Heard about this bike ride from Houston to Austin so I signed up for despite not having a road bike. $125 registration fee and there was a minimum donation of $400 to be raised for MS. I heard all sorts of bad stuff happens to those who don't raise the donation so I made sure that I got that amount a few days before the race. Waited about a month before the ride to finally buy a road bike. I had to get used to riding with bike clips for a 40 mile bike ride during the Tour De Houston and did another 80 mile bike ride during the Space Race in Clear Lake. I didn't sign up with a team so I rode on my own. I soon found out that it was a 2 day bike ride. Day 1 was about 100 miles and Day 2 was around 80 miles. I had to check in my bag with my camping gear on the day of the bike ride to be shipped to La Grange. There were several rest stops for nourishment, assistance with your bike, and medical supplies. We stopped in the La Grange Fairgrounds at the end of day 1. Since I didn't ride with a team, I picked up my backpack from the general luggage area. There is this land rush for the best areas to set up camp and the farm animal area was prime location since it is a covered area to keep you from getting rained on. I made due with a 2 person tent, a sleeping bag and a lightweight air mattress. But some people went overboard with tent mansions with motorized air mattresses or too minimalistic with just a sleeping bag. I was kind of jealous of the teams since they had their own big tents with cots, catered food for dinner and breakfast and their own porta-potties. They also had shower trucks for everyone to use but the lines for these trucks were really long. There was entertainment and food later that night but I spent most of my time in my tent sleeping. On day 2, I woke up around 4am in order to pack up all my stuff and eat breakfast but looking back I could have took my time since leaving La Grange takes forever since they let cyclist out every 10-15 minutes. From La Grange you can either take the longer challenge route through the park with lots of hills or an express route along the relatively flat highway. When you get to Austin, there were crowds of people cheering you as you cross the finish line. I immediately put my bike on a truck going back to Houston, picked up my bag in the general baggage claim area, waited in line to take a shower, ate some food provided by Hooters and then took the bus back to Houston. When I arrived in Houston I was able to pick up my bike in the bike rack area. Overall, it was a pleasant charity bike ride that was well organized and I wouldn't mind doing it again. One memorable thing I saw was watching people after the Day 1 100 mile ride running along the side of the road for i don't know how many miles. I thought that was the coolest thing to do and I couldn't join them because I forgot my running shoes. So seeing this inspired me to do a different kind of race, but I'll just save that for another review. read more