I found this while roaming around the internet. I am not sure if it is true so read it with a grain of salt and let me know if you can prove its validity one way or the other.

There was a fellow named Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer.

One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.

And that he did. Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time?

Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.
 

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Linda and I had our picture taken at the night out with the Astros. The Astros lost, bummer.

Here is a link to the National MS Society news letter. Checkout page 9

Dear Sponsors, neighbors, family and friends:

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who supported me. Whether your support was financial, physical, spiritual or emotional, I want say thanks and let you know that I was able to raise $1055.00 that will be used to help make life better for people with Multiple Sclerosis. Next year my goal will be $2500, but I'll talk to everyone about that in January.

Those of you on my email list who received the training updates know that I rode in the MS150 as a part of Team Honeywell. My brother Jeff works for Honeywell and got me on his team for which I am extremely grateful. Having him, his wife Sandy and the rest of the Honeywell team supporting and encouraging me on this ride made it a much richer experience. Many of the team members including Jeff have ridden in a MS150 before and helped people new to the ride like me by giving advice about where things are, how they work and literally pointing us in the right direction (to the showers and port-o-pottys).

The first morning was cool and foggy and we started riding around 7:10 AM. Team Honeywell decided to start from near the home of our team captain, Phil. He lives along the route and we could get an earlier start by not having to wait in line with eleven or twelve thousand others who started from the two stadiums a few miles away. We had the wind at our backs which made for some really good riding. The roads were nice and flat. I rode with my brother for most of the day and we got to see some interesting people. There were people of all ages, races and genders. There were people on racing bikes, mountain bikes, tandem bikes, recumbent bikes, wheelchair bikes, roller blades and a unicycle. We even saw a cyclist that only had one leg (as he passed us). Jeff and I stayed together until we started on the hills. I had been hearing horror stories about "The Hills" since I decided to ride in the MS150 and was more than a little worried since all of my training has been on mostly flat ground with some gently sloping hills just north of the Woodlands. Jeff and I got separated after a few hills. I found that I could manage the hills but I needed to maintain a certain pace and found out that Jeff had injured his knee a few weeks before the ride and was not up to his usual strength. It took me 6 hours 17 minutes and 58 seconds to ride 92.36 miles before crossing the mid-point finish line in LaGrange. Team Honeywell had arranged for a large tent to be set up, my bags delivered and volunteers to cook barbeque. After getting cleaned up, eating my fill and drinking a few frosty adult beverages I was pretty much down for the night. I crawled in my sleeping bag around 9:00 PM and went to sleep quickly but after a few hours I was tossing and turning, still excited and nervous about day two. I must have dreamed I was still hungry because I woke up with grass in my mouth. Next year I'll look into a cot.

Day two started off with a pancake breakfast for several thousand. The volunteers were great and somehow managed to get us fed and ready to ride. The weather for day two was about the same as day one and after packing our bags and a quick bike check we were off, or so we thought. Some of us tried to sneak out the back way a little early so we wouldn't have to wait in a long line but apparently word got out and we ended up having to wait behind about a thousand people. There is a split route on day two. One route went through Buescher State Park and the other stayed on slightly flatter back roads. I had heard the State Park was beautiful and decided that I would try it even though the hills are supposed to be much tougher. The stories were not exaggerated, those are some killer hills. Going up the hills was tough but going down the other side was scary. The winding roads through the park are narrow with no shoulder and have trees right on the edge of the road. Going down one hill I was riding with one of the MS150 medics when he crashed after hitting some gravel at about 30 miles per hour. I was not able to stop and help since I was also going 30 mph with twenty or thirty people riding right behind me. I think he was ok and I could see him smiling after he went down so I think his pride was hurt more than his body. I am proud that I didn't have to walk my bike up any of the hills but I did have to make several unscheduled stops to rest. After the park I noticed quite a few riders that appeared to be having trouble with exhaustion, pulled muscles and the like. About a mile before the finish line I passed a guy who had hurt his leg. He was pedaling with the good leg and had swung his bad leg out of the way. He looked exhausted, his face was red and he would pedal a few times and then hang his head then look up and start pedaling again. I didn't see this guy finish but I know by the look on his face that he must have. When I got to the finish line I got goose bumps from all the people cheering and realized how lucky I am to have the health and strength to make it.

For those that are interested, over two days I completed 172.16 miles in 12 hours 15 minutes and 48 seconds of riding, which is an average speed of 13.95 MPH. My top speed during the ride was down a very steep hill at 39.1 MPH.

