I Did It!

Yup! I made it! I am alive and well. I arrived at the VA Center in Brentwood at approach 1:15pm on Saturday. The views through Ventura and along the Malibu Coast were breath taking. We had lunch at the Malibu Lagoon. It was so cool to be in familiar territory. We were all so excited, but also very sad that it was almost over. I got to ride in with a few of the people that I had trained with Scott, Katie and Steven. It was so incredible. We couldn't believe that it was the last day. It was very surely. We made it up all the hills and even those that we didn't expect. The crowds lines up along the streets as we got closer to the VA Center really pushed us up those last couple of hills.

Closing ceremonies was awesome. The emotions didn't hit me until Chris Cole bid farewell and said that he hoped to see us all next year. The 4 of us just started to cry. It was very sad to realize that this journey we had just done was over. I felt very empty, but yet full of stories and a new knowledge.

As I was riding I was trying to put into words my experience. It was very difficult. The best way I can describe it was being in the Rose Parade for seven days. It was an incredible high. There were school children out cheering us on. People holding up signs as we go by saying things like, "You are my hero", "Because of you I'm alive" and "You've changed my life". School children handing us letters calling us hero's and role models. It was very overwhelming feeling, but a good humbling feeling too. I felt as if I hadn't really done anything, but raise money and got a bike. Towns came out to greet us. I have formed bonds with people and had amazing conversations with people, whom I do not know if they will be alive to see them next year. This experience was definitely a life changing experience and one that I will never forget. I already miss my fellow cyclists and the staff. The most amazing staff I've ever met. Wow!! Words cannot express my compassion and how thankful I am to them all.

The candle light vigil on Friday was very moving. It was incredible to see so many people who affected by someone with Aids.

Many people have asked me if I am going to do the ride again next year. The answer is I would do it in a heartbeat if I could get the time off. I am already experiencing separation anxiety from my fellow cyclists. I miss the giggling of my tent mate Tsufit, the staff cheering us on as we ride in each day, the voice and a hug from my Cycle Buddy- Kerry each night, Sheri (my own personal space heater)-- That girl can radiate!, Andy's (tent neighbor) sweet voice greeting us good morning, Scott's humor--he could make even the worst situation funny, Steven's smile and oh, my god, that boy smelled so good all the time, Katie's smile and the challenge to keep up with her on the route (that girl is like lightening). Kim singing to us and telling us riddles up the hills. Heather and her finding her inner gerbil. I must admit though, I have enjoyed my nice long showers and flushing toilets.

I want to thank everyone for your support both during my training an during the ride. I thought of many of you while riding.Thank you also, for following my little journey. It has been fun and I hope that you enjoyed coming along for the ride. I could not have done it with out you. Thank you again.

I hope to have some pictures for you soon so please check back in a couple days.....

Day 6

The view coming down the coast from camp Lompoc to camp Ventura was gorgeous. Most of the 84 miles were along route 101 that runs parallel to the Pacific Ocean. D was very excited to be in Ventura, finally a beach she recognizes.
Our phone call was very short because of all the things on the agenda for the Night 6 in Ventura's silent candlelight procession on the beach.
Tomorrow's ride will be 61 miles and will end at the Wadsworth Theatre Grounds, Lot #7, at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Ca 90025. Closing ceremonies will begin at 4 pm and last about 1 hour. If you are planning to go there will be special parking in lots #6 and #2 and the parking fee will be $7.00 per vehicle.
Deanne's Dad and I will be there to welcome the group to L.A.
Hopefully the next blog on this site will be from Lady D herself.
It's been fun.
D' Mom.

Day 5

Today's ride was 45 miles. There were a lot of hills. One hill had a 2 mile climb. Hills are not Deanne's favorite part of the ride. When I asked how she was doing she said "I'm still alive". That was nice to hear.
Today was the traditional "red dress day" where, as you can imagine, everyone tries to wear some sort of red outfit. I hear that there were some pretty funny get ups.
Tonight's camp is set up in Lompoc where they had a talent show and some guest speakers. The lights out curfew at 9:30 pm makes for a lot of last minute scrambling but everyone is glad to turn in since they have to get up around 4:00 am every day. Tents need to be broken down and luggage needs to be packed and ready to be loaded up for the trip to the next camp site.
The ride consists of somewhere around 1,800 bikers and about 450 roadies. Thats a lot of people, tents, and equipment to coordinate. Sounds like the ALC staff and orginizeers know what they are doing. All the roadies have several jobs. Tsufit, Deanne's tent mate, helps man road stop #2 each day. D says that Tsufit wears a different costume each day. It's all part of the fun attitude everyone seems to have.
I'm sure Deanne will have lots more to share when she gets home on Saturday.
Tomorrow night is a candle light vigil on the beach, in Ventura, to honor those that have died or are suffering from this dreadful disease. It is a very moving and solmen event.
Well, as for tonight, that's all folks.
D's mom

