BikeMS 2021 Crushing MS one donation at a time

Crushing MS

I wish I had asked his name or gotten a picture. He said he was in his 60's. He has MS. His legs were strapped onto his recumbent bike so he wouldn't fall out when he got tired. His hands did the pedaling. I first noticed this rider because he was going very slowly.  

I slowed down to bike beside him and after chatting for a while I asked him what his fundraising secret was because he had a yellow bib. The coveted yellow bib. Yellow bibs are given only to the top 100 fundraisers. He was number 39.  He told me he just simply reached out to family and friends and asked for their support. No corporate sponsors. Wow. I thought about the power of a simple donation. Crushing MS one donation at a time. It really adds up. 

I realized the importance of each donation again this year because I too got a coveted yellow bib. Yep :-) Did you realize that your donations (just to me) added up to over $1600? 

Vote for a color to dye my hair. $25/vote. And you voted. Incredible, eh? Crushing MS one donation at a time! YOU ROCK!! Team Iron Eagles raised over $5000! And only a couple thousand of that was matching funds from Harmons. Not bad. 

You guys are amazing! 

Slow and steady wins the race and adds up to so much money to help people with MS! Every donation counts!

The ride

OK. Enough about donations. Let's talk ride. 

Normal picture

Sexy hair swoosh! Lisa felt I needed to show more hair :-)

This year we were all really worried about the heat. About a week and a half before the ride I walked out onto our deck. It felt like I was walking into an oven. Seriously. And that was in the shade! We were all super grateful to see the rain come a couple days before BikeMS. It poured rain as we drove up to Logan cooling things down a bit. Thank heaven! Saturday was a beautiful day. 

It also helped that we got an early start. Our original plan was to do team pictures at 6:30am, eat breakfast at the fairgrounds and be on the road by 7am. We were close. We started at 7:30am. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right. It was great. We easily made it to the first rest stop. Earlier starts are definitely going to become a tradition! The whole day went so much better with the earlier start. That was the first good decision of the day.

The second good decision happened in Newton. -- random side story. A good friend of mine told me she was from Newton. I didn't connect that with BikeMS until this ride. It turns out her childhood home is about a block from the Newton rest stop. How random is that?

Anyhow. Remember that guy I saw on the first leg of the ride? Number 39? I asked him how far he was riding. 14 miles. He was going to go to the first rest stop and back. How cool is that? He inspired us to make our next best decision.

When we got to Newton, the second rest stop, we had gone about 15 miles. I could see that some on our team were showing signs of fatigue. We had a choice, we could keeping going forward and do the 43 mile loop, go forward and do the 73 mile loop (and have lunch on the ride) or just turn around and head back making 30 miles total. Usually we would choose to push on. "We have to make it to the lunch stop," we'd say. Or "We have to do the full route," we'd say. Then I remembered number 39 (really wish I had asked his name!). Watching him slowly but surely make his way on the ride I remembered that it's super important to know our limits and enjoy the ride.

In the end, three members of the team pushed forward to do the 43. Four of us decided we should head back and just do 30. Best decision ever! The miles flew by. We made it back to the fairgrounds around noon. Those of you that follow this blog know that we usually start late, go slow, bite off more than we can chew as we push to ride more miles than we should. By the time we are on the last stretch we are dead! It's hot and we are tired and feeling miserable. (see my essay on why I ride) 

This year the last stretch was a breeze! We were passed by a fellow rider who called out "Good morning!" and I realized that it was still in fact morning! We are usually doing the last stretch around 3 or 4 or sometimes 5pm.  We rolled passed the finish line and were able to cheer riders coming in for at least an hour or more. It was great! So this is what it feels like to not be last.... I like it! It was a short ride but I guess that's the point. And eating lunch at the fair grounds was not so bad. Harmons provided some really yummy lunches! We were even able to save part for dinner. Win Win. Woohoo! And we were also able to get in some lunch-time yoga stretches :-) It was a good day.

