False Flats

A few days ago I went for a bike ride.  I've only been on a few, literally maybe three, bike rides this year (one being the MS150 :-).  I've been concentrating on the marathon coming up in September.  I need to get out and bike more.  I miss biking.  Especially the downhills :-)

As I was biking I was thinking and thought I'd put my thoughts on "paper" for all the world to read because of course you all love to hear the ramblings (or is that rattlings? :-) that come out of my head when I ride :-)

As I mentioned above, I haven't done a lot biking this year.  As I was riding I felt like I was a little bit out of shape.  That didn't surprise me :-)  At one point I was riding on a nice flat road (or what I thought was a nice flat road!) and on the other side a group of three older gentlemen going the opposite direction whizzed past me.  At that point I was feeling really out of shape!  Were they on the same road I was struggling with?  Soon the road I was on got close to a fairly busy road so I turned around and went back the way I came (the same direction I saw the older guys whiz by)  I was amazed!  The road I had been on was actually a false flat!  Now that I was going a different direction I hardly had to pedal!  No wonder those guys were going so fast!  Of course, I don't doubt they were actually in really good shape too but that's beside the point :-)

False Flats/Invisible Struggles

I thought about false flats in life.  We think we are on a nice flat road and we wonder why we are struggling.  Why do the guys on the other side seem to being going so fast, so effortlessly, on apparently the same road?  Or maybe I see someone struggling with something that seems like it's not that difficult.  Why are they struggling?  Doesn't always make sense.

Recently a friend of mine told me about her daughter who is dyslexic.  I had no idea.  She struggles every day and you would never know it.  I called another friend.  As we talked she broke down in tears and told me that her husband had just moved out.  I had no idea.  False Flats.  Invisible struggles.  At the finish line in Logan we met a guy and asked him his connection to MS, why he was riding.  After telling us he asked us the same question and we told him we ride for Marianne.  She was sitting there in her biking gear and he asked her about her MS.  What were her symptoms?  How did she handle it?  As she was explaining her symptoms to him she said something interesting.  She said that if someone didn't know she had MS they would probably just think she was lazy because she has to rest a lot to deal with her MS symptoms.

All of this thinking was a good reminder to me.  First of all, I need to be easier on myself.  No comparisons.  Even if two roads look very similar chances are they aren't.  And second, I need to be easier on those around me (my kids, family etc.).  I may never know what false flats someone is struggling with.

So there you have it.  Some of the thoughts that rattle around in my head when I bike :-)

Gratitude 2012

Just finished the 2012 Harmon's Best Dam bike ride MS150 in Logan.  So much fun!!  I love that ride. So many wonderful people gathered together in a common cause.

As I was sitting at the award presentation thingy the evening after the ride I had this overwhelming desire to get up and just say THANK YOU! to everybody there.  So I thought I'd just "take the microphone" here on the blog and say some THANK YOUs :-)

These aren't in any particular order.

Mother of boy with MS/Volunteers

THANK YOU volunteers!  One of the people that spoke at the event Saturday night was a mother of a boy who was just diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) last year.  The boy is 16 years old.  His mom got up and told about how they had found the National MS Society and decided to become involved as volunteers at the MS150 event.  Their whole family was there volunteering at the MS150 that day.  How cool is that!?

I LOVE volunteers!  I feel like a celebrity when I ride in the MS150.  The rest stops are particularly fun.  I've had my bike valet parked, been misted with cold water, served cold drinks, had my sunglasses cleaned, gotten tattooed and massaged.  Volunteers are the best!

Thank you volunteers!  Riding is fun.  Volunteering seems like work LOL  I'm so grateful for people who want to volunteer!  You make the ride so much fun!  THANK YOU!

UHP tattoos at Rest Stop #2

Speaking of volunteers...

Rest stop #3

We got off to a late start Saturday morning.  And we were not the fastest bikers on the course.  At rest stop one I found out that Bethany, my sister Lisa's daughter, wasn't feeling very well.  As the morning progressed she felt worse and worse.  By rest stop number three she was ready to call a Support vehicle (SAG).

