Bill, thank you for your support of the ADL event, and congratulations on the succesful completion of  your MS ride!  All the best.  Jim 

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	"LaFuze, William" <blafuze@velaw.com>@ENRON [mailto:IMCEANOTES-+22LaFuze+2C+20William+22+20+3Cblafuze+40velaw+2Ecom+3E+40ENRON@ENRON.com] 
Sent:	Wednesday, April 25, 2001 1:44 PM
To:	Skilling, Jeff
Cc:	Derrick Jr., James; Walls Jr., Rob
Subject:	 

Jeff--nice to see you at the bike ride on Saturday, and to meet you at the
luncheon Monday honoring Jim Derrick. Thought you might be interested in the
report I prepared for people who pledged to MS in connection with the bike
ride over the weekend.

Several persons who have either pledged, or are considering a pledge, to the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society have left messages or sent emails asking
if I am still alive after the MS150 charity bike ride held this past
weekend. Others have asked for a report of my experience. I am alive and
sore. If you are not interested in the report, please delete this email.

First of all, for those who have pledged or already sent you checks payable
to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society,  thanks is an inadequate word.
Remember that you are helping colleagues and others, and perhaps yourself
with your contributions.

This bike ride charity event turned out to be a story unlike anything I ever
expected.

Here is my story, if you are interested:

BASIC FACTS:

1.  I did show up for the bike ride (5:30 am Saturday).

2.  I did start the bike ride (7:10 am) with approximately 9400 bikers in
the largest charity bike ride in the country.

3.  I did ride my bike across the finish line in Austin the following day,
some 199 miles down the road..

4.  I did either ride my bike, or push it up several hills, for approx. 182
miles of the 199 mile route.

5.  I crossed the finish line in Austin only a few minutes before the
deadline of 6:00 pm on Sunday.

6.  I ended up meeting in one way or another almost every biker on the trip.
That resulted from the fact that I started at almost the very front of the
pack of 9400 bike riders, and was passed by nearly all of them before I
reached Austin.

7.  I am extremely pleased to have participated in the event.  I don't have
the time to participate in such events very often, and I was fortunate to
have a schedule which opened up just in time for me to enter this event.


RANDOM GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:

1.  The charity event title, "MS150", is a misnomer.  When I signed up for
this event, I understood the "150" part of the event title to refer to the
mileage between Houston and Austin. I was wrong.  The "150" I now understand
to mean the approximate number of blisters to be found on one's posterior
when a biker crosses the finish line.

2.  I have driven from Houston to Austin many times in the past.  There are
routes between the two cities that are generally flat with hills of a gentle
grade.  We took a different route.

3.  The ride from Houston to Austin by car is about 160 miles. The route we
took was almost 40 miles further.  The bike ride route displayed on a map
appeared similar to that which you might expect to be drawn by asking an
Aggie to find the shortest distance between two points.

4.  Road kill if far more attractive from a car than from a bike.

5.  The chicken ranch in LaGrange is long gone, but the spirit lingers.  The
LaGrange fair gounds was the venue for dinner and lodging at the end of the
first day of biking. We were welcomed there by the local Rotary Club
volunteers with a scrumptuous dinner of barbecued chicken and salad with
ranch dressing.  I laughed out loud when I saw the meal being served, and
wondered whether the historical connection was intentional.

STRATEGY

I knew when I signed up for this event that I had almost no chance of
completing the ride which, at the time I entered, I thought was only 150
miles.  I had not trained at all for the bike ride, and was (and am) not
physically fit and dont exercise as I should.  The total extent of my bike
riding during the year prior to the event was when rode my mountain bike
from my home to a sporting goods store to buy supplies one week before the
trip.  Round trip, my "training" ride to the sporting goods store was about
3 miles.

I sufficiently realistic to know that I needed a strategy to gain some
advantage to make up for the lack of althletic readiness.  I came up with
what I thought was the perfect solution. Before the race started, I looked
for the largest biker I could spot.  My plan was that if I rode my bike
during the ride immediately behind a very large person, I could draft that
person (Nascar style), and gain a considerable aerodynamic advantage.  I
thought it was a terrific idea and I figured that even if the large person
had a slower pace than I desired, the advantage would be apparent by the end
of the ride.  Luckily, I found just the person I was seeking---this person
appeared to be about 300-325 pounds--a body that would clear a nice swath of
air for me to follow.  When the race started, I maneuvered my bike and
pulled immediately behind the biker who was to be my air blocker.   For the
first 5 minutes of the ride, my strategy worked great--I actually could tell
that my air resistance was considerable less when I was directly behind this
large person.  Then, the unexpected happened----my large person biker turned
on her afterburners and left me in the dust.  Never again on this bike ride
was I again able to catch and draft another biker.

