Chris (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alc1337) wrote,@ 2006-06-25 16:40:00 |
|
Full circle
I haven't said much here since the end of the ride, so let me start with a little bit of a quick update.
I was in quite an interesting state for several days after returning to Fresno. Since I never went to a doctor, I still don't know what hit me so suddenly about five and a half days into the ride -- perhaps the gastroenteritis that affected dozens of riders, perhaps food poisoning from the water stop on day 2, perhaps something else entirely, I'll never know. But the result was that my health deterioriated on the last two days of the ride, and I was basically not eating anything. And since I was likely not even metabolizing whatever food and Gatorade I took in, I essentially rode the last 100 miles of the ride without any nutrition. No wonder I was in the shape I was in.
But after about a week of being home, I started to get better, and my digestive system became more like its usual difficult self. And I slowly started riding again. Very slowly at first, because we're having horrid early-summer heat here. But yesterday I headed out from San Francisco for a nice 49-mile ride up into Marin County and back. And since I didn't hurt afterward, that reassured me that, yes, I've survived ALC5.
This morning was the grand finale of it all -- riding in San Francisco's annual gay pride parade. I joined about 100 other ALCers, and we were right at the front of the parade. Sure, the hundreds of thousands of people lining the route weren't there just for us, but their cheers were genuine, and I had the sense that a year-long chapter of my life was coming to an end.
And yes, I think I shed at least a tear or two.
What a year it's been. When I signed up for ALC5 one year ago at the parade, I was not at all certain that I could physically complete a seven-day ride of more than 540 miles. I also was not at all certain I knew enough people in order to raise the minimum $2,500 needed in order to ride. I learned that I could indeed ride such a ride -- in fact, under some very grueling conditions at the end, and I learned that I have a wonderful bunch of friends who came forward with a whopping $4,215 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. I made some new friends, and I confronted a lot of personal and professional issues along the way. And I rode a grand total of 7,062 miles in the past year.
So as this chapter of my story closes, it was almost inevitable that I'd begin a new one. Today I made the same walk I made a year ago: to the ALC booth at the pride festival, again to sign up for next year's ride.
The challenges will be different. I've already proven that I can ride the whole route. Perhaps I can learn to enjoy it a bit more this time and make even more friends. I plan to become a training ride leader so I can help others conquer their demons and ride every mile they can. And, with your help and the help of others, I hope to break the $5,000 fundraising mark next year.
The details on AIDS/LifeCycle 6 will start to appear online later this summer. I'll have a new rider number (I won't be so "1337" anymore, alas), and you might have to look around aidslifecycle.org in order to find me. But I'll be there, because once again you and I will be making a difference.
This concludes this journal.
I haven't said much here since the end of the ride, so let me start with a little bit of a quick update.
I was in quite an interesting state for several days after returning to Fresno. Since I never went to a doctor, I still don't know what hit me so suddenly about five and a half days into the ride -- perhaps the gastroenteritis that affected dozens of riders, perhaps food poisoning from the water stop on day 2, perhaps something else entirely, I'll never know. But the result was that my health deterioriated on the last two days of the ride, and I was basically not eating anything. And since I was likely not even metabolizing whatever food and Gatorade I took in, I essentially rode the last 100 miles of the ride without any nutrition. No wonder I was in the shape I was in.
But after about a week of being home, I started to get better, and my digestive system became more like its usual difficult self. And I slowly started riding again. Very slowly at first, because we're having horrid early-summer heat here. But yesterday I headed out from San Francisco for a nice 49-mile ride up into Marin County and back. And since I didn't hurt afterward, that reassured me that, yes, I've survived ALC5.
This morning was the grand finale of it all -- riding in San Francisco's annual gay pride parade. I joined about 100 other ALCers, and we were right at the front of the parade. Sure, the hundreds of thousands of people lining the route weren't there just for us, but their cheers were genuine, and I had the sense that a year-long chapter of my life was coming to an end.
And yes, I think I shed at least a tear or two.
What a year it's been. When I signed up for ALC5 one year ago at the parade, I was not at all certain that I could physically complete a seven-day ride of more than 540 miles. I also was not at all certain I knew enough people in order to raise the minimum $2,500 needed in order to ride. I learned that I could indeed ride such a ride -- in fact, under some very grueling conditions at the end, and I learned that I have a wonderful bunch of friends who came forward with a whopping $4,215 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. I made some new friends, and I confronted a lot of personal and professional issues along the way. And I rode a grand total of 7,062 miles in the past year.
So as this chapter of my story closes, it was almost inevitable that I'd begin a new one. Today I made the same walk I made a year ago: to the ALC booth at the pride festival, again to sign up for next year's ride.
The challenges will be different. I've already proven that I can ride the whole route. Perhaps I can learn to enjoy it a bit more this time and make even more friends. I plan to become a training ride leader so I can help others conquer their demons and ride every mile they can. And, with your help and the help of others, I hope to break the $5,000 fundraising mark next year.
The details on AIDS/LifeCycle 6 will start to appear online later this summer. I'll have a new rider number (I won't be so "1337" anymore, alas), and you might have to look around aidslifecycle.org in order to find me. But I'll be there, because once again you and I will be making a difference.
This concludes this journal.
