August 6th:

We meet up with our nephew Jake who is riding this year for the 1st time. He rides for his Aunt as do I and this makes us very, very happy. What really gets my goat is that he has a nicer bike than I do. He is a great kid and has grown into a fine young man. It will be so nice to see a familiar face while on the ride. I don't think Jake has any idea what 1600+ bike riders waiting to start a ride looks like, but just twelve hours from now he will. This is the 27th anniversary of the MS-150 / Best Dam Bike Ride and it is one of the premier rides in Wisconsin each year. The weather for Saturday is predicted to be the best of the weekend and this gives us hope for a good start.       

We have a good bus ride to Waukesha and settle into our room at the Super 8. A quick drop off of the bags and we head over to the Texas Roadhouse for our last good meal of the weekend. We are neatly tucked into bed by 9:00pm with anticipation of tomorrows ride. Our 5:00am wake up call will be here before we know it.           

August 7th:

The alarm goes off at 5 and I want to throw it across the room. The beds are small and we seem to compete all night for each inch of space. Never a great nights sleep as the anticipation of the next day's events keep the mind from settling down. We get our stuff on and head for a light continental breakfast. Everyone is yawning and trying to get the body going with their individual morning rituals. We all cram into a school bus for the ride to the Technical College. I can't remember when I have had a ride as rough. This vehicle must have been made before the invention of the shock absorber. After 20 bone jarring minutes we arrive at the start. Our luggage truck is waiting for us as is our bike. We retrieve our ride, and find all is well. We drop off our bags and place our bike at the start line. We assemble for our annual team photo and as always the bleachers are not adequate to handle all of our team.

A few minutes before 7:30am we arrive at the bike and get ourselves ready. One last pre-flight and we deem our ride road worthy and ready for the task ahead. We get some instructions and general information as well as some motivational words from our leader Colleen Kalt and then they set us free. "Release the hounds"

As the top fundraising team for 2009 we get to start 1st and this is a real nice perk. We hit the road and the anxiety of waiting finally fades. There is 75 miles between us and where we want to spend the night. The weather has proved to be great and our day looks promising. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and forget the distance. We know we will be passed by almost everyone, but we must stick to our rhythm and plan in order to make it all the way. Remember, we have a person with MS on this bike and that changes everything. We have trained for this and know what works for us.

We arrive at the 1st rest stop without incident. Our bodies have made the adjustment and we have settled into the grind of the steady round 'an round of the pedals. The roads so far are fairly flat but we know what happens up ahead after the Palmyra rest stop. We continue on to the 2nd rest stop. Our nephew Jake who started after us to ride with a friend has caught up to us now and rides with us old timers for awhile. It is just great to have him on the roads with us. It has always been hard to describe the ride to friends and family, but now Jake knows 1st hand what it is all about. The young guys leave us in the dust and head up the road. We know it will be highly un-likely that we will see them again before Whitewater. We are feeling good at the 2nd rest stop but the heat is picking up and starting to affect us. Just a dozen miles or so to lunch so we push on. We have kept a good pace and make it to lunch early. No lines have formed yet so we can go right in. This is great for Sara. The sub-sandwiches suck, but chugging a soda is great. We eat outside and under a tent and get a nice breeze that cools us off. Although we are riding well, Sara is starting to get very nauseated from the heat.She couldn't eat but drinking well.