I thought about how we had missed lunch last year.  Our goal this year was to make it to lunch!  We were a little over half-way to the lunch stop.  At our pace we'd get there at 1pm and probably miss lunch.  I have to admit, I was a little sad.  It wasn't even noon yet and our ride was ending right before the ride starts to get really interesting!  Rest Stop 3 was closed down.  That's how late we were!  The volunteers were all eating their box lunches.  As we were waiting for the SAG vehicle a volunteer approached us.  Dixie.  She brought four extra lunches that they had.  I thought it was making it to the lunch stop that I wanted.  No.  It was LUNCH!  And here it was.  THANK YOU Dixie.  And THANK YOU Richards Brandt Miller Nelson, the sponsors of Rest Stop 3.

Mmmmmmm.  Lunch!! :-)

LtoR: Bethany, Lisa, Dixie, Marianne, Me

Mountain America Credit Union

THANK YOU Mountain America Credit Union (MACU)!  This year we got back to the Village earlier than we normally do.  Lucky for us!  We got back just in time for the MACU afternoon drawing.  Bethany's name was drawn out as a participant in the money grab game.  This is where you step into a thing.... what's the right word? .... a tent/tube thingy (it's like a plastic phone booth) and they turn on a fan which blows money all around you.  Seriously.  You grab what you can and you actually get to keep the money!  Bethany was able to grab $32!  Now she only needs to raise $218 for next year's ride :-)  


MACU also sponsors a BINGO game.  You take a bingo card on the ride and get signatures for things like "person with yellow socks," "person in the top 75 of the 150 club," "someone from team Harmon's."  Things like that.  We've done the bingo in the past but we've never won.  This year two of us on the team won!  Yep.  We stayed to the bitter end Saturday night and finally our name was called :-)  Lisa won $50 and I won $100.  With that $100 we can purchase 1700 jawbreakers for our jawbreaker machine at the Water Gardens theater in Pleasant Grove and raise $425!  How cool is that!?  THANK YOU Mountain America!

Bethany in the money booth grabbing money :-)

Bethany

THANK YOU Bethany!  As I mentioned above, Bethany wasn't feeling too well.  After lunch at Rest Stop 3 though and a little yoga with Aunt Marianne, she decided she would try and go one more rest stop. We told her about the really fun rolling hills between Rest Stop 3 and Rest Stop 4.  One of the funnest parts of the route in my opinion.  We are so proud of Bethany!  She made it to Rest Stop 4 and can now officially say she has biked from Logan to Idaho!  Thank You Bethany for riding to Franklin with us!  Bethany is also one of our top fundraisers.  She raised the money for her mom, Lisa, to ride with us this year!  Thank you Bethany! :-)

Lisa and Bethany in Idaho :-)

The Rookies

THANK YOU Lisa!  THANK YOU Craig!  As we were riding, both Marianne and I discussed how this year seemed different.  We just didn't seem as pumped and excited to be there.  Something was missing.  Luckily we had Lisa with us!  This was Lisa's first year.  She was one of two Rookies on our team.  As we plodded along, Lisa sailed on ahead of us.  I can still see her smiling face.  She was loving it!  She didn't complain at the hills.  In fact she tackled each one deftly without even getting off her bike once!  Quite often we'd look around -- Where's Lisa? we'd ask.  Inevitably she was way ahead of us, oblivious to the fact that we were trailing behind.  Thank you Lisa for bringing some energy to a group of not so energetic riders!  


And Thank you Craig!  He pulled the 100 mile team along.  We met Craig the day before the MS150.  Apparently Craig bikes A LOT!  He was in really good shape and was able to help the 100 milers tackle the windy conditions.

Hills?  Ha!  I eat hills for breakfast!  Bring it on!!

Bill

THANK YOU Bill!  Bill is my husband.  He's our bike mechanic and team support.  He was also team captain this year.  Thank you Bill for remembering that Marianne's bike last year had lots of problems and that she ended up finishing the ride last year on my bike!  Because Bill remembered this we were able to fix up my bike for Marianne to ride and get another bike ready for me.  This made for a much more pleasant ride!  So nice to have a decent bike to ride on, eh?  Bill switched bike seats and adjusted bikes the morning before the ride so that we could each have a good bike to ride.

