The ride is over! And no, it didn't take me until Tuesday to finish! It just took me this long to drag myself to a keyboard to write about it.

Lets see...First, the batdanna got here at noon on Friday, so I was able to pick it up on my way out of town! It looks so good y'all! Thank you all for signing it, sending it around, etc. It helped more than any of you know to have all of that support tied to my back.

Because it got here friday, we didn't get a chance to do the iron-on...but my wife did an excellent job with a borrowed hotel sharpie re-creating the signatures and messages y'all sent along. I will post pictures of the finished product when I get a chance, but the universal reaction among the MS Society folks and others I showed it to was "that is SO cool!" Y'all made me the envy of everybody who saw it, so thank you again!

So on to the ride...we got up at around 4:30am saturday...met the team downstairs, had a quick muffin and some water, and headed out to the start at AT&T center. It was in the mid to upper 60s, pretty high humidity, and pitch black when we got there. You will see the photo later of me with the batdanna was taken in the dark.

The cool part of the start was that our team joined with two other teams and ended up with the 2nd highest fundraising total as of Friday night, meaning we got to be the third group to start. The wounded warrior project guys and gals from Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston led us out, followed by the title sponsor (Valero), and then us.

The wounded warriors are soldiers who have lost a limb or lost use of one or more limbs due to injury or paralysis, that are undergoing rehabilitation at BAMC. They outfit them with bikes adapted to their disability; mostly hand cranked trikes for soldiers that have lost legs or are paralyzed. It is such an amazing sight to see them out there after they have already sacrificed so much for their country, yet there they are again, sacrificing themselves to ride for those of us with MS. I never missed a chance to slow down and say thanks when I passed them, and we even got to help out more when one of their companion riders got a flat tire and we stopped to change it for her.

The ride started out slightly cool, with very light wind, and some light to moderate fog in a few places. Because we started on the front row of our group and near the front of the ride as a whole, the first 5-10 miles I was pretty much alone at the front of a large group. It wasn't until we were near the first break point that people started passing me up and we caught up to some of the slower riders ahead of us. Little did I know that the first 30 miles or so were just the calm before the (wind)storm.

Around mile 22, I passed the number 1 fundraiser to this point in this year's ride (Bill Klesse, Chairman of Valero Energy, who has personally raised over $100,000 in addition to the $250,000+ that his company has donated as title sponsor of the event). I took the time to slow down, introduce myself to him, tell him I have MS and thank him for what he and his company are doing for the NMSS. I hope my words helped drive home what his support means to us.

My first stop was at breakpoint 2 (~25 miles in), and I was averaging about 18mph at that point and feeling very fresh. The time between breakpoint 2 and lunch (~27 miles) kind of passed without much memorable happening, except for stopping to help the WWP rider fix her tire. At lunch (~52 miles in), I was getting a little tired and sore, but still felt pretty good. However, the wind was starting to come up, and it was getting alot warmer as the fog burned off.

The first leg out of lunch was about 12-13 miles of about the worst pavement I have ever ridden on. I honestly think I have ridden on dirt roads that were smoother. The heat, rising wind, and pavement really put a beating on me and my wife, and we spent some time at BP5 (~63 miles in)trying to decide if we wanted to ride a sag van to the next breakpoint to try to stay on schedule. My computer had quit by that time due to the thrashing the pavement was giving my bike, so I have no idea how fast I was (or wasn't) going.

We finally decided to get back on the road and try to keep going, but we had lost quite a bit of time and the wind was even stronger and hotter than before. By the time we rolled into BP6 (~72 miles in) it was around 92-93F and the wind was blowing a steady 13-15mph with higher gusts right in our faces. It was so strong, you couldn't even coast downhill and had to keep pedaling to keep moving.

At BP6, we knew the next 7 miles or so was more bad pavement and really tough hills, and we were behind schedule to be able to finish before the course was closed. My wife was also starting to get sick to her stomach, so we finally broke down and took a sag van to BP7. I felt bad doing it, but I knew I wanted to cross the finish line and wouldn't make it if I kept riding.

From BP7, we rode another 8 miles or so, and just couldn't keep going. My toes were completely numb, my wife was about to throw up, and the wind was just too strong to keep forcing ourselves another 15 miles into it. So we caught a van to within a mile of the finsh, got out, and rode in from there. We passed up several chances for a bus to the finish line earlier on, because we wanted to finish under our own power, even if it took a little help.

Our first day total was + or - 80 miles of riding in about 6 hours and 15 minutes on the bike. The total time was about 9 hours and 30 minutes including stops, lunch, and time in the van. After a shower, a meal of meatballs and pasta (+ two popsicles), and a massage, I gathered up my gear for the next day, brushed my teeth, did my Copaxone shot, and went to bed around 10:30pm.

After getting maybe 3-4 hours of sleep interrupted by heavy teammate snoring, generators running, and people stumbling past the tent on the way to the restrooms, we were back up at 5am for breakfast tacos, bike preparations, filling water bottles, and we were off to the starting line at 7am.