Well we are now at the half way point and ready for the remaining 38 or so miles to Whitewater. Our next rest stop is Palmyra. We are disappointed to find out they are not doing the Karaoke as last year. We heard some great (and not so great) singing by fellow cyclists and this always makes this one of our favorite rest stops. This year they did have a dual slip 'an slide instead of last year's single. When leaving Palmyra you have to climb your way out. It's a series of one climb after another and is a difficult stage for us on the tandem. Fortunately for us the weather gods cooperate and blanket us with some clouds to take the sting out of the sun. Keeping cool is the name of the game. I am sure we had the only powered fan/water mister on a bike and Sara was using it alot to keep us both cool. There is one thing Sara always looks forward to after the climbs on this stage and that is the next rest stop. They sit you down in a chair and massage your back, shoulders and neck with frozen water bottles. Sara is in heaven when her turn comes. All cooled down, we head to our next and last rest stop before Whitewater. The day is taking it's toll and the sun is back out, the heat is getting bad in the direct sun. We are pushing thru a fair headwind now and this translates to more fatigue. Our last rest stop and just 10 miles to go. We put down some more fluids to keep ourselves hydrated. This is so important and can be a maker or breaker for a ride like this. If you get de-hydrated lactic acid builds in the muscles and cramping and general pain are the result.

We breeze over the last 10 miles, climb the last big hill before the campus and it's down and across the finish line. People are cheering, cow bells are ringing, it is a great feeling to cross that line. We pull up to our team tent to accolades from our fellow teammates. We visit for a short time and then head up the very last hill to the bike lock-up area. We secure the bike for the night and make our way to retrieve our ride t-shirts and Sara's special fundraising jersey that she will wear the next day. We flag down a golf cart and get a ride to the dorm so we can check into our room and relax. How in the heck do two people live in one of these rooms? Sara and I bring 2 bags and can't move. It's time to lay down, slow the body down and get the legs back to get up and take a shower. There is some time between our finish and the nights program and so we use it to recover. I am the lucky recipient of a free massage courtesy of the MS Society for raising the most money on the summer solstice. It proves to serve me well as the massage relaxes my sore muscles and helps them recover.

We make our way to the large tent for the night's program and to mingle with our friends and team-mates. Sara is still unable to eat, but drinking water. She does vomit a couple times. For me a cold beer feels good going down. We find our spot and settle into the nights activities. Jake gets a chance to see most of the riders under one roof. We are told there are close to 2000 participants and volunteers this year, another record. Every seat in the house is taken and Colleen starts to recognize the top individual fundraiser's and top teams. The usual suspects are recognized and Chuck Sherwinski blows all of us away by personally raising over $70,000 last year. He is an inspiration to all of us and  shows what you can do if you just are willing to ask. Thanks Chuck. The night's theme revolves around recognizing the kids of those who have MS. It is amazing to us to see just how many are riding this year. Some have proven to be very creative in their fundraising and have raised some amazing sums. These are our future donation generators and we need to groom them and keep them motivated to support the cause. Sara gets her chance to get up on stage when they recognize the people we ride for; those with MS. This year there is one major difference, a cane to help with walking. Sara fought this for quite some time but has found it is a useful device especially when my arm is not available.

The program is winding down and we say our good nights to our friends and head back to the dorm room for some well deserved sleep. Rosie and Samantha will stay for awhile as volunteers to help take care of the younger riders who are the only ones able toparty when there is 75 more miles to go tomorrow. Ah, to be young again.

August 8th:

Unfortunately Sara is up all night with nausea and in the bathroom most of the night as well. She was close to telling me she should go to the ER but definitely knew she couldn't be in the heat another day. We pondered what to do if this did not get any better but knew that it would not. Hard to ride a long ride when you are sick. Also she had no fuel in her system and that would have paid a heavy price as the day wore on.Sara's legs felt great after Saturday's 75 miles and she was thankful that her illness wasn't MS related.Like it that wasn't enough, the weather was looking bad. A heavy line of thunderstorms was approaching us and would be here soon. The decision was made that she would take the bus back to Madison. Many others are taking the bus back due to the weather. I would try to ride the bike myself so at least 1/2 of our team would get to the finish. I try to chow some breakfast but eating much is always hard for me. I see the weary eyes of some of our teammates who are unsure if they should head out into the storm. I get my 2nd bad news of the morning when I learn that our baggage perk has been taken away. The truck is not outside the dorm and is down in the parking lot at the bottom of the hill with all the others. This forces me to make two trips to get ourbags down to that damn truck. One by one, our grand tier team perks are being taken away. Not good.

