MS 150 - Multiple Scleroris Society Charity Bike Ride

[UTmtnbiker]

This has been cleared and vetted through the mods (DrPizza).

What I am asking is to support me in this year's MS150 Bike Tour the weekend of 6/28 & 29, 2008, which raises money for Multiple Sclerosis research and, hopefully, a cure. I have friends and family that are affected by this devastating disease and, because I'm lucky enough to be healthy, I ride for them.

For those who donate, thank you and thank you again! But, until there is a cure for this terrible disease, I will continue to raise funds and ride until my butt feels like it's going to fall off!! In addition, I will be matching dollar for dollar up to $75, and then I'm willing to match .50 on the dollar for the next $75 and finally .25 on the dollar for the next $75 (grand total of $126.25). Lastly, any prizes and stuff that I receive by hitting fund raising goals I will raffle off to a random ATOT donator. I'm not sure what the prizes are this year as they haven't published them, but will let people know if we reach that goal. All of this is in addition to riding 150 miles over 2 days.

As some of you may know here, I'm big cyclist and this is not a race, which what I usually prefer to do, but a charity ride. I do this because I think it's the right thing to do.

Please visit my pledge page

HERE

and make a tax-deductible donation of ANY amount and feel good about doing your part in helping me do my part! Rest assured, you are donating directly via the Multiple Sclerosis foundations web page (a big concern of the mods is that I not physically handle, collect, or deposit any of the money myself). Everything is done via the MS website!

Or, visit our L3 Communications team page at L-3 TEAM PAGE (I work for L-3 Communications and they are sponsoring our team of employees) and donate that way. Either way, together we can make a difference!

Thank you, in advance, for your support!
Roger

P.S. If you would like more information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, how proceeds from the MS Bike Tour are used, or the other ways you can get involved in the fight against MS, please visit www.fightmsutah.org

 

[Gooberlx2]

:thumbsup: for a good cause.

My lab just finished up on a MS study. I'll tell you what, it broke my heart some days looking at brain scans of people with unbelievable lesion volumes.

 

[bryanW1995]

I was going to post a fundraising letter but instead I'll give UTmtnbiker a bump with my thoughts on the ms150.

I just rode in the BP ms150 this weekend. People in Houston and Austin are a little bad at math, it's closer to 175 miles. It was tough this year, far and away the toughest ms 150 I've ridden. We had a 10-15 mph headwind for most of day 1 and about 1/3 of day 2. I personally saw 3 ambulances picking people up. One of my buddies saw two riders fall over sideways while going up a hill because they literally could not move fast enough to maintain forward momentum and stalled. It was difficult to focus through the pain of the ride since I was a slacker and didn't prepare as well as I could have. However, every few miles there was something to help us to remember why we were riding. A man with a fiddle stands every year on the side of road from sunup to sundown and plays for the riders. Another guy stands a few miles east of buechler state park and plays bagpipes as well as anybody I've heard in scotland. Team Fugro has great motivational signs along the route with statements like, "Team Fugro rides for those with MS who can't - yet" or "Team Fugro does not do it because it is easy, but because it is hard". Many people with MS ride as well. Some of them ride on tandem bikes with partners because they can't ride very well on their own, some actually ride the entire way on their own. I personally saw several people with the following statement on their shirt: "I have MS, this is why I ride." My personal all-time favorite moment, however, was about 12 miles from the finish line. There was an old man sitting on an even older car. He didn't say anything, play the fiddle, tell jokes, or whatever. He was holding a big sign with "HERO" written on it. Those last 12 miles were the best of my life.

When I started doing the MS 150 again back in 2006, I just wanted to get in better shape and maybe help out a few people while I was at it. I don't think that there's a way to put a cool or worldly spin on this so I'll just say it: somewhere along the way I found out that helping people with MS helps me a lot more than the exercise I get from riding the bike. This is why I ride.

Donate to Roger's MS ride. I plan to. Well, I will as soon as I find my wallet.

By the way, here's a link directly to his donation page:

https://secure3.convio.net/nms...on=form1&PROXY_TYPE=20

 

[JulesMaximus]

You ever do LoToJa? A friend of mine does that race every year and last year he finished in the top 20...I think his best finish in that race was in the top 5.

Edit-Bump for a good cause.

