Just completed 150 mile ride....

Way to get the ride done.  Congratulations.

Very awesome!  I would love to do a ride like that.  I have been mapping out a route from my house to my mom's.  It's only around 70 miles and I thought that was a hefty distance.  150?  wow!

OK a little more info.

the ride was the Scenic Shore 150 a  Leukemia Lymphoma Society ride. It was from Mequon Wisconsin to Sturgeon Bay, right along the lake Michigan shore for the majority of it. Two day event.

Day one I get up at 5am and get in the shower. Im anxsious, scared, nervous all at the same time. Carol drives me the hour to the start point and I meet up with those Im riding with. I get signed in and pick up  my "riding in honor of" tag and fill in a co-workers name, Matt Martinson whom was just diagnosed with Lymphoma. I also get my "first time rider" sticker.

So we begin, me still too heavy and on a comfort type bike in a pack of 800 other riders. I have never ridden with more than one other person. Im slightly intimidated but just thought, keep your lines, dont do anything stupid and go your own pace.

Everyone is just flying by me, I hear "on your left" about one million times this weekend, I believe I heard it in my sleep saturday evening. First rest stop is 16 miles. I get there, no real issues. Feeling good. Wind was horrible though in the 20s and in our face for the majority of it. Me on the hybrid and my size its work but Im feeling OK. Im holding my team back and I tell them to go on without me. It must be agonizing for them to be avg'ing 13mph on their road bikes and weighing half of what I do. 2 go ahead the Karl, whom talked me into this, stayed with me the entire way.

We skip the second rest stop and proceed to the third, half way point I get stung/bit by something on the tricep but it isnt bothering me too bad. Third rest stop and about mile 38 and Im starting to feel it some. I realize I did not eat enough food this morning and have depleted what little I had in me. I had a PB&J and some fruit and away we go. We get to Sheboygan for lunch and I really dont want to stop. I just want this ride to be over.....

Ate lunch and then got on the roads. The thing with the stops is they were in harbor towns. Which means they are all at sea level. We have to climb out of the town and I mean climb, this is steep. I cant believe it. Im dieing and praying to get hit by a truck.

I begin to mentally break down, Im busted up inside and I cant see going on. But every now and then I would see people on the side of the road cheering us on, with signs and thanking us. I think I cannot stop now. This sucks but its gotta be better than people actually fighting this disease. I trudge on. Poor Karl is still with me. Im dieing and probably whining beyond beliefe.

About miles 55-60 Im at the lowest, Im not even looking around my head is hanging down and I just want to survive. I have gotten passed by just about every person and its very demoralizing. My ipod was programmed by my friend. I just told Jodie to load it up, give me something. She put 400 songs in it.  A wide range, I mean wide range. When things were literally at their worst for me, a song came on. Now mind you, Im not very religious, Im not a lovely dovey or anything else but this seriously hit home. On many levels. Remember Im riding for a charity, and people are sick, and really fighting a terrible disease. The song is called "Smile" sung by Nat King Cole. I dont even know the song, I have heard it many times but never paid attention. 

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, youll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
Youll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
Thats the time you must keep on trying
Smile, whats the use of crying? 
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

I did have a tear in my eye hearing it. I wont lie. It seriously came on at the right time. I couldnt believe it. It was at that moment I remembered I was doing this for so much more than me. This entire thing was bigger than me, and an accomplishment I never thought I could do. I dont know if it was the song, or the food kicking in. But my head came up and my cadence became faster and my MPH started to steadily increase. Im glad nobody could really see me, Im sure I had a tear going down my face.

We come to the last rest stop and about 10 miles to go. Now I ride 10 miles all the time, just goofing off. So I told myself that. Its just another ride.

The last ten miles click off and I get to UW Manitowoc campus where the festivities are held. I come in and Im beat. I clip one shoe out of the pedals and down I go to the other side. My first low speed clipped pedal crash that everyone said would happen some time. Mine was just in front of a few hundred people. One fella came running over and asked if I was OK, I just said leave me here for a few hours. I will be fine.