I bid my farewell to Sara, she tells me I'm crazy and I head off to retrieve the bike and get on the road. I know the storm line is close so I put on my rain jacket and hunker down for the misery. Sure enough, 3 miles from Whitewater, it hits. The rain lasts all morning, but I am staying dry with my new coat. Everyone is soaked to the bone and many are getting cold as well. My bike is working well and I am finding that it is not too bad to ride this big thing alone. It is handling well in the rain and I seem to be making pretty good time. I hook up with Jake at the 2nd rest stop and he is getting a good dose of reality with biking and weather. He is doing great however and biking well. I can tell his physical conditioning is top notch and he is pretty capable of anything. This next section to our lunch stop would prove to be quite challenging with many steep hills. It was sad to see many people having to walk their bike and get frustrated. If it was not the hills it was the wind as it too was starting to get quite strong. At the lunch stop you could see the toll this leg had on the group. Many would bail and head back to Madison by bus. I too was very fatigued and could not eat much even though there was hot pasta. I called Sara to update her on my progress and she could tell from my voice that I was having a hard day.

Upon leaving lunch I learned that they had closed the 75 mile route and were insisting that everyone take the 62 mile route. They claimed more weather was on the way and people only had a short window of good weather to get to Madison. Since they pulled all the signage and support, there was little to do but go the shorter route. It would be a straight shot to Madison with no more stops. Fortunately on this last leg is when we saw our 1st tailwind and boy was it sweet. There were times when you could fly at a pace that we all wish we could ride at all day, but can't. It's o/k to feel like superman sometimes. I climb one of the larger hills on the final leg and as I make my way up the last pitch I see a truck along side of the road up ahead. In the bed of the truck was a woman sitting in a lawn chair. On the tailgate was a sign that said; I have MS, Thanks for Riding. The pain in my legs seems to go away as she says to me; thank you and I say; its my pleasure. Sometimes its hard to breathe when there is a lump in your throat. I am sure she sat in that truck all day and said thanks to each who came by. This is why we ride! Finally I get myself up the very last major hill and pull over to call Sara and let her know I am only a couple of miles away. She and Jake will be waiting for me close to the finish so she can hop on and we can all finish together.

I get to the last hill which is the overpass to the beltline and have to stop on top because of a red light. The car to my left which was turning toward the Alliant Center just happen to be my brother and his wife along with my parents. Can you believe that? They saws me alone on the bike so I know they knew something was up. As I approached the last turn into the Alliant Center, I can see Sara and Jake. I find a good place to pull over and Sara hops on the back and off we go. Wow, after riding the tandem alone all day long, when Sara got on the back it was like "holy cow" do I still know how to drive this thing. It is amazing the difference with someone on the back. It's a whole different bike. We cross the finish with big smiles and the 1st thing we see is a sign saying "Not rain or wind or MS stopped Mike and Sara". It was Gaby, the daughter of Katy and B.J. Cahill. Sara is Katy's nurse at UW Health and it was great to see them come out to support us. As we look further down the road we see another sign. This one says "Mike & Sara, we love you". It was being held by my brother along with his wife Laura and my mom and dad. We cruise over and finally I can get off this bike. It has been a long day in the saddle. We get the hugs from our families and sure enought Rosie and Samantha are right there as they went from volenteering in Whitewater to volenteering at the finish line as well. Awesome. Our close friends Gary and Colleen Comeau were there as always, they are such a great support to us and our cause. We love all of you.

I put the bike away and we all retreated to the food / beer tent for some relaxing and story swapping. Our good friend Dave Harney joined us as always and we had a great time remembering the ride together.

With your help and our hard work we raised a total of $6,570 for MS Research. Thank you to all. This puts Sara at #24 out of over 1600 riders/fundraisers. Not too shabby.

We will start training as soon as the weather allows for 2011.

Father & Son