I needed a new strategy---perhaps a tail wind, which did in fact materialize
in spades,  but not before noon the second day of the ride.


THE RIDE IN DETAIL

I signed up for this event about two weeks in advance of the ride as a
result of my schedule opening up unexpectedly when it was previously heavily
commited.  I did it largely on  a lark, but the event took on new meaning
when I learned of close friends who have been stricken with MS after I
started the fund raising effort, which is a required part of participating
as a rider.

I knew I was out of shape and had been asked by friends if I had gone loco
in even attempting this strenuous activity.  I agreed that I could not keep
up the normal pace of younger and far more physically fit bikers.  So, I
made a pledge to myself.  No matter what, I was not going to overexert
myself.  I would establish a reasonable pace and not even get close to being
winded.  I succeeded in executing this plan until lunch on the first day of
the ride.

I kept a pace that was clearly nonstrenous and I felt good about the ride
for the first 4 hours or so, which was mostly level road.  I was very happy
with the ride, and was looking forward to the tasty box lunch that the
announcer has promised at the start of the day was waiting for every biker
when we reached Bellville, about 50 miles from Houston.  When I got to
Bellville, I came to realize that my pace, although not strenous, was
substantially off the mark.  With a box lunch prepared for over 9000 riders,
there were only four box lunches left when I arrived in Bellville. As I
thought back, I remembered being passed by many bikers.  I  did pass, by my
count, 9 bikes before lunch as if they were standing still.  They were.
They all had flat tires.   I decided I needed to pick up the pace at little
after lunch.

I headed out after a quick lunch to try to make up some time.  By around
2:00 to 3:00, I was really getting tired and although still cautious about
over exertion, I was losing energy fast. I stopped at a pay phone booth in
a small town, and called home. I told my 13 year old son William I did not
think I would make it much further.  But I wanted to go as far as I could.
I rode about 10 more miles, and was almost totally out of steam when I
remember thinking "I desparately need a long rest".  About that time, I
looked up at a road sign that said "Cemetery, next exit".  The symbolic
connection was compelling!  I decided it was time to take a rest--a
temporary, not a permanent, one.  I biked past the cemetery where I lay down
in some high grass along the road to catch my breath. The local chiggars and
I bonded almost immediately.  I then flagged down a "SAG" bus, designed to
pick up weary bikers, and got help loading first my bike, then my body, into
a van.  I remember telling the driver that I was "finished" and that I did
not think I could bike anymore for the rest of the way to Austin.  I was
extremely disappointed because I had gone only about 62 miles, and about 80%
of the donations pledged to me were based on distance traveled.  I concluded
I was destined to fall far short of my fundraising goal.

After traveling in the van for about 15 miles, we came upon the entrance to
a ranch of a friend of mine that I had visited only a couple weeks ago. I
asked the van driver to let me out so that I could see if my friend was
home.  I went to visit the friend, but he was not at his ranch house, and I
ended up spending about an hour taking a nap while waiting for him.  I
finally decided to leave, and found that the rest had given me new strength.
I thought I might be able to ride again.  To make a long story short, I rode
for about another 4 hours straight until it was total dark.  A van came and
picked me up on the highway and told me it was too dark to continue. I was
only 3 miles short of LaGrange, our stopover spot for the night, and the van
carried me on to this historic spot.

I had really been looking forward to reaching LaGrange because I was a
member of Team Enron, and Enron's hospitality for its bike riders was by
reputation, outstanding.  They had hired 40 messeuses to give massages to
the Team Enron bikers, and a dinner fit for a king would be waiting.
Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the LaGrange Fair Grounds, our
accomodations for the evening, dinner in the Enron tent was over and all the
masseuses had vanished.  I finally found a general meal service hosted by
the local Rotarians who were serving barbecued chicken, and a salad with
ranch dressing.

Since I didnt enter the bike event until less than two weeks before it
started, Team Enron's private tent was full and I was relegated to find
sleeping space on my own.  I was directed to a huge feedlot covered with a
large tin roof, open air style (no walls).   As I nestled in my sleeping bag
under the big roof with about 2000 other bikers, my senses told me that I
was probably to sleep where a cow going to market had probably slept only
days before.  But I was dog tired, simply wanted to sleep, and didnt have
the energy to find less aeromatic, alternative, accomodations.


