MS 150 2008 Part II

E and I finished riding 80 miles on Sunday at 2 pm, hung around the FRCC campus that was the finish line/expo area for about an hour and a half eating, collecting our baggage and changing clothes before heading home. We pulled into The Springs, collected my doggy from day camp and headed to E’s house. We pulled into the driveway at 5 pm. By 5:05 pm we were fast asleep. Woke up for a brief time around 1 am to unload the car, put our doggies to bed, and go back to sleep until the alarm so rudely awoke us this morning. I guess we were a little bit tired.

There were a few changes to the ride and route this year. The biggest being that they put a cap on the ride, making it about half the size it was before. I still don’t understand why they would ‘close’ a ride for charity. One would thing the organizers would want it to be as large as possible. This gives me something to research. This years ride was 3700 people, compared to the 7000+ it was last year. It started and ended at Front Range Community College in Westminster. Instead of going to Carter lake this year, we by past that area. My only guess is people didn’t like the steep climb up to the lake. Personally I was sad not to go that way, true it was a steep climb up, but also a great descent down afterwards. Gravity baby, Gravity…

At least we still had the killer climb at Horsetooth Reservoir and on day two I got to attack my childhood nemesis again, the climb up the first dam at Horsetooth Reservoir.

As a kid we lived an the base of this hill and on our dirt bikes it was a grueling hill, one we rarely accomplished without a rest or walking our bikes at one point or another. For the second year in a row, I spanked it! Childhood vendetta resolved once again.

All in all it was a great ride and I felt stronger than the year before. Less than three weeks from now I’ll be on my bike riding across Iowa…WAHOO!!!