About 6 miles in after a 7:30am start on day 2, my day nearly came to an early end. As a group of about 40-50 riders came down a hill and rounded a gentle corner in front of a gas station at around 18-20 mph with me on the front right side, an orange cat came dashing down the parking lot of a gas station on my right and tried to dive across the road ahead of us. I saw him coming and grabbed two hands full of brakes while screaming "Watch out for the cat" at the top of my lungs.

I gave the cat a fairly gentle bump right in front of his rear hips with my front wheel as he went by and sent him for a 360 degree spin across in front of the other riders. He managed to get out the other side without getting run over and I managed to stay upright and not go down after hitting him. Had I gone down, I would have been run into/over by at least a half dozen riders who wouldn't have been able to stop. As it was, I think the cat used up a life, and I nearly needed a clean pair of shorts.

The wind came up sooner and harder on day two than it had on day 1, and by the time we reached lunch about 30 miles in, it was already gusting at least to the 18-20 mph range if not harder. I had a group of my teammates that got in front of me and led the way for the 20 miles before lunch and the first 13 or so after lunch, or I would have had a much harder time of it.

My wife had gotten separated from us and reached the first post lunch BP a little ahead of us, but had skipped a BP and not eaten any lunch except a part of a banana and an energy gel. I knew we had another tough leg of about 9 miles into the wind, and then a 10 mile cross wind leg to be finished by riding over what is claimed to be the tallest or second tallest bridge in Texas. You will see what I mean when I show you pictures.

I called an audible since I didn't think I would make the full 19 miles and be able to keep up with the team without slowing them down and we sagged from BP 3 to 4 (about 8 miles). Then we rode the 10 miles to the bridge with our teammates. The bridge just looks like a long steady hill...and that is how the organizers promoted it after their test ride earlier in the year...except they weren't riding it after doing 50 miles into a 15-20 mph headwind in 90F heat.

It was terrible. I made it about 1/3rd of the way up and had to get off and walk it. My legs and my lungs just wouldn't put out enough energy to make it up it safely (we only had one lane of traffic closed, with 2 others going by at 50+mph. Even walking it, my hamstrings were trying to cramp up and I kept having to stop and stretch them out. When we stopped at the top, even after walking 2/3rds of it, my wife was ready to throw up until I poured what was left of one of my water bottles over her head and let her drink about half of the other one.

We finally pulled ourselves off of the rail and left the crowd gathered at the top for the coast down the bridge and around the corner to the finish line. To be honest...this was one of the least memorable finishes for me. On day one, I was proud of my wife for sticking with me even with an upset stomach and got a little choked up crossing the line and telling her how proud I was. At the day 2 finish, I heard some of the cheers, enjoyed pulling my wife close for pictures as we crossed the line, but mostly I was just happy to be done.

I was mentally drained, ready for a cold shower, and ready to put the bike away for a few weeks and just rest. I was proud of what I had accomplished and very proud of my wife's perseverence, but I was also slightly disappointed that I didn't manage to finish the whole thing. I know the conditions just were more than we could have prepared for, but it is still a bummer when you train so hard and so long and it doesn't all go as planned.

In all, we rode something like 134 of 160 miles and I have raised about $625 so far, with at least $200 more committed by people who I haven't collected money from yet. My wife is a little over $300 and on her way to around $500-600 at least. As a team, we will be well over $150,000 once Tony Ralf gets his match from his anonymous donor, and the ride as a whole is currently at nearly $1,300,000 and is on pace to make their goal of $1,800,000 by November.

Thanks again to all of you who are my motivation and especially to those who also made donations! I will keep riding as long as I can and hope to keep getting better (especially with easier conditions next time...fingers crossed).

I will post some pictures when I get a chance, and my wife has already said she is going to take my rider number and the batdanna and mat and frame them for me. I can't tell you all how much the team effort that went into the batdanna meant to me. I am getting a little misty even typing about it. I rode most of the ride with it tied to my camelbak so I was literally carrying y'all on my back. When I took off my camelbak at the last rest stop to lighten my load for the bridge, I made sure to tie the batdanna around my handlebar stem, so y'all would be right up there where I could see you as I crossed the finish line. Hopefully it will show up in the photos taken as I crossed the finish line!

Thanks one final time for all of your help and support!

Bill

WOW!!!!!! You are the man, Batman! Thank you for doing it!!!!

Thanks TXBatman!!

you are da bomb!!!

Thanks TXBatman, you did great!!!

Batman and your lovely wife...I am in awe of both of you!

YOU ROCK! THANK YOU!

Wow, what a description! I'm tired just reading it.

Thanks SOOOOooooo much for doing this! You did great and don't feel bad for not finishing. That was MUCH more than you expected.

YAY Mrs. Batman!! You rock too!

Thank you so much for the play by play ride! You and your wife are amazing and we thank you so much! YOU ROCK!

Thank you so much Batman & your wife. You brought tears to my eyes just reading..... Thank you for allowing me to be with you!

Reading your post I felt like I was there. Must be the power of the Batdanna. Thank you Batman and Mrs B. You're both amazing.

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