June 2 - 8, 2019, I rode my first AIDS/LifeCycle, a 545 miles bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, passing through 58 towns, 8 counties in 7 days, to raise funds for life-saving services offered by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
Ride reports
Morning at Camp 6 I woke on the morning of Day 7 cold. I knew I’d be cold since we were by the beach. Instead of changing in my tent, I decided to go change in the shower truck. I saved my rubine red club kit for the final day. This would make it easy for my sister and friends to spot me at the finish line. After changing, I did the usual… brushing my teeth, going to the porta-potty....
Morning at Camp 5 On Day 6, it was back to the 4 am alarm clock. I woke up still feeling like I caught a cold. I got a cup of tea at breakfast to make myself feel better.
After breakfast, I lined up at the medical tent for more moleskin on my blisters. When the medical tent opened at 6 am, we split into two lines, one for butt medicine and the other for everything else....
Morning at Camp 4 Two things were different on Day 5. First, my alarm went off at 5 am instead of 4 am because the route was only 42 miles. There was no point riding out early since camp would not open until the usual 1 pm. Also, Day 5 is Red Dress Day. We wore red on Day 5 to raise AIDS awareness.
Waking up at 5 am made put me in a good mood....
My bike computer ran out of battery 10 miles before the finish. I continued recording on my phone.
Morning at Camp 3 Once again, breakfast at around 5:30 am. I got the usual eggs, potatoes, and bacon. There were also French toast sticks, mini donuts, and bagels that morning. I wasn’t sure why I got both the donut and bagel. How can a bagel even taste or sound good next to a donut?...
The route for Day 3 was entirely inland and included the Quadbuster! Morning at Camp 2 Alarm off at 4am, changed into kit, brushed teeth, trip to porta-potty…my morning was the same as the day before. I got a breakfast of quiche, hashbrown triangles (I love hashbrowns!), croissant and pastry and ate it with the “morning paper”.
I finished breakfast at around 5:45 am and I needed to visit sports med to tape my ankle again since I had to remove it when I showered the day before....
Morning at Camp 1 My alarm went off at 4 am and I got dressed in the tent while my tent-mate went to brush his teeth. I already took the Ziploc bag containing my Day 2 clothes out of my duffel the previous night already so I was able to get dressed pretty quickly. Day 2 is Safety Day, so I wore my jersey with orange sleeves and an orange cap with safety cones printed out it as a reminder to Ride Safe and Be Safe....
Pre-ride out Day 1 finally came!! I got up at around 3:45 am to get to Cow Palace by 5 am to drop off my luggage, attend the opening ceremony at 6 am followed by the ride out! I woke up in the morning and couldn’t believe I actually slept the night before and was all dressed by 4 am. Not a bad start to the morning!...
What is AIDS/LifeCycle? AIDS/LifeCycle (ALC) is a fully-supported 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise funds for the life-saving services offered by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. It passes through 58 towns, 8 counties in 7 days. To participate in the ride, each cyclist fundraises a minimum of $3,000. I am very grateful for everyone who has donated and brought me well over this $3,000 goal....
Day on the Ride is a practice run for AIDS/LifeCycle (ALC). This is my first year riding ALC, so I figure I should participate to see what I got myself into.
A photo before roll out. The ride started in Daly City, so of course, there was fog. The first part of the ride was enjoyable, with a little bit of a climb on Skyline, not very steep or difficult at all....