MS Bike ride 2010 'Team Peace"

Upon my return from Barcelona and Germany I rode in the MS 2010 Citrus tour bike ride. It was a great ride with Chance, Ed and I doing the Century. Team Peace's other participants Jeremy and Debra finished the 75 mile ride. Take note that Jeremy actually did close to 90 miles. The ride is for a great cause as all money donated by sponsors goes toward research for Multiple Sclerosis. As a Team we raised over $2300.00. Chance rode the 2009 Citrus tour solo which motivated Ed and I to start riding again. I am hoping that next year we will pull in other riders and grow Team Peace.

The ride is a great Florida ride which does include a few hills. Seems Chance did not remember them and described the route as flat. Two lessons were gleamed from this ride, do not get caught up in other riders feats and don't stop for a long lunch. Seems that the 100 mile route ran tandem with the 50 and 75 mile routes a couple of places. A large group would fly by and we would chase them going speeds we had previous discussed trying to avoid. Then when the Century route would break off we would realize we were chasing people doing a fraction of the mileage that we had signed up for. Lunch is a catered stop featuring a basic sandwich, chips and a drink. The lunch stop is situated at a location where all the routes converge so hundreds of riders pour in at the same time. We stood in line for 10 minutes then the rest of Team Peace arrived so we sat with them for awhile. Chance who had pulled in first was itching to get back out so I followed him. The pain of the next 14 miles trying to rid our bodies of lactic acid soaked muscles was not pleasant. We came upon Debra and I hung back with her thinking I would catch Chance at the next stop but he blew by it as he was picked up with a large group. In the end we all finished at different times. Next year I hope to not only accomplish the ride in under six hours but to also finish 12 pounds lighter.

A big thanks to those who sponsored me and Team Peace it meant the world to me.