Day 7 - The Big Finish!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You have to shove it in.  I have a tiny hole." - overheard by someone at a rest stop.  The guy was talking about shoving big pieces of ice into the small neck of his water bottle. Get your minds out of the gutter! :)

Today was awesome.  Hot, lots of time on the highway, stressful hills, but filled with the anticipation of finishing and seeing my loved ones at the finish line.

I had great energy and was abuzz, like most others, with the excitement of the finish.  However, as we were passing through a small town outside of Ventura, we had a small crash.  A girl in front of Craig slammed on her brakes as we crossed some big nasty train tracks.  His tire hit hers and took him down - hard.  I had to work to not literally run over him.  It was scary...  In working to avoid that, the lady behind me hit my tire and that took her down.  Luckily, Craig was not injured but his bike - Mrs. Ritchie -  was all jacked up in the front and he had to ride in to the first rest stop with no front brakes.  A quick stop at bike tech had her up and running fine though!

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  Our entire crew enjoyed lunch at the last stop - which was just under the hill from Pepperdine University.  It was gorgeous with the sea spread out at our feet as we ate and commiserated with each other about our excitement and exhaustion. 

The last stretch up San Vicente in LA was torturous, just because it seemed as if it would never end.  We got separated a little bit but had agreed at lunch to wait at the final turn for each other so we could all cross together.

It was amazing.  I saw my brother, my brother in law, his mom, his brother all in a group, then a few hundred feet later, I saw Adam and Big Sir, one of my two best friends in SF.  It was so special to see them all there, cheering me on.

Closing ceremonies were nice, but a bit too long.  And HOT.  I got sunburned a little more during them and ended up skipping out early.  Adam and I drove over to Rancho Cucamonga to spend the rest of the weekend with Philip and Craig. It was soooo nice to just have the down time and not do really ANYTHING but sleep and eat. YAY!

This has easily been the most difficult thing I've ever done physically and one of the most challenging mentally as well.  I'm already going through withdrawal from the spirit and energy of the ride.  I'm trying to remember that my super-short temper and agitation is from that. It takes a while.  I'm sure I'll be a bit of a crabby bitch at work too for a few days.   What's new? HA!

I promise to come back and post pictures. Unfortunately, my camera was liberated from my bag somewhere between the Ontario and Oakland airports.  Luckily, I downloaded my photos to Craig's macbook before we returned home, so I have all my pics.  That's the most important part.  He's going to mail me a CD and then I'll go in and pepper my posts with some more pics.

Again - I had the easy job - riding and talking about it.  For those of you who did - thanks so much for reading.  If you've ever thought about doing this event - stop thinking and just sign up.  Do it.  It has the power to change your life in ways you can hardly imagine.

This is the shining star, signing off.
Stay classy everyone,
Shawnie D.
XOXOXOXOXO

   

Day 6 - To Ventura

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "A goat is a baby sheep." - overheard by my sis-in-law, Eliza at the lunch stop.  The speaker was DEAD serious.  For realz, y'all.

I am SO freaking tired I cannot even begin to tell you.  My knees hurt.  I wouldn't have ridden in today if it hadn't been for Craig.  He's so awesome.

I cannot wait to finish tomorrow.  I cannot wait to see my brother, my best friends and my boyfriend at the finish line.  I cannot wait to ride across that line and share this amazing accomplishment with my friends and family.

But now, I am so tired, I've got to get some sleep.

For those of you who have read - thank you.  It has been a challenge and an honor to be a set of eyes and ears to those of you not on the ride.  Maybe a few of you will be able to join us next year?

I will amend today's post, write about Ride-In and add pictures to each day from home this weekend.

 

Here's the amendment:  Day 6 was great - but long.  I just reached a level of exhaustion I never thought possible.  There were more hills. BLECH.  It was long.  And one of the most stressful things about being a newer rider has been feeling like I'm racing against the clock. 85 miles is a long day.  But if you don't make it out of a rest stop by the time it closes, you are automatically sagged.  So even though you go at your own pace, you still are in essence "timed".  On the shorter days, it doesn't matter so much, but on the 85+ days? IT MATTERS. :)

I've done it.  Because I'm a shining star.  By the way - that's one of Adam's nicknames for me.  No, I'm not that conceited. It was my shout out to him.

