Day Zero Approaches

Saturday - May 31st

Day Zero or Orientation Day, first turn in your bike then – you did bring your bike? Now look lost and glassy eyed, get in line somewhere - they check you in and tell you stuff – like where you have to go next, and did you bring your Orientation ticket? If not go to another line and pick that up.

This list tells you what you have to complete, in order to ride.

Turn in your last minute pledges, pick up incentives if you have earned any, and fill out any forms you might have missed such as your medical waiver.

View the safety video, get your wrist band, this lets you proceed to tent assignment, if you have a tent buddy, look for him and then sign up together, get your handy dandy chain with your tent number and row assignment, and save your other tag for your tent, when you pick that up at the end of day 1.

It actually doesn’t take too long, but all the people, line here and line there, a makes a bit overwhelming. There are riders & roadies all checking in, all getting their tent assignments and greeting friends, hugs and kisses traded.

After 4 hours, yes 4 hours, it is all done. Then you can go home or to your hotel. Don’t stay up too late, but if you do, it doesn’t matter, most people don’t sleep that well anyway.

Ready to ride

I'm all packed, just waiting for a new pair of red cycling shorts to come in...

My brass discs are in as well, this year I had brass discs engraved for friends and donors that wished to remember someone.



I will wear these every mile of the ride and then mail them to my friends / donors.

I'm getting excited

The last ride

The last long ride

The last long ride before we get on our bikes and head to Los Angeles…

95 miles

The Golden Gate Bridge

Camino Alto Hill

Whites Hill

Nicasio Hill

Alps de Fromage (the Petaluma Cheese Factory Hill)

Marshall Wall

Olema Hill

White’s Hill

Camino Alto

Sausalito Hill

The Golden Gate Bridge

Nine Hills, and the Golden Gate Bridge

It was actually a good ride, I wasn’t that tired at the end, I did not push myself that hard, I just had a nice ride with my friends.

Every year, for fun, we have a theme, we are all riding with an action figure cable tied to the tops of our helmets, and we are going to call ourselves

“The League of Super Heroes “.

Mine will be Green Lantern, Emily is Wonder Woman, Beau well he wants a super hero that matches his bike which is blue and orange, so maybe I will have to paint one for him, and John, says Black or Red will do fine, I have a Superman in all Black so that is easy.

I forgot my camera, (I got up at 4 am to do this ride) so no pictures. It was cold as hell, when we started, and then it got hot, cold once again when we got to the top pf Marshall Wall, and the hot again, then freezing when we got back to the bridge. So all day it was on with the arm warmers and off again.

Yes I was tired, and I am so thankful that Cowboy had made dinner and it was waiting for me when I got home.

Ride YOUR ride

We ride to raise money to help defeat this disease we call AIDS, but the ride itself, does not last for just 7 days.

There is training to do and volunteers that put lots of effort into making sure that everyone arrives safe and in good spirits, the ride itself is very emotional, for the riders the roadies and everyone connected with the ride.

I was blessed with this a copy of this email, from one of my fellow training ride leaders to his first year riders, and I just had to share it with you. If you are able, please follow the link and make a donation

There is a reason we say "Don't worry about riding EVERY mile, but rather riding every mile you CAN."

There are a host of reasons even the best of riders may not be able to finish a ride -- exhaustion, injury, dehydration, bonking, a broken wheel, torrential downpour, an emergency calling him away, a proposal from John Stamos, -- and it is frustrating to have to admit to ourselves we may have to stop for the day.

But it is the reason that you SET out to ride in the first place that really counts and counts far more, and that reason endures no matter what happens out on the route.

That reason is personal and only yours, and it will ride with you every mile you ride, and will rest with you even for the miles you can't.

Ride every mile you can, and when you can't ride anymore, remember the reason you ride and love yourself enough to take a deep breath and say "perhaps tomorrow."

"This is a ride not a race."

We say that ALL the frikkin' time, and usually we think of it as meaning we shouldn't kill ourselves attempting to out-speed one another on the route.

While that's true, I think there's another struggle we often have, not necessarily in comparing our speed with other riders', but in comparing ourselves as complete riders or even worthy people against one another.