Superman!!  Cyclist, Team Captain, Master Mechanic and so much more!

Jacob and Reid

THANK YOU Jacob and Reid.  Jacob was a good sport.  We all painted our fingernails orange for the ride.  Jacob was the only manly man among the men :-)  He painted one hand's nails :-)  Thanks for playing with us Jacob and Thanks for riding even after having two flat tires!  Thanks to Reid for helping with the flat tires!  Reid and Jacob rode 75 miles!!  Way to go!

Friends and Family

THANK YOU Friends and Family!  For the past couple of years Bill and I have relied on money from the gum ball machine and CureMS, the iPhone/iPad app, to have enough to ride.  This year I was hoping to get into the 150 club (top 150 fundraisers).  I was quite a bit short though but thought I still might be able to pull off $600 to get a jersey.  As the race approached I was still about $70 short of my goal.  I decided to call Bill's mom.  Bill's mom always donates $50 to the ride each year.  This year however she was on her honeymoon.  It was Friday.  I was desperate.  I called.  I know.  I got a lot of flack from the family for that one.  But it was Grandma!  She loves to donate, right?  Anyhow.  I got the answering machine.  Dang.  The first year I rode I sent out an email and raised money that way.  In recent years however email pleas had gone unanswered.  So I decided to try a less-than-subtle Facebook status.  "Yahoo!  On my way to the MS150!  So excited and only $50 short of my goal!"  I added a link to our fundraising website :-)  THANK YOU to my cousin Staci for seeing that status update and donating the much needed/wanted $50 :-)  And THANK YOU to Aunt Charlotte for donating the other $20!  And THANK YOU to all the friends and family that support us in so many different ways (including reading this blog :-)!  It means a lot to us.  We love you!

Marianne

THANK YOU Marianne!  Thank you for suggesting years ago that we fundraise as a family.  Thank you for having such fun ideas and making everything so fun!  Marianne suggested we paint our fingernails orange this year.  Great idea!  That was a ton of fun.  She also encouraged us and led us onto BINGO victory! :-)  Also it was with Marianne that we brainstormed the "Crush MS" campaign on one of our runs.  Being with Marianne turns on the creative juices!  THANK YOU!

Crush MS!

Yoga at Rest Stop 3

THANK YOU to Water Gardens theater in PG for hosting our jawbreaker machine and to Apple for creating the App Store and the iPhone/iPad so we could make CureMS (and to Bill for the idea :-).  THANK YOU to Scott, Jenni and Jeff for watching the kids while we rode.  THANK YOU to you for reading this :-)  

THANK YOU!

Bike MS 2012

The weekend we all look forward to all year is here!  We arrived on Friday afternoon and had our traditional carboload dinner at Olive Garden.  This year we had two rookie riders (our sister Lisa and our dad's friend Craig).  We gave the rookies a little green cactus with a bright orange (MS Orange!) flower to signify that even though they are "green" they are hearty and will grow a beautiful orange flower if they nourish their fundraising efforts!  We gave the entire team a can of orange Crush soda because we are attempting to "crush" MS.  The next morning after our team picture we took our now empty cans of Crush and yelled "CRUSH MS!" as we crushed our cans and stomped them.  Go team!

After our Go Team! moment we broke off into three groups--the 100 milers, the 75 milers, and the rest of us.  This year it was incredibly hot (much hotter than in years past) and we had one of our rookies and a young rider so we rode until we made it to lunch and then sagged back to the fairgrounds.  We wanted to make sure we hit the fun part, which is on the 75 mile route.  Our young rider (Bethany) confirms that the fun part was worth it!  I was really impressed with our rookie (Lisa) because this was the longest bike ride she's ever been on but she rode up EVERY hill and looked like she could have kept going for another 25 miles at least.  Due to the thoughtfulness of my brother-in-law, Bill, I was able to ride a superlite bike this year rather than Senor Hyabusa (who is fairly heavy and whose gears are less than optimal).  He took the bike they had turned into a stationary bike (Big Red Hyabusa) and made it into a regular bike for my sister to ride so I could ride hers (Mt Fuji Hyabusa).  I had ridden this bike for a few miles last year but riding it from the beginning showed me how much I was missing by riding an older bike with bad gears!  Watching a recumbant bike ride by, though, made me want to get a cool, non-traditional bike so that along with the good gears I could also avoid the shoulder soreness, tush soreness, and numb hands that are par for the course on a long bike ride.  Anyone want to be my bike sponsor???  The only problem with the recumbant is that I couldn't ride it in triathlons.  We aren't sure, though, if the prohibition means that I couldn't ride in the race or that I would be ineligible for the top prizes.  Since I'm never in the running for the top prizes that wouldn't be a problem! :-)