 

[bryanW1995]

is that an ms150 ride? Those aren't like normal bike rides. The top finishers are the people who raise the most money. One guy in houston annually raises over $100,000. He's 65 yrs old and his wife has MS. He normally can't even finish the race. But he get's a big, yellow #1 on his jersey and he's a hero to many of us.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
is that an ms150 ride? Those aren't like normal bike rides. The top finishers are the people who raise the most money. One guy in houston annually raises over $100,000. He's 65 yrs old and his wife has MS. He normally can't even finish the race. But he get's a big, yellow #1 on his jersey and he's a hero to many of us.

My boss and his wife also road the BP MS150 ride this past weekend. They both mentioned that it was really cold in the morning on Day 2, 45F with that nasty headwind can't be very fun.

What time did you finish on Sunday?

 

[Safeway]

bryanW1995, I was at the Austin end of the ride for a few hours while the main pack came in. I wish I could have ridden it again this year (I did in 2006 and 2007), but I had commitments to attend to. Great job to everyone that takes out time to raise money and ride for a cure.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Crusty

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
is that an ms150 ride? Those aren't like normal bike rides. The top finishers are the people who raise the most money. One guy in houston annually raises over $100,000. He's 65 yrs old and his wife has MS. He normally can't even finish the race. But he get's a big, yellow #1 on his jersey and he's a hero to many of us.

My boss and his wife also road the BP MS150 ride this past weekend. They both mentioned that it was really cold in the morning on Day 2, 45F with that nasty headwind can't be very fun.

What time did you finish on Sunday?

This is a funny story. Well, funny to other people, more like a horror film to me. I got a massage in the team chronicle tent from 7:30 to 8:30 (we do tons of advertising with them so they let us ride with them) on saturday. It started getting a little cold at 8:30 but it wasn't too bad. I went to bed by 8:45 b/c I knew from past experience that the music gets really loud at 5 am, and after that horrible wind on saturday I knew that I had better be ready for sunday. Well, at 11:30 I woke up and it was COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDD. Anyone who said it was 45f is a freakin' liar! I had on two shirts and a pair of socks. I was so cold that I couldn't aim at the correct part of the port-a-potty to take a leak...let's just say that I painted a big modern art picture on the side of it. I was shivering uncontrollably as I lurked back to my sleeping area. I made a feeble effort to return to sleep. yeah, right. as the temperature dropped, I just got colder and colder. Exhaustion set in by around 1:30 and I slept for a few minutes...until my right ear got too cold. I moved my head to warm up the right ear, but then the left ear got cold. this went on until around 2:30, then my 3 riding buddies all got up at around the same time to try their luck with the modern art port-a-potty. Fortunately it had yellowing walls and it was dark so I got no mention of strange wall designs. My friends also had a hard time getting back to sleep. One in particular didn't plan well for 40f temps and literally shiverred the rest of the night. I got back up after they were done but this time threw on a light windbreaker. I did manage to mostly hit the target this time. mostly. I kept the windbreaker on and managed to sleep another hour and a half after pulling my blanket completely over my head to prevent nasal freezing. I can honestly say that it was the most miserable night of my life.

My mom is an RN and I convinced her earlier this year to volunteer. She was in the medical building. I very nearly stole her car that night like a 14 year old with a hot date. The only thing stopping me was the knowledge that got one night of this miserable hell, it's the least I can do for those suffering with MS right now as we speak. At least I could still walk. Anyway, I managed to get up on time and even got to sneak to the front of the line b/c I was rider # 194. I left at 7 am and finished at 3:38 pm sunday.

I wish the ride was like this every year. Sometimes we make mountains out of the molehills in our lives. This was a mountain, and anybody who finished that ride had to earn it. Last year I rode for 12 hrs and 24 minutes over the two days. This year I was in similar or perhaps slightly better shape, and it took over 17 hours. Good thing I didn't offer my donors the option to pay me $1 per minute improvement in my time like I had originally planned to...

I'm going to donate to Utmtnbiker's ms150 now. If you're reading this, give him $20 or $50 or whatever. Skip cokes for a week or bring your lunch to work for a few days. You'll be glad you did.

 

[UTmtnbiker]

Thanks and props to bryanW1995 for the donation. I appreciate it and more importantly, those with MS appreciate it!

Ours isn't until the end of June, which still gives me about 2 months and change to train. I'll definitely regale everybody here with tales of humor, humiliation, and humbleness about the event. This will be my first MS150 ride and I'm proud to be sponsored by the likes of people like bryanW1995. Pics will be coming on my homepage of both myself, the bike I plan to ride, some training and tips I've learned for a multiple day, high mileage event like this.

