Rider number 210

Today was a great day for a ride. Today was the MS Bike Ride. The ride had 3 options; a 100-mile, 60-mile, and 30-mile route. I took the easy route for my first ride and chose the 30-mile option. The weather was the best we have had in weeks. The temperature was just right, the sun was shining, and the day just felt right. I had to be at Franklin Park in Purcellville, VA at 7am to pick up my ride packet and sign in. That made for an early morning since it takes about 40 minutes or so to get there from the house. After signing in I went back to the car to finish getting ready. I dressed pretty warm when I left the house because it was pretty chilly before the sun came up. By the time I had checked in, you could tell that it was going to be a great day so I stripped off some of the layers and decided that I would go in just the Deloitte uniform.

The 30 milers left the starting line last. We left right at 9am. (Finally on the road). All of the training rides paid off. The hills on this ride, while brutal, were manageable since I trained. I ended up riding with one other Deloitte rider, Dick Clark, for a majority of the day. The rest stops were nice. There were 2 on the 30 mile route. The second one was sponsored by FEDEX. They did a nice job with having a lot of food available and a lot of volunteers cheering the riders on. The final 17 miles of the ride were nice. They were smaller / flatter rolling hills.

I was able to finish the ride in 2 hours. My best time for that distance.

My final fund raising tally is $700. That is not bad, but still $300 shy from my desired goal.

Deloitte Cycling had 33 riders for the bike ride, all in all there were 1000 riders (wow) at the event. The Team tally as of 5/19/08 is $28,509.34 (Awesome!)

What a great day.