Day 4

Deanne and her friends celebrated crossing the half way point, from San Francisco to LA , at 9:30 this morning. They still had about 56.5 miles to go making the total for today 99 miles. Haven't heard from her since 9:30 am so can't give any more up dates for today. She probably was a little tired after being so sick yesterday. Today's camp should be in Santa Maria. The temperature was supposed to be pretty warm this afternoon.
Until tomorrow...
D's mom.

Day 3

Up early and had breakfast at 4:45 am. Left camp at 6:30 am. Rode 19 miles to the first rest stop, after being sick several times. D got a ride to the medic tent to find out that she, along with several other people, had food poisoning. She spent the entire day in the medic tent (2- I V bags) with lots of other people, many of whom also ate the fruit salad. Deanne was released from the medic tent at 3:30 pm and was glad that she didn't have to go to the hospital like some of the others. She was very grateful to the nurses who were so attentive, especially Marie, one of RNs that was on duty all day. D ate dinner and says she feels fine. She has to be checked out tomorrow morning before she can continue the ride but is anxious to get back on the course.
Hope tomorrw is a better day.
D's mom.

Day 2

Today was a very long day having left the camp (in Santa Cruz) at 7:30 am. The 106 miles, while quite beautiful, were difficult because of several hills and very windy conditions. Deanne managed to stop and have the traditional fried artichokes and visit the cookie person. These vendors set up along the route and as I said it is the tradition.
Deanne was riding with a women that was having difficulties because of a bad leg so they were somewhat behind most of the group. When her friend finally decided to catch a ride back to camp Deanne had to hustle to get to the camp in King City. She rode her bike into camp at
6:50 pm. 7:00 pm is the cut off point where they come looking for you. Thank goodness for her tent mate (Tsufit) who had the tent setup and even went with Deanne to dinner to keep her company while she ate.
Although D's knees are giving her a lot of pain, so far they have been taking turns being sore. Thank goodness for Advil.
9:30 is lights out, hopefully D's pain won't keep her awake too long. The weather was a little cool tonight.
Until tomorrow...

D's mom.

Day 1

Saturday was check in day and bike drop off at the Cow Palace and was a very hectic day.
Not having heard from Deanne yesterday,Saturday, we were getting a little worried, but felt much better after her call tonight.
ALCS Opening Ceremonies check in time was at 5:30 this morning (Sunday). Deanne fell asleep early last night and didn't have a chance to set her alarm. She woke at 5:15 am and had to scramble to get everything together and walk the 2 blocks to the Cow Palace (w/an enormous suitcase in tow) arriving at 5:33 am...well done D.
There were a lot of press, cameras, TV crews and oh ya, a lot of bike riders when the ride began at 6:30 am.
The 1st day's ride was 79 miles and ended in Santa Cruz where a very organized camp had been set up. After showers, a delicious dinner, and a quick birthday party for one of the riders it was lights out at 9:30 pm.
D's having a great time and making new friends. The temperature was already climbing as they rode just a few miles out of San Francisco. They were hoping the heat would hold off until they got further down the coast.
Tomorrow's ride will be 105 miles.
That's all for tonight.
D's mom

Arrived in San Francisco

Arrived in San Francisco about 4:30 p.m. thanks to the fantastic driving of Beth. Beth, Chris and I traveled in a van with 4 bikes and gear.
Was glad to see so many friends from team Long Beach and team Ventura.
Was pleasantly surprised to find my neighbors at the motel are none other than "Mom" and "Dad" from team Ventura.
Left the San Fernando Valley this morning where the temperature was promising to be near 100 and arrived in San Francisco to a cool 68 and overcast. Not clear enough for even a picture of the Cow Palace that is near my motel, Maybe tomorrow.

D's mom.

Opening & Closing Ceremonies

If you are interested in attending Opening or Closing Ceremonies for the AIDS/ Lifecycle 5. Click on the link below for details. Thank you and hope to see you there.
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/ceremonies.html

Site Updates During My Ride

Well, time is ticking away... and it is almost time for me to head up to San Francisco to start my ride down the coast. I am all packed and ready to go. The nerves have kicked in and I am getting very anxious. I have been talking with my fellow cyclists and we are all feeling the same way. The ALC-LA staff have made their trek up to SF today and my tent mate, Tsufit, has left Tel Aviv, Israel and is heading to LAX as I type this. I have met her on IM, but we will meet for the first time face to face in SF (she is a good friend of my Cycle Buddy Kerry). Tsufit, will be a Roadie (she was one last year too). For the rest of us, it is a waiting game, counting down the hours to our departure.

