(and before i get started, i'm sorry it's been so long since i updated! basically... it's been busy. wedding in TN, graduation crap at work, and then...)
OMG I FINISHED. AND I AM SO SO SO SO SO SO TIRED (still.) it's been a full 24 hours since i got off my bike and i don't think my ass has fully recovered. i know my legs haven't... walking is still a bit torturous and i feel like my legs are going to give out on me every 5 steps i take. BUT... i'm still walking, so that's a good thing.
so the short story is:
the weekend was amazing. the ride was amazing (and amazingly long). everything about this weekend was incredible, and yes - i would absolutely do it again (i say that now, but about 36 hours ago, i was agonizing over what i was going to do about those last 106 miles. seriously painful.) to all my donors, thank you thank you thank you! we raised over $225,000 this year which brought us to a grand total of $1 million (and change) raised for AIDS Vaccine research in NINE YEARS. i don't know how much ya'll know about fundraising, but that is an INCREDIBLE feat, especially considering there were 150 riders this year (up from 75 just 3 years ago). so... enough tooting our own horns... (and yes, i can say "our" because i was volunteered for the steering committee for next year's ride. be ready kids...you are going to hear a lot more out of me. ;))
NOW, for those who are interested...here is the long story:
(basically, let me ramble and give you details about everything from the ride)
first...by the numbers:
1 - number of times i fell (i knew i couldn't go the whole way w/o falling once...)
2 - people i saw get carted off with injuries (more on this later)
3 - billy goat farms (they are way cute)
6 - number of bugs that flew into my face (including 1 that unfortunately went into my mouth. it didn't come back out, so i guess i ate it?)
2 - prison work details
1 - proposition from said prison work details...
2 - dogs that chased after me on saturday (absolutely terrifying)
X - i lost track of the amount of roadkill (there were lots), BUT... there was 1 really TRULY smelly squished armadillo, 1 super cute freshly hit rabbit, and 1 really sad looking flattened turtle (that thing was probably a foot in diameter. huge.)
14 - hawks (they are massive in real life)
4 - birds i came dangerously close to hitting (and i actually mean dangerously close. not the "oh, i'm afraid of birds and they're about 30 feet away" kind of way, but "omg, the winds are so strong i can't stay upright and the bird is oh shit it's flying straight into me and is not swerving!" kind of way)
2 - taxidermy establishments (are they called offices? stores? i don't really know.)
3 - cars that honked at us (1 - that almost ran me over, but she didn't honk. good for her.)
1 - train that we had to stop for
2 - 9-mile stretch where i thought i was going to fall asleep on the bike (there AND back. sadly, the SAME 9-mile stretch...seriously boring. and more importantly, lonely.)
5.5 - bananas eaten
2 - GUs (that caffeine kick was well worth it)
3.5 - blue powerades
6 - bottles of water
1 - ibuprofen
8 - miles that i didn't get to ride (more on this later -- i am so, so, so sad)
204 - miles that i actually DID ride (so i don't feel *too* bad about those eight...but that horribly proud/competitive side of me does. feel bad that is.)
16 - hours on a bike (it hurts just to think about, yes.)
anyway, friday night, my ex-co-worker rich porter flew in from ann arbor (MI) and we went to registration, etc. etc. etc. -- meet the riders/volunteers/SAG drivers/get your swag/etc.
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| modeling the swag bag for byron |
this does not bode well for anything.
SATURDAY morning... bright and early, rich and i left...and as we were leaving the house, i saw a lovely purple box sitting on my front porch... "hm," i thought... "what could a large purple rectangular box be?" and "i didn't order anything did i?" no no, josh & chris sent me flowers to wish me well on my ride, all the way from DC... so sweet of them!! but... we were running late, so the flowers ended up having to make the journey with us... all 212 miles. in the heat. and cold. BUT THEY LOOK LOVELY!
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| oooh...pretty... even after 2 days w/o water :) |
we got to emory, unloaded all our stuff, i went and parked my car, and met up with kim & andrew who were awesome and came to see me off! unfortunately, i was running around like a chicken with its head cut off -- still had to get rider numbers (don't know why they didn't give it to us at registration...wouldn't that have made sense?), route cue sheets, breakfast (minor detail), group rider pic, etc. etc. etc. in any case, i did pause long enough for a picture with them...
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| i swear i know how to wear a helmet... |
and then, by 7:30 we were off! ...heading out to stone mountain through downtown decatur and onto the PATH (which from earlier posts, if you've read... i really don't like). but what made this part of the ride particularly fun was the light drizzly rain... and if you wear glasses/expel heat from your face like i do, you'll know that THAT is the worst... not only do you have these little beads of water on your glasses, every time you slow down/stop, you get the foggy glasses look. AND THEN YOU CAN'T SEE. i really wished that we lived in harry potter world and i could totally use the impervious spell ... sorry for that nerd moment. moving right along...
so... we get to stone mountain village which is what, 13 miles away? not even? and wouldn't you know it... yours truly does what she does best. teeter. over. while stopped. at an intersection... one foot out, one foot in... *sigh* but... like the lovely lady behind me said, "at least you got it over with early!" indeed.