The Finish Line

The well-rested 30 milers (Reid did 43) and the support crew photobombing in the back :-)

The speedy Gonzales crew in Newton. They opted for 43 miles

Most of the riders at the finish. This is our attempt at a cool hold-the-bike-triumphantly-overhead shot. I think we need to practice a bit more for next year :-)

Giving up and just doing a normal photo :-)

Orange Hair

BRIGHT orange!

I have to say that last year I was a little disappointed that orange didn't win in the hair dyeing contest. And then when I dyed my hair purple it wasn't very bright. It was a gorgeous shade of purple that I didn't really hate at all. I was actually totally fine that it took a few weeks to wash out. This year however I wanted to go bright neon orange. Go big or go home, eh?  So I set the fundraising bar low and didn't give anybody else a vote :-) I loved the reactions of the family as we sprayed my hair orange. So much shock! It wasn't until later when I saw pictures that I understood. That was some bright hair! I don't know how people could stand to look at me without sunglasses :-) Wow. Originally I was looking forward to going to church the next day with orange hair. So glad that it washed out in one  wash! :-) I probably should have went with Staci's suggestion of copper! Maybe next year......

Favorite Photos

Our rolling rest stop. We love Sarah's basket!

Support crew cheering on the riders

Support crew and riders

Enjoying the finish line

Well-rested at the finish line :-)

I love this sign so much!

Two hot looking young ladies :-)

So glad that I was warned about this before I went in! PS it's rubber. A very realistic looking rubber snake!

The helmet was originally black :-)

Orange tips blending in with the jerseys :-)

One Final Thought

There are actually quite a few people who ride at BikeMS who have Multiple Sclerosis. Probably more than we realize. Some are easy to spot, like number 39. They ride recumbents with hand pedals and go very slowly. Some, like Marianne, ride a regular bike and you can't tell right away, if ever, that they have MS. Maybe they have numb hands or numb feet, not so good balance, not so good vision. MS is different for everyone. One thing that is common is that having MS adds a challenge however you ride, if you can. It's pretty amazing when you think about. People struggling with MS riding in BikeMS. But you don't have to have MS to support people who have MS. You each are great examples of that!

I just want to thank each of you again for supporting us each year -- whether by donating or reading this blog or sharing the donation link or simply cheering us on. It really means a lot to our family. 

It really is true that each donation makes a difference. Your donations help to purchase things and services that help make life easier for those with MS as well as research to find a cure. And the research that is going on right now is phenomenal! We may not be research scientists but we can help bring hope to so many people struggling with auto-immune diseases like MS. 

So..... THANK YOU!

One last shameless plug

Speaking of donations, it's not too late to donate :-) For every $100 you donate by July 5  you get an entry to win a really cool electric bike. 

I know what you are thinking. I've had the same thoughts. What is one entry in a sea of potentially millions of entries? It can happen though, right? Think Charlie and the Chocolate factory! It only takes one golden ticket (and a lot of desire .... and some singing and dancing....). 

Not to dampen your hopes but I have a lot of desire for this cool bike too and we are donating a couple entries worth too so... May the best donor win! :-) And of course the best donor is YOU! :-)

Pandemic BikeMS

I'm not going to sugar coat it: it was a disappointing year. Our BikeMS ride was just under 7 miles and the last miles were kind of hard because we got a late start and the heat did not mix well with my MS. We didn't gather to ride with our team (part of our team even did their ride earlier in the week and didn't ride that morning). We didn't have the high energy crowd at the fairgrounds. I raised only a fraction of the money that I usually do. 

But we showed up on our favorite trail in full BikeMS gear and had a good morning. We met a woman walking on the trail whose husband had just been diagnosed with MS so we directed her to the resources of the National MS Society and offered emotional support. We flew down the path and jostled to see who would be the first rider in our two person pack. And we finished to the cheers of my niece and her family.

My great-nephew, 16 months old, crossed the imaginary finish line with his balance bike dwarfed by our road bikes and a sufficiently awe-filled "Wow!" We were met by my youngest daughter and my dad with a cooler full of popsicles that we ate in the shade of a small tree. So I guess we did sugar coat it after all!

As far as 2020 disappointments go, this was more bright spot than sadness, but I do hope to ride into Idaho next summer. If we don't, though, I think I'll follow my sister's example and ride all week long! I love her great attitude and am very inspired by her post (see below)!