With Utah's flakely weather, I haven't been able to ride as much as I would have liked up to this point (about 200 miles tops) but I've been running about 3 to 5 miles twice a week in anticipation of my first triathlon, which I'll be doing in September. I hope that as the weather as changed, I'll be able to put about 100 miles or so on my bike per week up until the ride. My biggest issue/fear is going to be saddle sores. I got a bad case last year and it was the most painful/most disturbing issue I've ever had down in my nether-regions and hope to never encounter them again. It took me about 3 weeks of not sitting on a bike saddle before it cleared up. Put a real crimp in my riding/condition for last season.

I've never really been a long distance rider. Mostly rides of 50 to 75 miles have been my maximum, so this'll be a good challenge and goal for me for this year. I'll definitely keep everybody informed as we go along.

Thanks again for the donations!

-Roger

 

[bryanW1995]

I bought a $25 seat at the local bike store back in 06. It was the best $25 I have EVER spent. No more saddle sores, no more "OH SHIT I HAVE NO FEELING BETWEEN MY LEGS!" events, etc. I don't know why I haven't done it yet, but one day I will ritually torture my old seat to death.

 

[bryanW1995]

bump to remind me that I only have 362 days left until the bp ms 150 2009!!

 

[UTmtnbiker]

I have some pretty nice saddles that generally keep the boys from falling asleep or going numb (Specialized Toupe).

Last year was the first year I've ever had saddle sores and I'm pretty good now about preventing them. Most important thing for me was to get out of my bibs right after the ride. It's the bacteria baby!

Gonna do a 40 mile training ride tomorrow as I'm finally back from vacation *I shake my fist at Delta - they canceled my flight on Wed and had to fly back today*

It'll be good to stretch out the legs.

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
I bought a $25 seat at the local bike store back in 06. It was the best $25 I have EVER spent. No more saddle sores, no more "OH SHIT I HAVE NO FEELING BETWEEN MY LEGS!" events, etc. I don't know why I haven't done it yet, but one day I will ritually torture my old seat to death.

 

[Mrvile]

Whoo hoo that's a lot of biking. Good work, and have fun

 

[bryanW1995]

ok, got some pics from the ride. Some of the pics are of other riders that were mistakenly included in my list of pics. just remember, if the person looks happy or comfortable, it's probably not me! I was #194.

http://www.brightroom.com/view...TID=32345&PWD=&BIB=194

 

[UTmtnbiker]

We're doing a training ride today with 4 or 5 people. 3 of us are experience riders, for the rest the bike ride will be their first handful of rides. Doing an amazingly slow pace just so everybody will be used to riding together (we're gonna try to ride as a group for the MS150).

I'll have some pics posted in the next day or two.

 

[bryanW1995]

it is VERY difficult to ride together the entire way for people with significantly different riding speeds. What we usually do is take off and leave the laggards, then let them catch up at the rest stops.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
it is VERY difficult to ride together the entire way for people with significantly different riding speeds. What we usually do is take off and leave the laggards, then let them catch up at the rest stops.

Well it's not like it's a race right? TTT for a good cause.

 

[bryanW1995]

I rode the stationary bike last night. Went from lvl 14 pre-ms150 to lvl 16 last night. I've improved, but lvl 16 is HARD!! I'm still tired just thinking about it...

 

[2dt Drifter]

Bump from a fellow MS 150 rider.

I did the 07' Colorado chapter ride for the first time. Lots of hills and crazy headwinds but it was a detoxifying experience. My mother has done it 3 years now and she's almost 60. I figured if she could do it: I could do it and it sure kicked my ass! I have never been around such awesome people for two days during that ride. Such a great experience and wont be my last. Unfortunately I cant attend the 08'.

 

[bryanW1995]

I suspect that the ms150 in colorado is a little bit harder than it is down here. we usually have a little bit of heat and some minor hills out here; you guys get to ride through mountains etc...

 

[zoiks]

You need to join the Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Race for the Cure

 

[FDF12389]

I heard somewhere that exercise was unhealthy, might want to reconsider.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: zoiks
You need to join the Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Race for the Cure

I love The Office...

 

[bryanW1995]

just found out that one of the buddies who rode in the ms150 with me has that "michael scott dunder mifflin..." tshirt. nice. Maybe I'll wear one next year.

 

[UTmtnbiker]

Sorry for the delay...no pics yet as all I have of them have a bunch of us in them.

Unfortunately, as some of my coworkers/riding buddies are hotties, they've asked not to have their pictures posted. This entire thread can now be classified as a TTIWWP thread!

That being said, I will try and get some solo shots of my ugly mug for you guys to ogle!

I say we make a "michael scott dunder mifflin..." jersey!