The Recap...Day Zero, Day One

It's been a little over a week since the ride ended in Brentwood June 7th. I caught a nasty headcold which soon turned into a nice sinus infection once I returned home, so I haven't really gotten a good chance to recap all that happened on The Ride those seven days. I'll try now, although I'm sure my memory will not be able to recall all the fun things.

Jott.com worked great! It did only give me 30 seconds to record, and when you talk as fast as I do sometimes it makes it difficult to decipher what I say. Thus some of the weird words that came through on my blog. Oh well, I knew I would get a chance to tell you more, so here goes.


Day Zero- Orientation Day. I was lucky enough to be part of the Safety Video team this year, which meant introducing the video and providing additional information to participants 7 times that day. Yes, from 9am to 4:30 I said the same things over and over; "One Rider, One Town, One Permit". I think they all got it. It was loads of fun for me, talking up what to expect, ad libbing when necessary and basically getting folks thru one of the most tedious and yet most important parts of the process of the week, what we expect of our participants and what they should expect of each other. Luckily I had spent the days prior going through my packing checklist and making sure everything was ready to go, so that the next morning (Day 1) I was able to only worry about packing my toothbrush into my toiletries bag and putting the bag in the duffle. All done with no problems. I took my usual pre-ride dose of 1 tylenol p.m. tablet and hit the sack around 9pm knowing I'd have to be up at 3:30.

Day One- Can we say "the best laid plans...."? I had planned to swing over to Greenbrae to pick up Sarah at 4:15 with no problem that morning. Mike who was obviously not quite awake drove down Sir Francis Drake Blvd and all of a sudden had a brain fart. He could not follow my directions and kept debating the directions I was giving him.... finally I called Sarah and re-stated the directions to Mike (which were the same as I had been saying!) and we finally got to her place and we were on our way. I was told to be at the Cow Palace by 5am for a rehearsal of Opening Ceremonies, which I was to take part in.

My friend Sarah

No problem, we pick up Sarah at 4:15 (now 4:30) and head over the bridge down 19th to Alemany, just as I had in the last 2 days when I had to be at the Cow Palace for meetings and Day Zero. Just one problem, Mike decided in his infinite wisdom to instead take a different route-- again not being all the way awake he made a couple of wrong/missed turns and once again we were lost , was this a sign of the week to come??? aargh. By now it was 5am and I was not going to be there in time.

Long story short, we made it to the Cow Palace in once piece. I quickly handed off my bag to gear truck D and hightailed it into the Cow Palace. After a quick go round of our duties escorting the Riderless Bike with Kurt, I for once felt a little bit calm. I made a quick visit to my bike to make sure all was good, got my stuff attached (mostly helmet, gloves, etc for a quick dash) and headed back to our meeting place. Soon the stretching started, and that was our signal to get organized for opening ceremonies.

My sister Cyndy volunteered to serve breakfast (at 4:30am!) that morning, so I did a mad dash to say hi and give her a hug before I made my way over. Luckily she was also able to watch Opening Ceremonies, so it was nice to have a family member share in that moment!

In all of my 5, now 6 years of doing the Ride, this will forever go down as the most memorable and most honored events for me. A week prior I had been asked by ALC Staff if I would be willing to escort the Riderless bike along with Kurt Schade in Opening Ceremonies, of course I agreed.

The Riderless Bike procession is a tradition each year. The bike is brought in to Opening Ceremonies as a reminder of those who can no longer ride with us, and a chance for us to remember those for whom we ride. It is quite an emotional time, and being part of the procession which included many of my Positive Pedaler friends, was truly an honor for me that I will never forget and I know that Kurt felt the same.

After that procession, the rest of the morning was a blur. I was lucky enough to ride out with the Positive Pedalers, which means I was one of the first people out of the gate and onto the road for Day 1 of ALC 7. I had worked very hard all season for that one privilege of riding out early, and that was all that I asked for.

Michael, Donald and I rode together for most of the route. Somewhere along the way (I think it was at lunch!) we hooked up with David.
The day was so clear, no fog, no major opposing wind. I enjoyed my position in the Ride. Most folks knew I was riding and that I was TR coordinator so when I had to "correct people very nicely" I had no qualms about doing so. Luckily there were no major problems I saw (of course I'm sure people riding around me were on their best behavior so I can't really say I had a true pulse of what was going on), and generally people were pretty courteous.

I think for a lot of people, that first day of riding underscored why our rules are so tedious and specific. (In reading folks blogs in the last week, that was the common theme: "I NOW know why ALC has such strict rules..." )

It was 11:30 when we hit the lunch stop. My sis Cyndy met us at San Gregorio beach with sandwiches from Subway, fresh cherries and bags of chips! woohoo! We would forego the chewy chicken sandwiches for one day.

Me & Cyn at San Gregorio Lunch stop

Soon we were back on Hwy 1 south, with a fierce tailwind! We were so happy to stop in Davenport for iced coffees and sweets.

Me, Michael, Donald and David at our coffee stop in Davenport.

Soon it was back on the bike and a quick ride in to Camp 1- Santa Cruz. Michael and I soon got our ALC camping together rhythm going and got the tent up and got ourselves cleaned up (wearing matching t-shirts, no less) and over to dinner. It was fun to pass by so many familiar faces and get to say hi to my newbie riders, some who had made it in to camp waaay earlier than me! After dinner Yoichi, Michael and I headed over to the massage tent where there were nice foam rollers to go roll on. OW! I hate foam rollers. But I also know that they are the only thing that get me thru a week on the ride.

"NOOOOOOoooooo!"

Soon we headed back to our tents and promptly passed out. And I didn't even wake up in the middle of the night to use the porta pottie ( of course I did get up at 4am, about 45 minutes before I needed to, to beat the porta pottie line!)