Tuesday, April 15, 2008

MS150 is over


The image is of me in La Grange. Not a stellar example of photography (i didn't know they were shooting, or if i did i didn't care).

Woot. All done. It was pretty windy, and headwind most of the way. I forgot there were so many hills. It seemed all I did was climb climb climb the entire way. Then I would get to the top of a hill, have a brief downslope, and still have the wind in my face! So, yeah, it was very exhausting.

Its Tuesday and I'm mostly recovered. The first day I rode alone from Rhodes stadium, which is a 85 mi trip to La Grange. I got into La Grange at 3pm, 3rd rider of my team to show up. Sunday I did the park route (brutal hills for 10 miles), I dropped my colleague Adam at first rest stop (was so mad that I couldn't find him), we met up again at lunch with the two Adams and Steve and Charlotte, and rode the rest of the way with them. I crossed the finish line with S&C and the Adams were minutes apart from us. It was hard to keep everyone together, real easy to lose people.

At about 20 miles to go from Austin, I started having asthma, on top of everything else (sore muscles, rhinitis for two days straight, headache, chapped lips, sunburn, saddle sore), I thought that was the end of the road for me. Somehow i pressed on, the asthma subsided and I was able to finish. I really dont remember the last 20 miles, well the whole thing but especially the last part. Was so tired as to be incoherent.

Statistics: Total miles 160, total time (inc stops) 7.5 hrs Sat 8.5 hrs Sun (total 16 hrs). Total riders: About 13,000, probably more like 12,000. Total times I crashed: zero. Times I wanted to quit: 100.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

Props to you little brother. I'm proud of you man.

Mom2 said...

Wow, Rob, what a rough race. Congrats for hanging in there and finishing. Mom2

azgma said...

I am so very proud of you... and relieved that you made it through OK. You really have perseverance, which is what it takes to be a winner!

Rob Dejournett said...

Hey thanks all! Yeah, it was the hardest MS150 I've done. Anyway glad it's over and never again, at least not in Texas.