At one point in day one we got mixed in with a funeral procession that was lost. This was near the end, and I looked at the guy next to me and asked if I truly looked so bad they were already lining up to take me away.

So day one comes to a close and I go to the beer tent. I havent had a drink since February and I feel I have earned one. I go to the hotel get cleaned up and head back to the evening festivities. I get my massage, and the awards come out. I get recognized for earning 1250 dollars of donations and pick up my jersey, which of course doesnt fit.

I feel OK and head back to the hotel. I just fall asleep when a friend whom I havent seen in years calls me and tells me he is in the lobby. So I go chat with him for 45 mins before calling the night short.

I had a plan with my eating. I woke up at 4am and had a 6 inch sub which I put in my fridge. I wasnt going to go into the second day on empty like the first. But man and Im sore, and chaffed. Im really not looking forward to the ride. I seriously am putting my game face on but realize again this is easy compared to blood cancer. The second day the sun is out and there is less wind. What wind there was generally isnt in out faces.

So Karl rides with me to the first stop. I tell him please go ahead without me, it was more frustrated for me seeing him pacing himself down. There are many others out here and I got people to chat with. Besides IM used to riding alone. I got my ipod on and I can just pedal.

We come out of rest area one and pedal for quite a few miles and turn into the wind, a long. I mean long gradual incline directly into the wind. Real cyclists are going by with their tongues hanging out. Im trying to maintain 8mph. I keep fighting and fighting. My eating was working, Im feeling really good. I mean not fast but my legs felt strong. So I turn the corner after this climb and a few people have stopped to rest and I figure this is a good idea. I stop and chat with another fella a few minutes and he is on a bike with aero bars and says that just killed him. He looks and me and my bike and makes a comment about how hard it must have been. I agree, and say I need a few minutes. I pop a couple Gu chomps and drink some water and we head off. We go about 2 more miles and turn back towards the lake. I now have the wind at my back and am going down the same incline I just crawled up. Easy 20 plus mph ride down, but of course its over too fast and our rest stop is there. This rest stop is packed. Everyone is hurting from the previous climb.

As slow as I am, I dont want to spend much time at the stops. I want to keep going. I do not want to be the last person in.

Besides some soreness in my butt, my legs feel pretty good. Im eating right and hitting my hydration and even after rest stops its not taking too long for my legs to recover. We ride along some more and chatting away with people. We have alot of hills, the steep roller kind. I tell them, Im going to blow by them on the way down, dont take it personal because on the way up they will pass me. I have to use my size to my advantage when I can. For the next 15 miles or so its just that.

But people are starting to show up on the route, holding signs, and waving and clapping. Now I know these people are there for someone in particular. But I can honestly say, every time I pedalled harder and felt stronger seeing them. If you are reading this I thank you so very much. It did make things feel better.

We get into Kewaunee and its all down hill. Although this feels really good, I know the flip side, Im dropping hundreds of feet of altitude which I know I have to climb back up. And true to form, the rest stop is at the bottom of the hill. I eat quick, and get on the way. Im anxious to keep moving. I need to keep moving. The climb out was brutal but I made it. I get going and feeling pretty good. People are riding with me and asking about whom I have on my back in honor of, they ask how I know the person, how they are doing, and they wish Matt well. That was really cool to be honest with you.

I get into Algoma and its time for lunch. My people are long gone and through this stop and Im sitting at a table eating a sub. Others ask if they can join me and introduce themselves etc. They see Im a first time rider and thank me, ask me how Im doing. One is wearing a "survivor" sticker and he is the survivor of the year. He tells me how its good to be back on the bike, and thanks me for riding for Matt and goes into how this ride raises so much money and gets put to good use that its really a wonderful thing. Im feeling good about what Im doing and know the last 22 miles will be a piece of cake now.

Well maybe not that easy. I look at the route map and see the stops are only 5-6 miles apart. I realize there is a reason for this. Yep more hills.....dammit. Im hurting now, just wearing out. But Im stronger mentally today. I do think it was from seeing the people on the roads and people talking to me about the cause and telling me to wish Matt their best.

