It's now less than a month until I begin pedaling my way from San Francisco to Los Angeles on AIDS/LifeCycle 12. AIDS/LifeCycle is an event which raises money for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LA Gay & Lesbian Center's Jeffrey Goodman Clinic, both of which are major AIDS Services Organizations.
This is the second and probably last diary I'll publish this year in an effort to separate you from your cash for a good cause. The other week I did one (which you can find here) explaining how, specifically, a given amount of money donated might make a difference in the lives of one or more people either living with HIV or AIDS or else at risk of contracting the disease. That diary was somewhat successful; several of you asked for a reminder after the beginning of May. It's definitely after the beginning of May; I hope I haven't waited too long.
This diary will be a more light-hearted look at what it takes to get ready to ride a bike 545 miles in the course of a week. Follow me beyond the fold and you'll get a look at why I love doing this sort of thing. Yes, there will be pictures...lots of pictures. There will be eye-candy too. But before I forget I DO have an obligation to raise money. HERE is a link to my fundraising page. By the way, it is tax-deductible.
AIDS/LifeCycle and its predecessor, the California AIDS Ride, have been going on since 1994. I began my participation in 1999 and...let's just say I was hooked, shall we? I began training for my first ride on a clunky old hybrid (of which I do NOT have any pictures). That proved not to be workable for a variety of reasons. Fortunately my mom who has always been extremely generous and supportive, gifted me with the cost of my first road bike; this baby right here...
That bike got me through three AIDS Rides. In 2002 I decided I was going to compete in the Gay Games in Sydney, Australia and that I needed something lighter and more sporty. I had myself fitted for a custom frame by a local frame builder by the name of Bernie Mikkelsen. Bernie's quite a character but he's also a very talented and is very highly regarded in the cycling community. Here I am riding that lovely gray bike into Closing Ceremonies at the end of AIDS/LifeCycle 3 in 2004...our one and only attempt to close out the ride at Dodger Stadium (this was not a hit, by the way).
Alas, that bike suffered some serious damage (I was not hurt at all) and had to be replaced. So now I ride a very sexy Italian-built carbon-frame number made by Wilier Triestina, another outfit with a great pedigree (the company is about a century old). Here she is, brand new new, just over a year ago. Hot, eh?
This is me at the very, VERY end of last year's ride...
So that's the background. From the very beginning I have taken training very seriously; I've continued to operate under the assumption that if I don't train from no later than October until the end of May I'll never get myself all the way to LA without falling apart. And after all, I began training for my first ride when I was still in my 40's; I'll be 62 over Memorial Day weekend. Staying in shape has become more challenging. So I do training rides. Lots of training rides. I help lead rides; after discovering that I could, indeed, bike all the way from SF to LA I figured I owed it to the next year's crop of newbies to help get them ready too. It really is fun seeing people go (as I did) from the terror of riding more than a few miles to becoming a cycling god/goddess. Doing organized rides rather than training solo also provides an opportunity to meet other ride participants. It's much easier to get to know people on rides with from 10 to 50 other people than to arrive at Day One and try to make friends with a couple thousand strangers.
Just so you know, since last July, and not counting my daily commutes, I've logged 1,820.5 miles of training. I have one final weekend of training left that will total 150 miles (two 75-mile rides, back-to-back). I MIGHT do a quick, short ride sometime this weekend but with Mother's Day coming and a friend in the hospital who I need to visit, it doesn't look that likely. Of course I operate under the delusion that no amount of training is ever enough. During my first year I totaled nearly 3,000 miles (which may actually have been excessive). In the midst of my worries I checked last year's training records. Whaddya know...1,820 miles in total. So I'll actually finish about 150 miles ahead this time around.
So yeah I go on training rides, pretty much year-round. I'm lucky to live where I do; the weather is seldom so bad that it's impossible to get in a decent amount of training. It never snows (actually there was flurry on one of my first training rides and, on another occasion, a day's worth of rides was canceled because there was snow and ice on the roads in Marin County) and for all the complaining we do about chilly winter mornings here, it's never REALLY all that cold. This...
...is pretty rare around these parts.
Northern California's really awesome. We have scenery...
...we have wildlife...
Last weekend's three-day extravaganza included a really tough climb (any tougher and I'd have had to walk). There is a payoff though...in the view from the top.
Not all of the scenery is in the form of nature. Cyclists are an attractive bunch of people. We tend to be pretty fit. That goes for the young AND the old alike. A couple of weeks ago I took the day off to photograph a special day of training known as "Day on the Ride." Each year, sometime towards the end of April, there is a preview of what a typical day of riding might be like. No training ride leaders but there's a lunch stop, rest stops with themes, and the all-important porta-potties. So here's what my fellow riders look like before and during a day of training.
(These guys are part of the motorcycle team, charged with guiding riders through complicated intersections and making sure everyone stays safe.)
...and off we go...
("Keep calm and follow the Princess.")
A side note here: A bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge is lovely. It's so lovely in fact that many, many people do it and some of those people who bike across the bridge really should not. The space reserved for cyclists on weekends is just wide enough so people riding in opposite directions can pass each other if they stay in line, watch their speed and pay attention. Not everybody understands what that involves. For that reason it can be a bit stressful for those of us with fairly strict safety rules to follow, especially on the return leg of our rides when, along with the heavy bike traffic, it can be very breezy. Keeping calm definitely helps.
(This gentleman will be my tentmate during the ride.)
(Mother and daughter. Mom will be working at lunch during the ride; daughter will be riding, but for the day they're both helping at a rest stop.)
(If it looks as though they're climbing a very big hill...it's because they ARE climbing a very big hill.)
(The big rock here is cleverly known as "Big Rock." It marks the top of a climb which is actually tougher in the opposite direction, but we'll take credit just the same.)
(Bears. Lots and lots of bears.)
(Sometimes an adjustment is necessary.)
(And sometimes things just happen.)
(Riding all day long can take a toll. It's good to have friends.)
(Almost done.)
(And then we get to eat!)
For the grand finale, a bit of entertainment. This video was shot--no I did NOT make it--during the ride three years ago and played for us at Closing Ceremonies and is now used it as a recruiting tool (my apologies, there may be a commercial before it starts):
Many of the people in this video are my friends.
So...I hope all this has inspired you to help me raise more money. I hope some of you are inspired to join me next year (I've been working on a couple of you folks). At the very least, I hope you enjoy the pictures.
(A note about the photos: I took all of them with the obvious exception of the ones I'm in. With one exception the pictures of me were taken at my request.)