The Littlest Rider joins the road bikes.

COVID hair and virtual bibs

On the trail: Spanish Fork River Trail

Virtual BikeMS 2020

THANK YOU!!

First of all, THANK YOU!! Again, we would like to thank all of you who support us either with donations, or love, or by reading this blog -- anything. THANK YOU! We love you!

Ok. It's been a week since BikeMS 2020. I think we've finally recovered! So this year the ride in Logan was cancelled due to the Covid19 pandemic. BikeMS turned into Virtual BikeMS. Our first one ever. Probably the first one ever for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) too. The NMSS estimates that they will lose about 60 million dollars in revenue because so many BikeMS rides across the country have had to go virtual. That's super sad because that means less money for research and less money for the programs they support for people who have MS. Ironically this was our best fundraising year yet -- and our best recruiting year yet too.

Here's our Virtual BikeMS story....

At the beginning of June the NMSS held a Zoom meeting for all the BikeMS team captains. One of the take aways for me from that meeting was that it's ok to still ask for donations even with the pandemic and the economic uncertainty. Everyone is affected by the pandemic in different ways. One person on that call mentioned getting a donation from one of his regular donors that was larger than normal and it was an odd amount of money. When he asked his donor about it the donor told him that he normally goes to a conference this time of year but that was cancelled due to Covid so he instead took the money he would have used to go to the conference and donated it to this guy's BikeMS ride. Pretty cool, eh? I thought about it and realized that since Bill has been working from home our gas bill has gone down dramatically. We drive a lot less. Also, we don't eat out or at least we hadn't for a few months. Because of that we've saved money that we could use to donate as well. I posted an opportunity to donate on Facebook asking people to donate if they had the same experience as us and maybe had a few extra dollars they could donate. A couple past donors didn't donate but the ones that did actually increased their donations from past years. In some cases by a lot.

The Hair

Then it got really interesting :-) We went on a bike ride with Marianne and her girls up Provo Canyon. Bike rides are great, especially with Marianne and especially when we are brainstorming. Seems like each year in Logan when we ride BikeMS we are always brainstorming new fundraising ideas :-) This ride was no different. We came up with this crazy idea to have me dye my hair if we reached a certain amount of donations. I set my sights on Club K. 

To get into Club K you have to raise $1000. Club K is awesome because you get all the VIP benefits at BikeMS (I will get them next year. Yahoo! :-). And you get the jersey and a hat. $1000 is a lot of money to raise even in a year with a super healthy economy. We decided to give it a try though.

The initial thought was to play on the BYU/UofU rivalry and see which school was the most charitable. If BYU, I would dye my hair blue. If UofU, I would be a redhead :-) When I told this to Aunt Charlotte she said she wanted to see me dye my hair purple so we opened things up. We ended up with 5 colors -- BYU/USU blue, UofU/SUU red, Weber purple, UVU green and of course we had to have BikeMS/UofTenn orange.

When Reid heard about my quest for Club K he actually donated $250! Yep. His color of choice was blue. Even with that big vote Blue didn't end up winning. A lot of people wanted to see purple. My kids were influenced by Aunt Charlotte. If she wanted purple, their vote was purple. And they had quite a voting block with our jawbreaker money.  In the end purple won out. That actually was fortuitous because Marianne's daughter Maran had recently attempted to dye her hair purple so we already had purple hair dye! It was destiny :-)

Dyeing the hair was quite the experience. I've never dyed my hair before. We donned our paint clothes and went out to the front yard. Pictures are worth a thousand words so I will let the pictures do the talking. I will say this though -- water from the garden hose is super cold! Just saying. We left it on for the recommended 10 minutes. It wasn't purple enough for some but I think it was enough. It was definitely purple when you looked at certain angles :-)  Super fun fundraiser! We will have to do that one again.

Before

During

COLD COLD water!!!

