And we're off!

Hello and welcome to our AIDS Life/Cycle 2012 training and fundraising blog!

From June 3-9, 2012, we're riding 545-miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles to benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS. We'll be training from now until then to prepare. Lisa did the ride in 1999 and Clay did it in 2007. We are both avid cyclists and are really excited about embarking on this challenge together.

Today marked our first joint training ride. We loaded our bikes onto our new racks (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and drove out to Orinda. From there we rode to the town of Hercules and back to Orinda, which is about 30 miles. It's a ride we've done many times, so there were no surprises. Clay's been training since early January, but this was Lisa's first major training ride (she was traveling for most of January), so we decided to do something easy.

It was so cold when we first started out, but we managed to warm up as we approached Pinole and by the time we climbed back up Castro Valley Ranch Road we even took our jackets off (see photo above).

We're really excited to be training together (finally). We'll be posting weekly updates on our training progress and adventures.

We both continue to fund raise as part of our effort, and rely on your support to meet our respective $3000 goals. You can donate to Clay here and Lisa here. Thank you for your support.

112 days to go!

Clay and Lisa