Just finished a great weekend in Austin riding the 90-mile (87.19 miles by my computer) LiveStrong Challenge ride. Pictured above from left to right: JW, Toon (Mike), me, and Frank. JW spear-headed the effort, coming in from Seattle, and we were really happy that Toon (our USNA brother) came down from Chicago. In addition, Dan and Frank drove all the way from Norfolk/Virginia Beach to be there (23 hours straight through to get there). JW, Toon and I have done a few of these LiveStrong Rides (I know I'm missing some of the ones JW has done on this own): 2006 Southern California: me, JW and Toon; 2007 Austin: me and JW; 2008 San Jose: me; 2009 Austin: JW; 2010 Austin: me, JW and Toon.
All the costs associated with the travel (airline tickets, lodging, rental car, and airline bike fees) and all the anxiety that goes with traveling with a nice bike is quickly outweighed by seeing great friends, riding for a common and awesome purpose, seeing the combined effort and enthusiasm of the event organizers and volunteers, meeting knew people along the way, and selfishly, finishing a decently long ride.
JW (http://jwbender.blogspot.com/), fortunately, took some great shots before, during and after the ride. The pictures in this post are courtesy of him and just a few of the dozens he took.
Many cyclists are familiar with the "Fat Cyclist." We were riding along during the first part of the ride and I noticed somebody riding with us. I quickly noticed that he was the Fat Cyclist! So, we talked for a bit and he was happy to mix it in with us, calling us the "Mellow Johnny's train." Contrary to what you might think, he wasn't fat, but has apparently lost about 30-40 pounds cycling. He's most famous for his blog (http://fatcyclist.com/). I won't recount the details here, but fighting cancer is extremely important to him, so I thanked him for riding with us and all he does to raise funds to fight cancer.
He was doing the 65-mile ride option, so he could get back to the finish before the "Team Fatty" cyclists who did the 90-mile option. We rode for probably an hour or so with him until we stopped at the 38-mile power stop (refueling point), which also served as the splitting point between the 90 and 65-mile rides.
As far as the "Mellow Johnny's train" comment goes, he was right. For the first 10-15 minutes we started out at an easy pace (the opposite of my prediction), but the pace was quickly ratcheted up, mainly by Dan. I know JW and Frank were in there pulling a ton, but it seemed like Dan did a lot of the work for the first hour and 40 minutes. We picked up a lot of riders who wanted to get in on our fast-moving train. After the Fat Cyclist commented a few times on the Mellow Johnny's train, I had to confide in him that we didn't work at Mellow Johnny's (Lance Armstrong's Austin Bike Shop). He said, "I really thought you guys all worked there!"
For those that know me, I'm not a cocky person in the least, but I think we were the best dressed group out there. Those green Mellow Johnny's jerseys did the trick.
I'm so glad to have gone. The only thing that would have made it better is if Cezanne and Michelle (Toon's wife) could have made it.
I'm looking forward to seeing some of the professional photos, particularly the one of me, Toon and JW coming across the finish line together and I'm looking forward to doing this ride or another LiveStrong Ride next year...depending on what the new little one on the way has to say about it.
The ride details: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/54367456
We finished with an average of 18.8 mph. That's pretty good for 90 miles and 5,300 feet of climbing and in no small part due to the work of Dan, JW and Frank. Toon is trying to downplay how well he did, but he did some monster pulls and finished strong.
I felt pretty good on the ride for the first 40 miles, but my left knee started killing me during the last 45 miles. It came to the point that whenever I was doing anything other than lightly spinning the pedals, I would have to almost one-legged pedal, using my right leg exclusively and only using my left leg to pull up on the pedal (sharp pain when pushing down). I've never had that happen before. I'll have to see how it heals up and if there are any lingering issues. I adjusted my seat higher by about 2-3mm (yes, that's it) about a week before the ride and I'm not sure if that had something to do with it.
Hoping to post some pics of Mellow Johnny's bike shop in the next post and maybe some video of the ride that JW and Dan took.
JW, thanks for pulling Toon and me from the Fire Station Power Stop to the end!
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