MS 150 LaGrange to Austin!

**If this is your first time checking out my MS 150 blog, I suggest going to the oldest post and reading up from there. I chronicle my experience training and preparing for this ride and it's fun to see the process in order.**



Well, I did it!

It was a different experience than I'd thought it'd be, mainly because of not being able to ride the whole 150 miles. But I had a lot of fun and I feel really proud of myself.

After finding out that Day 1 was cancelled, we rode to Houston. The bus ride was really fun and a good bonding experience. We got to our hotel rooms and had a chance to settle in.

Every year, the MS 150 has an expo with discounted bike clothes and parts and items you might need for the ride. It was fun seeing everyone gathered there and looking for good deals. I got some socks which match my shoes! It's a slow process building up a good cycling wardrobe, but I'm making it happen piece by piece.

After checking out the expo, all of Team TacoDeli went to The Lasagna House III for dinner.

It was delicious! They had great gluten free options which made it easy for me to find something. It was great talking with other folks and the team and sharing both our disappointment and excitement.

Yum!

At this point, it was still unclear what our plans were going to be for Saturday night. On a normal MS 150 year, we would bike from the hotel in Houston and camp in LaGrange. That wasn't possible for this year because the camp grounds had flooded. Our options as a team were to stay another night in the hotel and be bused to the starting line very early on Sunday morning (yikes!). Or because one of our team captain's relatives had a ranch in LaGrange, we could be bused there on Saturday and camp at the ranch. The second option seemed much better to everyone. At dinner, we were waiting to see if the National MS Society would agree to bus us on Saturday and make the ranch option possible for us.

Thankfully, it came through that we'd be able to stay at the ranch! We'd leave in the afternoon on Saturday and then get to hang out on the ranch in LaGrange.

Because we had some time on Saturday morning, my mom was able to come visit me! It was an unexpected and lucky opportunity to get to see her!

After lunch with my mom, we were all shuffled into vans and driven to LaGrange. I once again am reminded of how lucky I am to have found such a great team to do the MS 150 with because we were able to stay at such a beautiful place!

There was even a canoe so we were able to go out onto the lake to pass the time on Saturday afternoon. It was still a little boring, however, and my body felt antsy having to do so much sitting when I thought I'd be getting a lot of exercise. But it all ended up being so much better than staying another night at the hotel. We had TacoDeli for dinner and did karaoke in the evening!

Here's where we set up camp. Couldn't have been more perfect!

Everyone went to bed early as we had to be up before dawn to get ready for the Sunday ride. It rained some during the night, but thankfully, we were under a cover and the rain didn't bother me at all.

It seemed like no time had passed at all when the alarms started going off. We all took down our campsites and started preparing for the ride. It would be about 70 miles to Austin.

A very early breakfast!

Then it was time for what ended up being one of the funniest moments of the whole adventure. The National MS Society graciously provided school buses for us to get from the ranch to the starting line.

However, fitting 100 people and their suitcases and bikes onto 3 school buses was quite a challenge. They were truly stuffed to the brim. Bikes were in the middle aisles. Suitcases were on the top racks or in peoples' laps. Folks had to climb over many obstacles to get to seats. When we all got everything packed in, no one had any room to move. It was great though! Very fun to see us all come together to solve this space problem.

Despite being squished, we made it to the starting line with all people, bikes, and suitcases in tact. The starting line was a bit hectic. Folks wanted to take a team picture but people had to go to the bathroom or get water refills or pump up tires, etc. So it didn't have everyone in it. 

I was just so pumped to get riding! I couldn't wait. It felt like a dream to finally get rolling. I was riding with some teammates and I wanted to stay with them throughout the ride, but I was too excited during that first part and I went as fast as I could! So much pent up energy to release.

We met back up at the first rest stop. It was cloudy in the morning and looked like it might rain some more, but thankfully, the clouds burned off and the rest of the day was so beautiful!

I felt great the whole ride. I had really trained well. I also made sure to get plenty of food and water which I learned through all of my training was crucial to a good ride.

It's hard to talk about why I love cycling so much. I could see how it would seem really boring to folks who aren't into it. You just do the same thing for hours and hours... But I really do love it! I love being able to go places and cover real distances and know that I physically powered myself there. And being surrounded by folks who also love it just makes it that much better.

We powered through all of the rest stops, making great time. When were were about 15 miles from the finish, we all stopped for a coke to get a some energy for the last push home. I love this picture. It looks straight from a coke commercial.

We were so close to the finish line!!! All the training and work and preparation was all about to lead up to this moment! I was feeling pumped and proud and happy. And then a funny thing happened when I was just a mile or two from the capitol building...

I saw Skylar!! She was biking with the rest of the MS 150 riders. Our house is right off of the route we were taking and she wanted to meet me at the finish line. It was so awesome to see her biking with everyone else. I didn't believe it at first and I thought my eyes were tricking me, but it really was her! We got to ride to the finish line together which was a perfect way to end the adventure. :)

There was a party at the finish line so we got to wind down with more TacoDeli and good company. What a great adventure! I can't wait to do it again next year!