Sep 29-Oct 1 -- MS150 etc.

Great weather for biking ! ... not like a few years ago when we rode through a torrential downpour and one of us (Jeffrey, the smart one) sagged to the end at the lunch rest stop. This year, however, it's just Aaron and me. Jeffrey doesn't really enjoy these things so he stopped going a couple of years ago.

It's my 10th and likely final year. It was ok while we lived in Philly, but it gets to be a scheduling problem and expensive too, driving down to Philly for the weekend. This year, like last, we planned things around the weekend only it backfired a bit since we had the Europe vacation and the LBBC charity event (Living Beyond Breast Cancer) a couple of weeks on either side so we end up being away from our "northern home" for a month during the best weather of the year and prettiest time. Oh well, that's life !

Back to the ride -- Aaron and I left his house around 4:45 and got to the starting point just after 6am. We checked in, checked our luggage, affixed our rider numbers and then set off. We didn't wait for the mass start, per se, because they were trying to spread out the start times. We rode to the EDS parking lot (used to be Towers Perrin where I worked) 1/2 a block away where there is overflow parking and waited there for the first groups to go through -- the official start is at 6:30 and that was probably the time that we left.

There were apparently around 8,000 riders this year ... can you imagine the mass start ?????

Remember when I used to be in great riding shape, just 3 months ago ? Well ... not anymore. 100 miles on the flat would have been a yawn then but now it was work. That's the price you pay however and it was not unexpected. If the MS150 had been held in June I could have blasted through but I was stiff and sore. We finished at 1:30 ... later than most years. I think that the earliest that we've been in was 12:30 or 12:45 and probably the latest around 2:00. We collected our t-shirts and our luggage, ate some pirogies and went to our hotel. In most prior years Sandy came to Ocean city with our Kylie and then Kylie and Lauren but this year it was just going to be Aaron and me so we had to check our luggage. That has its advantages, however, since we did not have to wait for Sandy to clean up at the hotel.

At mile 42.5 there was the 25 mile century loop that increases the distance to 100 miles from 75 -- as with all prior years, we did the century. The start and end of this loop varies from year to year as the course changes and this year what with the great weather and massive number of riders, when we rejoined the main track there were literally mobs of riders trundling along that had just gotten to that point even though we had done the extra 25 miles.

At the hotel I realized that my rear wheel was wobbling about 1/4" side to side. That is not good news ... Aaron had seen some wobble the night before and tightened the bearings but thought that was the only problem. Well, it turned out that the non-drive side bearing was basically toast. We dismantled the wheel and tightened it somewhat, still leaving some wobble because without wobble there was too much rolling resistance and crossed our fingers that it would last another 75 miles. You could feel the grinding as the wheel was spinning ... not good news. Replacing the bearings is a matter of having a bearing puller and press (and of course having the spare) and that is not a standard process. Usually the rims in bicycle wheels wear from braking before the bearings give out but not this time.

I actually have a brand-new pair of wheels that Aaron had ordered for me and were delivered to his house the day before the ride but of course we did not know that we would need them ... and it was not worth asking Sandy to undertake 4+ hours of driving to bring me the spare wheels.

Cleaned up, I went to 4pm Mass (no, not to pray for the wheel to last, but perhaps I should have ?) and Aaron relaxed in the hotel. After I returned we went to the dinner, had our big platefuls of spaghetti and salad, rolls etc. and then back to the hotel. We were both tired and asleep by 7:30pm or so.

4:45 the next morning we got up, went to the ride breakfast, had granola (good) donuts (the most tasteless donuts that either of us had taken a bite out of went into the garbage) ... me a bagel (I thought that I was going to break my jaw) etc. I had not noticed until later that they had excellent looking bacon etc. in another stand. We found the bag check-in and dropped our bags into the truck on the floor by the rear-most side door ... more on that later !

The official start for the return trip is 6:30 but most riders leave before then. We were on the way by 5:45, passing a number of riders as we went and ended up finishing at 10:15. We were the first ones in but I have to admit that we unintentionally shortened our distance a little, missing a turn early on in the dark (arrows painted on the pavement), getting directions back onto the course and only doing 71.5 miles instead of 75 miles. That still left us over 175 miles for the two days since the prior day was closer to 104 or 105 miles.

Back to the ride ... my legs actually felt better on the 2nd day than on the first although I was not making as much speed as I would have in June. Back in June I could have easily maintained 20+ mph for the distance, even though we had a headwind, but I was hard pressed to stay in the 16-18mph range. I was also taking it very easy on that rear wheel with very little standing up since that puts increased pressure on the bearings. My theory was that if I rode steadily enough that the rotating of the wheel and the gyroscopic effect would keep the wheel rotating without a wobble, essentially riding on the drive-side bearings. Our plan was that if the bearing disintegrated completely and we were close enough to the end that Aaron would continue on and come back with the car. Well, we made it. The wheel probably has a 1/2" wobble now but it will be fixed before being reused. Whew !!

So ... we're finished and on the road back home, correct ? ... no, we beat the luggage back. The luggage finally arrives in a huge moving van tractor-trailer packed to the ceiling with bags 10' high inside and a bunch of volunteer kids scramble on top of the pile and start throwing bags out the three doors. I hope that no-one had anything breakable ... They finally were digging down to the bottom of the pile and our bags appeared. By this time the pizza had arrived at the finish so we partook ... and then headed back to Aaron & Stef's house, stopping at Aaron's office and Performance Bicycle along the way.

Jeffrey, Sara and our new grandchild Emma were supposed to be coming for dinner but there was a change in plan -- Sara was going home early -- so we all went over to Jeffrey's place to see Emma. All babies are cut and Emma is no exception. Everyone took a turn holding her -- she was sleeping most of the time ... and we took lots of pictures.

After Sara left Jeffrey was supposed to come over for dinner but that got messed up too because Sara had gone out with Emma and didn't come back until later and her plans changed again to stay overnight. As it turned out Jeffrey did come over to Stef's but only after Sandy and I had hit the sack and were asleep (8:30pm) ... because we were planning on leaving by 4am the next morning to go to Florida. We'll see him next week when we are back in Philly.

.............

Monday morning ... our plan was to get away by 4am and I had set my cell phone alarm for a little after 3am but we were both awake at 2:30 so we got up and hit the road at 3:30 am. Now I realize that sounds extreme but since we were heading down I95 around Washington and Richmond it is important to get the Beltway behind us or we would end up sitting in Washington traffic. It was a good, albeit long drive -- we arrived a little before 7am in New Smyrna Beach. We emptied the car, fed Abby and went to our Sushi restaurant for dinner but being Monday it was closed ! We were too tired to look around so we ate at the Italian place beside which we had been disappointed with before but this time the food was good.

Ah ... a real bed. We slept on a blow-up bed a Stef's and while better than the floor it is not easy on the back.

Oh -- something else -- wind. I had been noticing the wind all the way through Georgia, mostly at our back and very strong. Before we went to dinner we drove to the beach (just a couple of hundred yards away) to see what was happening. It was wild -- we have never seen surf like that. At the restaurant the owner said that it has been blowing for 4 days now and he's had very little business -- I can understand that because it was actually hard to open the car doors against the wind and the restaurant is close to the beach.

That's it ... I'll cover whatever we end up doing today in another blog and post some pictures.