After

The day after I dyed my hair I woke up and turned to Bill to say good morning. He took one look at me and simply said, "It's still purple." LOL Yep. And it stayed purple for most of the week. It's mostly gone now. Very sad. It was quite fun having purple hair. I don't think I could do that long term though. Maybe next year we'll do Orange! :-)

BikeMS week

One of the perks of Virtual BikeMS is that we had an entire week to ride 100 miles to get our century patch. Normally we would have to ride 100 miles in a day to get the patch. Seriously. People actually do that. They get up early and put on their little spandex shorts and jerseys and they are finished by early afternoon. No joke. We are not that fit. We are usually the last ones to start and the last ones to finish and we usually go the least amount of miles. Yahoo! Way to go us! My first year I rode 40 miles. The second year Bill and I rode 75 miles and since then it's been less and less and less. Anyhow. We were motivated by the century patch this year. Bill had already gotten the century patch (more than once) but he went for it again with us this time. It was a lot of fun and a lot of riding! I thought it wouldn't be so bad doing 100 miles spread out over a week.  Nope. It was just as bad :-) We got slower and sorer as the week went on. At least I did. We did it though! It took several rides but we did it. By the end I didn't want to see a bike (or the Murdock Canal trail!) for a very very long time.

Here is the break down of our ride. Hopefully other team members will post their experiences as well.

Ride Number 1: Saturday June 20; 19.24 miles; 361 ft. elevation; 2h12m.

I did this ride on Saturday June 20. Reid and his family biked down to Mapleton on Friday the 19th. They got half of their miles for the century in just one ride. That prompted me to get some miles in on Saturday. I knew I would need to do lots of little rides so I had to start right away. I didn't realize at the time though that my kids would want to get the century patch with me and therefore I would be doing these 20 miles all over again the following week. So in reality I did 120 miles during BikeMS week! No wonder I was utterly exhausted by the end of it!

Ride Number 2: Tuesday June 23; 20.69 miles; 355 ft elevation; 2h28m.

This was the first ride with the kids. It was a learning experience. Learning how to ride together and not kill your siblings. I was a little worried about what the rest of the week would bring but the rest of the week was much better! In fact in the end this turned into a very good family bonding experience :-) Go family togetherness! :-)

Ride Number 3: Wednesday June 24; 15.14 miles; 547 ft elevation; 1h36m.

This was supposed to be our rest day. The plan was to do 10 miles. The kids did 10 miles. I went to the cemetery at the end of our ride and did 5 miles of laps around the cemetery. This was before I knew they wanted to do the whole 100 with me. I just knew I needed to get in as many miles each day as my body would allow in order to make 100 by the end of the week. 

On this ride we went up 100 West and went west on the Murdock Canal. When we got to the big dip I was going to stop but the kids wanted to keep going so we ventured down the hill. I'm glad we did. We found a treasure trove of mountain biking trails. We will have to go back with sturdier bikes and check out these trails!

Ride Number 4: Thursday June 25; 6.15 miles; 190 ft. elevation; 43m.

Thursday Sarah wasn't feeling well. She still wanted to ride but didn't know how far she could make it.  So we went to the cemetery. We figured we could ride the loop at the top of the cemetery and if she still felt sick we would be super close to home and she could go home and rest. In the end, after 6 miles, she decided to go home. I love the loop at the cemetery. It's relatively flat and one loop is about 1/3 of a mile. Of course after a while it gets old but it's a pretty good workout when you don't want to go too far from home. 

Ride Number 5: Thursday June 25; 23.93 miles; 363 ft. elevation; 2h38m.

After Sarah went home we headed to the Murdock. We went east this time looking for miles and we found them! Almost 24 miles. Our longest ride yet. We discovered not only Pleasant Grove but Lindon on this ride. We almost headed into Provo but I didn't want to push it! Notice the happy siblings below. The family that bikes together doesn't end up killing each other (we sincerely hope :-).

Happy Siblings :-)

Ride Number 6: Friday morning June 26; 9.39 miles; 298 ft. elevation; 59m.

All week long Bill worked during the day as we biked. He biked at night while we fulfilled other obligations. We did 10 miles Friday morning to be at the same mileage as Bill so we could all finish our century together. This morning we went back to the cemetery. Sarah and Chewy came to cheer us on :-)

Ride number 7: Friday night June 26; 14.44 miles; 113 ft. elevation; 1h24m.

