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This was easily one of the coolest things I've done in my life. Of course, there was no mistaking the thrill I felt upon biking the final one mile through the University of Texas campus, laying eyes upon the Capitol building in Austin and crossing the finish line to cheers and appluase along the race's final stretch. That, however, captures only one part of my experience on the ride...
With work keeping me away from Houston and from my road bike, my longest practice ride before the 160 mile MS150 course from Houston (technically west of Houston) to Austin was all of 40 miles of flat terrain in northern Brazoria County. I had enjoyed the 3 or 4 practice rides as they showed me a side of Texas that my time in Houston and Dallas hadn't yet; among other hightlights, I saw birds pecking at a dead snake, an artificial jet ski park, horses, sheep, roosters, the one-room Iowa Colony City Hall, oil pumps, and a sign offering goats on sale. However, every ride took me over horribly kept county roads and exposed me to a brutal headwind. Missing upstate New York's trees, I wondered how I would ever survive
a ride four times in length and hoped for a tailwind the entire way to Austin.
As April 12th approached, my mix of excitement and anxiety about the ride peaked. What had I been thinking, I asked myself, when I signed up to bike to Austin? On April 11th, I sorted through the official rider packet, trying to figure out what number went where on my bike. After taking too long to pack my pack, I settled in for a four hour slumber. On the 12th, I was up at 545AM and headed over to team Cameron's departure point in Katy. As I set up my bike and stashed my pack, the sun peeked over the horizon and began to warm up the surprisingly chilly Houston morning. At 645AM, about 50 team Cameron riders and I set off to join the other riders on our way to Houston. I soon got into the rhythm of things and was relieved to find that my little sleep the night before wasn't proving to be a problem. I pulled up next to a rider playing classic rock on a bike radio, a fitting and motivating soundtrack for cruising through Texas.
As
I approached the second break point, something didn't seem right. I glanced at my tires to see if they were alright and noticed that something seemed strange about the back one. Brushing this off as paranoia, I coasted past the second breakpoint. Finally worried about damaging my bike, I pulled over to where a ride marshall was helping another biker with a tire. Surely enough, my tube had a hole and needed to be replaced. Just as the marshall began work on my tire, though, a rider went down spectacularly and tumbled head down onto to road. The marshall scrambled over to help the rider, who eventually was carried off on an ambulance. About 35 minutes later, I had my tube replaced and was back on the road. Too bad I had cut out a stop at Bike Barn to pick up a spare tube on Friday...
The next 20 miles were incident free, and I quickly made it to Bellville for lunch. I spent about an hour here, relishing the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the Cameron team had for us. After Bellville, the elevation changes became more frequent, and I realized that my bike's gears were my
...and old!
He's 93! This is his 4th MS150, if I remember correctly.best friends. I skipped the first break point, paused for a minute near the second one, and stopped at the third and fourth ones before reaching La Grange, our overnight location for the first day. Upon taking the final left turn for the ~7 miles into La Grange, I thought I had found a second wind, but quickly realized that the major headwind that had been fighting me the entire way had become a sudden tailwind ally. Along the road to La Grange, riders' family and friends had parked their cars and cheered us on as we approached the first day's "finish line". The crowds stretched across the entire alley leading into the La Grange campgrounds.
I settled in for the night at the Cameron tent after a recovery drink, a shower, and my very first (and very relaxing) massage. I walked around the campgrounds in awe at the number of teams. All around me were some of the world's largest companies, such as BP (obviously, as the naming sponsor of the ride), ExxonMobil, Continental, LyondellBasell, etc. For someone with my admittedly dorky interests in energy, heavy industry, and its place in the global economy, it was exciting to
be around so many people with simliar interests. As I watched other riders streaming into La Grange, I realized that I was strangely proud of my adopted home city of Houston. All around me was evidence of the city's diversity: riders of every color and many nationalities rode in, proud to be part of the fight against MS and to be participating in something that has enjoyed unique success in Texas and, specifically, in Houston and Austin. Remembering the townspeople who had lined their towns' streets to cheer us on as we 13,000 riders passed through, I realized that I was proud to be called a Texan. It's hard to resist affection for this place when its people are so very enthusiastic about it.
