Ever want to take a nice road trip to Alaska?  Want to do that on a bike?  The riders in the Texas Atlas 4000 are doing just that.  They are riding 4000 miles in 70 days to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

Wild Basin Fitness is proud to sponsor this event, which kicks-off on June 7 in Cedar Park.  You can join the riders for the first 50 to 70 miles, riding from Cedar Park to Lampasas.  WBF members Nathasha and Dave Collman are helping to organize this event and we'd love to have a team from WBF join the fun.  Go to  www.atlasride.org for more info or to register.

I can't imagine riding 4000 miles, but I have had the pleasure (???) of riding in two multi-day rides.  Last spring, I rode the Get Your Guts In Gear Ride for Crohn's and Colitis (www.ibdride.org).  And this spring, we rode the BP MS 150 from Houston to Austin (www.ms150.org).  Both were incredible experiences and provided loads of "learning opportunities" and humorous anecdotes.  Here's some of what I've learned.

If God had intended for me to ride a bike all day, He would have invented a more comfortable bike seat.  Sitting on a bike all day is uncomfortable.  Sitting on a bike for 3 days is just wrong.  As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid any sport that requires the use of chamois butter on my butt.

Hills are tough, but wind is worse.  Going uphill almost always means going downhill.  And I can always walk up the hill if I have to.  But headwinds are miserable.  I learned this lesson the hard way on the MS150, when there was a steady headwind of 20mph on the entire ride.

Always be sure to actually lock the door on the PortaCan.  Enough said.

Never underestimate the kindness of complete strangers along a long bike route.  From SAG wagons stocked with chocolate to lines of people cheering on riders for the MS150, it can be a humbling experience.

The 3 funniest things on the MS150:  (1) A woman wearing pantyhose under her bike shorts.  That has got to chafe.  (2) A man dressing his wife and braiding her hair in the parking lot before the start of the ride.  This was highly entertaining to certain men in our group.  (3) A man on a giant (and I mean circus-sized giant) unicycle, passing me up.  Twice.  Going up hills.  (I really suck at hills.)

Anyway, good luck to all the riders of the Texas Atlas 4000 Ride. 

Alica