We got to the event start before the sun was up on Saturday morning. We grabbed breakfast with other groggy riders, volunteers, and the families of both, inside the main event tent. I caught up with my fellow teammates of the Sandia Cyclists just before the start (below).
While I expected the weekend to be fairly physically taxing, I didn't really expect it to be so emotionally taxing as well. The NM MS150 is a fairly small event, with only 200 riders, and an astounding 150 volunteers. Most of the riders and virtually every volunteer had some connection to MS. It was tremendous to be in this environment, with so much support.
A map of the ride route is located here. It truly was a beautiful ride through some very stunning areas of New Mexico (picture below). There were rest stops every 10 miles with food and water, and they were staffed by very enthusiastic volunteers. Usually, you could hear cowbells, whistles, and clapping before you could even see the rest stop. For most of the day I biked near the middle of the pack. I met a lot of great people all day long, and it was actually a very emotional day for me as I met friends, family, and other people with MS who were all very supportive.
So I successfully finished the first day, clocking in a total of 88.2 miles with just over 7 hours in the saddle. It felt really good to cross the finish line! Below left is a picture I took with Ali at mile 61. She volunteered all day cheering, feeding, and filling water bottles for sweaty riders. On the right are two of the really great people I met on the ride. We biked together for 5 miles through Espanola, the only place that we biked on busy roads close to cars.
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