Back to this year's ride, though.  We were at a fairly slow pace due to the heat and the overall experience level of our little group and so, yet again, it was looking like we were going to miss lunch.  We made it to Rest Stop 3 as they were closing up and eating lunch themselves.  The folks at Richards Brandt Miller Nelson were so lovely that they told us they had 4 extra lunches that we could have!  So this year we finally got lunch!!!!  And we ate it at lunch time!!!  This has been our goal for many years.  It was good to finally achieve it :-)  This year we made it back to the fairgrounds at about 2:30 or 3 and came in to a big crowd (usually the only people still hanging at the finish line when we come in are in our family).  We also had more time to hang out the fairgrounds and enjoy all of the events there (I think our kids spent at least 3 hours in the bounce house and bouncey slide).  This year Bethany got to go into the flying money booth and snatched $32 and both Lisa and Michelle won the bingo prize ($50 and $100 respectively).  Unfortunately we did not win a cool new bike this year.  Usually this is due to our general bad luck in raffles but this year it was due to the fact that they made the bikes a silent auction item instead of a raffle item.  That was a little disappointing but I had to remind myself that the outcome was the same--we were filled with desire but ultimately left the fairgrounds without a cool new bike!  Again, does anyone want to be my bike sponsor? 

Well, we also left the fairgrounds with lots of great ideas for next year's ride and fundraising.  I'm excited to start on that and to have just as much fun next year!  Come ride with us!

Gumball/Jawbreaker Machine Earnings

Update (July 2024): Water Gardens theater was recently purchased by Megaplex theaters. We are currently trying to reach someone to learn what will become of Old Yeller. Hopefully we will be able to keep the machine at the theater. Old Yeller has raised over $4,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) over the years. Yay! We are so grateful to Mike Daniels and all of the people at Water Gardens who have so graciously let us keep the machine there for so long. Go enjoy a movie this month and get a jawbreaker! 😀

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Our best fundraiser to date is our gumball/jawbreaker machine, Old Yeller.  Currently it resides at Water Gardens Theater in Pleasant Grove, Utah (across from Macey's).  Here is a picture of it in it's current home and a list of it's earnings.  

This list will be updated at the beginning of each month when we collect the jawbreaker money.  Big THANKS again to WATER GARDENS THEATER in PG!!  A great place to watch movies!  $3 movie ticket and concessions for $1, $2 and $3.  Seriously.  Order tickets online without an online service fee.  Reserve seating.  LOVE IT!  And, as an added bonus, you can buy a yummy jawbreaker for a mere 25 cents and help people afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis :-)  Yahoo!

Money Earned

Placed at the Pleasant Grove Water Gardens Theater just before Thanksgiving 2008

Dec. 3, 2008 $65.31

Jan. 6, 2009 $80.28

Feb. 3, 2009 $43.50

Mar. 6, 2009 $10.25

April 3, 2009 $22.00

May 19, 2009 $29.50

Sep. 4, 2009 $90.00 

Dec. 10, 2009 $27.27

Jan. 9, 2010 $22.56

Mar. 16, 2010 $32.00

Placed at Monkey Island in Lehi second week in Dec. 2010

Dec. 30, 2010  $54.80

Mar. 15, 2011 $84.11

June 2011 $91.76

July 16, 2011   $24.30

Sept. 15, 2011 $58.77

Placed at Water Gardens theater Nov. 23, 2011
November 2011: (-$46.98)

Jan. 12, 2012 $135.21

Jan. 2012: (-$93.96)