Sorry it has taken me so long to send out this update. I thought I would wait until I received the pictures taken of me on the ride by the professional ride photographers but it looks like it may be a while longer for those to show up if at all. I have included a picture of me that was taken on the second day of the ride. My color printer cheesed out on me so the picture is black and white.

If you would like to see the pictures I took on the ride you can see them online HERE and HERE. Feel free to email me at greg.gillis@sillig.com if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Greg Gillis

To all of my MS150 Sponsors,

I have not ridden in any organized rides for the past two weekends. It was much to cold for me this past Sunday (in the 30's in the morning) and I had family plans on the previous Sunday. I did however do some riding on my own up in the Woodlands during the week and on the weekends and plan to continue training until a couple of days before MS150. Considering that I have only been training since the end of February I think my training has progressed quite well. I would like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement.

Thanks again for all of the support.

I finally got the pictures developed for the training ride last weekend.

I have added them to my AspPhotoFinder program which is available on the internet.

You can click on the links below to see a few of the better pictures.

If you have a dial-up connection to the internet viewing these pictures may be very slow as they are 100k - 200k in size each. Feel free to look at other pictures on the site and use the search feature.

This is the staging area about 45 minutes before the start of the ride. There are already hundreds of people lined up. The start line is several hundred yards away.
Click Here

I took this picture after getting in the line about 25 minutes before the start. These are all of the people ahead of me. If you look at the left side of this picture you can see a line of cars that were still coming in even after the start. I don't know the official count but it was certainly several thousand riders.
Click Here

These are all of the people behind me.
Click Here

This shows why I like these rides so much. The routes are back roads for the most part.
Click Here

And Here

After 20 miles I can finally see the rest area.
Click Here

Here is a better shot of the rest area. It was a bit of a mad house.
Click Here

Back on the road again.
Click Here

The second rest stop at mile 40.
Click Here

And Here

I'm not sure what river this is but I took this picture while riding across the bridge.
Click Here

Here is another nice country road.
Click Here

This is the last rest stop about 56 miles out. The crowd has thinned out a little.
Click Here

Here is the finish line. No cheering crowds but it still felt really good finishing and having enough energy to take Linda for green beer up at Mathias's pub a few hours later.
Click Here

Thanks again for all of the support.

To all of my MS150 Sponsors,

On Sunday March, 16 I rode in my second organized bike ride. This ride was sponsored by BP who is also the sponsor for the MS150 for the next few years. The ride was well organized with motorcycle support, SAG vans to help with repairs and take people and bikes to the next rest stop, medical personal and rest stops that had plenty of snacks, water and Gatorade.

While this ride was officially designated as the "BP America Training Ride" it could have easily been renamed to the Katy Skunk Ride. Not because it was a stinker, but because there were so many skunks on the side of the road. I counted 7 Skunks from the start at Rhodes Stadium in Katy to the first rest stop about 20 miles later. In all I counted over 25 of the little stinkers.

Anyway, the ride was to start at 8:00 AM and I had already done some carb loading and finished my energy drink (cinnamon roll covered with white frosting and a half of a pot of coffee) when it started sprinkling. It only sprinkled a little bit on and off throughout the day and I was a little worried that I might get to cold without a jacket. I took a chance and decided on not wearing the jacket figuring that I would be warm enough from pedaling. I was right and warmed up very fast. Once again I think that I had a good tail wind to start or it could have been the energy drink but I was cruising for the first 4 or 5 miles very fast. I finally pulled back a little trying to pace myself. I made it to the first rest stop feeling really good, much better than the previous weekend. It's funny, with a few thousand people on this ride that I ran into my brother Jeff at the rest stop. We talked for a bit and then I was back on the road. The next rest stop was at 40 miles and I was still feeling pretty good. The last rest stop was in Brookshire about 56 miles out. This is when I started to feel it a little. My seat was getting hard and my back was starting to bother me. I came prepared with advil to take care of the back spasms and it really helped. I finished the 66.85 mile ride in 4 Hours 46 Minutes and 25 Seconds which is a 14 mph average.

One of the best things about this ride was how accurate the distances were. They said it was 66 miles and it was.

I took pictures on this ride and just dropped the film off to be developed. I will send a separate email with the web address where the pictures can be viewed when they have been scanned.

Thanks to you all for being a sponsor,