The Pancake Ride - 30 Miles

Saturday, I rode in my first official MS150 training event, the Pancake Ride. My friend John and I only did the 30 mile version, there was also a 50 miler. I had issues with an upset stomach the night before and had maybe four hours of sleep. Not exactly conducive to riding your bicycle any great distance.

We got to Republic High School (in Republic, Missouri, SW of Springfield) about 6:30am and signed in, handing the attendant our $10 entry fee and taking a route map from the stack. There were a lot of riders there. I'm not good at guessing, but I'd say a couple hundred or more. We rolled out of the parking lot and onto Hwy. ZZ about 7am. It was a beautiful morning to be out.

Our next stop was in Billings, Missouri. We ate a big pancake breakfast at the fire station, downtown. The girl flipping cakes was pretty entertaining. She would chuck them at people halfway across the garage and had a machine to drop multiple pancakes at a time.

Then it was back out of town and onto the country farm roads again.

We had a great time and saw a lot of pretty country. The hills on this route were more than we usually tackle. I was beat by the end. No sleep and bad guts makes for a rough morning on a bicycle. I also wish I had been on a road bike, my MTB with road tires is starting to show its shortcomings at this level of mileage. I got home, cleaned up and passed out for a couple of hours. Only feeling normal this morning.