MS 150 write-up from Willy and Sherri

MS150 Race Report

Friday – September 12, 2009

The weekend began with a fun cookout hosted by the EZ Riders! The team mingled, consumed mass quantities of Dan’s chicken burgers, Haye’s burgers and hotdogs and other delicious food prepared by various team members. Proud to report that the New Bern Police Department did an excellent job monitoring the park to ensure no one was consuming alcohol in accordance with their town ordinance…or at least flaunting the beer cans 10 feet from them….right John? Who knew?

Saturday – September 13, 2009

The day began with high anxiety from Willy as the team photo for the EZ Riders was scheduled to be taken at 7:55 and the race (oops…I mean “ride”) was scheduled to roll out at 8:00. Willy could not fathom leaving his expensive all -carbon bike around the start of the race and sprinting to the bike just as the ride began (as one team member suggested) so his immediate dilemma was how to be IN the team photo (as he was the main sponsor of the team) and be WITH the lead group going out of New Bern because he would have to maneuver his way through 2400 riders with his bike…oh yeah…and his wife, Sherri, and her bike needed to be there as well. As luck would have it, the ride began a little later and the photo was taken a little earlier. Sigh of relief. As he and Sherri frantically moved themselves and their bikes among the maze of tents, they finally reached the start. They stayed on the curb until the flag was dropped, then gently slid their bikes into the flow and began riding like they were being chased by a pack of wild dogs. What the ??? The exit course out of New Bern was terrible…lots of turns, lot of torn up roads, and lots of cyclists all vying to be in a pack so the pain of riding 100 miles would be lessened by the massive “draft”. The pack consisted of at least 50 cyclists and was being challenged by a female triathlete who rode on the outside of the pack and pushed the pace rather consistently. The group was steady and determined.

Willy and Sherri however, were equally determined not to miss a meal and after 50 miles of non stop pace line riding at an average speed of 23.5 mph, decided to stop at the lunch stop. Our good friend Dayne made the same decision..but for a different reason. He wanted to wait on Suzanne and ride the rest of the way in with her. Ahw! Love them! Then after lunch the panic of not having a 50 person draft began to set in and Willy franticly began “gathering” recruits. Unfortunately, he only found 8 eager souls who were unlucky enough to have just finished their lunch. He sounded the bugle and we all hopped on our bikes and began strolling out. Within the first ¼ mile, we heard the sound of a tire blowing. We stopped and noticed the tire was shredded so 2 of the eight went back to the sag stop to get a new tire. Then another rider decided to go back as he saw the group dwindling in size and realized the amount of effort it would take to ride with such a small group. Wise grasshoppa! Now the “group” was down to 6. As we rode on and the wind picked up, one of the 6 decided he had enough and at some point for which no one remembers, he dropped back and was never seen again. We stopped again around the 82nd mile and were all moving much slower than before. The miles were beginning to become noticeable and we saw a large group that encouraged our stop only to discover they were on their first loop and we were on our second so we could not tag on the draft. We refueled and one of the 5 hid in the port-o-john in the hopes we would not force him to ride the rest of the way with us…as he had already attempted to drop off the back but was spotted in time to be sucked back into the small vortex. We rode in strong and bumpy. We came upon many 50/75 mile cyclists who apparently never got the memo regarding what “on the left” means. In there own interpretation, it apparently was a request for them to MOVE left. Between the obstacle course of cyclists moving left and the bumps, turns and traffic, we somehow managed to find the finish and ride through the welcoming mist and finish with a 21.7 average pace. The massage was a welcome relief!

Saturday night the convention center was hopping with live music and the Carolina Brewery brews were free flowing …thanks CBC! Suzanne was invited by the band to dance on stage and she obliged with tambourine in hand and hips a shaken! Had Sherri realized the VIP fund raisers would have been circulating chocolate martinis and gourmet desserts among the “masses”, she would have skipped the dinner (Thanks Dan, John, etc.! …however, good thing she didn’t miss dinner as there was a Kevin and Teresa sighting!

