Warren Kalsow

1997 Team Norske Picture

"It is done and we can return to our normal lives." That was the summary of the ride as we finished it. Yes, every one from Team Norske finished the ride, some with greater ease than others. We believe that Jeff finished the ride first. There was only a small smile on his face when we met him at the van at the end of the ride. Worried that we may have woken him from his nap, he informed us that after he ate, he took a three hour nap and then went for a short walk and was now just waiting for us to show up. Jeff did enjoy the exercise and used the event for a training for his "double century day," that's 200 miles in one day! (By the way, he did finish that and it was about fourteen hours of biking for him! Way to go!)

Back to the MS-150, the official name for the event was "1997 Noran Clinic MS-150 Bike Tour." there were 2,471 cyclists who rode from Duluth to the Twin Cities. Total pledged was $736,000 for multiple sclerosis. The effort is very important to fund research and provide programs and services to more than 5,600 Minnesotans who have MS and their families.

The ride started at the Anoka county fairgrounds with a bus ride to Spirit Mountain in Duluth Friday evening. The camping was on the slopes, in the level areas for the most part. Saturday morning the Kalsow contingent made Jeff wait for them to get going and find the bikes in the parking lot and then ride out of the lot together. The weather on Saturday was great, it was overcast, cool, and we had a slight tail wind. The trail was easy to follow, just follow the people in front of you. Katie developed a liking for the people who were playing music for the others to hear. This resulted in some very quick miles since people with music rode at 18-22 miles per hour. We managed to keep up until a chain slipped or until one of us said, "Enough!" The Kalsow portion averaged 14.4 miles per hour on Saturday (not including the rest breaks). The bike parking was in a baseball field that was fenced in Hinckley. There were about 24 rows of bikes the entire length of the area laid on the ground. Jeff had his bike in one of the first rows at the top; the Kalsows had our bikes in Row Sixteen.

Sunday was a beautiful day to spend by a lake, sunny and warm with a breeze from the South. The ride started out real nice. We made Jeff wait for us to start, it must have hurt him, but he did wait for us. We wished him well, meaning we hoped they had lunch set up by the time he got to the lunch area, and off he went. We averaged 14.1 mph until the lunch stop at Cambridge 46.8 miles later. In the next nine miles our average dropped to 13.7 mph. The rest stop was skipped (mistake?). The next rest stop was six miles later took a bit longer. Our average had dropped to 13.4 mph and Warren was asking why short people had no wind resistance. Wes was wanting to go and go. Luckily for all, one of the "Ride Ambassadors," aka Don Haaverson, caught up to us and we let him and his group chase Wes the rest of the way. Katie was the strong supportive type and took it easy and made sure that Warren made it to the finish. People who make maps that say "approx." for distances should not be trusted. Those last few miles were thelongest by far. Wes and Don were waiting at the finish to cheer us in.

Thanks for all your support and sponsorship!

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