MS150 Chronicles 2009 - Pt I

Howdy Folks -

Well, here's the first installment of the writeup, and thanks so much to all of you who contributed. Just remember, it's never too late to get in on the fun:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=5492503&pg=personal&fr_id=10222

MONDAY, APRIL 20TH - IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT

So, how often do you get to start out a story with one of the most clichéd lines in all of literature and make it seem fresh and relevant? Not often, is the answer, and props to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the godfather of bad prose for writing it. It only took 180 years for that line to find a context that would not inspire the scorn of Critics, and the 2009 BP MS150 bicycle ride from Houston to Austin was it.

Me, I think Bulwer-Lytton gets a little bit of a bad rap. This is the guy who coined the phrase "The Great Unwashed", after all. I'll be using that one later on in this narrative when we get to Sunday.

Now, just in case you were in seclusion or otherwise out of town, torrential rains on Friday killed the first day of the ride. That was a first. There were a number of other "firsts" for this year's MS150: First single day sellout; First Sunday-only ride; First mass migration of hardy Cyclists driving to LaGrange Sunday morning. Those would not be the only Firsts, as I would learn by painful experience. More about that later.

I've broken this narrative up into three parts. This is Part I.

THURSDAY - April 16th

What a difference a year makes. A year ago I would have ridden my seventh MS150 in a row and eighth overall. As fate would have it, an April campout the weekend before the 2008 Ride left me with a pulled groin muscle and a case of poison ivy that left me gimping around like Walter Brennan wearing a pair of spotted red shorts. My takeaway from the whole pulled groin muscle and poison ivy thing was a) don't lift beer kegs all weekend; in fact, don't lift beer kegs at all, and b) don't turn your workpants inside out and leave them on the floor of your tent to dry and then put them back on; you've likely tracked something back into the tent with you previously.

Once again, I plan to start from Tully Stadium in West Houston, the traditional MS150 starting point. For several years now, some folks have started from a location in Katy, TX, which is considerably closer to Austin than Tully. The starting point in Katy is called Rhodes Stadium, or "The Ladies Tee's", as some cyclists refer to it. Now, me personally, I think that's a little harsh, and even overly competitive, particularly since this year's MS150 management has gone out of their way to stress that "this is not a race". So, those of you who have voiced that sentiment about Rhodes ought to be a little ashamed of yourselves.

I prefer the perspective of the folks who claim that the distance of those who start from Rhodes is exactly the same as the distance of those of us who start from Tully Stadium, as long as you measure Tully in miles, and Rhodes in kilometers. Now, that's the kind of Christian perspective I think we need to bring into this whole deal, as long as you don't dwell on the fact that kilometers are generally the unit of measure for Socialist countries, where such generalizations are not only typical, but desirable so as to maintain the Self-Esteem of underachievers. See, that's the whole point of Socialism. And while it would be fair to conclude from the evidence that some of Riders who start from Rhodes are Socialists, that doesn't mean that they're not nice people. Just undermotivated.

But I digress.

FRIDAY

Now, as those of you who have read my dispatches in year's past know, I have never been able to get onto the St. Arnold's team, even though a lot of my Hasher friends have, and I've otherwise got all the qualifications that I think would make me a catch for any MS150 team:

- I'm a decent fund raiser.

- I'm a responsible cyclist.

- I know several people on the St. Arnold's team, including the most important people, the volunteers who feed them.

- I'm a pitch-in kind of guy when it comes to organizing training rides, etc.

- Finally, I'm that rare male Hasher that has not rewarded their hospitality at the brewery by going out behind the building to take a pee.

Still, I could never get any traction when I would call or reach out through friends. The Team was always full. I had started to suspect that the real reason was because I was mostly a wine drinker, but quickly admonished myself for attributing such low motives to the folks who ran the team, like they might be some kind of Beer Snobs. If they're full up, they're full up, and there's nothing you can do about that. The fact that a bunch of my reprobate friends made it on while I did not was just a matter of timing.