Now Im at the last stop. Wow.... I didnt want to stop but I was out of water. I needed to stop. But it was packed took forever, and im starting to get some cramps. I head out from there and notice my left pedal and cleat feel funny. I ride with two gals and one comments on the noise coming from my shoe. I tell her its weird, like my clip is going bad. It keeps unclipping and clipping in.

We get into Sturgeon bay and only 4 more miles. I mean dayum it feels good. Although its hard because of all the stops and the hills you cant keep going. But no worrys I can almost smell the lakeshore from here. With about two miles two go, I cursed myself. I see someone getting their broken bike onto the SAG truck. I say to the girls. No way would I sag out at this point I will walk from here. Im not riding in a van. Besides some people were actually betting against me, that I wouldnt make the entire ride. Not 3 block from that snap, my pedal breaks I yell out some curse words and pull over. I think I can fix it. People are riding past and just couldnt believe it. Im 1.5 miles from the end and Im broke.

No way am I not finishing this ride. No way is someone going to win a bet that I didnt finish with this little bit to go. More importantly, NO WAY, Im going to fail for myself, and for the survivors, and for those fighting this disease. I take the pedal off completely its worthless, it wont turn I cant ride it. I clip in with my good pedal and pedal the rest of the way with one leg. People at the finish start talking about it, people were passing me commenting on the one pedal. I tell them its broke. Im not giving up. I come across the line with one pedal, people just shaking their heads. My team mates meet me and we exchange pleasantries. Get some pics and I relax.

I honestly felt better after completing day two, compared to day one. The survivor I ate lunch with finds me, shakes my hand, congratulates me. Then hugs me and thanks me for the effort, and the support. I really dont know what to say. 

The amount of people that gave me best wishes to Matt was awesome. Many asked about him, how he is feeling what t ype of cancer. Which treatments he is doing, and how he is responding. Although I didnt have all the answers, it was really nice to see so many people wish, and hope for a complete stranger. Once again it made me realize how big this entire picture was, the pain in my butt and legs began to disappear each time they asked.

I go get a beer, and get some food. They were serviving gatorade margaritas which I thought was pretty funny. I relaxed and took in the day. I got my massage and Carol met me and we had a long ride home. 3-4 hours with the detours etc. But we found a great place to eat we really enjoyed. It was great steaks and great people.

got home late and didnt sleep much, long weekend alot on my mind.

Will I do it again next year? - Im not sure. I do know what to expect now, but maybe thats more of an issue than not knowing. I would like to be 30lbs lighter and on a faster bike for sure. Climbing hills, into a head wind on a hybrid at my size was work. I burned major calories.

But Im proud of myself for doing it. Im proud of the money I raised and proud I was able to put others in front of me and again realize the bigger picture.

I want to thank everyone that donated, those that were texting me best wishes along the way, those sending facebook messages, those clapping and cheering for a fat stranger with his tongue hanging to the ground, those for coming up to me and thanking me for doing this, and those for wishing Matt the best in his battle.
 

Reading about 150 miles was cool.  That summary took it to a whole other level.  Thanks for sharing.

150 on a hybrid ? dude !

not only a hybrid, but a comfort type hybrid. A Trek 7300 not the FX series. I dont think I will attempt another of this distance on a bike this slow or heavy. Im going to activly seek out a real road bike.

^^^  Good idea!!!  This past weekend, I rode a total of 216 miles over 3 days (Sat, Sun, & Mon) on my full carbon Cervelo road bike...felt okay during the rides, but by Tuesday I was hurtin' BIG TIME!  I cannot even fathom doing 150 on a comfort bike...KUDOS to you for surviving that torture fest!!  Congrats on a milestone ride! 

What a fantastic job you did! You should be very proud of yourself! As another "comfort" bike rider I know how difficult it is. Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Wow way to finish a ride like that, I got a cancer ride next year and I say congrats on finishing your epic ride on one pedal.

Wow way to finish a ride like that, I got a cancer ride next year and I say congrats on finishing your epic ride on one pedal.