Our first ride all together as a family. We rode right after dinner. Not sure that was the best idea for me. I had a cramp for most of the ride. By this time in the week I was super tired. I didn't not want to face the big hill at Art Dye one more time so I insisted we pack up the bikes on the car and drive to the Murdock Canal trail :-) I have a very patient family. They indulged me. It was still a long and painful ride. By this time we had gone over 70 miles during the week (if I count Saturday the 20th I had gone over 90 miles) and my body was not happy with me. I had not biked since the quarantine lock down in March and my body was feeling it. I got in almost 15 miles though. Bill and Matthew and Annalisa biked all the way home and got in some extra miles. It was fun to see the kids riding together, singing happily and enjoying each other. So different from the first ride at the beginning of the week! :-)  Notice the long shadow in this picture. We got to see the Murdock at dusk. Complete with the sun in our eyes on the way home! :-)

Ride Number 8: Saturday June 27 BikeMS Day!; 10.02 miles; 264 ft. elevation; 1h8m

Saturday morning Matthew's scoutmaster scheduled some work for Matthew's eagle project. Matthew is one of three Life Scouts working on eagle projects that involve clearing this particular trail so we couldn't exactly reschedule. Early in the morning we headed to Grove Creek trail to prepare the trail for a 5k race to be run 2 weeks later. Matthew is helping with the Follow The Flag 5k on July 11th as his Eagle Project for the Boy Scouts of America. It's a very fun project. Just very bad timing for us :-) We came home from a couple hours of heavy physical labor and just crashed. 

About 2 or 3pm we decided we needed to head out to finish our last 10 miles. So close and yet so far!! I suggested we go to the cemetery :-) It's close and flat. Bill couldn't imagine riding 10 miles in 1/3 mile loops for an hour. I don't blame him. He's used to more serious cycling. He's one of those cyclists I mentioned earlier who get up early, put on spandex and bike 100 miles in a day. Yep. Anyhow. He convinced us to brave one last hill and ride around the west side of the Murdock. We went through Nob Hill and meandered our way to the Murdock. We had fun riding through the tunnels yelling Hyabusa! And generally just enjoyed riding bikes together as a family. We actually ran into another group who was riding for BikeMS. They saw our jerseys and yelled out Yay BikeMS! That was really fun to have that connection even if it was just for a moment.

Before we went on our ride I took the hose and got myself wet on the back and head. Sarah put her water in a most unfortunate spot :-) She has the confidence to pull it off though, eh?

One of our "rest stops"

Marianne and her girls came to cheer us in at the finish. I didn't realize how much I love that part of the ride until I rounded the corner and heard the cow bell and the cheers of our adoring fans :-)

Ride Number 8: Saturday June 27; 0.6 miles; 9ft elevation; 4 minutes.

I thought we had got our 100 miles in for the week but Strava said we were a bit short so after Marianne and the girls went home I got back on the bike and rode this ride. All downhill! I let the kids ride my bike back home. They had the energy and they still need a couple more miles :-)

Done and done. After that, as I mentioned before, I didn't want to see my bike or the Murdock Canal again for a very very long time :-)

More Pictures.

This was our main haunt. The Murdock Canal. We would take Center to 300 North and then catch the trail to Art Dye. From there we would head up the big hill and catch the Murdock Canal Trail. I loved the Murdock Canal trail (at the beginning of the week :-) because there were lots of people. Not so many that it felt crowded. Just enough to feel like you weren't ever alone. So many friendly faces. People of all ages on all sorts of bikes and scooters, roller blades etc. Walking or riding. Everyone seemed to have a smile on their face and a friendly wave. It was awesome! Some people even wrote encouraging quotes either on the trail or on the side of their house by the trail. The best part about the trail is that it seemed like you were always going downhill, gently. It is really well engineered that way. Now we just need to get more shade! :-)

Where the Art Dye trail meets the Murdock there is construction. I thought that was very fitting. This whole year has been one detour after another, or so it seems.  So I thought it was appropriate to get this picture. It's hard to see in the picture but the detour sign is pointing to the Mt. Timpanogos LDS temple :-) 

Chain trouble. Annalisa had a lot of chain trouble all week. Every time she got on her bike she had to put the chain back on. Here she is getting back on the bike and her shoelace got caught in the chain! Craziness! Time to get the bike tuned up :-)

Again the chain slipped off! 

