Hi!
I thought I would write a note to tell about my weekend. I have been training
for this ride really hard and was very happy to be involved. I think the MS150
is a good cause and an excellent bike ride to enter on a unicycle. They are very
adaptive to individual needs and very supportive to “slow” riders that probably
wouldn’t otherwise enter such a long ride.
A. J. from Austin drove up (500 miles after 5pm Friday) with his friend Andrew (
who entered on a bike). A. J. made a brave effort considering his lack of
training, but it must have been tough without much sleep.
Day 1 80 miles
Saturday was warm but windy. Mostly it was a headwind of about 15 to 20 mph.
This ride is called “hilly” by Oklahoma standards, but it’s mostly flat to
rolling with one 3 mile long climb at the end of the first day. The highlight of
this day for me was passing lots of bikes on this hill. There was a group of
riders that had given up halfway up this hill and were waiting on the support
vehicle to catch a ride. But most of them after seeing me “flying” up the hill
got back on their bikes and with my inspiration finished the hill.
Day 2 78 miles
Lots of rain overnight and more predicted throughout the day. The same hill that
I enjoyed climbing so much was a shock to my knees going down. I actually took a
longer break at the bottom than I had taken at the top on Day 1. The wind had
turned around so that I had to fight it most of the way home! It rained about
half of Sunday’s ride and started to get cold the last 2-3 hours. The steepest
hill coming home was on my mind for hours before I even approached it. I
couldn’t help remembering how tough it was going down this hill and had never
climbed anything much steeper ever on my Coker. I was so tired and sore I had to
walk up the last bit of the hill. There was just no way.
It took me about 10 and a half hours each day start to finish and I finished
ahead of several bikes each day. The wind was tough and many people caught rides
in the trucks that would have made it otherwise. Everyone was very nice to me
and made me feel good about myself for making the effort. They treated me like a
hero or something.
Thanks A.J. sorry we didn’t get to talk more.
-Mark
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