Ok .. round 2. Thanks WordPress for deleting my post on me last night .. 
This past weekened I biked in the MS150, which started at Churchill Downs in Louisville KY, stopped overnight at the Salato Wildlife Center in Frankfort KY, and finished at Keeneland in Lexington KY. This was my first time participating in an organized biking event and my first time biking more than 11 miles on back to back days.
While I signed up to ride with a team on the ride, I actually walked into the event not really closely knowing anyone else that was doing it .. so for me I was curious how the weekend was going to be .. luckily it all worked out to be a great weekend.
Day 1 we started out at Churchill Downs, did a little song and dance in Louisville for the next hour and a half, and finally headed our way towards Frankfort. A good part about Saturday was that I found someone to ride with that kept a similar pace that I do. Typically I end up being faster than most people I know so while I’ll start out with people, I end up riding by myself at my own pace, so it was nice to have the company during the day. Day 1 was a pretty good ride aside from the last 10 miles being a bit more hilly. I opted to stick with the 60 mile route because I was worried that if I pushed myself too hard I could ruin my strength for the next day. I now know that next year I’m going to at least push for the 75 miles route, if not the century.
So .. we finished Day 1 at the Salato Wildlife Center, I showered in one of those spectabulous shower trucks and ventured into the Wildlife Center because I had never seen a black bear before. I guess it was a perk to biking to that place, eh? So many hours later, after food and festivities, everyone headed to their overnight locations.
The person I rode with did not end up staying overnight for Day 2, so I was on my own again. Luckily for the first 43 miles I was among a big cluster of people so I just ended up talking to various people along the way. Advantages to being with / around others are (a) it makes those hills seem more possible when you have someone around you that is conquering them, (b) it makes those hills less painful when you have a distraction, (c) it just makes the day more enjoyable all the way around.
After the first rest stop a cluster of us were mislead by signs up this choice hill, which ended up being off course. When we started turning onto another street, I checked my route sheet and realized that we were off course and started to yell and stop the others. Unfortunately, one girl had gotten so far down the road that she was out of yelling range. Luckily, a local offered to scoope up her hubby and drive down the road to retrieve her. I offered to stay and babysit the bikes while they were gone. I was wearing my pocket camera that day, which I had not touched all weekend, so I decided to play around with it while they were gone.
Which leads to this .. 
At around the 43 mile mark it was the split between stopping at 50 miles or pushing it out to 75 miles. Since I regretted stopping early the day before I decided I’d go for the max, which was 75 miles, figuring that if it was too much I would have the next day to rest.
Apparently, after making that decision, the next 15 miles were the worst 15 miles of the entire weekend, and many many many times worse than anything else I had ever ridden. What made it worse was that for the entire 15 miles stretch between rest areas not another biker was in sight .. and when you’re climbing hill after hill after hill, without having someone around you to use for motivation those hills start to look like mountains. Needless to say at one point I decided to take a photo .. AKA I used it as a cheap excuse to get off my bike for a second. I would have taken a photo of a worm if it meant getting a break for 30 seconds!!!
This is what I took..
When I got to the next rest area I found out some great news. (A) The rest of the 75 mile trip was relatively painless compared to what I had just done and (b) some of the guys I had ridden with earlier had caught back up to me and so I just finished the ride with them. An added bonus was that once we arrived in Keeneland, one rider, Alan, was nice enough to give me the nickel tour of Keeneland (I had never seen it before this past weekend) and we actually rode through Keeneland, out into the Granstands and everything, on our bikes. How many people have done that before .. LOL!!
On a side note, Churchill Downs need to take a few lessons in aesthetics from Keeneland .. that place blew Churchill Downs away!!
Ok .. after that there was nothing exciting. Funny enough I showered at a Bath House in one of the stables at Keeneland, which was kinda crazy, hung out for a bit until we could catch the bus home. Then I had to bike another mile or so to get myself back to my house .. had to go out in style I guess!
When it was all said and done, after the two days and the actually miles that we rode, the detour of getting lost, and the ride home I think I ended up biking about 145 miles for the weekend .. which exceeded my personal expectations. And .. both that night and the next day I felt like a rock star and was not the least bit sore .. YAY!!
On a side note, one of the great things about participating in the MS150 was the cause behind the ride. Not only were we biking, but we were biking to raise money for MS. Not only were we raising money for MS but throughout the weekend you could feel, first hand, that you were helping a great cause. People with MS and people who had loved ones with MS participated in the event all weekend, from celebrating to volunteering. From the start of the ride to the end of the weekend it was nice to see that it was more than just a biking event.
Another thing that was nice was that a lot of the rest areas, once you got into the rural parts of the state, were at people’s houses. While the event provided these people with the basic rest stop necessities (sports drink, water, snacks, etc), many of the people went out of their way to add something extra for the riders. At one stop the father mentioned that his daughters stayed up the night before to bake brownies for the riders that were coming through the next day .. even though they didn’t have to! That is really something!!
So .. all in all it was great weekend and a very successful first biking excursion!! I can’t wait for the next one!!