Stay classy everyone,
Shawnie D.

Day 5 - Red Dress Day and LOTS of Climbing

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "...waking up at the crack of Shawn" - coined as I had my head in my tent and my ass hanging out in the row, and my crack was showing (nice, huh?) and JT made a comment about it.

Today was the infamous Red Dress Day.  My crew and I, for the most part, just wore red.  Jessica spiced things up a little bit with a tiny red tutu.  It looked so short (the length of the crenilin) that we joked that she lurked outside of a dance studio and beat up a six-year old to get it.  But rest assured, no small children were harmed in the acquisition of Jessica's tutu.

Just like last year, the ingenious costumes were boundless and the overall mood of the day was great.  I had even recovered from my Day 4 crap-mood.  I had my Achilles tendons taped up by my awesome buddy Andi in Sports Med.  (ANDI ROCKS!!! - I need to get a picture with her and post it.)  They held up.  Today was quite short in comparison to the other days, but to me, it was the most climbing I've ever done in one day.  IT WAS TOUGH.  But I locked into a rhythm on each hill and chilled out and just pushed and pedaled and pushed and pedaled.

I'm going to up load a few pics here that I snapped of Red Dress Day - not my best work - but the sea of Red is pretty impressive...

 

Day 4 - The Evil Twins and My Evil Attitude

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "This ain't glamorous..." - Craig, talking about a myriad of things about the ride that just aren't "pretty" - like seeing someone dig into their pants to smear butt butter all over their hiney.

I warned you that people get crabby on day 4.  I was no exception.  However, today I woke up in a pretty good mood.  The knee was great, the Achilles tendon wasn't too too tight.  It looked like it would be a good day.  The weather was also pretty swell. 

We climbed the "Evil Twins" - which on any other day wouldn't be so evil if we hadn't already been biking so many miles.  But given the amount of effort we've put in thus far, they were not fun. They were deal-able though.  And the best part was right at the top of the second hill, we broke over the crest and saw the ocean and were at the half-way mark to LA!  When I saw the ocean, and the hills, I began to weep on my bike.  I have just never been an outside kinda guy....until moving to California.  And the state and it's beauty are changing me.  I was so moved by the beauty and wonder of creation that went into making what lay before me.  It was inspirational. 

And yes, we all took pictures - but I forgot my camera in my bag in my tent. But tomorrow is a short day so I promise to catch up on inserting pics into my posts when I have the free time.  Today was SO long (again - 97.7 miles!), I barely have time to shower, blog and eat before it's time to get to sleep and do it all over again.

So earlier I said my mood was good. That all changed around lunch.  My knee and Achilles seriously began to hurt again.  Then after lunch, at around mile 73, I pulled over.  Craig and Philip were with me, and stopped too.  It was all I could do to not burst into tears from frustration and exhaustion.  I absolutely didn't feel like I had another ounce of energy with which to pedal.  I thought I was going to have to sag.

But Craig, being the amazing individual he is, totally rallied me and encouraged me and got me to eat, drink and get back on Clyde (my bike).  We made it the additional 11-12 miles into Rest Stop 4, ate again (we eat A LOT) and then got back on for the final 11.7 miles into camp.  So I completed every mile again today.  I almost didn't, but THANK YOU CRAIG for inspiring me and encouraging me. I am so lucky to be experiencing this ride with you and Philip.  I love you both!!

Ok - I am clean, but now tired and HUNGRY.  Please go back and re-read the story about Tiffany from yesterday.  I ran into her at breakfast and had gotten the story a little incorrect about the orange bike.  I'd like you to know the real deal.  Hey - I was about half-asleep when I posted last night :)

Four days down.  Three more to go - and I can do them - because I'm a shining star.

Stay classy everyone,
Shawnie D.

Day 3 - The Legendary Quad-Busters

QUOTE OF THE DAY - "You're a tough butt to crack!" - Eliza to Jessica, when Jess admitted to our group that her butt never really hurts. :)

Day 3 is called Quad Busters because there is a pretty steep, albeit short in distance hill.  Everyone said if I'd climbed White's Hill in Marin, I'd be fine.  The problem is, I'd never climbed White's hill after camping and riding 2 days solid prior...so it was tough given what I've been through so far.  I made it.  I did stop at a mid-point along the way to recover some of my run-away heartrate, but I made it.  We all did in my little group.  NICE JOB!

Overall the day was sunny and hot and the scenery was gorgeous.  The mileage was short with lots of fun, cruising flats.  I spent the majority of my day on my big ring up front, jamming along 17-20 mph. Not bad with the residual knee stuff - but once again, the Sports Med team must be commended... and how could I forget to mention Andi, who was completely awesome as well.  The whole group is super nice and knowledgeable and great. THANKS SPORTS MED!!!!

Last night, at dinner, I ran into a cyclist I had the pleasure of meeting and riding the last 7-8 miles into Santa Cruz with on Sunday afternoon.  Her name is Tiffany and she is from San Jose.  This is her 8th ride.  I sat down beside her last night and we chatted further.  Besides being completely adorable, she is a really great person.  She has been mentoring a girl through an organization in San Jose since the girl was 6.  Her mentor was born with HIV.  She will be turning 18 after next year's ride.  Ever since she was young, she has known that Tiffany  had been participating and it was related to HIV.  She has even come and seen Tiffany ride into LA a few times.  She had seen the Positive Pedalers and said "I want an orange flag too!"  She wants to ride the ride with Tiffany the following year which will be Tiffany's 10th year.  They plan to do the ride on a tandem bike.  And she will get her orange flag.  Totally awesome...

My initial reaction was to feel sad that the little girl was born into such a rough situation, but then I realized that with the help of education and research, her story doesn't have to be a sad or tough one.  She is lucky to have loving and caring individuals like Tiffany who mentor her and who can help her self-actualize her situation and do so without stigma or shame.  Meeting folks like Tiffany and hearing her story are yet another reason I do this event.

Ok - not much else to report. We're in Paso Robles, tomorrow is 97.7 miles on the odometer and after climbing two hills they call "the evil twins" - we reach the legendary half-way mark to LA.  Yes - I will most definitely be taking a  picture of me and posting it.

Send thoughts of love and support to me, my fellow riders and the roadie crew and staff.  We all need it.  Day 4 is typically a "breaking point" of sorts where exhaustion creeps into our heads and things get a little dicey.  But not to fear, Red Dress Day turns everybody back around. :)

My knee will hold out and I'll beat the evil twins because I'm a shining star.

Stay classy everyone,

Shawnie D.

Day 2 - Pulling into King City on many more wheels than 2

NOTE:  I meant to institute a daily quote of funny stuff I heard on the ride each day.  I had a GREAT quote from Day 1 and totally forgot to include it in my rush to go consume as many calories as quickly as humanly possible last night.  So please go BACK to yesterday's quote and read it.... I promise it's worth it.  You'll also notice a few pics at the end of the post. Sorry - the camera didn't make it out of it's case during today's ride.  Deal with it. :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY:  "Philip, I'm going to beat that good mood out of you." - Shawnie D.

Woke up at 5:00 a.m. today - thinking, we'll get out by 6:30 (when the route opens).  I felt like I was totally discombobulated and kept forgetting things and felt like I was running in slo-mo.  Or maybe that's slo-homo. :)

Me, Philip, Craig, Brian and Terry got on the road and almost immediately, the knee thing was acting up. Boo.  It took 40 forevers to get the hell out of Santa Cruz due to so many people leaving camp at once and lots of stop lights, etc.  So at Rest Stop 1, Craig kindly gave me his knee strap - a thing that puts pressure under the patella and helps to track it back into the right place.  I rode about 2 miles with and took it off, as I thought it might be actually making things worse.  Once I took it off, I realized no, it was just not helping. 