The youngest biker on our team. Henry is 1 year old and absolutely adorable. My dad also expressed interest in riding with us this year but we didn't get him a bike soon enough. He is 82. We will get his bike this month and take a picture. I am not sure but I think we may have the team with both the oldest and the youngest riders :-)

BikeMS 2019: The adventure continues

First of all, THANK YOU to everybody who supported us this year and every year. 

YOU ARE WONDERFUL! 

You are making a difference in many people's lives. 

THANK YOU!

This is my favorite picture this year. Matthew turned 12 and so the whole family was able to ride. What surprises me most about this picture is how short I look! When did the kids get so tall!?!

This is the whole team this year.  Ten team members. Five teens. Five non-teens. Of the ten team members two were rookies.

Rookie number one is Jonathon Hales. He is a math genius. The number on his helmet, 541, is apparently the 100th prime. Only Jonny would recognize that, at least he is the only one on our team that would recognize that. What a cool number! Also, notice the orange finger nail polish. Jon was a really good sport. He wore the nail polish like a true Iron Eagle.  He was the first one at the finish line. He took off in true Rookie fashion with lots of energy, way out in front of all of us and made a wrong turn. Or maybe it was a right turn. Because he took that turn he made it to the finish line in time to get his van and come rescue us at lunch.

Jonny to the rescue! Jon drove up to the lunch stop and was able to fit an amazing amount of bikes in his van. Five bikes! Half the team! Go Jon! And a big thanks to Lisa's husband Scott who also came with a car to cart people back to the fairgrounds.

Rookie number two, Matthew. He would not be caught dead eating oatmeal any other day. On race day though he ate it with a smile :-) 

Rest stop number one. It was sooooo cold this year! Some team members decided to do jumping jacks to keep warm. I wish I had gone with my first instinct and worn my long sleeves. We thought it would warm up. It did but not until we were basically done. 

Rest stop number two. Newton. Matthew is doing his "serious joker" face :-) 

Aunt Lisa and Aunt Marianne. Always on the look out for a contest. Apparently the Honey Bucket company was doing a contest. Take a selfie with a Honey Bucket and you might win something! Woohoo! Crossing our fingers.

Annalisa, showing us what real riders eat for energy. 

Kathryn showing off her cool curls. Kathryn has true BikeMS spirit! Go Kathryn! :-)

For Bethany!

Matthew met a patch of gravel that didn't agree with him. I am actually very relieved that this is all that happened. No stitches needed. He'll just have a nasty scar. I won't post the actual wound (you're welcome :-) I was so worried that he would end up in an accident. The BikeMS route has really changed since I first rode in 2005. A large majority of the route is on very busy roads and there are less volunteers helping out at intersections. We spent a lot of time before BikeMS riding as a family, practicing riding in a line, using hand signals etc. Not very fun for the kids. They did really great though on the ride so I guess it paid off :-) Next year I need to get a GoPro video camera. I missed so many pictures on the bike. The team did so well with staying in a straight line. We even got complimented by one of the ride marshals :-) Yay us! And the kids actually had a good time. It was fun to watch them call out "Hyabusa!" (our team cheer) and play games like I Spy.

Annalisa helping Matthew to the finish line.

Matthew walking in to cheers from the crowd. 

The girls showing off their scars (not from this ride). I personally could not see the scars. Apparently they are there though. Now everyone in the family will have a scar :-)

We missed Uncle Dr. Reid. These paramedics were very helpful though. 

It was cold and rainy but we could not pass up the free snow cone! :-)

Can you pick out the Rookie in this picture?

Carbo-loading at Olive Garden.

Father and son. 

Jonny before the ride.

Extended family :-)

The rookies.

Captain America and his faithful sidekick