2019 is my 3rd year in a row riding the MS 150. In that time frame i’ve raised over $5000 benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis society to help find a cure for MS. I’ve definitely been helped by my friends and family, and i’m glad that they have supported me. If you don’t know, Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that attacks a persons central nervous system, causing your body to go through a variety of different side effects. There is no cure, but these types of charity rides help bring in Millions of dollars per year, and has already helped with medicine. It is a cause that is important to me, and something I will continue to do even though this year was REALLY tough for me.
I’ll be alright.
My goal this year was to just survive. In the past I had trained hundreds of miles in preparation for the ride. This year I rode about 80. I definitely was under prepared. But I got ready and headed out early in the morning from Waller, Tx.
Day 1
I ride with my team from work, and they love starting from Waller, only about 75 miles to La Grange. It was great a few years ago, but it being the closest start line from La Grange, everyone has caught on. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get started.
First 40 miles were a piece of cake. My legs were fresh, I was motivated, but after the 40 I hit a wall. It was getting hot and I was just fading away quickly. I slowed down considerably, and had to stop several times and get my composure. Alot goes through your mind when you are cramping up and feeling nauseous.
“why didn’t I train?”
“I should just quit”
Not going to lie, I really had that thought. I could have easily pulled the side of the rode, taken my helmet off and just asked a SAG van to pick me up and take me to La Grange, but I didn’t. Because I knew that I could make it to the finish line, even if I had to crawl there.
I’m glad I powered through because I made it to La Grange around 2pm – almost 8 hours after I started. I was just happy to see my wife at the finish line waiting for me.
At the end of Day 1, we caught up with friends, took a nice cold shower and found some ice cream and some free beer. Beer at the MS is abundant. With teams like Karbach and Saint Arnold, anywhere you looked you could get a few for free. We knocked out around 9:30 since we have an early morning Sunday.
Day 2
Staying in La Grange is an experience all in it’s own. One of them being at 5am they blast ‘La Grange’ by ZZ Top to wake everyone up. We started packing up and got ready to roll. I lined up at 6:15 and was still pretty far back, by 7:15 I was off.
This day was much more enjoyable. I felt great, was quick and finished and got to Circuit of The Americas around 12 pm. I caught up with my friend Leo a few times and we talked about how unprepared we were. This is Leo and I’s 3rd time doing the ride together so we both knew we could have given it more effort to prepare. Even so we were both relieved to make it to Austin at a decent time.
It’s burger time! On our way home we got to stop at Whataburger and get me a nice juicy burger 🙂 On day 1, there wasn’t much I was thinking about that would help me make it to the end. But for some reason on day 2 all I could think about was a nice delicious Whataburger burger. I passed on a shake, but I did go for a triple.
Here is a breakdown of my last few years moving time during the MS 150
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
| Day 1 | 5:51:56 | 6:12:22 | 6:28:44 |
| Day 2 | 6:29:21 | 4:54:21 | 4:27:39 |
Overall, I’m not happy with the way I preformed this year. But I made it which is what counts. I tried to remind myself that I was doing this to raise awareness for MS and to help fight for a cure. I’m ok with sacrificing my body and time for a weekend, knowing that what i’m doing is helping cure a world of MS.
I could NOT have done this ride without the support of my beautiful wife. She drove me to my first stop, met me in La Grange and spent the night with me at the campsite. She also encouraged me along the way telling me to keep going and that she believed in me. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.
