Welcome to the Minnesota MS150 Team Norske 2004 ride report!
Welcome to the Minnesota MS150 Team Norske 2004 ride report!
Jeff Hernes
Jeff Hernes (1997) - captain
Melissa Hernes (2000)
Warren Kalsow (1997) - chief fund raiser
Wesley Kalsow (1997)
Rachel Kalsow (1999)
Wally Kalsow (2000)
John Jones (1999)
Tom Ett (2003)
Libby Glimsdal (2003)
Sunday, 27 Feb 2004. Almost a year has passed since Team Norske hit the trail for its eighth consecutive year. The 2004 trip report has yet to be written, as motivation for creating one died fairly soon after the ride. It was my ninth ride and Melissa's fifth, earning her a life-timer's jersey. John rode for his sixth year, Tom and Libby for their second, and Warren, Wes, Rachel, and Wally in the 5-7 times each. Wally also earned his life-timer's jersey this year.
Melissa and I are trying to piece together the memorable aspects of this trip for us but as Melissa commented, "I'm starting to get them mixed up!" Okay, we'll note that for 2005 and try to produce a ride report a little sooner after the ride.
Warren, John, and I had a brief email exchange last December. Pardon me while I cut and paste a bit and maybe that'll jog my memory:
John: "The new finish [for 2005] is at Century College (aka - Lakewood Junior College) - Come down the Gateway and then take the County Road E trail to Century then South to the school.
"2004 Ride Notes? ..."
Warren: "I remember part of it was very sunny."
John: "Ya, and I got a flat tire on Sunday just in time to drop out of the race with Jeff and Melissa before I dropped out anyway from exhaustion ... Oh, and my [butt] hurt on Saturday."
The memories are coming back. How about some bits and pieces rather than an organized report?
Friday was anything but sunny. Busses and semis were loaded under cloudy skies and our tents were set up on wet ground in Duluth. Rain hit while we were eating supper at Grandma's in downtown Duluth. We got back to the tents to find that their ages were showing. Rivers ran through a couple of them.
Saturday's ride started out in heavy fog and/or drizzle, all the way to the first rest stop at Carlton. Melissa and I were on the tandem together with John pacing us. Warren and his gang were off on their own, and Tom and Libby were on their new recumbent tandem. John and I pulled into Carlton complaining about the wet. Melissa had been oblivious to it as I was "clearing a path for her." She had a little more sympathy for John and me once she saw the fronts of our jackets dripping. And that was the worst of it for the entire weekend.
Sunday was sunny, with a few minor threats of rain for some of us near the end. Warren was out on the trail a few more hours that day than some of us, sans sunscreen, and it was painful to look at him the next couple of days.
Tom and Libby hadn't broken in their tandem, it was so new, and they ran into some mechanical difficulties on Saturday. They slogged along until Tom was able to get it fixed in one of the little towns along the way.
John hadn't been able to do much training so Melissa and I didn't try setting any personal tandem records on Saturday. Sunday Melissa was itching to push, so we cruised at 20mph to the first rest stop, with quite the pack behind us. John gasped that he couldn't keep up that pace, so we let the others go on and enjoyed a more leisurely ride for a while. 30 miles from the end, John flatted, and he told us to go on ahead. (We should have stayed to help, as it turned out he had some tube problems, but...) We were still feeling rather fresh after 120 miles of riding, so we took off, blowing by singles right, and uh, right. Tandems are wonderful machines...
Libby was having some knee problems and opted to sag in from the second-to-last (?) rest stop. That left Tom alone on a recumbent tankem..er..tandem. He was nearing the finish but the timing of not feeling so well, a lengthy hill, and the passing of a SAG wagon on that hill made for a quick decision to flag it down.
Ahhh, I sent out a request for more info and Tom responded with a note he'd sent out to supporters. Here it is in its entirety:
Libby and I were very excited for this year's MS150 ride. Libby has been riding to work several times a week, and we acquired a new tandem bike. "No matter how fast he rides, he can't get away from me now!" she would often say.
The forecast for Duluth on Friday night did not look promising, but on the bus ride up we were gaining hope as we approached Spirit Mountain on dry pavement. It did begin to drizzle as we unloaded the bus. It began to pour when we were putting up the tent. But our preparation paid off - we had large orange emergency rain parkas. We looked a bit like we were wearing garbage bags, but it did keep us fairly dry.
With the tent up, we went to search for our team companions. We didn't find any, so we went in search of pizza, which we did find in Canal Park. When we came back to Spirit Mountain later, we made one more attempt to find our teammates, again with no luck.
In the morning, we arose bright and early. Actually, it was foggy and early, in more ways than one. We spotted one of our teammates at breakfast, and agreed to make an attempt to meet up at the start. By the time we located our bike, our teammates were long gone.
Slowly, over the course of the morning, the fog and drizzle lifted to reveal a beautiful day. The first part of the ride to Hinckley was a bit of a challenge. The rear disc brake on the tandem was dragging. Thanks to a very good mechanic and the local hardware store in Willow River, we managed to make a major repair on the road. The rest of the ride to Hinckley was much easier.
It was many hours later in Hinckley that we finally caught up with all of our teammates. The whole team had a pretty good first day, and bedtime came pretty early. We all met up for breakfast in the morning before our departure.
Riding a tandem is an interesting experience. On day two, we were getting tired of hearing "Hey, the one in the back isn't peddling!" We started trying to think of clever retorts. "I thought they were footrests", or "I pedaled yesterday" worked for a while. Libby's favorite was "With looks this good, you don't have to pedal."
Libby's knee was starting to swell, so she caught a support wagon at one of the last rest stops. I pedaled alone for many miles. With less than 6 miles to go, I graciously accepted a ride close to the finish line. Riding in for the last stretch, I spotted Libby and we crossed the finish line together.
Together is a very important word. Riding uphill all alone on the tandem was hard. Facing MS alone is very hard. Thanks to the MS Society, no one needs to face MS alone. Your financial support, volunteer time, and personal involvement are what make it possible. Thank you.
Tom and Libby
