MS 150 Bike Ride
The MS Ride City to Shore 2008 was fabulous!
There were 8000 riders and we rode from the Woodcrest Station on the PATCO High Speed Line to Ocean City. It was a very well supported ride with many rest stops for food and drink and police and volunteer marshals at virtually all of the intersections over the entire 75+ mile route each way. The police of probably 20 towns were involved. Ocean City Fire Department provided both dinner and breakfast to all the riders. There was music - live or canned - at every stop. There were lots of porta-potties. And there were over 35 masseurs and masseuses in Ocean City on Saturday and at Woodcrest on Sunday. About half of the riders take other means of transportation back to the city (riding only one way) so there were fewer riders on Sunday but no less support.
Replenishing on Sunday with our friends Alan and Jayne.
The ride has a long history and people have aligned themselves into teams. Some of the teams are from companies like Campbell Soup, Johnson and Johnson, and Merck. And some of the teams are friends and family. Our friends Alan and Jayne invited us to join their team, Team Tania. The team was formed in 1999 when Tania, whose last name I don’t know, was having a really bad year with her MS. The Team started with 6 riders and has grown to 425 this year. There are several advantages of being on a team. The captain finds the housing in Ocean City (huge); the Team transports the rider's luggage directly to the Team Tent at the finish] (smaller pile); Team provides its own masseuse (shorter line!), Team Tent provides an easy place to find your friends among 8000 riders; and it provides pounds and pounds of salt water taffy! We don't know many members of Team Tanya although we met many during the weekend but we heard many calls of, "Go Team Tania!" when a teammate passed or was passed on the road. Team Tania is the largest team of family and friends that participates in any MS ride anywhere in the country.
The route traverses the pine flats of southern New Jersey. The dirt is sand throughout and our bikes and our selves were coated with the stuff. The terrain is rolling hills at the west end and flat on the east but the route ends with two tall bridges into Ocean City that often cause riders difficulty. For our northern-California-experienced legs, the height and steepness of the bridges were nothing. The wind can apparently be ferocious on the bridges but was mild this year. You can forget views except on the bridges but the towns of southern New Jersey are peaceful and charming.
Scott and Jayne with Tania.
The start of the event is staggered. They organizers let the fastest riders go first and then the big teams. When Team Tania started (at 7AM) we spent the better part of the first 10 miles threading our way through slower riders. Everyone was polite and for the most part kept to the right to allow others to pass. Pace lines of riders didn't develop until later in the morning. As we passed each intersection we called out "Thanks for your support." to the police and volunteer marshals. The response, invariably, was, "Thanks for riding (to end MS)."
That sense was strong all weekend. We were riding to end MS. Indeed, the collective amount raised for this two day event by the participants is in the neighborhood of $5 Million. When we arrived in Ocean City and, again, when we arrived back at Woodcrest, the riders were directed through a block-long corridor of barricades. The barricades were lined with supporters cheering for us riders. You see families with children, older folks, and people in wheelchairs; among these supporters are likely some of the 11,000 individuals in the Philadelphia area who have MS. It is clear that this group of supporters is appreciative of the money raised by the riders and by the effort it takes to ride.
When I arrived in Ocean City to pass through the chute, I felt glad to be there and pleased to have ridden but I did not feel that I had given everything. Seventy-five miles in flat terrain isn't really that difficult despite the relatively small amount of training that I did. However, by the time I rode the chute on Sunday I felt totally depleted. The second 75-mile day took tons of determination and grit, saddle pain, and exhaustion. I felt I deserved appreciation for my output of energy. And I felt like I had contributed to the fight to end MS. I cried a little with thoughts of Tania and of my cousins Joelle and Gretlies who have MS and I was proud of my little bit of participation in finding a solution to their struggles. At the risk of stating the obvious, the difficulty I experienced this weekend is nothing compared to the challenge Tania, Joelle, Gretlies, and the others face every day.
Fundraising is already underway for the 2009 ride. If you would like to contribute to the effort to end MS, either send us a check made out to National MS Society or contribute online by clicking this link:
