There and Back

If you've read my blog, you know that the month before the Aids Ride was very intense ... and not related to the ride (bought a house, sold a house, sprained my ankle, agreed to a 20 day escrow). Since I got back from LA on June 11, I have been doing nothing but moving out of my shop and studio. And now, in about an hour, we are driving down to Emeryville to catch a train to New York.

All that is by way of apology for not sharing with you, in a more timely fashion, my experience on the ride. I have literally collapsed every evening. So this will be brief.

Memories of the ride:

The diversity of riders – the oldest was 78, the youngest 16. There were couples of all gender pairings, pairs of all familial relationships - brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, sisters, mothers and sons, etc. And the reasons for participating were wide ranging also, and the specific stories that motivated individuals were quite moving.

Thursday was called “red-dress day.” Nearly every rider was wearing red, mostly dresses.

My training was more than adequate – there was no day where I thought I would die, give up, or wonder about a masochistic gene. The longest day was 105 miles, the shortest 65. But riding every day for seven days was an all consuming task. No sitting around the campfire toasting marshmallows. In bed by 10, up by 5, on the road by 7! The routine was dominated by eating, sleeping, and riding. Showering came next, and socializing when not moving, came last. Especially for individuals riding alone.

Getting a tentmate randomly assigned was fine. Matt is a pre-school teacher in San Francisco. It was the second time he rode, and he was riding to honor a friend. About 34 years younger, he was faster than I and comfortable sleeping in … so I only had to set up the tent once and tear it down once!

I actually suffered a very sore knee the first day … a long cold climb up Skyline Boulevard out of San Francisco did me in. I decided I would stop at every rest stop, ice my knees, take the maximum allowed quantity of ibuprofen, and just keep on. Every rest stop had a medical service and they always had ice. So every 20-30 miles I took a break for about 30 minutes. By Thursday afternoon my knee felt better and I didn’t ice at all on Friday or Saturday.

The scale of the ride is very difficult to conceive. 2300 riders, 480 roadies supporting us. A community of almost 3000 people in a different place every night! The technology for doing this evolved from emergency response activities. The 6 - 18 wheel trailers and tractors that were the shower houses are apparently the same vehicles used by large fire fighting crews across the west. Setting up to feed 2800 people in a different place every 24 hours also requires fantastic logistics. The kitchens are also rolling facilities!

In 7 days, in this wild community of diverse motive and background, inclination and orientation, I didn’t hear one bitchy comment. Not one! As the director of the Gay and Lesbian Center of Los Angeles said during the “news” one evening, the community we were making found ‘differences’ interesting not frightening!

Preparing for the ride, I learned a lot about my body, its needs for food and water and electrolytes. It was surprising how many people suffered from dehydration … and we had cool weather … not too hot, not too cold. In places where it has been as hot as 105 degrees, it was under 80! So stopping to care for my knees also meant I had a banana, and some water, and some peanuts. Protein, potassium, water, sugar … all necessary in large quantities.

I think I ate the equivalent of two breakfasts and two dinners almost every day! The food was better than dorm food and quite varied and satisfying. There were some complaints that there wasn’t enough fiber, but there certainly was enough protein and carbs.

As you might guess it was a deeply moving experience and energizing. I already signed up to ride next year. We raised, together, a record $11,000,000 dollars.

I learned about some of the projects that are possible because of these funds. One in particular struck me as particularly significant. The San Francisco Aids Foundation has a subsidiary, the Pangaea Global Aids Foundation which has supported a clinical program of drug therapy for HIV in China for 4 years - 110,000 HIV positive individuals were treated and their viral load was reduced to “undetectable.” The protocol has been adopted by the Chinese government.

Well, now I have to say goodnight, I mean good morning.

Thank you again for your support of my small role in this effort.

Richard
Was rider #5589