My atrocious sunburn has started to peel so I took that as a sign that posting about how I got that sunburn is long overdue. On April 12th and 13th Kellen and I rocked the MS150, a two day bike ride from Houston to Austin. The distance from Houston to Austin is not, in fact, 150 miles like the misleading title of the tour says. It is approximately 190 miles from Houston to Austin. I must admit, though, that the Chervon cycling team started at the "easy" start (there are a total of three race starts), making our journey a mere 170 miles.
I'm the one making the goofy face.
We arrived at the start all bushy-tailed at 5:30AM, only to wait around until 6:45 when we could get on our bikes and go. Not so bad, though. The first day is about 86 miles, we end at La Grange where we camp for the night.
Our friend Pauly (left) and Kellen at the La Grange tent. They arrived at the tent nearly two hours before my slow, tired ass. They're both pretty hard core.
The wind was fierce the first day. It's hard to decide which is better, 90 degree stifling heat with a 10 mph tailwind? Or 70 degree pleasant weather with 10-20 mph headwinds? We got the second situation, which was a pain in the ass while on the bike but wonderful when you stop. Every time I stopped to rest I just basked in the sunlight.
See? I'm pretty happy!
The following day was better than I thought it would be. I hadn't predicted that after biking all those miles, sleeping on the ground, and then getting up at 4:30 AM, I would still feel not too bad on the bike. But it's true, and after a while, the shear fact that I didn't feel like I was going to die motivated me. Kellen of course still beat me to the finish line by a wide margin, but I closed the gap a bit.
Kellen rockin it.
So I did manage to finish, in actually fairly good time, with a wicked headwind and really not enough training. If I did it, so can you! Kellen and I raised $3200 between the two us, not too shabby, yeah? It feels nice to do something nice. We're already looking ahead to next year, it's going to be a party. Next year's roster should include: Our friends Paul (who rode this year with us), Cara, Ben, Catherine (maybe, she remains unconvinced. I think Catherine regards biking the way I do running and ain't no one going to peer pressure me into some running for charity gig), Jason, Mindy, Joe and Jenn! Maybe soon we'll have our own team? Any out-of-towners interested in giving this a try? Here's some incentive:
16,000 (literally) other people are doing it! Don't you want to be cool like them?
ps. explanation of the title. This totally shouldn't bother me but it did. There were lots of signs along the side of the road cheering us on and nearly all of them misspelled the word pedalling. I really lack generosity of spirit, don't I?
Day 1: Getting ready for a long day of mapping in the desert sun
Day 3: Students finally getting the hang of their Brunton compasses
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