I decided not to take the hilly challenge route for the second day of the MS150. I wasn’t sure how my knee was going to hold up and I didn’t want to get in the middle of the route and risk it. So after spending way too much time getting ready, I got in line to start the second day. 
If you don’t get started super early on the second day you end up waiting in line. Oh well, at least it wasn’t raining.
The rest of the ride went as I thought. My knee hurt but it wasn’t so bad I couldn’t ride. As long as I didn’t go too fast or push too big of a gear, I could manage. In addition to going easy on my riding pace, I also utilized every medic station on the route after the first stop. Biofreeze and Advil helped get me through the day. I ended up going a lot slower than I had wanted but finishing without riding in a SAG wagon was something to be proud of. You can view the ride data here: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/ZPGBV25A5UKMPLWLRNKDOBMXIE
The best part of the day was the finish. My friend Kevin was giving me a ride back from Austin to Houston, as well as snapping pictures of me finishing. They turned out a lot better than the ones taken by the Brightroom professionals. We got out of Austin fairly quickly and had a nice ride home. Topped it off with some icecream from DairyQueen.
Below are some pictures. Special thanks to Kevin for snapping them with his fancy camera. The first one is my all-time favorite.