I have good news! I will be able to update my site http://www.go-girl.blogsite.com/ while on my ride. I will try and update it (either via my cell phone, via my Mom or both) each night. You can also follow the event at http://experience.aidslifecycle.org/ . The Experience the Ride link will show written travelogues, audio podcasts, event photos, and other blogs of our event. At this link you can even send me a message as well. So make sure to check back each night starting Saturday, June 3rd to see what is happening on my ride to help end AIDS/ HIV.

Please note that if I use my cell phone the messages will be rather small. I need to conserve battery life, since I will not be able to charge my phone.

Past Ride Photo Update

Check out my Tour of Two Rivers and Simi Ojai Century Ride blogs below. I've added some pictures from those 2 rides. Enjoy!

Santa Monica Bike Attack Celebration 11.? miles

In a week I'll be in San Francisco... Can you believe it? Today I rode the Santa Monica Bike Attack Celebration Ride. It was a celebration of the end of months training. Dave and Sarah, our cycle leaders, were so good to us. We all got little goodie bags that contained some very valuable goodies that we can use on our big ride. A big suprise was my Cycle Buddy Kerry and the ALC Assistant Director Sheri rode along with us as well. It was great to see Scott, Stephen, Keith, Sonia, Kim, Heather and Drew again. Sonia brought her two boys and her oldest Tyler (12yrs) got to ride with us. There were many others that rode that were such a pleasure to meet too. After our quick ride to the marina and back it was off to brunch. We all sat together sharing stories of past training rides, fears about the upcoming ride, where we are staying and how we are getting up to SF. It was so much fun. We really have become like family.





Left, the Bike Attack boys....











Left, Sonia and I

Details on my Departure

My wonderful Cycle Buddy Kerry hooked me up with her Posse and so I will be going up to San Francisco via car on Friday, June 2nd at approximately 8:00 am. Yay!! I can’t believe that the ride is almost here. I have spent the whole of 2006 up to this point preparing for this ride. I am excited, nervous, anxious and scared. I’ll have so many stories to tell and I can’t wait to tell them.

Santa Susanna Pass

Well, today I drove all the way to Ventura to find that the Ventura to Carpentaria was canceled. I didn’t let that stop me from riding. I knew that I needed to practice my hill climbing (hills are by far my weakness). I remember that Bob Mohme, my angel from the Simi Ojai Century Ride, assigned hill climbing for my homework. Well, Bob, mission accomplished. I climbed the Santa Susanna Pass today. The Santa Susanna Pass is a road that goes up, over and cuts through the mountains between Simi Valley and the West San Fernando Valley. Yay, I felt very good after I climbed over, down and then turned around and did it all over again in reverse.

Next week I do plan on doing at least one more ride, then it is off to San Francisco.

Nutrition & Hydration

On Wednesday, May 17 I had my last ALC workshop. I learned and was reminded that I need to take better care of myself with what I put in. I definitely need to drink more water and eat better. Time to start home cooking more again too. The workshop was very motivational and I learned that chocolate milk is a great recovery drink after a hard ride. Who would have thought?

Farewell to ALC Staff…Sniff..sniff

It was a bit of a sad night for me. I took this night as being the last night that I would see the staff this year. They are usually working so diligently behind the scenes during the ride that we never see them the whole week. The “fab” four as they are known, Pam, Kerry, Sheri and Sarah have all made such a difference in my life and my ride. Each one has helped to sculpt me and give me the tools and skills I need in order to successfully do this ride. A huge thank you to them all!

Pam, made me see the true reason for the ride, the cause, how bad the Aids/ HIV epidemic was and her true compassion for it. Her cute cheers and smiles at the holiday and kick off party and her joyful energy and charisma was just so contagious. After being around her and hearing her stories I could wait to get on my bike and ride.

Kerry, my wonderful Cycle Buddy and mentour was my compass. She lead me into the directions that I needed to go and helped to prepare me phyically. She told me where to go for everything from equipment to rides to advice about life. She took me under her wing, showing me what Aids Lifecycle was all about and introduced me to her friends and continued to check in on me weekly to here how my week and training had gone. She taught me never to purchase anything at full price. She also acted as my sound board hearing all of the challenges I was faces both on and off the bike.

