Blog: Bike MS

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Bike MS - Sunday, September 21, 2014
After a couple months of sporadic training, it came time yesterday for Alex, Judy, Daniel, Sandra and me to do our 82 mile Waves to Wine ride with Bike MS!

Participants had the choice between 40, 82 and 104 miles from Daly City to Rohnert Park. In order to be closer to the starting point, Priscilla and I stayed Friday night at a hotel in South San Francisco, while the rest of the team made their way up from South Bay Saturday morning. We met up around 6:45am and rode out at 7:30. The ride lasted 9.5 hours which included 3 hours of breaks. There were 6 rest stops along the way, including one for lunch.

It was awesome that three meals were provided: a light bagel breakfast was served at the start, sandwiches were for lunch (I had turkey), and dinner including pesto penne and chicken was served at the finish. Water, energy snacks (I probably had at least 10 snacks over the course of the day) and porta-potties were abundant at each rest stop. Volunteers scattered along the way were extremely encouraging in cheering riders on and helped keep everyone's energy up.

Our group seemed to be slower than most riders, so over the course of the ride we fell towards the rear of the crowd. This meant the rest stops and ride itself weren't as crowded for us. We made it across the finish line 15 minutes before the 5pm deadline.

So from Daly City, we made our way up along the SF coast and through residential areas, across the Golden Gate Bridge, through Sausalito, then onto Highway 1 (which spanned 46 miles of the total trip) through Point Reyes and Tomales Bay, then finally along rural roads up to the finish line. Priscilla, Christine and Jessica were doing wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma during this time and met us in Rohnert Park after we'd crossed the finish line. Sandra's boyfriend, Daniel's parents and James and Charlotte were also there to give people a lift home.

It was a lot of fun, and over twice the furthest distance that we've done during practices, and I'm glad we all made it. Alex and Daniel separately had falls at low speeds but weren't hurt. Towards the latter half of the ride, they did have trouble keeping up with the girls, though. The girls rock!

Safety felt like a big issue, namely the lack of bike lanes on Highway 1 (which can't really be helped) and having to cross a busy two-lane road with traffic going at highway speeds at the end of the ride unassisted. There were police in SF and Sausalito to help direct traffic; after that I didn't see any police, just volunteers who were doing the same. A couple more volunteers placed at key points to direct traffic would've been appreciated.

The event was challenging, mainly in terms of stamina, but nothing that a steady pace and frequent breaks couldn't conquer. The next big ride, I hope, we can do a century!

So would I do this event again? The ride itself was fun and the event was overall well-coordinated, but it was a bit out of the way and I feel bad that people had to drive two hours from South Bay to pick us up. So... maybe? Perhaps the five of us can do a century ride closer to home - I think we could pull it off with the right determination!