Worry not, though, I still love New York first.
It was tough to fall asleep in La Grange. The team coordinator had declared that all snorers should congregate in one area. One fellow decided to stumble into the tent after 10PM and the instructions had been given out. He spread his sleeping bag right next to mine, laid down...and immediately started snoring. After riding for 6 hours after 4 hours of sleep the previous
day, my eyes had been a deep pink color. With each minute that passed, I feared a similar fate would meet me in Austin. Thankfully, I had a decent sleep and was up by 530 on day 2.
To allow the line to re-start the ride die down, the BCG riders and I decided to wait until 8AM to head to the day 2 start line. Day 2 offered us a choice of either the "challenge" route or the "express" route. After hearing of the beauty of the two state parks along the challenge route, I decided to give it a shot. The morning opened with a ride amongst tall pine trees, a setting that made me feel like I was anywhere but Texas. Immediately before entering the first state park, the course followed a steep downhill drop. This was one of the most enjoyable moments of the entire ride, as I found myself rocketing downhill. Because a car traveling downhill had to stop to make a turn as I rode down the hill, I broke my speed and didn't even enjoy the full potential of the hill.
The first uphill stretch of the state parks arrived almost
immediately upon branching away from the other routes. Although the hill didn't appear steep, I felt it was one of the most challenging for me. I made it up, but took a quick breather as I made sure the challenge route was the right choice. I pressed ahead to the park's first break point, where a BP volunteer danced to reggae music and pumped us up for the remainder of the ride to Austin. Although the uphill stretches in the park were tough (and I did walk up one, forgetting that I had one more gear...I wasn't so thrilled about that), the downhill parts were absolutely amazing. There was one stretch of curvy downhill, entirely surrounded by Central Texas pines, where the motivation behind road cycling was made obvious as I shot down at about 30MPH. After exiting the park, the remaining ride to the lunch stop for day 2 was fairly easy and took me shortly to TX-71, one of the main roads between Austin and Houston.
Lunch on day 2 was nowhere as enjoyable as it was on day 1. I'm not sure why, but it might have been the differences in setting: day 1's lunch was
on a vast campground, while day 2's was in front of Bastrop High School. And the PB&J sandwiches on offer were actually AB&J (almond butter). They were still delicious, but ever so slightly off 😊 After riding through the luxurious shield of trees in the state parks, the remainder of the ride to Austin was a battle against the wind, and not much else. The circulating rumor was that the 2008 emergency pick up service was the busiest the service has ever been, as the headwind demotivated a number of riders. The hills were generally not too bad, but there were some combinations of uphills and wind resistance that required substantial focus from me. Nonetheless, the motivation of knowing that I had successfully powered myself over 160 miles was more than enough to pull me through to Austin.
As we approached the last breakpoint, the landscape changed into a suburban cityscape. We were forced to restrict ourselves to a one lane portion of the road. The uphills were not limited to nature's creations, but also included highway overpasses. About 3 - 5 miles before reaching the finish line, we passed through a residential area, and I grinned at a
large Obama sign on a lawn.
As we entered the University of Texas campus, another rider's bike radio began blasting Journey. This pumped me up and I cylced myself quickly through the UT campus. Soon, all that remained was a left turn; the Texas state Capitol loomed over the distance, as though ready to extend a warm democratic embrace. All around me were crowds of onlookers cheering us on and thanking us for our support in the fight against MS.
With a pump of my fist, I crossed the finish line. The ride was over. I had done it!
This, combined with my newfound love of Utah and the mountain west have me itching to see so much more of the US. For a few years now, I've been focused on seeing as much of the world as possible, but trips like this have me excited to see more of home. Next up in the US: back to where it all began: NY/NJ for two weekends in May...then CA for about a week towards the end of July. I'm hoping to get to Crater Lake Nat'l Park in Oregon before moving to CA too. We'll see.
Also, one last thing: in case you're reading this before May 13th, 2008: if you're interested in donating to support the fight against MS, please consider donating at http://www.ms150.org/edon.cfm?id=213448. 80% of your donations go directly towards MS research and resources for its victims.
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Chetana
non-member comment
Way to go!!
Anshuman, the blog is beautifully written. Thanks for sharing your experience of the ride with us!