I wrote a bit about why I’m obsessed with cycling in a post during our 2017 Festive 500, but here are some photos from last year to show a bit of what I enjoy.
Category: ALC
AIDS/Lifecycle 2014: We Made It
and in case you just didn’t get enough ALC in the last week, here’s an official video they put out about the 2014 ride.
enjoy!!
ALC day 7: LA!
i left san francisco at 5:30 on saturday morning. mae and i had a GREAT time driving down to LA together, the hours flew by.
i got a good photo of mathew on his bike! since he’s such a fast rider, he got into LA before me and was waiting at a nearby cafe for my text when i arrived.
so proud of him!! and so happy to see him again.
cooling off.
yay! 545 miles from SF to LA in 7 days. and that’s a steel frame bike! 😉 he said he wasn’t sore at all and that he could have done the ride in 4 days!
eva and jacque were there too! they both work nights but they gave up their sleep to see mathew ride through the finish line. and it was a surprise to mathew, i didn’t tell him they were coming.
“WHY I RIDE” signed by riders. mathew didn’t get a chance to sign it but if he did, he would have written “for Jim and Jack.”
during the ride, mathew got a letter from a 3rd grader named abigale! i love how so many schools got involved in supporting the riders and the cause.
jacques and eva.
mathew couldn’t wait to take off this red nail polish!
mathew with the sisters of perpetual indulgence. some of them did the ride, but not in these costumes.
mathew and some very exuberant roadies! our friend alan is on the left and alex is on the right.
gathering their bags and walking them to the car felt so much like picking kids up from summer camp! 🙂 thankfully mae rented a mini van because we needed it! mathew shipped his bike back but we had 4 roadies, 1 rider and all their bags, which were big enough for me to fit into!
that saturday was also alex’s birthday. we took him out to dinner at fig in santa monica.
we spent the rest of the weekend with the gee sisters but have absolutely no photos of them because mae refused to have her photo taken! 🙁 but we had a fun ride home on sunday.
guess what i did on saturday..!
bella and arwen were very happy to have us home. bella was a super affectionate love bug this morning and arwen got to play outside. they each got new scratchers this morning. in the above photo i think it’s less about them sharing it and more about each one trying to claim it for their own!
ALC day 6
on day 6 mathew rode 84.3 miles from lompoc to ventura. at the lunch stop in isla vista family came to visit! above, mathew with his brother elijah.
above, with elijah, zoe, meg and deborah. zoe just turned 3 on wednesday. i’m guessing her older brothers must have been at school.
mathew sent me this photo when he got to santa barbara. one more day and he’ll be in LA! he asked me to bring nail polish remover! 😉
later that day mathew sent me this photo and called it a “2 lactaid dish”! normally mathew makes a huge effort to avoid all sugar and dairy, but there was so much ice cream on this ride, he couldn’t resist. the city of santa barbara hosts an ice cream social for them by the beach. this was mathew’s second helping! 😉
mae (stef and nancy’s sister) and i leave SF at 5:30 saturday morning and plan to arrive in LA by noon. we’ll be coordinating with mathew so we can see him when he rides to the finish line. i am determined to get a photo of him ON his bike! he said he’ll dawdle at the rest stops and lunch.
have a good weekend everyone! more updates when we return. xoxo
ALC day 5: RED DRESS DAY!
day 5 on the ALC ride is red dress day. supposedly it started as “dress in red” day and evolved into the spectacle it is today. i think some people sign up for the ride, JUST to participate in red dress day! i wish i could be there right now to see them all riding! i imagine it must be very “priscilla queen of the desert” on bikes. it’s a short ride (42 miles) today so they spend a lot of time in camp admiring each others outfits before heading out…
mathew with a couple of sriracha bottles! (thanks to kiki, on the right, for sending this photo!)
mathew says this group came all the way from CHINA to do the ALC ride!!! mathew looks like he’s enjoying his outfit. he said he borrowed the fishnet stockings from his tent-mate, ken.
here’s a photo stef took of mathew during lunch. notice he’s showing off his red fingernails? 😉 i think there was a tent in camp devoted to nail polish last night.
love this photo! stef, mathew and nancy!
i wish i could have seen all the riders on their bikes today! mathew sent me a text saying, “Yes, it was very Priscilla. There was a winding road up a hill on the way here, and the line of red cyclists looks like a red ribbon going up the hill.”
and just in case you think ALL i’ve been doing is sitting around this week waiting on updates from mathew… i got a haircut! our downstairs tenant, jennifer took the photos. i love that i’m standing in the weird back door closet! of course my hair will not look this good again until the next time i get a haircut…
and i finally finished my denyse schmidt inspired pillows! (left) front view, (right) back view. aren’t they cute? i finished the striped pillow at the end of 2013 and the brown square pillow today.
here’s a photo from kiki from day 4 of mathew and stef being silly together. 🙂
ALC day 3 + 4
mathew’s ALC day 3 update: 1) he was moved to tears by the people in bradley, especially the kids. 2) he ate a huge waffle cone and then quiche for dinner and was thankful for lactaid. 3) he said it was a great day.
around noon yesterday he sent me this photo with the caption “helen highwater at mission san miguel.” i didn’t see it until just now because it went into spam!
