For various and sundry reasons, the powers that be decided not to do another bike ride of the same magnitude as the AIDSRides in this area so I decided to participate in the Snow Valley MS 150, benefiting people with multiple sclerosis. It's a two day bike ride over a weekend in May - the first day is a little over 100 miles, the second is 40 miles, all of it over some of the most beautiful countryside in Virginia. This is my "diary" of that weekend. If you want, you can check out a list of pictures.
Friday night I met up with Naomi (my sister) for dinner - she's in town for the summer, interning at a law firm. We had a great sushi dinner and then had some fantastic Maggie Moo ice cream - I needed to build up reserves for the weekend! We relaxed and watched a movie until my friend and riding companion, Akiko, came over. Since the ride starts very early Saturday morning, we decided it would save time in the morning if she stayed at my place. I don't know how much time it actually saved, since we set the alarm for 4:30am! After watching the worst movie in the world (American Wedding), we fell asleep at midnight.
It was dark when the alarm went off and I don't think either of us were very happy about waking up so early. But we got ready and were out the door by 5a. Stopped at 7-Eleven along the way for some coffee and made the trek up to Great Meadows. It's about an hour away, so it wasn't too bad, and Akiko and I have the same taste in music so the ride up was fun.
The sun is rising as we're driving and by the time we get to Great Meadows at 6am, there is a fantastic view of the sun peaking above the low layer of clouds on the horizon. We're one of the first cars there so we set up our bikes, drop off our stuff at the gear truck, and prepare for the ride. As I'm getting ready, I run into Mary, a woman I've met doing the past couple of "Bike to Work Days". After this most recent Bike to Work Day, she mentions she's going to sign up to do the MS ride and hopes we can meet up and ride together, so it was like fate that we ran into each other! Everyone congregates at the start line for photos and waits for the route to open.
The route opens at 7am, but we wait for Akiko, Michelle, and Ron's (my riding buddies) team to meet up and take a photo before heading out around 7:30am. The first part of the route is relatively flat and easy riding and we go through some of the same roads we've been on during various training rides. I'm feeling really strong and keeping up a pretty mean pace.
At pit 2, I hear "Rachael?" I look around to see who's calling me and it turns out to be my old boss, Molly. She and her girlfriend Marissa were out randomly doing a ride in the area and happened to come across me! We chatted for a few minutes and then they set off on the rest of their ride, and I meandered over to get a snack. It's a small world sometimes...
But as the day wears on, it gets hotter and hotter, and the hills get steeper and steeper. We cool down with lots of ice in our drinks and pack headbands and handkerchiefs with ice to wrap around various parts of our bodies as we ride. Happily, I'm still feeling strong and riding well, passing various people along the way. In fact, it becomes a bit of a joke as I pass some of the same people who catch up at pit stops and then leave before me. We smile in recognition and sometimes chat for a moment. One man decides I'm his nemesis and tells me so at the last pit stop of the day. He jokingly challenges me to beat him to the end point!
By the last 20 miles, we're feeling a bit tired and want the ride to end, so Mary and I start shortening the time we're spending at the pit stops and pushing harder on the road so we can be done sooner. The last 7 miles was really rough - lots of steep hills after a long day of steep hills. But we survive and pull into camp around 5:45p, hot, sweaty, tired, but triumphant! After putting my bike away and picking up my gear, I go down to cheer in riders and wait for my other friends to finish.
I take the most amazing shower ever in a shower truck (thanks to Jess for lending me both a towel and a comb!) and put on clean clothes. Dinner consists of BBQ from Red, Hot, and Blue. Then Ron, Michelle, and I get on the bus that takes us to the hotel we were staying at. We all decide we want ice cream and as fate would have it, there was a TCBY right next to our hotel! A big cup of mint chocolate chip for me, and then we go to bed at 9pm.
After a not-so-great night's sleep, we wake up at 5am and get ready to catch the bus back to camp and the start of Day 2. We arrive around 6am, get our bikes ready, throw our stuff in the gear truck, and then have a surprisingly good breakfast of pancakes and eggs. Everyone is a bit stiff and sore from the hard riding the day before, but you can always do another 40 more miles...as we keep telling ourselves. :)
The route opens at 7am and we're out with the first group. It's hard to get going this morning - legs are sore and there a relatively big hill out of camp so we're slow. But the hill warms me up and I take off pretty quickly after that. I run into Abby, lead alpha-dog of the BikeHounds, and she mentions this great stuff they gave her to help with saddle sores, so at the first pit I stop to try and get some. The lady there, unfortunately, was not an RN or a medic and gave me some CVS-brand "pain relief gel". So I put it on and it feels a bit tingly, which is weird, but I want to press on so I head out right away.
After about 5 minutes, I am in agony - turns out she gave me the generic equivalent of Icy Hot and my crotch was on fire. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. After about 15 minutes, I pull over practically in tears, and squirt water down my shorts. My friends are right behind me and pull over as well. They give me tissues to wipe the stuff away, but by this time, it's soaked into the chamois in my shorts. They also give me some Butt Butter to apply as a buffer, and it helps initially, but not for long.
I am miserable for the next 15 miles of crazy hills where sitting down causes the most extruciating pain in my crotch, but standing is killing my legs. I finally pull into the next pit stop and again almost bust into tears. Someone gives me baby wipes, which I decide to stuff down my shorts as a layer between me and my chamois. At this point I have 17 miles left - it still stings, but not as bad and I manage to make it through to the end of the ride. The scenary must have been nice, but all I could focus on at that point was the pain I was in so I missed a good part of what was going on around me. Michelle, bless her heart, listened to my bitching and moaning in stride and to her credit, never told me to shut up. Thanks for that Michelle and to Ron too for generously offering his Butt Butter and emergency toilet paper to help me out.
I have never been so happy for a ride to end! We pulled in to the finish at 10:15am and ditched our bikes. There was pizza and cold sodas for us to eat (yes, at 10 in the morning). We cheered new riders in and particularly had fun cheering in some of the new friends we made along the route. After hanging out for a couple of hours, we left around noon and stopped off for a big Coke Slurpee at 7 Eleven! I got home around 1pm and took another fantastic shower. Then the team I was on had a BBQ that I went to and pigged out on burgers and tortilla chips. I finally crashed around 9:30pm.
So that was my weekend - it was fun, I met a lot of neat people, and got a chance to spend the weekend on my bike. It was a good time, despite the Icy-Hot experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year...
Rachael