Feb. 2012: $69.03

March 2012: $58.97

April 2012: $86.25

June 21, 2012: $161.07

July 20, 2012: $64.55

August 10, 2012: $100.78

Sept. 21, 2012: $93.50

Nov. 20, 2012: $143.87

Nov. 20, 2012: (-$93.96)

Jan. 20, 2013: $171.52
March 2013: $151.33
May 2013: $101.08
July 2013: $126.43
July 2013: (-$176.85)
Sept. 2013: $35.45
Nov. 2013: $90.11
Dec. 2013: $40.81
March 2014: $111.71
July 2014: $121.00
August 2014: $67.59 and $91.76
December 2014: $91
January 2015: $50.69
November 2015: $190
December 2015: $34
January 2016: $46.69
March 2016: $50.00
June 2016: $55.00
October 2016: $151.00
May 2017: $35.00
July 2017: $36.00
June 2018: $65.00
September 2018: $52.41
January 2019: $50
June 2019: $60
January 2020: $80
March 2020: $25

June 2021: $90

June 2023: $306 (it's been a while :-)

Note: In November 2011 Old Yeller became a jawbreaker machine.  When it was a gumball machine the gumballs were donated.  Now we buy our own jawbreakers.  It costs us $93.96 for 1700 jawbreakers.  At 25 cents per jawbreaker we will still be able to raise $331.04 for every 1700 jawbreakers sold.  To keep things completely transparent we will mark, on the list above, the money spent on jawbreakers in red. Update: As you can see we haven't marked anything red for over a decade. We ended up just donating the jawbreakers so every penny the machine earns goes to fighting MS.

Free training plan for the MS150

A friend recently asked me about training for the MS150.  I'm not one to follow a training schedule very strictly.  I didn't know what to tell her.  I decided to google "training for the MS150" and see if anything came up.  Google did not let me down :-)  It never does!  What did we do without Google (and YouTube how-to-videos)?  :-)  I found this site about a free training plan for people registered for the MS150.  Here's the link.  Check it out!

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/events/cycling/ms-society-public.aspx

You can also find other training plans that people have posted.  Most of them seem a lot more intense than anything I've ever done!  The people who follow those plans probably finish faster and are less sore than me too LOL  Either way, it's a lot of fun!  Remember, there are rest stops about every 10 miles and there are support vehicles and cell phones everywhere!  It's all good.  Oh yeah, and did I mention the massage at the end?  Yep.  I love this event :-)

Sold!

Yahoo!  Our latest eBay fundraising auction was a huge success!  Thank you to everyone who spread the word or bid on the ornament. And a big thanks to Uncle Blaine for donating the ornament!!

When all was said and done we had six bidders and twelve bids.  The winning bid was $45.  After shipping, eBay fees and PayPal fees we have $40.30 left to donate to the National MS Society!  Yahoo!!

Selling on eBay is a bit addictive.  It's very fun to see the clock tick down and the final bids come in.  If anyone has anything they want to donate I'd love to do another eBay fundraiser :-)

Here is a picture of the eBay ornament Uncle Blaine donated.  It's a spinning top.  Below the picture is a video of Blaine in his garage making a similar ornament.

Marathon Experience (Article for Rocky Mountain Running Magazine)

Choosing to Fly
By Marianne Hales Harding

I’m used to runners passing me like I’m standing still—it happens on every training run—but it’s an entirely different feeling to have thousands of runners pass you like you’re standing still.

Aerial footage of the start line of the St George Marathon must have looked like salmon swimming upstream around a large rock. A slow runner at my first marathon, all I wanted to do was swim upstream with the rest of the salmon but I knew I could never keep up. Not for 26.2 miles. So I plodded along until the 5 hour pacer approached from behind. I waited for the group to pass, but they kept plodding alongside me. For a few minutes I thought I would actually run a 5 hour marathon, but then they started inching ahead of me. Instinctively I pushed forward to keep up but, again, I knew I couldn’t maintain that. I went back to my pace and watched them creep slowly into the horizon. Farewell, chatty pacer. Farewell, 79 year old woman who ran Boston twice. Farewell, lady wearing a stuffed fox on her head. It was nice knowing you.

