MS Mountain Bike Challenge, Fall City, Washington
22 June 2002

Every year the Washington chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
holds the MS Mountain Bike Challenge. My motivation this year was more so
than usual as I have a source of inspiration - Betty Houchen, with whom I
work at GlasPro. She was diagnosed with MS a few years back and it felt
good to raise some funds towards that cause.

Usually I do this event alone. This year, however, Team Catamount was
formed. Abbie Bowker (formerly McCullough) of the Catamount Family Center
(www.catamountoutdoor.com) was nice enough to help out the team by giving us
jerseys at cost (to see jerseys go to
www.catamountoutdoor.com/ccc-catamountclothing.html). I went to high school
with Abbie and was proud to wear her jersey.

Our team consisted of the following: Greg Prior, my fellow Vermonter and
mountain bike/ski buddy. He was going to compete in the 45 miler but was
unable to. Don Woolsey, a friend of mine with whom I worked at GlasPro. He
lives in North Bend and competed in the 10 miler. Jake Laskody, my
neighbor. Jake attends Mt. Si High School and is one heck of a downhiller.
He did the 10 miler as well with his father.

Due to the staggered start times, it was hard to coordinate all of us at the
beginning. The 45-mile group left first at 8:30 a.m. It was a perfectly
sunny day but we knew it was going to get hot. I was lucky enough to meet
up with a guy named Joel whom I had met on a ride about a month back. Joel
is from Bellingham, Washington originally and a pretty cool guy. His
presence would help immensely through the day.

The organizers changed the course quite a bit from two years ago. It is now
a much more challenging, exciting course. The first 12-15 miles are spent
in the woods on some great singletrack. Joel and I were having a blast
bombing through this part. I seemed to be having some personal problems as
I was falling quite a bit. I'm not the best rider but I do believe that my
new clipless pedals were the cause of my falls. After the first rest stop,
the course evolved to more 50% fire roads and 50% singletrack. Joel
mentioned a few times that I could take off without him but I told him that
I would need him to pull me through the end. So I did my best to encourage
him and he seemed to get his second wind.

The second rest stop was the beginning of the real hell for us. There was
talk that we had only completed 23 miles at that point. It was going on
11:00 so we were a bit deflated by that. The next section didn't help - 10+
miles of open fire roads with a slight incline. It was hot, our legs were
burning due to the lack of terrain change and all chatting had ceased. I
taped a picture of Betty on my stem for motivation and I must have looked at
that picture 500 times during this portion. It didn't do any good ;-).

Exhausted, we pulled up to the third rest stop. To our disappointment, they
had no provisions (but plenty of volunteers). A few riders were really
pissed and weren't afraid to let everyone know it. So we pressed on and
were immediately rewarded with a nasty hill climb. To my surprise, it was
just what my legs needed after peddling the same way for 10+ miles. I had a
boost of energy after that. This was short lived. Just as we headed back
into some singletrack, felt my right quad muscle tighten. I started
drinking heavily from my Camelbak and thought I would be OK.

I wasn't. With 7 miles to go both quads locked up. I knew we had one more
rest stop so I thought I would be OK but the singletrack was technical and
took the life out my legs. Somehow, I pushed my way through to the last
fire road. Once on the fire road, my hamstring cramped badly and I had to
pull over to massage my legs. At this point I was out of liquid so I was
freaking a bit. This is where Joel helped me out. I told him to go on but
he stayed. That helped get me to the last stop. I pounded some water there
and was able to make it back.

The MS ride is always a great experience and this year was no different.
Next year, I will do some more training on the bike (without my personal
trainer I would have done worse this year!) and carry more provisions.
Cramping is not fun. We ended up covering the 45 miles in 5 hours, 1 minute
and 33 seconds. Not bad (we were in the top 25% I would guess) but 1 hour
behind my goal. Although I must admit 4 hours would be hauling on that
course.

Thanks to everyone who donated to ride - I was able to raise $366. I really
do appreciate everyone's contributions. I also really appreciate the
support and interest. I have no pictures to share right now as the digital
camera was having some problems. I did take some pictures with a throwaway
camera and will share them once I develop those.

Thanks again!