THE SECOND DAY


I was told that breakfast would be served at 530 am the next morning, and
that the ride would start at sunup, about 640 am.  I concluded that I could
sleep until 6 am, grab a quick bite, and still be at the starting gate by
640.  Needless to say, I was happy with my plan to get as much sleep as
possible.  I badly needed the rest. My plan failed.

I did not take into consideration that I was sleeping among a bunch of
gung-ho superbikejocks.  About 4 am, some two hours before I planned to wake
up, a large group of overenenergetic-supercyclists arose and started doing
side straddle hops, stretching, and various exercises while making Monica
Seles-like grunting noises.  I was not amused.  There was no way to go back
to sleep! The five hours of sleep I managed on Saturday night was wholly
inadequate.

I was told that Day 2 of the bike ride was much more difficult than Day 1
because of the more hilly route as we approached Austin.  To make a long
story short,  I actually gained strength on Day 2 as compared to Day 1. I
actually learned some technique for transferring power from my arms to my
legs, and made it to Austin on my own power without any motorized help of
any kind.

The ride through the hill country was spectacular.  Also, I did get a taste
of ole country Texas along the way. The bike route intentionally meanders
via remote roads through small towns in order to avoid heavy highway traffic
for the safety of the bikers.  As we passed through one small town that I
never heard of before, I looked up to see a sign that said  "THELMA'S
PLACE---POOL, BEER DOMINOS". A sign of equal size immediately adjacent said
"NO GUNS PERMITTED INSIDE".  It was comforting to know that patrons of that
establishment could drink peacefully while game playing, knowing that
customers are  required to go out to the parking lot to resolve domino
disagreements where guns are not prohibited.  I guess I have spent too much
time in the major metropolitan areas of Texas, and have forgotten about the
genuine Texas back country!!


There was one other noteworthy diversion.  Cycling through Bastrop State
Park is known to be one of the most strenous parts of the trip because of
the extreme winding hills in this beautiful, heavily-wooded area.  The Park
is also confusing because of its multiple intersecting roads through the
park. I was following another biker as we approached the park who was
sporting a very fancy biking shirt on which was written TAM Cycling Club.  I
mentioned to him that I was not looking forward to entering Bastrop State
Park because of the challenging steep hills.  He responded that he knew a
route through the park that was not only less hilly, but was also 3 miles
shorter than the route intended for the bikers.  I was all ears to the
prospect of a short cut, and agreed to follow him on this less strenuous and
shorter route.  We entered the park and,  for the next 10 miles according to
my odometer, it seemed like a roller coaster ride, with turning steep
inclines, and dangerously steep and turning declines.  Exactly one hour and
ten minutes after we entered the park, we finally exited the
park--------------at the exact same place where we entered.  I was exhausted
and not amused.  I should have known that an Aggie inherently is unable to
find the shortest route to Austin.

To fast forward the story, since this has been far too long already, I made
it to Austin on my own power and did not ask for a lift at all the second
day.  I was looking forward to getting a much needed shower when I arrived
at the finishing line at the UT baseball stadium in Austin.  I had put in my
most strenuous effort during the last hour of the bike ride in the very
hilly Austin area where every hill looks like Mount Everest or its kissing
cousin.  Unfortunately for the person who sat next to me on the bus coming
back to Houston, I was told just after crossing the finish line that the
last bus would leave for Houston in only a few minutes and there was no time
to shower.  At that point in time, I looked like I just stepped out of a
sweat shower.  The stranger next to me on the bus did exactly what I
dreaded--he introduced himself, and waited for a reply.  I really didn't
want this guy to know my name--the name  of the guy who was giving the bus
the aroma of gymnasium locker room---- so after a moments thought, I held
out my still sweaty hand, and proudly said, "Howdy, my name's Harry
Reasoner."

Conclusion:

I participated in this event because I wanted to help my colleagues and
others who are victims of MS.  If you previously made one of those weirdo
pledges that are impossible for anyone to calculate, please send my
secretary a check made payable to National Multiple Sclerosis Society in
whatever amount makes you happy.  If you have not made a donation, won't you

do so today? You will benefit by giving as much as the people with MS who
need your help.  Thank you.







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