June 2005 ALC4 Day 0
Pictured above right to left; me, Jack, John & me of the SBC AIDS Ride team on Day 0.
I love cycling. The only thing I dislike is that everything starts sooo early in the morning. I couldn't sleep the morning of Day 0, awoke at 3:00 am "this is it!" I got up, got coffee, obsessed over packing and headed over to the Cow Palace.
I arrived at 8:00 am was waved into the entrance by a slew of volunteers in 3-peice suits. Why so many volunteers, why are they all men and why are they in 3 peice suits?
Ok, maybe it's the fabulous pit stop 4 crew already in costume. Nooo, I have just parked right smack dab in the middle of a Religious convention. I went ahead and used the space, it was fun riding through the crowd with my pink fake flower lei, pink helmet with purple mermaid on top and pink Velo Girls jersey and vest, I sorta stood out, ya think?
First I found bike parking and SBC teammate Jack with his cusomized "Black Widow" road bike. Team captain John Hronowski and his faithful bike "Ferdinand" arrived shortly after. At 9:00 am we parked our bikes. They'd be gaurded overnight by our amazing crew. We then headed in for the super-top-secret-early-first-run-showing-of-the-safety-vi deo -that-no-one-was-supposed-to-know-about...along with hundreds of others.
After the video we got the orange wrist bands we'd wear the entire ride. Then I completed registration and reserved my tent. This year an improvement; you no longer have to arrive at tentmate registration with your tentmate. Thanks crew! Much easier than before.
You could feel the excitement. I saw riders and crew I hadn't seen since ALC 3 and some from AIDS Ride 4 in 1997. David McDevitt was there to greet riders and crew and guide them through registration. For some it was their first ride and they looked nervous. The volunteers were all great and it seemed that everyone pitched in to answer questions.
I went back home, picked up my luggage, Leslie gave me a ride to the hotel. I learned from Kathy (tentmate on ALC3) a stay in the city the night before reduces stress on Day 1.
I was supposed to meet up with rider Tripp Reed from Washington DC to share a cab the next morning. After checking in I left to get a bite to eat. As I crossed the street a tall handsome blond man got out of a taxi. I just knew it was Tripp.
It was!
At Mels Diner we talked about our reasons for riding, his family and mine and bikes of course. He's a great guy and we'd see a lot of each other on the road.
