2007 Sam's Club MS 150 Kick-off Party and Training Ride

Yesterday was The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Lone Star Chapter's official 2007 Kick-off event, held out at Texas Motor Speedway. Sarah, Cliff, and I arranged to meet up for the 9am check in and a bit of socializing before the start of the ride. I arrived a bit early and bumped into John, one of my coworkers, who kept me company while I waited for my teammates. After we'd unloaded our bikes and gear, Cliff had John snap a photo of the Wheeler Dealers contingent:

Mike, Sarah, and Cliff: ready to roll

We couldn't have asked for a better day for a ride—sunny, warm, and calm—and the three of us got antsy waiting for the speechifying to end so that we could get on the road. "The road", in this case, was a five-mile loop of frontage road that encircles the speedway grounds. Traffic was sparse, but police were stationed at each of the intersections where normally we would have had to obey stop signs, so it was a great opportunity to just... go. The public address was still going on about something, so we just slipped away and started the ride together.

Cliff and I had decided that we would shoot for 45 miles (9 laps), which meant that we'd have to keep up a reasonably brisk pace if we were to finish while there was still some barbecue left. Sarah said she didn't figure she'd go that long, because she had other commitments.

My original plan was to take advantage of the closed course to keep my heart rate in the moderate zone and just get a nice fat-burning workout. My will was weak, though, and I ended up pushing the pace all morning. At around 30 miles, I met up with Cliff again. He observed that a lot of riders seemed to have packed it in for the day, and in the interest of getting fed, we agreed to ride two more laps together and then head in for some lunch.

At the end of the day, I'd logged just a fly speck shy of 41 miles at a personal best average of 18.5 mph. I suspect Cliff's average was even higher, despite the time he spent helping out with a couple riders who crashed about half an hour into the ride.

We're off and running!