Dear Reader;
Thank you for being part of the "2003 MS150 Magical Mystery Tour Bicycle Ride". Your support this year enabled me once again to wear a low golden
number for this tour. This year I was rider number 38.
This year was my sixth
year in riding the MS150 bike tour. I can say now that I look forward to this ride. I think the best part of the ride is the
people you meet on the ride this includes the people you meet who organize the ride and the volunteers
that make this the best supported bicycle ride one could be on. I do hope that
the tour will be made obsolete in the next few years by the research efforts
that are going into solving the puzzle of Multiple Sclerosis, but until that
time, I plan on making this a yearly effort.
The 2003 edition of the
Emerald Express Bike Team
had three returning members and two new ones; we had six members this year (counting Paul-To-The-Rescue-McPeak our own personal team support person). John Tracy
is a new member (and who's son Matt was
a high school friend of our daughter). Now John and his wife Martha, are our friends.
This year is John's first MS150 tour. Dr. Laviece Ward, my sister, who
used to race and train with the US Women's Olympic Cycling Team was the other new member of the
team.
Paul-To-The-Rescue-McPeak is Laviece's husband. David Sakell who rode with the
Emerald Express a couple of years ago rejoined the team this year. David Doty rode with the team last year and this year rode a double (way to go Dave)
century!
Here is Dave's account of his MS200 bike ride.
After reading Dave's account I told him he should think about becoming a writer. This year was interesting in another way (with another writer's twist):
At lunch on Saturday I was walking by a group of bikers on the way to pick up my sandwich and I heard one of them say "Joe writes the outdoor column for the
News & Observer." I was instantly transported back to October of 1999 when I went on my first across the state bicycle ride. I was pushing my bike up a
steep hill, in the rain, after starting out that morning in the dark, the traffic and a thunderstorm. It was the second day of
a two week ride that was to eventually cover over 800 miles from Murphy to
Manteo and I was wondering
what I had gotten myself into. I heard a biker walking behind me (the pedal cleats on our shoes make them pretty loud).
This biker was catching up with me! I thought,
"Oh great, I'm going to be passed on this hill by someone who is walking!" It was Joe Miller, writer for the News & Observer and we had a grand conversation
and later back in Raleigh we even went on a ride around northern Wake county together. This year Joe wrote up the 2003 MS150 "Magical Mystery Bike Tour" for
the paper and he mentioned three members of the Emerald Express bike team in his "Take it Ouside"
article in the Friday September 19th "What's Up" section of The Raleigh News and Observer. By the way, I'm sure the walrus reference refers to my moustache,
but given some of the pictures I've posted here it may also refer to my physical shape. Oh well, I have great plans to
be slim and trim this time next year. Also as I put together this web page I've come across a picture of Me talking to Joe Miller at lunch time and from the angle
in the picture he looks about the same size as I am. I guess this can only mean that the walrus reference is
definitely about my moustache.
At lunch time a Common Buckeye butterfly lit on my shoe.
This butterfly is common
to North Carolina and was in it's fall colors. I also
found many links on the web about moths and butterflies when I started looking for the name of this little bug. Here are two more of them;
[1] [2].
As far as the ride statistics go I have to report that my GPS ran of of gas just a little way into each day's ride and my cycle computer died early on during
the first day's ride. I did have my third and newest addition to my electronic dashboard however, my heart monitor, and I was able to stay in my aerobic zone
both days. The first day Laviece and I averaged 14 miles per hour for the 75 miles. Well almost; Laviece 'flatted' a couple of miles from the last rest stop.
This was a potential disaster, she was riding 'silk-sew-up' tires and the only choice you have when you flat one of these is to change the whole wheel. There is no
way of easily changing the tire while on the road. Laviece got S.A.G.'ed into the last rest stop and I was convinced that this would be the last time I would see her until
the end of the ride. Well when I arrived at the rest stop there was Laviece saying, "Hey, Paul's on his way with a new wheel!". Paul-To-The-Rescue-McPeak was
bringing one of the spare wheels that Laviece brought with her. Wow, now that's what I call support! While on the second day I averaged 17 miles per hour, due
to getting behind some really fast riders and drafting, my heart rate was pushing it a bit on Sunday to keep up with some of the pace lines that I fell in with.
This was a great ride for a lot of folks. Scott and Belinda
Swaringen (members of the Mad C.O.W.S. bike team,) both did double centuries this year. Scott started out as a member of the Emerald Express bike team. On Saturday they
averaged over 20mph and on Sunday Scott averaged 22mph while Belinda averaged 18mph (Way To Go Scott and Belinda!).
Here are the pictures from the ride (once you get the picture up move the mouse cursor over the picture to see the caption).
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