Anyway, a couple month's back I met a girl at a party who had just recently moved to this country from what I took to be South America. We started talking and she mentioned that she had taken up bicycle riding last summer and thought she would give the MS150 a try. "Which team are you with", I asked. "St. Arnold's", she replied. "And aren't they just the nicest people"?

I didn't bother asking her if she was a beer drinker. I already knew the answer.

That reminds me: One of my St. Arnold's pals told me with totally deserved pride that St. Arnold's was in the Top 10 in terms of fundraising, notwithstanding that St. Arnold's is a Microbrewery with one location (Houston). Congrats to St. Arnold's! Let this also dispel all the preconceptions everybody has about Beer Drinkers and athletic pursuits. Our takeaway on this point is that beer drinking is no obstacle when it comes to riding a bike 175 miles, and apparently an absolute virtue when it comes to fund raising.

My training schedule in preparation for the 2009 Ride has been somewhat - how shall we say - problematic, weekends not being as accessible as in years past; so my actual conditioning is not all I could wish it to be. It's not a huge concern, as I have only missed out on hill training, wind training, distance training and, well, riding my Road Bike. I'm kind of hoping my sundry Urban Bike Assaults from Cypress to Houston on the Hybrid will compensate. Time will tell.

Despite reports that rain will cancel the Saturday ride, I spend Friday night assembling my kit: shoes, helmet, gloves, packets of Butt'r (a fragrant paste you rub on your nethers about, oh, mile 80), and various other stuff. One of the items I take along are packets of Goo, a fragrant paste not unlike Butt'r, except that, instead of smearing it on your nethers, you eat it. It's a high carb concoction, and quite tasty; kind of like pudding on steroids. Anyway, I'm rooting around in my Bike Cupboard in the garage, and I come across a few packets of Goo that are, well, questionable. They've been in the garage since at least the 2008 MS150 that I didn't do, and might actually go back to the MS150 in 2007. See, this is the only long distance ride I ever do, so I can't justify a lot of Goo consumption. I stick them in the Bike Pouch under my seat, and don't give them another thought.

SATURDAY

Shades of Hurricane Ike. Texas got swamped by a storm yesterday, and by mid-afternoon, the LaGrange campground was a Lake. I got an on-the-scene report Friday night from my friend Jim Weitzel on the CapRock team that several large tents were damaged and the volunteers were all standing in water. The Saturday ride was cancelled, but Sunday was still tentatively a go, as weather reports indicated the storm would blow itself out Saturday night. The Riders were advised to get themselves up to LaGrange Sunday morning, and the MS150 team would get us back either to LaGrange or Tully Sunday night. I had put the word out to all the Riders I could that we'll be meeting Sunday, EARLY, at Tully Stadium to convoy up to LaGrange. Shawn Faris has volunteered his trailer and pickup, and we've got enough seats and space for a dozen bikes and people.

This year, I'm riding with the Continental Airlines Team. I joined Continental because the folks I knew best at Schlumberger (a wonderful team by the way; awesome training rides and support) had stopped riding for various reasons. Plus, I joined Continental because Debra Sandoval is a close friend who works for them, and she urged me to join so we could ride together, as we had a few years back when she last did the Ride. Six weeks after I joined, Debra decided to get hip replacement surgery and dropped out. Alone again, naturally. Debra's doing fine, but her butt is in the saddle come this time next year.

Side Note: I forwarded a suggestion to the Continental Team managers suggesting that each Rider be awarded 1 Frequent Flyer Mile for every mile ridden in the MS150, ha ha ha. The Team Captain, Beth Arlington, responded back that she felt Continental should pony up ONE HUNDRED frequent flier miles for every rider, ha ha ha. Now that I've been cheesed out of my Saturday ride, and inasmuch as somebody has to pay for my inconvenience, that sounds like a pretty darn good idea.

So far though, no bites from Continental Airlines.

Next up: Part II, The Convoy To LaGrange