19,000 miles and counting...

Ride Leaders Julie Brown & Valdez Hill
(you need to worry when a ride leaders last name is "Hill")

People think its funny that I make such a big deal everytime I roll over another 1,000 miles. Yes I know plenty of people who have ridden waaay more miles than I have, I am just one of the few who actually celebrate it!

When I started riding in February of 2003, I was about 30 lbs overweight and had not been on a bicycle since I was 16. I was 40 when I started riding again, so to come all these miles and still be riding is a darn big deal to me considering I never thought I'd actually continue to ride after AIDS Lifecycle 2.


So today was the day I rolled over 19,000 miles on my bike odometer. That means I have ridden 19,000 miles with these two skinny legs (and believe me they weren't skinny when I started out!) It has taken almost 4 years to do it, but here I am still riding.

The fun thing about today's ride was not only that it was a 50 mile flat ride, but that I rolled over 19,000 miles on a ride with Bill Henry, who was with me when I rode my first 20 miles back in 2003. In fact on that ride, I fell on him twice (getting used to my new clips!).

But that's a story for another day...

Me and Bill.... I don't fall on him anymore.

Fifty Miles in December?!

Only Valdez Hill could talk me into riding a 50 mile ride the day before Christmas Eve. He has the way of innocently asking if you'll co-lead... knowing full well I don't pay attention to details, I just say "ok!".

25 or so of us rode out from Orinda BART out into the Danville/San Ramon direction. It was quite pleasant actually- relatively flat and alot of it on bike paths. We stopped at the Rising Loafer for lunch and took this group photo:


Afterwards we took the same path back to BART, my legs tired from the long ride but feeling pretty good about 50 miles in December.

I have 62 miles to go to roll over 19,000 miles on my bike! Weather permitting, I should be hitting it before the new year, probably sometime Saturday the 30th when I will be doing ANOTHER 50 mile ride with Valdez.... come out and join us!

Julie Filarca-Hoag-Brown

I ran into an old friend the other day and she told me she once tried to find me by googling my name.... Julie Filarca. Figuring I didn't have that name anymore, she gave up and instead found me through another friend... so I figured heck- I'll put my name(s) out there just in case my old friends from kindergarten really are trying to find me! :-) Oh and yes, I attended Miller Elementary School in East San Jose... right near the notorious intersection of Story and King Roads... yep, my old 'hood in El Barrio Tropicana! Ora le'

And "Hoag"? Well, that's a story for another time...

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...

I try to post photos here as often as possible, but just in case you want to see them all (rides/friends/etc) they're HERE

There are various pages and the titles are at the top of the page, all you have to do is click on 'em.

I don't always get the chance to update this blog after a ride, but if I take pictures on a ride I'll usually have them on the webpage.... can you tell I'm gearing up for ALC training season???

"Fifth Time's A Charm"

I did it. I registered for my 5th AIDS Lifecyle ride. Glenn and Dave guilted me into it, so now I have to talk Michael in to riding one more time AND still saving vacation time up for a trip to Italy in October..... guess there are worse things I could be complaining about!