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| at pit stop #1- stone mountain |
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| me, leon, paul, & mike |
from conyers, our next stop was jersey, GA (mile 46.1). the booming metropolis of. (otherwise known as one little street as far as i could tell.) this was where you could begin to tell you were well on your way into the country, and though it was overcast and slightly gray, the scenery was actually quite pretty... rolling hills. lots of green. trees. pastures. a billy goat farm. and then a prison work detail. hey -- whatever breaks up the monotony...
two things i wondered as i passed these lovely orange-clad men:
a. would anyone hear me/help me if i somehow fell and was then dragged away? (i have an active imagination and fear the worst. plus, the one sheriff didn't look like he would be of much help with the 30 men. and the cat-calls/mildly-worded (but still worded!) proposition did not help.)
and b. who gets to be the guy who holds the "slow/stop" sign? how good do you have to be? is it just luck of the draw? do the other guys really hate you? do you NOT want to be that guy so you aren't on the hit list?
questions like this kept me entertained for the next 3 miles.... definitely a good thing. and then we made it to JERSEY...whoohooo! where the awesome volunteers set up a beachy/luau theme, complete with a four-legged mascot.
ahh... jersey to social circle. my favorite stretch. why? it was a mere 8 miles! yes! on our way to lunch! real food! not just powerade & peanut butter crackers (nothing wrong with that, mind you... totally delish, but i was ready for some real food). side story: the only other time i've ever been to social circle was back in the day when josh & i used to volunteer for the atlanta humane society, and we would have to wake up at the butt-ass crack of dawn, drive to the AHS, pick up the cutest little puppies ever, and bring them out to the SC retirement home and have puppy/old-folks pet therapy time. and then the pups would shit all over themselves on the ride there (car sickness) and then puke on the way home (over-excitement). basically, really good memories. it was a little mean for them to make us ride past the blue willow inn on the way to the football/soccer activity pavilion where we had a catered lunch (granted, it was from sun in my belly and they have some of the best sandwiches EVER)...but i've heard that the BWI has the best southern food / fried chicken around. so -- any of y'all out-of-towners who come to ATL next time and want some good southern food... let's make a trip :) i promise i won't make you ride a bike to get there (though we probably should ride back to burn off those calories... did i mention it was all-you-can-eat? right. if ever there was a doubt why people in the south are um... larger...)
in any case, lunch was great. and then we head off towards madison, where my work-husband john was meeting us! yay! something to look forward to! and i seriously needed it... this was the longest, most mentally challenging stretch for me, mostly because it was boring (read: flat-ish, no turns for a stretch of 9 miles) and hot, post-lunch, and i was by myself for most of it. you wouldn't think it was possible, but never underestimate the power of my sleeping habits (alicia -- yes, my "narcolepsy" totally was kicking in...) indeed, i almost feel asleep on my bike. i had to get off and walk around / pinch myself it was THAT bad.
then again, i didn't have it nearly as bad as mike did...who we passed about a mile into this stretch, sitting on the side of the road with leon... and when we stopped to see what was wrong, mike pulled out his epi-pen and gave himself an injection. apparently, he's highly allergic to insect stings, and a few fire ants had taken up residence on his bike during lunch... ouch! (he's fine now. the ambulance came, he opted to not go to the hospital, but needless to say, he didn't really finish the ride either.)
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| a friendly face in madison (john) & workman :) |
from madison, we head further east/southeast-ish to godfrey, ga. i have never seen this place on the map. i believe this was actually the longest stretch between pit stops, but it didn't feel nearly as long as the last gap. though this was where we actually started getting into the "sticks" and boy, did i not want to be stuck out there by myself... my favorite building/sign (aside from the "yard/baby sale!" sign we passed earlier between conyers & jersey) was out here on a particularly desolate stretch of road past the "town center". i would have stopped to take a picture, but i was exercising some discretion and smarts... this particularly run down shack (and this was legitimately a shack) had a sign as you approached that announced "SMILE! your on camera!" (the grammar error is intentional here. nothing peeves me more than your/you're misuse)... and right past that was this scrap piece of plywood with the following scribbled on it: "SURVALIENCE!"
which caused me to pause for a moment... mouth it... wonder if it was actually spelled in a foreign language... and then decided that no - the owners of the shack definitely spelled that out phonetically (hey, i can't blame them...english is not intuitive) and decided to keep going. especially after i saw the noose hanging from said "survalience" sign.
best. place. ever.
in any case, i finally made it to godfrey, where leon's sister & friends had set up a M.A.S.H.-themed pit stop... super cute! i was definitely getting a little weary and it was already close to 4 by this point. and while we started the day with some drizzly rain, and cool temps... it had become sunny, warm, dry, and barely breezy. which isn't *so* bad, but damn is it tough after...oh, i don't know 93 miles. it was here that the encouragement to us was, "you've only got 13 miles left!" ...oh, well, 13... what's another 13?
