ABOVE: zMotion girls, day 1 2009 MS150 ride. Photo by Jim Donnelly
Hello everyone,
My husband and I participated in our second MS150 ride this past weekend. We were members of the 600 strong zMotion bike team. That's me, the Bike Diva, standing in the middle of the photograph shown at the top of this blog post. I'm with some of the girls from the zMotion team - we look like real riders huh!?!
Waiting for Official Photos
Official MS150 photographs should be online by Tuesday night or sometime Wednesday. I already found a couple of photos of my husband and I on the Kim Morris Photography site. There is a photo of us coming down Card Sound Bridge, on Saturday, and a photo of us going around the Homestead Miami Speedway on Sunday. I'll definitely be purchasing those photos, and will be checking the other photographers sites to see if they captured any photos of us.
ABOVE: Bike Diva & her husband waiting for the 2009 MS150 to start. Photo by Karina Leal
Action Wipes to the Rescue
We got the rock star treatment being part of the zMotion team. My husband and I left with the very first group - group A in shoot #1 at the MS150 ride. Nice perk, took over an hour to get all 3,000+ riders across the start line. We left a few minutes after 7 AM.
Bit of a problem being in the first group. As we were waiting in line at the Bank United Center, at the University of Miami, we noticed some rather dark looking clouds. Definitely looked like rain - NOT in the forecast. The first group got SLAMMED with rain by the time they got to the Busway. Boring part of the ride - no traffic, but it's a freaking bus lane. Nothing interesting to look at besides industrial warehouses - POO-DOO!
We didn't mind riding in a light drizzle, but the drizzle quickly became a deluge.
My husband has some fancy crack-berry, errr, I mean blackberry phone and I just got a new Sprint Rant. Although they are both covered by insurance, neither one is covered for water damage, and of course we both forgot to bring plastic baggies with us. My husband saw what looked like a convenience store along the busway, which turned out to be an Adult bookstore. Phone condomes anyone? Luckily there was a hardware store, that was open, in the plaza next to the porn store. They gave my husband a couple of small plastic bags so we could protect our phones.
We got covered with sandy, gritty mud during this portion of the ride. At one of the rest stops I was going to wipe off a bit of dirt on my knees, but figured I was just going to get covered with gunk as soon as we got back on our bikes. The ride ended, on day one, at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo. I packed my Action Wipes in my luggage figuring it would be awhile before the shuttle bus came by after we picked up our luggage. I was right, we had to wait for what seemed like forever in the parking lot to catch the bus to our hotel. Action Wipes to the rescue - I had a nice "shower" in the parking lot much to the bemusement of the other riders. They weren't laughing after they saw how clean I was after my AW shower. SWEET!
ABOVE: Ride start/finish MS150
Thank You MS150 Volunteers
My husband and I ended up having to SAG back to the Bank United Center, on day two of the ride. On the first day, my husband looked really strong, and had to keep slowing down to wait for me to catch up. I didn't have any energy on the morning of the first day, my bike was making a weird squeaky noise and I felt like I was pedaling in quicksand. Couldn't find anything wrong with the bike, but I just couldn't get past 18 MPH.
Felt fine later in the day, but then my husband started cramping up. Had a bit of a struggle the last few miles of the ride, and stopped at every rest stop after going over Card Sound bridge . When we got back to the hotel he had a bad headache, and said he didn't feel too well. Figured he just need to cool off, eat some real food and drink plenty of liquids.
But he didn't feel that great on Sunday morning, on day two of the MS150. He still had a headache, and his legs started cramping up every so often.
He wanted to at least make it to the rest stop at Homestead Miami Speedway. Bikers get to do a lap around the banked race track, before heading to the SAG stop on pit row - pretty cool. The next rest stop after the speedway was the official lunch stop. We stopped there, and Rob found a piece of shade to relax in. I got part of a turkey sub, and a soda (sugar = instant energy). I just happened to overhear a rider talking to a SAG volunteer about his wife. She wasn't feeling too well, and wanted to take the SAG wagon back to the University of Miami.
I told the SAG volunteer that my husband wasn't feeling too well, and wanted to know what the procedure was for getting SAGged back to the ride start/end.
He got on the radio and had two vehicles dispatched to our location. The volunteer told us to wait under the large tree by the road, so we would be ready when the SAG wagon got there. I got my husband moved over there, and got him part of a sub and a coke. When he went to drink his soda, both his hands started shaking uncontrolably. No question now about should he get in the SAG wagon or not. He was acting a bit disoriented and feeling dizzy too, all classic signs of heat exhaustion.
I grabbed another SAG volunteer, to come look at my husband. She was a nurse, she said the shaking probably meant he had low potassium. He had done a gel pack, and had a bit of banana along with Gatorade, so he was trying to get as much nutrition into his system as possible. But eating and drinking too much, too fast caused him to get a stomach ache. Took us two SAG wagons to get back to the University of Miami, each SAG team covers a certain part of the course along the MS150 route. So we were handed off at the last rest stop, to another vehicle.
Great group of volunteers, riders were dropping like flies on day 2 of the ride, keeping all the volunteers extremely busy.
I think this is the first time my husband has ever had a problem riding. He's a coach for the Palm Beach Team in Training cycle team, and a dad, husband and supervisor for the company he works for. In other words, he thinks he's Superman. Even super heroes need help every so often.
Shorter Ride
Day 2 of the MS150 was only about 67 miles long, instead of 75. So the total was only 142 miles, instead of 150. Not sure why the 2nd day was shortened. Rob and I did the complete 75 miles on day 1, and got 45 miles in on day 2, before getting in the SAG wagon, for a total of 120 miles. Still, a lot of riding for 2 days.
2008 MS150 Articles & Photos
Just in case you can't wait for me to get the official 2009 MS150 photos uploaded to Bike Diva, here are links to my blog posts and photos from the 2008 MS150.
Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Bike Diva