I rode through to lunch and then followed the PT's instructions and spoke to Sports Med.  Kim - my very sweet PT - poked around and devised a low-pressure band ABOVE the knee, hoping that would redistribute a little of the force of the muscle across the muscle and help the pain.  It didn't, but I kept it on anyway.  I helped two girls change a flat tire (since I'm so good at it now) and then caught up to JT and Eliza.  We were on this like 20-mile stretch of flats that had an almost imperceptible downhill grade, but enough to know because we were cooking along at like 20 mph with some, but not terrible effort. I also got to ride a short bit with 3 rad chicks named Megan (sp?), Jess and Kirsten. An apple was eaten while riding, an insult was thrown, word were exchanged.  Nah - it was fun and funny!! :)

At Rest Stop 3, which was roughly 63ish miles, I made the decision to sag (stop for the day).  I thought it was better to skip out on 40 miles and get taken care of at Sports Med and then be able to ride tomorrow.  I could probably have pushed through and finished, but bet I would have likely NOT been able to mount the bike tomorrow.  This was a VERY hard decision to come to.  I sort of felt like I was letting down a bunch of people - my family, my friends, my sponsors.  But then I decided better to take care of myself and ride more rather than less of the ride.

Once back in camp, I went to Sports Med and they invasively stripped my VMO and it should be fine tomorrow.  I'm going in early (pre-ride) to have it taped as a precaution, but it already feels better. Brien, you're the MAN!!!

So on the bus, I met Taya, from Sonoma.  She and I had a great conversation on the sag bus, sharing our stories, our past and our impressions of the ride.  I know when I came home last year, lots of people thought I had spent a week with a descendant of Jim Jones, drinking Kool-Aid (or should I say PowerAde - proud sponsor of ALC7?).  It's really comforting to talk with fellow riders/roadies and see that we loosely share the same great feelings about this event.

Taya shared with me a really special quote from an email from a friend of hers, who wrote to her before she left.  She was so touched that she printed it out and decided to share it with others.  Fortunately, she shared it with me - and here it is:

"If you find yourself ready to put on boxing gloves and beat yourself for catching a ride at the end of the day, please remember what a gift you are to the greater community and how much better we are all are for knowing you, whether there are 2 wheels underneath you or 4."

I typically feel the universe gives us what we need, when we need it.  Sometimes it is in a pretty package like the slip of paper Taya so graciously shared with me (THANK YOU, TAYA!), and sometimes it's a little harder to discern.  But keep listening... you'll hear it.

Even though I sagged, I am still a shining star! :)
Stay classy everyone,
Shawnie D.

Day One Down, Six More to Go!

Well -- by evidence of my sitting at a laptop with a wireless card, I have made it into camp on Day 1.  I biked 79 miles today from the Cow Palace in San Fran into Santa Cruz.  The majority of our day was spent on Highway 1 - it was freaking BEAUTIFUL!!

The morning started a little hectic though... I spent the night at my boyfriend's apartment, and he was crashed out so I set the alarm clock.  Being technologically savvy (or at least so I thought!), I figured I had set it correctly - I had set it many times before... and I went to sleep. 

I shot up in the bed at 5:08 a.m.  Well, that's 5:08 a.m. BERGER TIME.  Subtract 24 minutes to reach everyone-else time. So I woke at 4:44, which was exactly one minute from the time I had envisioned LEAVING his apartment.  YIPES!  So I jumped up and was freaking out... "babe, get up - we overslept - GET UP NOW!".  Thank god he loves me because he put up with me, helped me remain as calm as possible and helped get me out the door and on my way. 

The rest of the day was much less uneventful, thankfully.  I had a great time meeting a bunch of new people and riding with my friends and family and running into newish acquaintances that I'd made along the training rides in San Francisco.