Sunday - September 14, 2009

Oh how we wanted to sleep in! Everything was slower on day two. The only anxiety was trying to decide who would go slow enough for us to want to stay in the group for the entire 100 miles. The CBC team announced they planned to do a slow steady 100 mile ride so they became our target. Before you knew it, the gun went off and once again we rode out of the twisting, turning bumpy New Bern like bats out hell. The only thing that really slowed the group was when the course put us on parallel tracks (e gad). Willy by that time had no idea whether or not Sherri had even left the finish line…(same as day one)…but she persevered and kept him in her sights. At least up until the CBC rider jumped the track and collided with another cyclist and the sounds of a near fist fight consumed the course. Hmmm…go faster…faster…avoid collisions and try to catch a group of cyclists already forming the pace line (ooops…I hear another crash!) while stuck in the right-side-of-the-tracks group who were 10 abreast and barely moving. Dilemma. Eventually, the exit ramp appeared and there was a gap large enough to break through to go chase the large paceline. Going up the bridge Officer Kirby is playing music from his cruiser and trying to establish eye contact with the cyclists. Go figure. Sherri is riding on the right of the CBC pack hoping if she talks to some of the women, they will grant her entrance into the pace line…meanwhile Willy is somewhere? Ahead…possibly the same pace line…?? Not only do the CBC women NOT allow her entrance, they do not acknowledge her existence. So she rolls back to the next CBC woman and soon realizes there will be no free passes into the CBC pace line. Roll back…wait for friendly face before pointing to the ground. Now the pace line is roughly 40 members long and the 75 and 100 milers are together until the second rest stop.

The ride was interesting with one particular cyclist trying to “control” the pace of the group while exceeding the pace every time he pulled and then dropping back to reprimand those going the speed he was pulling at. By the lunch stop, Willy and Sherri were complaining of flu-like symptoms…apparently experiencing muscle fatigue from the day before. Where IS that masseuse? Sherri was popping Ibuprophen like vitamins and wondering why she thought putting the salt capsules in her jersey pocket was a good idea…as the bottom of the pocket was lined with salt powderL Willy was feeling “okay” at that point. Several of the CBC cyclists decided to hang back so another large pace formed and we were off! A few miles into the ride, a loud pop occurred as one of the cyclist’s tire’s blew. Another dilemma … do we stop for him or continue? There was a group at the front who were oblivious anything happened and continued to roll, a group in the middle who were obviously terribly conflicted and continued to roll at a slow pace until some divine intervention occurred and they were “okayed” to continue or requested to stop. Neither happened - so the middle group continued at a 10-12mph pace…looking back at the 10 who stopped and looking forward at the 6-8 who were continuing to roll at the 21 mph pace. Finally, Sherri made an executive decision to go chase the front pack to let them know what had happened and see if they wanted to continue or wait for the middle group. Thankfully, they slowed for the middle group to catch up. The last rest stop…yeah….progress!!! The EZ riders came in and were refueling and Willy and Sherri and some of the CBC cyclists decided to “ease it in” … the pace was comfortable until about 8-10 miles left and Hayes of the EZ riders, begins suggesting we should roll in strong when we get within the last few miles. Sherri edges the pace and Hayes keeps saying “I like it”. Sherri needs no encouragement to go faster however on mile 96 the dueling thigh cramps are becoming problematic and she worries if she will even be able to finish the ride. Thankfully, the cramps subside and once again in the last few miles of the ride, the obstacle course begins and two blocks from the finish Sherri launches a water bottle. She shakes her head in disbelief because she had lost her front tri bottle earlier in the ride and then her buddy, Louis announces he got it…true friend to stop that close from the finish to pick up a bottle!!!! My hero. Willy, on the other hand, is clueless regarding Sherri’s bottle, Sherri’s location, etc., because he is flying to get to the finish before the others in the group. Sherri begins complaining to John, of the EZ riders, that her husband is not riding across the finish with her…knowing full well that she may have done the same thing if the situation was reversedJ Good thing neither Sherri or Willy are competitiveJ The day ended with a 19.2 average and Willy announcing he feels “good”!

At the end of the day we rode for MS. Willy and Sherri raised over $4000 with Team CBC leading all teams with $75,000 and Team E Z Riders in 4th place with $64,000. So far this year’s ride has received over 1 million dollars in funds that will go towards the efforts to rid this world of this devastating disease.