Please Help... MS150 Charity Ride

[Bicycle808]

OK, so despite having been an overweight adult recreational cyclist for about 2 decades, i've yet to participate in a charity ride....until now. I've decided to ride in the NJ "City to Shore" MS ride; i'm doing the 80mile/one day ride with some friends. I'm a natural procrastinator, but that problem was compounded by the weird situation where i wasn't sure whether i could ride or not until i knew what the Special Olympics Cycling schedule was going to be this year. Turns out, the first SpOlympics meet is on Sunday, October 4 this year, which means I'm able to ride in the MS event on Saturday, October 3. Which is good news.

The bad news is, it's only giving me about 2 weeks to fund-raise.

Such is the life of a procrastinator.

So, I put the word out on social media, and i'm really blown away by ppl's generosity. But, this is a good cause; the National MS Society (http://www.nationalmssociety.org/) does good work, and this ride raises money for important research and services to help ppl who've been affected by Multiple Sclerosis. So, I asked Steve aka RatRod if i could post a link to my fund-raising page here on RRB, and he was generous enough to agree! (Thanks, Steve.) After all, I'm trying to raise as much $$$ as possible for the cause, and i wanted to give my fellow rat-rodders the chance to help. Here's the direct link for those of you who'd like to make a donation:
https://secure3.convio.net/nmss/sit...D=14633372&51834.donation=form1&PROXY_TYPE=20

Thanks in advance; your help is truly appreciated-- nto only by me, but (more importantly) by those who have felt the effects of MS.

Regards,
Rob

 

[Araya51]

 

[Wildcat]

Good luck!

I rode an MS150, 58 miles each day for 2 days back in 2001. St. Augustine to Daytona Beach and back. While the rest of the guys were making a race out of it, I cruised at 12-14 mph, did some sightseeing along the route and didn't get completely worn out. Each rest stop was at 10-15 miles marks, and I only needed 5 minutes to get refreshment and continue, while they needed half hour breaks. They would be pulling out of a stop as I arrived. The MS folks put on a good dinner on the eve of the first day. (Use the best bike seat you can find)

 

[Bicycle808]

I'm just riding the one day, s'posed to be an 80mile route. I'm taking my Fuji road bike, with a San Marco Rolls saddle. It's my fast commuter and the bike i take on casual rec rides with the road guys.... very comfortable, and it's my fastest bike. I'm riding with some friends, and I'm pretty sure they'll keep the pace sloooooooooow, which i'm cool with. If they're faster than i thought, and they wanna kick it up, i'll be on an appropriate machine for that, too. (It's easier to take it easy on a fast bike than it is to try and keep up on a slow bike.) I commute between 50 and 85 miles/ week and I'm about as fit as a fat guy can be, so I'm totally not sweating the miles...
...I'm mostly sweating the fund-raising aspect of it.

 

[jerrykr]

We usually do 4 charity rides (all organized rides are "charity rides") a year and really enjoy doing them. The only ones we will do now are where you sign up, contribute, get a t-shirt, water bottle, and ride. We signed up for one and didn't read the fine print. Without bringing in $300 pledges each, we were not allowed to ride. We don't hit up people at work, and besides that, one of my co-workers had already worked my department. There was no way we could drag $600 in. I contacted the organizer, and he said, no pledges, no bib number. So we just let our sign up donation be our contrib. They did not see us on their roles on later years. We also know people who won't do these type rides. We are in favor of fund raisers way more than most, I think. Wife sends off contribs to what I call "save the puppies" and I am more than OK with it. I hope your organizer is not so narrow minded.

 

[Bicycle808]

@jerrykr Nah, man, it's not any less narrow-minded at all. It's one of these deals where you pay a pile up front just to register (I had to spend $100 b/c i waited so long...) and then you gotta get pledges from there to meet the $300 minimum.

I'm pretty active in other charity organizations, and i give a lot of time and a little money towards causes, but these rides haven't really attracted me much b/c i don't exactly "get it". I can ride to the shore whenever i want; i don't need an organized ride to do it. And, I can give $100 or $400 to whatever charity i want whenever i want; i don't have to ride 80 miles and, frankly, i don't see the connection. I've pretty much hit my goal already, and my friends and family, they contributed i guess b/c they're good ppl, it's a good cause, and i asked them. It's not like if i'd asked them to pledge, they'd be like "tell you what; i'll donate money to the MS Society, but only if you ride a bike to the shore..." It's just weird.

It also bothers me that so much of the money raised will go into the amenities associated with the ride. There's rest stops every 15 or 20 miles, and they're catered, plus all the support vehicles and whatnot. TBH, i'd rather than=t they just had water and, like, pretzels at the stops and they can use the rest of that cash to put towards the MS cause, b/c i know all the cushy stuff just goes against the bottom line...

I signed up for this ride mostly b/c a friend of mine has a lot of health problems, some of which are related to her weight and general health. She's been exercising a lot, riding a lot, and eating better, and she's improved her situation considerably, so she wanted to do this ride to kinda push herself and see if she can go further, plus her mom has MS, so she's got a connection there. Her husband is a good buddy of mine, and even though she's since had to drop out of the ride due to health reasons, he's still riding, as are some other mutual friends, and they'd asked me to join them b/c i'm the bikey-est person they know. So, i figured i could come out and ride them to show my support, plus the whole thing does go to a good cause, even if the event itself has some policies that i don't fully agree with. Bottom line: MS is a problem, and if i can help the MS Society raise a few bucks to help victims of MS, that's awesome. Plus, if i can help my friends feel better about the ride just by being there, that's a bonus. But yeah, it's costing me $100 to register, plus about $150 for missing work that day, so.... but that's what charity is supposed to be like, right? And i'm sure the ride will be fun. Good length, nice route, and the weather has been great lately.

Only thing i'm sweating is, i have to get my bike "inspected" by the local sponsored shop. The one closest to me is the typical d_____-bag roadie shop, and i expect they'll try to find a way to say my bike needs work, just to make a sale on some parts and service. Anyone who knows me knows that my bikes are always in tip-top shape, in terms of parts and tune, but i bet they're gonna try to blow smoke and tell me i need new parts or whatever. I'm trying to get it into the shop for inspection tomorrow; hopefully, i'm just being paranoid about nothing, but we'll see....

 

[jerrykr]

808, I don't think that you had the slightest notion that I questioned your participation, and I don't, I think you are to be highly commended for doing it. I was just relating our one experience with a what I call a "pledge ride". They seem to go overboard on the rah rah bring the money in deal. This one starts with a lap around Texas Motor Speedway before heading out in the countryside. I'd love to take a lap, but overall the deal is not for me. Like you, I prefer to donate where I see (hope) for the most effect. We do donate, our junk mail proves it! Ha! The rides we do are very well organized. The rest stops are manned by volunteers, and they even compete for votes for the best rest stop. The local police man all of the intersections, and stop traffic for safety. The routes are usually on back country roads, and although they get little traffic, they cross major routes at times. We always thank the officers as we ride past. The rest stops just have water, gatorade, pickles, bananas, and a few porta-potties. They also usually have someone to take care of injuries. They have SAG wagons on the routes, and give out a phone number to call for help. All volunteers. We have never paid more than $35 signup, and I've never even heard of a bike inspection. Helmets are really the only requirements. I here-by suspend the no-spandex rule they have around here. You will be thankful for the shorts with pads and butt paste! ;^)

 

[Bicycle808]

I hear ya, Jerry... I'll be wearing baggies, but they got chamois and whatnot. I'll be wearing mtb shoes with cleats/clipless, etc. My main plain is to stay loose and comfortable, plus of course have fun...