The last 6-7 miles found my right knee acting up a bit and painful.  However, I visited medical and they said my VMO (look it up, I can't remember the words she said!) was strained, it's a garden-variety cycle injury and nothing major at all. Yay! So she did some muscle manipulation and it feels better.

Technically - I made it through with 3 dropped chains and only one flat, which, because I have changed so many of the danged things during my training, I was able to complete that task in just about 4 minutes and be back an on my merry way.

So after medical and showering (one of the best feelings in the world with 80 miles of road grit on you),and blogging, I'll be off to the mess tent to stuff my face - I AM SO HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!! I left my camera in my tent, so I'll have to download some pictures from today during my post time tomorrow and add them if I think some folks might want to see them. :)

I'm just going to throw it out there that if you've never traveled down the 1 from SF, DO IT.  Seriously, it is a gorgeous reminder of what I am constantly reminded of whenever I ride my bike - California is ridiculously beautiful.   Really - go do it.  You'll be glad you did.

Ok - I am tired, slightly cranked and ready to CHOW THE HELL DOWN.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Don't make it hard for me to eat you..." - Jessica, speaking to a hard-to-eat half of a PB-n-J at Rest Stop 1.

 

Tomorrow is 105 miles - but I can do it - I'm a shining star ;)

Stay classy everyone -

Shawnie D

NEWLY ADDED PICS FROM DAY 1:

Nervous, Anxious and Excited

So the hours are dwindling down.  The time is nigh, so they say in odd old-language movies or Mel Brooks films perhaps.  But it is definitely down to the wire.

I have a LOT of emotions running though me right now:

Anxiety

• Will all of the training I've done be enough? 
• Will I be able to uphold the expectations of all the tremendous people in my life who have contributed to my fundraising and supported me throughout my training? 
• Will the apple of my eye - my girl Charlie (a 60-lb pit bull who calls me Daddy) miss me?
• Will the 20-month old Tiny Pink (my sorta-niece) remember me when I return?

Excitement

• Getting to experience this life-altering event AGAIN, and this time with a completely different perspective than last year as a Roadie. (yay Food Service!!)
• Getting to experience this event with some of my extended family and really dear friends - some of which I made during ALC6. (I love you Philip and Craig!!!)
• Watching my sister-in-law tackle this 545-mile journey along side me, a fellow "newbie" to road-biking, who just celebrated her one year birthday of the THREE artificial disks in her spine. GO LIZEY P GO!!! I am so proud of you!! And her ultra-fab partner JT!!
• Having the opportunity to get to know my new tent mate - Jessica - a really cool lady I was fortunate enough to meet recently.

Humility

• At being chosen to blog and be a face for ALC7, especially since this event has been so transformative for me in my personal life.
• At having the opportunity to help change peoples' lives, if only for a moment. That is the greatest human gift.

I hope my words can help you experience even a fraction of the hope, compassion and beauty of the human spirit I get to live for the week. 

You have the hard job of reading and trying to understand what it is like. 

I have the easy job.  7 Days, 545 Miles, no problem.  I'm a shining star ;)

Stay classy, everybody...

Shawnie D

Shawn

I've been on the West Coast for about a year and a half after spending 10 years in the NYC metro area. Originally from MS and the youngest of three boys, I still have a bit of a Southern drawl but every bit of my innate Southern charm.   

I began my affair with ALC as a roadie for ALC6, helping to feed both riders and roadies alike.  Moving to the West Coast has been a physical renaissance for me, seeing me play softball and take up road biking for a few of the firsts in my 37 years.  My bike, Clyde, is the first bike I've owned since I was 15 yrs old and certainly the first one I've paid for on my own.  As much as for the personal physical challenge, I am riding with the hope that renewed energy toward support of those living with HIV/AIDS and continued vigor towards education and research toward prevention and a cure will see the end of this senseless pandemic in my lifetime.  I ride with the support of many, MANY amazing individuals such as my family, my boyfriend, friends, co-workers and my pets.