I have learned what my body can and can’t do, though, and a 5 hour marathon is the latter. I started learning my limits 10 years ago when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In those days my marathon was getting from the couch to the bathroom. It took all of my energy and determination to cross those few feet of carpet. Inevitably I would pace myself too fast and run out of energy halfway. I was overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of symptoms. The entire left side of my body was numb. I could hardly walk. The stairs were as unconquerable as Mt. Everest. Not understanding the disease, I mistakenly thought I’d never walk normally again. But MS is an unpredictable disease. Crippling symptoms can stay or go, seemingly on a whim. Eventually I learned to take a slower pace but at the time I was always running at full capacity and burning out quickly.

On marathon day my pace was even slower than usual because I decided, at the base of Veyo Hill, to walk all of the inclines. This became less and less indulgent as the temperature in the desert climbed. The heat intensified all of my complaints. I started feeling it in my feet at mile 8. I felt my hips at mile 10, my knees at mile 13 and my Ibuprofen at mile 15. I acknowledged each like children on a long trip. “Are we there yet?” Not yet. Eventually they stopped clamoring for my attention—evidence of the large percentage of a marathon that is purely mental.

When I was diagnosed with MS I had a horrible fear of needles, which was a problem because all of the treatments involve needles. I decided I needed to overcome this fear. For a month, I practiced. I forced myself to look when given shots and I gave practice shots to random inanimate objects. Finally I decided to just do it. I sat down on the bathroom floor and prepared a spot on my thigh. I took a deep breath and slowly lowered the needle, but as soon as it pierced my skin I pulled it back, leaving a little prick of blood as evidence. I tried again with the same results. For 45 minutes I did this, leaving a quarter-sized spot entirely covered with tiny prick marks. When I finally kept the needle in long enough to push the plunger down I wept from sheer emotional exhaustion. Over 3000 shots later, it is no longer a big deal but that isn’t because I have overcome my fear of needles. I simply stopped indulging the fear. I couldn’t spend 45 minutes of every day in terror so I skipped straight to shooting up and going on with my day.

It was that mental fortitude that kept me going mile after mile and I decided the secret to endurance must be simply not indulging in the desire to stop. The reward was the most amazing vistas. At one point a runner said to me, “The best part of a marathon is the finish line!” I said, “Are you kidding? This is the best part of the marathon!” The St George Marathon runs through a breathtaking section of southern Utah’s desert. About halfway through I looked at the red rock towering in the distance, felt the soul-feeding solitude, and considered myself incredibly lucky to be able to be in this moment, to have run the last three hours and to be able to run three hours more.

I am not an athlete. Even before the MS diagnosis I wasn’t one to push myself physically. When I lift heavy objects it is to bring them from the trunk to the pantry. When I swim it is to rescue the beach ball. When I run it is to capture the escaping dog. Serious athleticism was never something that seemed within my realm of possibilities. But I found that you don’t have to be the winner of the race to get something out of it. Emotionally, it felt so good to pound the problems of the day into the pavement. And, physically, I have never felt better. I have fewer MS episodes and recover quicker from the ones I do have. This realization got me excited about athletics. I completed several short triathlons, a half marathon and two 75 mile bike rides.

From those experiences I thought I knew what race day would be like, but I was entirely unprepared for the power of that midpoint in the marathon--for how amazing it would be to feel so in control of my own destiny. Mary Chapin Carpenter’s song “Why Walk When You Can Fly?” played on my iPod and I wept. “In this world there’s a whole lot of trouble; In this world there’s a whole lot of pain; In this world there’s a whole lot of trouble but a whole lot of ground to gain. Why take when you could be giving, why watch as the world goes by?; It’s a hard enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly?”

The finish line was nowhere near as emotional as that moment. Later my nephew asked facetiously if crossing the finish line made me feel empowered. It didn’t. When you a run a 6 hour marathon, the party at the finish line is over. 96% of the runners have already crossed and gone home. Crossing the finish line seemed anticlimactic, perhaps because I was too tired to think about what it meant. Back in the red rock at the midpoint, though, I remembered every step of the journey from the unconquerable stairs to the conquered desert landscape. I remembered feeling beaten down by life and then feeling powerful. I remembered choosing to fly.