Sheri’s, big smile and soft voice was my confirmation when I was in question or in doubt about the ride. She encouraged me and calmed my nerves about the 585 miles that were ahead of me. Just seeing her familiar face was comforting.

Sarah, oddly one of the staff that I had the least contact with had the biggest impact. She taught me the heart and attitude of the ride...by her example. I swear I could listen to her talk all day, and have recently loved reading her blogs (check them out at www.aidslifecycle.org/7). Her heart is so big and she is so genuine. I had given up hope that people like her still existed. Her attitude from the first day I met her, set an example to me of how an ALCers should act and be. She is very knowledgeable and her thirst and compassion for the cause and for people is truly inspiring and has been a huge motivator for me. One of the few regrets that I have had being involved with the ALC, is that I didn’t get to know her better. I feel that there is so much more to learn from her. That is why it was perfect that my last workshop was lead by her.

I'm going to miss the staff tremendously.

Bike Fit

I finally got a proper bike fit, thanks to Jaime at I Martin. Yay!! It was about time. I had my seat raised and had the stem on my handlebars switched out. My handle bars are closer to me now. I now have a better range in my peddle stroke as well.

Night Ride

Just went for a quick little 14 mile night ride with a friend last night (5-15-06) through the valley (on a bike path). I love riding at night. I am starting to wind down from my training so that I can give my body a chance to get stronger for the ride.

A lot of us can’t wait for the ride. We are so excited, nervous, anxious and terrified all at the same time. Only 18 days until I leave for San Francisco. Tonight I have a bike fit with one of our sponsors I Martin. My knees have been hurting me, so hopefully they will make some adjustments to my bike so that there are no more problems. Tomorrow I have a seminar and I’ll be doing another ride on Sunday though…so check back for all the deets.

Tour of Two Rivers – 117.5 miles

I joined team Different Spokes for the Tour of Two Rivers ride on Sunday, May 14th. It was so good to see familiar faces, such as Heather, Tye, Katie and Stephen. There were about 15 of us total. It was suppose to be 97.6 miles. We all met in Azusa and headed out in hopes of seeing Huntington Beach and having lunch at near the pier.

All was well until we got to Fullerton and realized that we could not find a street called Wilshire, so we ended up flagging down a Police Officer to get directions after cycling around for a while in search of the street. We found ourselves back on the correct route, but were realizing that the route map was wrong yet again, when the bike path we were suppose to take the rest of the way towards the ocean ended (I think we were in Anaheim). We flagged down yet another Police Officer where he was attending to a car accident, got directions and were back on the correct path again, until the bike path split into 2 directions. With several people on the phone and others scouting out the options, Timmy (a former Boys Scout) recommended that we following the current of the river which he believed would lead us to the ocean. Ahh, Timmy was correct and we reached PCH. But once on PCH, we did not know which way to turn to find Main Street. Luckily Tye had been in the area before and thought that we should turn right. He was correct and we headed on PCH towards Main Street.

During some indecisive route options we lost a few people from the group, but luckily our tummies think a like (we were starving & there were tons of resturants) and we ran into a few of them at the restaurant that we picked to eat at. We had not seen Katie or Stephen for the longest time and I began to worry. Funny thing as we were putting our bikes on PCH to head back (A different way from the way we came) up came riding Katie and Stephen. I was so happy to see them. We got them some water and we were together on our way back.

We were planning to ride PCH to the bike path and ride it all the way back. Simple right? Wrong! The bike path ended before we came anywhere near our ending point. Again a bunch of us got on the phones, while others scouted out the area. I called my dad (who was in Arizona with a friend who lived in a nearby city) to see if they could help us. They told us to head north and so we did. Just when we thought that we were home free, we had trouble finding the Arrow Hwy exit from the bike path (the bike path ran along a river). We were off by one street but were still able to find the main street that lead to the parking lot that we were all parked at.

When we rolled in, we heard the park ranger announcing that the park was closing in 2 minutes. Talk about cutting it close! We all rushed to get out bikes and gear packed up. What a day, I am calling this ride the Tale of Two Rivers. It was awesome to bond with my fellow cyclists. We had a blast, stuck together, and worked together as a team to get ourselves home, no arguing, no tempers, no drama. It was fun! I hope that I get to ride with these people in June.

ALC 101

On Saturday May 13th I attended ALC 101 at Griffith Park lead by my Cycle Buddy, Kerry Castillo and Assistant Director-LA Sheri Lunn. They answered questions and told us what to bring and what not to pack, information about orientation day (June 3rd), etc. Kerry even showed me some tricks on how to put up and take down a tent. It is amazing how tight she can fold a tent. She makes it look like it just came out of a brand new box. Many notes were made that day.