2009 Louisiana MS150 - Day 1

The 2009 Louisiana MS150 Ride took place this past weekend, my fifth MS150, and second time riding in the Louisiana edition. Like last year, I rode on the Waters Parkerson team, organized once again by our able captain, Scott Crabtree. I think there were 26 riders on the team this year, all from the New Orleans area, plus three friends who came down for the ride from Chicago and one from Minneapolis. We managed to get most of the team together for a quick photo before the start.

As always, the ride starts on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University, north of Lake Pontchartrain in Hammond, which is about an hour's drive from New Orleans. On the first day, we ride 75 miles north, staying on the east side of I-55, through Independence, Kentwood (now famous as the hometown of Britney Spears), across the state line into Mississippi and finally ending at Percy Quin State Park just south of McComb.

The map and ride data from my Garmin GPS show the course for the ride on Saturday. Surprisingly, although there were no big hills (and certainly no mountains), there was a respectable 3,119 feet of climbing over the 73-mile course.

We all met at the starting area, loaded our overnight bags into a van that Scott provided, which went ahead and met us at the finish later in the day. This was a great idea, and saved us having to wait and then search through mountains of bags after the finish. After a few admonishments about riding safely, the playing of the national anthem and the LSU fight song (or was that today?), we set off just a few minutes before 8:00.

Shortly after the start, under a dreary grey sky, the bulk of the WP team worked our way out of the main crowd, and by mile 3 we were riding on open roads. I pulled the paceline for an incredible 15 miles before pulling off about 4 miles before our first rest stop (which was actually Stop #2). It had rained hard just before we left, so the roads were really wet, with standing water in spots. Riding out in front for such a long stretch helped to keep me a bit drier.

By the the first stop the sun had come out and it had turned into a really beautiful day. Lunch was at a school at Mile 39, and we made one more quick stop for water just a few miles before the end.

We reached Percy Quin at around 12:30 p.m., had massages and lunch before riding down to the "cabins" by a big lake. Our team had two cabins, a smaller one that slept 5 and the other slept the remaining 20 or so. After showers and a short rest, we all headed back to the main area for supper - every kind of cream-laden high calorie food imaginable, but good and satisfying. Finally, back to the cabins and - at least in the small cabin - were were all asleep by 9:00.

Here are some more photos, and a couple of videos of the ride on Saturday. Turn down your speakers on the videos. The videos that I took for Sunday's ride are better quality, so stay tuned.