ALC8 Day One
May 31, 2009
Alright – now I might not be able to charge my laptop for this entire trip so I’ve got to make these entries short and sweet!
This morning at 3:45 Chris, me, and, I presume, Michael, all woke up to get ready to head down to the Cow Palace to start AIDS/Lifecycle 8 San Francisco to Los Angeles! Actually, Michael and I woke up to actually ride it and Chris woke up to be a saint and drive us over. Sadly (so so sooooo sadly) Chris couldn’t do the ride this year 
So anyways, thousands of cyclists and roadies (volunteers who help do pretty much EVERYTHING throughout the week) gathered for opening ceremonies and the ride out!
Google sponsored the event through the Gayglers (our gay Googler group), which meant the Google team got to ride out right up at the start! This was particularly great because there are over two thousand riders… and that’s a lot of people to start riding all at the same time. Especially through San Francisco.
Basically the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful for me. I stopped at a few rest stops and got to see some pretty amusing themes (like a bunch of guys dressed in 50’s poodle skirts and belly shirts) and made a new bike buddy! After lunch I ended up riding right with a girl named Leslie for pretty much the rest of the ride (an additional 40 miles). I was particularly grateful because I don’t really know *that many people on this ride and of the people I do know from work, none of them ride my speed 
I arrived at camp at ~1:15PM after our 80 mile ride and was quite surprised to see that not too many people had arrived yet. This was awesome because it meant I got to take a shower with no line!! Yippieeeee!
After we all got our tents set up (thanks Michael!) a few of us decided to go to Costco (right outside our tent city) to see if there was anything delicious and/or useful. And, right when we finished with that Chris had arrived! He came to see me the first night since we were just in Santa Cruz!! After hanging out around camp for a while Chris took me out to a yummy Italian dinner in preparation for our 106 mile ride tomorrow.
After dinner and some hanging around Chris had to go so I walked him to his car and begged him to stay for about thrity minutes. But, sadly, he didn’t give in. So now I’m in my tent typing with Michael messing around with his iphone.
Time for bed! Tomorrow will be my (technically) first over 100 mile ride!
Oh but before I forget, I just want to say a very special thank you to Chris. Not only did he donate to me and Michael, he helped pack me (and by “helped” I really mean he just packed me), he made sure I had everything I needed, and he sat with me through all the day zero packet pickup lines. He’s a saint and I’m really very very grateful! I will miss you so much, baby!!
-Heather
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4 Responses to “ALC8 Day One”
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Good luck tomorrow, baby! You’re gonna rock your first century! I wish I could be there. Muah!
Chris
I hope that the first 100 miles are treating you well! Kick some arse!
Congrats on your first day Heather…and looking forward to more posts. Sounds like you are off to a great start. How cool that Google got to start on the front. You can do it!!
XO, Melissa
good luck, Heather. Sounds like you are having a fun ride. I was thinking of you and wishing you luck all day! Can barely wait to read the rest of your posts. Muah!!!XXXOOO