It's hard not to do.

My first year, I found myself feeling ashamed of being outpaced by others, watching comrades I'd started training with become fast and strong and soon I'd never see them until the end of the ride, where they'd arrived long before I did and with more ease and gusto.

I remember almost hurting myself by pushing way too hard in order to keep up lest my vanity be bruised.

But the entire training process is also not a race, the whole experience is a personal ride of sorts.

We may start training with someone, then watch her develop faster as she takes spin classes or is able to make room in her schedule for extra training, or her tax return allows her to afford an amazingly lighter and faster bike, or her years of long-distance running pay off in learning a new endurance sport. That is HER ride.

On the other hand, my work life may explode during the winter months, a family tragedy forces me to miss weeks of training, I get lingering bronchitis that won't let me get on the bike for a month at a time, my bike is stolen and I have to wait a couple of paydays until I can afford a new one, I have an accident and the doctor says it will be six weeks until I can ride again if at all... and mean while I watch other new riders grow and develop while I wonder if I'll ever be able to make it at all.

But this is MY ride.

Perhaps it's in our culture to compare ourselves, but as soon as we hear pride or vanity complain that we fall short in comparison with another rider, or if we notice we are pushing ourselves dangerously hard to stay apace of someone who is stronger or faster than we are for whatever reason...

STOP… Breathe…

This Ride of ours, the Ride-with-a-capital-R, may be for all of us and for those we dream to help; but once you are in the saddle it is your ride-with-a-little-r, and it is for nobody else but your own wee self.

Nobody else is straining against your own beliefs and doubts for you to train.

Nobody else is juggling all your needs and responsibilities.

Nobody else has your constellation of aches and conditions and strengths and challenges.

Nobody else has made the commitment you have made for the reason you made it and against the odds you face.

Out on the road, nobody else is pressing that pedal for you.

Ride YOUR ride.

Do not try to ride anyone else's.

Alrighty then, my lovelies. I wish you all a wonderful May and I hope you're getting good and excited about your Ride. Perhaps I'll see you on another training ride, or at Orientation, or sometime on the road or in camp.

Feel free to stop me and let me know how your ride is going, how you're liking camp life, how you feel your training helped or hindered, what you think of my scruples in forcing you to ride such wicked hills and through such icky winds and rain, what you think of my hair, whatever.

Until then, good luck and good riding!

Mettle to the pedal,

kurt

Mother’s Day -

People have many different relationships, and there is no relationship that is more different and yet the same more the same than the relationship we have with our mothers.

We also have more expectations of what the relationship should be, some mothers are more than able to rise to the occasion and love their children with all their hearts, and some mothers, well, are a little bit lacking.

I have had three mothers, my biological mother, Step-mom 1 and Step-Mom 2.

I also have people that have acted like a mother to me; I especially like to remember the Beaumans, and her mother “Grandma Tucker”.

My Biological mother I never knew very well, she had Schizophrenia, and my father had to have her committed when I was about 3-4. I don’t remember her very well. She died of cancer about 8 years ago, and I was able to connect with her for a brief time, and get a glimpse of something wonderful. My older brothers and sisters had a more complicated time with her death than I did. They both knew her better and also had some complications that related to her disease.

Step mom 1, I think of her as my mom, she was there since I was about 6 or 7 maybe 8, I’m not sure. We had a complicated relationship; my older brothers and sisters had more difficulty, maybe because she was replacing their mother, maybe just because of who she was.

She was a hypocrite in many ways, so I had difficulty with that. But I thought of her as my mother, you make allowances. Her birthday is today; she has been dead for 9 years now. She was the one that when I was out shopping used to always think “she’d like this”

She was the one I originally told I was gay, she was the mom that I would go over to their house and mow their lawn on Saturdays, and then sit and drink a jug of wine with.


One of her favorite lines was, "OH, I heard a joke that will just cook your balls" I'd say " Mom, that hurts just thinking about it."

I’d tell her as much as I could about my life (while still in the closet), She was the one that when asked about my view on gays in the military, told her “Everyone has the right to die for their country”.