17 miles into day 4 he sent me this photo: half way to LA!
and then after another 17 miles he sent me this photo “Back on the coast.”
he got delayed for a few hours at lunch getting a new tire. and then had fun at rest stop 4 where the theme was “Four is the New Black.”
and here are kitty photos for a friend of mine. you know who you are! 😉
arwen being naughty!
bella enjoying her paper bag.
sisters. 🙂
ALC day 2
on the ALC ride, today is their century day, 108 miles from santa cruz to king city. mathew said it was a challenging ride but he made it into camp around 3:30 and they told him he was #120 out of 2400+ riders!
mathew sent me this photo and said, “The cookie lady (and her mom). They even made vegan cookies. Yummy.” 🙂
since i haven’t really been getting photo updates from mathew, i’ve been pretty addicted to checking out what other people are posting: https://actnow.tofighthiv.org/site/SPageNavigator/ExperiencetheEventNew.html
looked like day 2 was pretty crazy and colorful. 🙂
and luckily i’ve got friends on the inside. stef posted this photo, she and her sister, nancy are lunch roadies. yay! mathew looks HAPPY!
this photo was posted on facebook by gino. tired happy riders and roadies in camp at king city.
the ALC ride begins!
mathew and i woke up at 3:45 this morning. we were at the cow palace by 4:30. there were yummy breakfast foods to greet us and lots of tired but happy faces. there was a nervous, excited energy in the air as 2000 cyclists were getting ready to start day 1 of their ride to LA.
mathew and his training ride buddy, david. david jokingly calls mathew his “straight boyfriend.” he thinks mathew is amazing and is so in awe that heteros like him will train and fundraise to help end AIDS.
waiting for the opening ceremony to start.
as part of the opening ceremony there was a warm-up and stretching session for all of the cyclists. here, mathew and his bike-buddy, steven (they have the same bike!) do a group stretch.
during the ceremony positive pedalers (riders who are HIV positive) walked down the middle of the auditorium carrying banners that all the riders had signed the day before. in between the banners was a bicycle with no rider, symbolizing all the people we have lost to AIDS and the motivation for this fundraising ride, to end HIV/AIDS for good.
it was a teary moment as everyone stood holding hands. soon after, a very exuberant woman came out to change the mood, talking about how excited everyone’s butts were to get on their bikes, and how this will be the last time their butts will be feeling this good for the rest of the week!
i said good bye to mathew and he disappeared into the crowd of cyclists anxious to get on the road.
the first of the riders! in the foreground is our buddy alex in a green roadie t-shirt, he’s volunteering with the ride for the week.
some cyclists are serious athletes, some are newbees and most just want to have fun. can you see the teddy bear on the bike (above right)?
there was a creepy camera drone flying and hovering above the cyclists as they rode out.
in my excitement when i finally glimpsed mathew, i was yelling his name and almost forgot to take a photo! this is the only photo i caught of him on his bike. but he’s got a big smile on his face! i think he could hear me yelling, and i’m sure it feels amazing to start the ride with hundreds of fans cheering you on.
a photo with a couple of my roadie friends, alex and alan. i’ll catch up with everyone again on saturday in los angeles for the closing ceremony.
mathew will spend the morning and early afternoon riding on highway 1 along the coast. the first night’s camp is set up in santa cruz. you can read a description of each day’s route here: http://www.aidslifecycle.org/life-on-the-event/route/
and there are route sheets you can download if you want to see all the stops mathew will be making.
all week mathew has been worrying about the weather because it was forecast to be cold and drizzly leaving santa cruz tomorrow. hopefully it clears up because it’s beautiful and sunny here in san francisco today.
and in case you’re not on facebook, here are training ride photos i’ve been posting up until now.
playing on a little kid’s bike.
a short ride in tahoe wearing the jersey he got for reaching his $5k fundraising goal.
the official training ride the following day turned into “snowpocolypse”! the temp dropped to 32 degrees and it snowed for the last 20 miles of the ride! mathew was one of the few who actually completed the ride and didn’t experience any hypothermia.
i doubt there will be snow during the coming week, but if any rider gets too tired and can’t finish the day’s ride, there are sag cars to pick them up and carry them to camp. that’s what makes this a ride, and not a race.
from one of his last bay area training rides. he’s known for his “bunny ears” those fuzzy things on his helmet straps. they look strange but actually cut down on wind noise, so when other riders are yelling and struggling to hear each other, mathew seems to be able to hear conversations just fine.
i’ll post more photo updates on facebook and on this blog. hope everyone has a good week!