maintain a steady cadence of peddling. I would have loved to have stopped right then, but I had never completed a century before. I tried to ride one about 10 years ago in NYC, but stopped at 92 miles and just took the subway home. I was on a mountain bike with big knobby tires, and had also worn a hole in the side of my seat. I had also tried to do a 75 mile ride in early June, but I got overheated and the hills just got to me, and I stopped at 58 miles. I was going to finish.
So with much relucatance and determination, I rode the next 8 miles to the last rest stop. Now I had to finish. After icing down again, we started out again. At the 90 mile mark, they started with signs telling us that we had 10 miles to do. They counted down each mile. 1 mile can seem like an eternity at that point. I just kept telling myself that I really wasn't feeling that bad and that I could finish the ride. I was focusing on how good it would feel to have acheived the goal of completing a century. We started coming back into town, and out of the countryside. We were getting close.
We were on the last highway, that went over a big bridge. We had the final hill up the bridge. We were over the bridge. just the drawbridge section left. Then, we all got stopped about 1/4 mile from the end, while someone went through the drawbridge. That wait was nice, because we rested so we could make one last sprint in to the finishline, where my wife and 2 friends were waiting for us.
After taking pictures, my SI joint in my lower left part of my back started stiffing up. It seems that being in a bike position for just over 6 hours isn't good for backs. (we took 6 hours and 10 minutes - averaging 16.2mph for the ride) I decided that I had achieved my goal of riding the century, and didn't need to ride on sunday. That'll be a good goal for next year.