We had a pretty good two days. Started at the house on day one and made really good time to about Nelsonville, then the sun came out, and the heat and my MS started trying to shut me down. The headwind into Fayetteville didn't help much either. I honestly was sitting in Fayetteville contemplating which part of Sunday I was going to SAG based on the predicted headwind. Got back up, got on the bike, and finished with 93 miles on day 1, feeling pretty beat up. Ol Army took good care of us as always and even though I didn't sleep all that well due to the wind and storms shaking the team tent, I woke up feeling surprisingly good on Sunday am. My wife and I went over to the fairgrounds to start at the front with the "Because We Can" group of riders with MS. The Club 300 top fundraisers started right behind us, and we quickly linked up with two of them wearing butterfly wings and with a great attitude about the ride. When the rider they were drafting off of pulled off to talk to somebody else a few miles later, I went to the front to help them out...and ended up pulling them the entire rest of the way to Austin. It was the best decision I made all day! They were fun, they were motivational, and being there to help them gave purpose to the suffering. I have always told people drafting off of me that I am happy to let them do it, as it is the least I can do to express my thanks for their fundraising. With a Club 300 member on my wheel, that feeling was magnified tenfold. My wife and I certainly could have finished much faster, and driven ourselves into the ground to do it. But instead, we took it easy, rode at a very easy pace, and finished with smiles on our faces and feeling good, despite conditions that were more challenging than any Day 2 of the BP MS150 since I started riding it in 2008.
Thanks again to everybody for riding and raising funds! Remember that you still have time to raise more, and I hope to see all of you out there again next year!