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

BikeMS 2018

I have a niece on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She is a volunteer in Russia.  Every week she sends a letter and outlines the miracles she sees each week.  We saw a few miracles this year at BikeMS.

Miracle number one -- we actually made it to Logan.

Every year is a little bit different.  This year felt really different.  Half our team couldn't make it and the other half almost didn't make it. Reid and Isaac were on Trek. Emily was busy getting ready to be married.  Jacob was on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Taiwan.  Lisa had a choir concert and Jenni, well, I'm not sure why Jenni didn't ride.  The rest of us were ready to ride when we got the call that dad was in the ER once again. That was the day before we were planning to go to Logan to ride in the MS150.  Should we go or should we stay? Dad had been in the hospital on and off for almost a month. June was a crazy month.  Our sister Betsy flew out from Tennessee the week before to help with dad. It was decided she would stay and help and we would go ride.

Marianne and her car were running late on their way to Logan so we went to pick up their stuff at registration. I was super tired and apparently didn't look like I was handling the heat really well. When I inquired about picking up an "I Ride with MS" jersey I think the lady assumed that I had MS. She was so nice and treated me like a rock star. At first I thought, "This is really cool. So this is what it's like to ride with MS. VIP treatment." I quickly came back to reality though.  I don't want to ride with MS. It's great to be pampered but it's even better to be able to feel my hands and feet and to not have to deal with everything that is MS.

Here's a picture of the kids at the MS Awareness station. You put on goggles smeared with vaseline to approximate what it is like to have vision problems.  Try buttoning up a shirt with gloves on! It's hard. Each of the experiences was meant to give people a small idea of what it's like to live with MS. It was a bit of an eye opener.

Friday night. Carbo loading happened at Olive Garden as usual. It was a little strange without Reid. He is the Olive Garden guy. I always associate that part of the ride with Reid :-)

Olive Garden leftovers in Lisa's fridge = lunch for non-riders the next day. Another favorite tradition :-)

Miracle number two -- we made it to the starting line fairly early. 

In the morning a very odd thing happened. On the way to the Fairgrounds, between the car and the Fairgrounds I fell. True story. I was trying to get my foot out of the pedal clip so I could get off my bike to cross the road and I fell. All 220 pounds of me. I fell directly on the asphalt. The odd thing, the miracle, is that I didn't get hurt. At all. Seriously. I just got up and I was fine. How does that happen? I thought for sure that I would have some kind of injury that would keep me from riding comfortably very far.  Nope.  Nada.  No bruises. Nothing uncomfortable. At all!  We have a saying in our family that if we fall when we are skiing then we've had a good ski day.  Looks like I was going to have a great day on the bike! And we did :-) On to the starting line!

We got to the starting line earlier than we had for years -- about 7:15am (start was at 7am) and yet there was hardly anybody there. Where was everybody?  Had we missed the big rush or did everybody's team get cut in half this year? It was so odd.  We are very slow riders so it was pretty much like a ghost town the whole way.

Miracle number three -- rest stop one and beyond!

None of us had trained.  We were all out of shape and wondering how far we could ride. I figured we would lose at least two riders at the first rest stop.  We were pleasantly surprised when at the first rest stop everyone declared that they were feeling great. We would all keep going to rest stop two.

Miracle number four -- growing up girls.

The girls were doing so much better than last year.  I was really impressed with them. In years past we had a really hard time keeping our bikes upright because the girls were going soooooo slow. We would have to constantly remind them to keep pedaling and to stay in a straight line, especially on the busy scary roads.  This year they set the pace (in a good way :-).  Good job girls!

On to rest stop two! Newton and pickle shots. We fell in love with the pickle juice shots at Newton this year (see videos).  Apparently pickle juice has a lot of wonderful qualities. It helps with muscle cramps, it sweetens the breath, it even helps with weight loss! My new best friend :-)

On the way from rest stop one to rest stop two I got a brilliant idea. We already had a personal SAG vehicle (our sister Lisa) who had agreed to come pick people up at rest stop one if needed.  Why not just ride to lunch and have Lisa pick us up from lunch?  According to the map if we took the 75 mile route lunch was 46 miles from the start.  That's only three miles more then we had originally planned.  The original plan was to do the 43 mile loop and end up back at the Fairgrounds for lunch. What is the big deal about lunch on the route you say? Is it the fact that everyone there is a rider or volunteer? Does the food taste better on route? Is it the big shade trees? Or simply just the memories? I don't know. I just know that we were a little bummed years ago when the route was changed so that the 40 milers would have to eat lunch back at the Fairgrounds. So I proposed this marvelous "lunch on the route" plan at rest stop two.  We were all excited. Not only would we get to eat lunch on the route we would also avoid all those hot busy roads at the end. I hate the big busy roads on this ride!

Off to rest stop three!

Miracle number five -- 75 mile route.

It was quickly evident that a) we were very slow and b) we were out of shape. At the speed we were going we would completely miss lunch. We got to the cut off where we had to choose -- 43 mile route and lunch at the Fairgrounds or 75 mile route and lunch on the route. Which way? The girls didn't understand the glories of lunch on the route.  They were tired and only saw that if we went the 43 mile route we were heading back closer to home and the end.  The miracle I think is that we convinced them to take the 75 mile route.

Miracle number six -- lunch.

We made it to rest stop three. They were closing down. Lunch was being delivered to them. Technically from rest stop three to lunch is 18 miles. We were ready for lunch now! How could we make it to lunch? So close and yet so far. The miracle is that we found a shortcut. Instead of 18 miles we got to lunch in two miles! Yahoo for shortcuts! We not only made it to lunch we also made it in time.  There was still food! It was a good day.

Lunch on the route brought back memories.  Sandwiches.  Yoga.  Resting under big shade trees. Ahhhhh.  Good times.

Miracle number seven -- Killer/Disney Hill.

Lisa came to SAG but brought the wrong car.  Only 3 people could go with her.  The question was should the others wait for Lisa to come back to get us at lunch or should we soldier on back to Newton and the pickle shots. One factor to consider was Killer Hill.  Yep. The famed Killer Hill but this time the route took us on the other side of the hill.  It would be long and slow.  As I watched Lisa drive off I couldn't help but feel like someone stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean watching the rescue boat sail away. Yes, we could wait at the lunch stop for Lisa to come back and get us, but what would be the fun in that? :-) We decided to call Killer Hill Disney Hill.  That sounded much more fun. And off we went.

Riding up Disney Hill I couldn't help picture riding a roller coaster. We were forever on the part of the roller coaster where you slowly go uphill.  Click. Click. Click. Never ending. Ok.  That's not true. It actually did end. That was miracle seven. We survived Disney Hill and made it back to Newton. Ready to be done.

Ahhhhhhh. We love the spray stations in Newton!

We did a few more pickle shots and without a trace of guilt allowed our support vehicle to whisk us back to the Fairgrounds.  Well, to about a block before the Fairgrounds that is.  We had to have our triumphal entry :-) That's one of the best parts of the ride. We ride into the Fairgrounds. People cheer. We get a medal. We feel like superstars. It's pretty cool.

Future riders :-)

Getting a ride from Newton meant we didn't ride past Gossner Ice Cream and get our ice cream treat. We did end up at Aggie Ice Cream though later on that day.  They have some pretty good ice cream there too ;-)

Miracle number eight -- survival.

We hadn't trained. We rode about 50 miles. And the day after I was actual able to walk. It was super painful. This was the worst I've had it after a ride. I could still technically walk though. And after a few days I was perfectly fine. That is definitely a miracle! I know I say this every year but this time I really mean it .... I'm going to get in shape for next year!  Next year..... come join us!