Thank you for visiting our training and fundraising blog! We both must reach 2/3 of our $3000 goal ($2000) by March 15th. PLEASE HELP US GET THERE!
Donate to Clay
Donate to Lisa
This weekend Lisa and I rode our first official AIDS/Lifecycle training ride together, and it was great. We joined about 50 other riders in the Marina District in San Francisco at the brisk hour of 8:30am on Saturday. We were as rested as we could be and ready to take to the roads of Marin County. As we kicked off the ride, we immediately hit the Golden Gate Bridge to lead us up a steep climb to the top of the Marin Headlands. For those of you who aren't from the Bay Area, the Marin Headlands are the hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County as it meets the Golden Gate Bridge (which leads to San Francisco). It's an absolutely gorgeous spot that looks down over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline.
We both made it to the top and managed to smile for this photo, but I can't say this climb was an easy feat by any stretch! It's a pretty tough way to start your day!
After our rest at the top, we descended down and through the Headlands hills, down to Rodeo Beach, then out through Sausalito, and from there, we rode to Tiburon. Lisa says she's done this "Tiburon Loop" ride about 25 times in the past (but not anytime recently), but I had only done it once and had no idea where we were going. At one point we got a little lost. Luckily a really nice ALC rider named Brian helped us find our way. Thank you, Brian!
We briefly took a break, meeting some nice fellow riders over a "mini lunch," and quickly set off to finish this ride as quickly as possible.
The Golden Gate bridge is under construction so only one side of the bridge is open. Normally cyclists take one side and pedestrians the other. Currently pedestrians and cyclists share one side together, so crossing the bridge during the middle of of a weekend day was pretty crowded and stressful. Thankfully we made it, and both made it back to the car in around 4 hours. We rode 46 miles! That's our longest ride yet this training season. This ride was a reminder about how physically and emotioally challenging training can be. Today I am pretty sore and Lisa is suffering from a cough that started as she climbed the Headlands.
It's easy to feel like you just want to throw in the towel when you feel so exhausted. But we are resolved! We are going to just keep at it and we'll be increasing our mileage each week. We can do this!
We need your help! We're not training for ALC just for the love of cycling. We're doing this to raise funds and awareness for the SF AIDS Foundation, to reduce new HIV infections, and reduce the stigma of the HIV virus. We are doing it in memory of our friends who've died of AIDS and in honor of our friends who live with HIV everyday. We're very commited to this cause and can't do it without you!
There are less than 100 days left until our bicycles depart San Francisco and head to Los Angeles. We ask you donate to us today. We both must reach 2/3 of our $3000 goal by March 15th. We dare you to donate $1 for every mile we rode this weekend. That'd be $46!
Donate to Clay
Donate to Lisa
Thank you, friends and family!
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