As a HIGH ROLLER (yep that’s me!) from last year’s Bike MS, I was registered for the Elephant Rock bike ride compliments of the MS Society. They figure they need to get our butts out there training so they sign us up for rides; no excuses left. 6 of us from the TriForMS bike team were signed up to do the E-Rock ride. We arrived and I went to the packet pickup area and there was no Michele Vaughan officially registered. I RSVP’d – didn’t I? Or is that one of the hundreds emails sitting in my Inbox unread? Calling for a response? Waiting for attention? Too late now. Thanks to the good people at the Colorado-Wyoming chapter of the MS Society, they were quick to come up with an alternate plan. Wait a bit and someone who has registered will likely not show and you can have their number. And that is how I got to be “Hannah” for a day.
With my Hannah helmet sticker on and my Hannah bike tag on, we were ready to roll. I was anxious to be Hannah for a day and see if she was up for the 62 mile ride.
Tom, Jay, Arlene, Tom, Darren and I headed out and started pedaling. It was a beautiful day, smoke from the wildfires coving with the sky with a slight haze and not too hot. The first rest stop had Pop-Tarts and fortunately I did not bring food, so I HAD to have some pop-tarts to keep fueled up. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a pop-tart in my life, but I may have to consider this sugar loaded, no nutritional value, will survive a nuclear fallout snack as a good option when I’m in need of a quick sugar high. We stopped at about the half way point for a relaxing break and rest on the grass in Palmer Lake. As we headed out we approached Radio Guy, blaring 70’s square dance tunes from the back of his bike. That was enough incentive for Arlene and I to give the pedals a little more power and pass him. If the pop tarts weren’t going to make me sick then the square dance music surely would.
We were clipping along at a comfortable pace when the 5 green jersey guys riding as a group came sailing by us. One of the guy’s calves must have caught Arlene’s eye, because she took off and hung on to the guy in the back of the pack. I answered and hung to the back of Arlene and we drafted off the green jersey guys for a while. I encouraged Arlene to hang with them with “you got ‘em Arlene! Hang in there! Don’t let the calves out of your sight!” It wasn’t long before my legs were screaming and my heart was beating faster than it probably should so I yelled “Arlene, I can’t hang on any longer!” She slowed and gasped out “Oh, thank GOD! I’m dyin’!”
At the bottom of Tomah road, we ran into Radio Guy again. Not a good time to be behind Radio Guy because we’re about to climb a hill with about 500ft in elevation gain in a short distance. We gotta overtake Radio Guy or I’m gonna get sick on this hill. With the challenge in front of us, Arlene and I passed Radio Guy and climbed that hill. Up and over and a sweet descent!
We hit the I-25 crossover and it was a fairly flat Frontage Road for 8 miles back to the finish. I was feeling pretty good and wanted to push it all the way in. I called to Tom that I was pushing it in and he and Darren worked with me, and I had a great time pushing that last 10 miles.
A great ride with a great group of people! Thanks for keeping me laughing Arlene!
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