Breakaway to the Beach - 2011

What a great ride!!  Many thanks to the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National MS Society, they should be highly commended for putting together a ride of this size and managing it so well.  This was a great opportunity for me to ride and to help raise funds for a very worthy cause.

At the start line, I had a chance to catch up with some friends from Cycle to the Sea.  I was reminded then that I had never completed the story about our AB that rode the hand cycle on the last day of CTTS.  Mark did complete the entire 60 mile route on the hand cycle.  He said that it was one of the most physically challenging things he had ever done.

As for this ride, I also want to thank Dariel Dellinger and Angela Childers for the work that was done to organize our team.  Would also like to thank Keith Isenberg for letting us use the store name for our team and the support from BSG!  I was very privileged to get to be a part of the Blood Sweat and Gears team.  I did not see any other team stick together through the ride the was that our team did.  We had about 18 riders that stayed together for the entire 200 miles.  We rarely saw any other groups with more than 4 or 5.  Riding with a group like this made the trip enjoyable and much easier. 

Team BSG after first 100 miles!

The first day of the ride, was a bit of a challenge for me.  We rode for about 60 of the 100 miles in the rain.  I have tried my best to avoid riding in the rain, and was apprehensive riding that close to others in it.  It was also not very enjoyable having the rooster tail from the bike in front of you in your face all day.  A couple of our riders ended up having a crash at about mile 78.  Neither were able to finish the day with us.  One rider went to the hospital to be checked out for broken ribs, and the other broke the stem on his bike.  We found a local bike shop to bring out a replacement stem, and our other ride finally was checked out with no broken bones.  Both of those guys were able to return the next day to ride the full century with us.  Over all, our mileage was 100.91, 20.0 average, with 2116 feet of climb.  Click here for full info.  It was humbling when we came towards the finish line and there were orange flags in the median representing the people that are affected by MS.  Even more, when we see the people with MS, smiles on their faces, working hard to get us checked in or struggling in the face of the disease to stand and cheer us on. 

On the second day, it started out foggy, and stayed overcast for the whole ride.  I was very thankful that we did not have any rain.  The ride marshalls had advised there was a chance of some severe weather that may close the course, but we never got it.  This day was much less eventful, with only a flat tire by one rider.  Oddly enough, it was also at mile 78.  We rode just a little slower, averaging 19.8 over 99.03 miles, with only 528 feet of climb.  Click here for full info.  It was very nice when we rolled in with Captain Dariel in the front of the pack.  It was also great to see my family there waiting for me.  They are so supportive of my crazy ideas of taking off to ride my bike for hundreds of miles at a time.  I hope and pray that there will one day be a cure for MS and the only place we will find MS is in the history books.

Team BSG after 200 miles!

Shelley, one of the reasons I ride!

So what's next?  October 8, will be the Tour de Pig that I will ride with Micah.  I can't wait for that one!  I am sure there will be something else before then, but I am already looking forward to Cycle to the Sea again in April, 2012!