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| i felt like those were needed... |
i'll tell you what. until sunday, those may have been the hardest 13 miles i've ever had to ride. who would've thunk that 13 miles would take me an entire hour... my legs were seemingly going around in circles, but half the time, i didn't think my bike was making any forward progress. yes, it was that bad. and then there was this particularly heinous smelling farm that literally made me gag.... but then there were these adorable ADORABLE calves at the side of the road, tethered to their little calf-houses... and then that's when the dogs came. and i may have yelped. i mean, they looked friendly, but you never know. especially when they start running towards you, barking up a storm. i moved. quickly. no stopping for a picture with daisy jr.
shortly before 5, we (i) finally made it to rock eagle...whoohooo! and to add insult to injury, of course... it had to end on an uphill. after a downhill. which only made me think, "oh shit - tomorrow...that uphill back out is going to SUCK." (and in fact it did.) but in the meantime... oh i totally got my name onto that massage list and got a great leg stretch/massage that you wouldn't EVEN believe... spent some time in the pool, drowned myself in a hot shower, ate a great dinner at a 4-H camp (seriously this was like, flashback to middle school camp...), and then passed the f-- out. or at least tried to.
one would think that being as tired as we all were, we'd have no problem falling asleep. but apparently, not the case. i kept tossing & turning all night, waking up every hour, felt every spring on that bed (but i shouldn't complain... it was a bed), and then before we knew it... it was 6 AM sunday morning.
workman, rich and i had decided the previous evening that we would leave by 6:30 to give us enough time to get to decatur square by 4 PM. but then b-fast was late, and we didn't want to miss out on b-fast... and so by the time we left, it was 7. THOSE 30 minutes... man. what i wouldn't give to get those 30 minutes back...why? well, because then that very nice man in the very comfortable truck wouldn't have had to pick me up about 8 miles from decatur to take me to the square so i would "make it by 4" BOO HISS.
in any case, sunday was... rough. i knew it was going to be tough, but as much as you can tell yourself and work yourself up for it, i don't think you can *really* prepare for it until well... you've experienced it. every downhill i hit from the day before... meant an uphill... and while the opposite may be the same, i swear there were far more uphills on sunday. barf. that, plus while there was some drizzly rain on saturday and then SUN!, sunday was cold. and windy. and then humid. and then it just got colder the closer in town we got. but let's rewind to that wind.... holy cow was THAT tough. who knew that one could hit headwinds THE ENTIRE WAY HOME? every turn i took, i swore that it would be better because at least the wind wouldn't be coming right at my face / crashing into my body and making me swerve. alas, that was not the case.
it took a little less than 5 hours to ride the first 68 miles to lunch. which begs the question HOW could i not ride the last 40 in 4 hours? i have no idea. i'm still a little disappointed (and i know i shouldn't be. but you know that annoying competitive part of me? yeah... that little bit in my brain keeps on saying, "you could've been better". and i KNOW that it wasn't a race, but still...i wanted to be able to say i did it ALL.
*sigh*
so i missed the last 12 miles from stone mountain to decatur, but just getting back to civilization was good enough for me. from decatur, we rode en masse back to emory with a police escort, and were greeted by a whole host of people back at the School of Medicine, followed by a lovely reception and finding out that we hit our goal of raising $1,000,000 for the EVC in just 9 years, thanks to a last minute donation from one of the researchers at the Vaccine Center. that's what i like to call, amaze-balls. seriously.
so i can't honestly say that i was deeply emotionally affected by this whole experience...not in the way that so many of the other riders i met along the way were. i am lucky enough to not personally know anyone who has HIV/AIDS, but i do know that so many people have someone in their lives that are affected daily by it. many of you know my stance on things like this; i can be somewhat of a cynic and a jerk. and yes, i still believe that it's unacceptable that HIV prevalence is as high as it is considering the fact that we DO know how it's transmitted.... but on the flip side, there are so many who either don't have the knowledge, or are unknowingly put in danger by people who don't know/don't care to share their status, or were infected before we had the information we do now, etc. that it's important to keep up the good fight. as conflicted as i am about where funding should go (education! cancer research! feeding hungry children around the world! aiding victims of catastrophic events!), i at least KNOW FOR CERTAIN where the money i raised is going when it goes back to the Vaccine Center. SO. to Dr. Robinson...Dr. Ahmed...Dr. Mulligan... and everyone else working on an AIDS Vaccine -- thank you for your tireless efforts and i hope our contributions (however small in comparison to grants you may receive) are instrumental in accomplishing our goal :)
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