She would remember to call on my birthday, and call and give me hell if I did not call at least every two weeks, I think she also told dad when it was one of his kids birthdays.

Step mom 2, (my dad’s current wife) is a lot like step-mom #1, loud, opinionated, hard to always get along with. But she provides my dad with something that he needs, Companionship, Care, Love. So we honor her for that, Her birthday is the 15th of this month.

My mom & dad used to fall asleep at 8 pm, so I ‘d go out and visit the Beaumans, I ‘d sit and play cards with them, watch TV with them, it was sorta like they were my family. They were the family that asked me what I wanted to do in life, and I went camping with. At some point we moved away, and then I lost contact with them.


Mothers, they are what they are, I hope that however your mother turned out for you, that you are able to cherish her, forgive her if you found her lacking and learned to embrace her for what she is.

Jonathon Pon Ride - part 3

It is early morning, and we need to get started, but the fog has not lifted so we are reluctant to start.

The climb out of the campground isn’t really a climb but it is up a gravel drive, so I walk my bike up (I’m so not interested in falling on gravel).

For some reason that I don’t remember now, I stop and the others go on, so after a bit when I finally get started, I’m alone in the early morning mist. It is quiet and magical, only the bitter cold breaks the moment.

I hurry now, knowing the faster I go the sooner I will warm up. I come to the bridge that crosses the river and soon the highway that leads to the coast. I look both ways then cross, and head towards the coast, soon I fall into a rhythm and I soon catch another rider and another. I see others who have stopped to take pictures of a patch of sunlight, like it is an alien thing. I wave and go on, I to have stopped for pictures like this, but I’m finally warm, and don’t want to stop yet.

We reach the junction of the River and the Ocean and turn south. We start our first climb of the day, it is a relatively easy climb not too long, not too steep, we are still slow, for we suspect we have many hills to climb before the day is done.

Riding along the coast it a ride of pleasure, (especially if the wind is at your back)

Rolling hills, where if you can gage the angles right, you push yourself picking up speed to coast your way up (or not slow to a crawl) most of the other side, just leaving you a little amount of hill, where if you push, you can make it to the top and you aren’t worn out.

There are many places to pull over and enjoy the scenery between Jenner & Bodega Bay, but not any “Towns” so Bodega Bay is the first rest stop, where some of the riders stop for coffee, I keep going, I heard through the grapevine that the wind will be blowing against us as the day goes by, so I want to get as many miles under my belt before it does.

So I ride & ride until I get to Valley Ford, our second official rest stop. Half of our riders are there; so I stop and socialize for a while, refill my water bottles and Camelback. Before long the sweep (yes the sweep), is coming along, so we get back on the road. Valley Ford is where the Sweep changes.

(The 1st sweep my friend Beau is done with his duties so we ride together. The 2nd shift sweeps has been lounging in chairs by the side of the road, you would think by looking at them that they are at the beach.)

We ride, like the wind (for the wind is at our backs) and soon we are in Tomales where we have coffee, and then we are off to Point Reyes Station, where lunch is being served.

Now lunch is served in a deli, so we actually get to sit down in a padded booth. Very nice and cushy on our bottoms.

Then back on the road, some of the slower riders have sagged now, so we are now getting to be the tail end of the riders (or it seems that way)

So we ride back to Samuel P Taylor Park and take the bike trail though the park, it is great ride, but don’t do it when it been muddy.

When we get to the end of the trail, we discover that one of our riders has a shoe that refuses to unclip. So we have to stop and he takes of his show while it is still clipped in, can’t get it undone, so we sag him.

We ride on, at this point we are in Lagunitas, stop for a bathroom break and then back over White’s Hill and into Fairfax. Can you say ICE CREAM, I just have a taste of Beau’s “delicious” – Maybe after the ride, after all I have to fit in my red dress.

We ride on, now the only hill we have left is Camino Alto, so up that hill , down the other side and we are done. We coast into Mill Valley, retrieve our bags and say good bye

Another Training ride is done

Jonathon Pon Ride - Part 2

We arrive at Camp, and we start to setup our tents. What is different from the RIDE and this ride is that on the RIDE, the tents are provided by the RIDE.

So on the RIDE you see a sea of tents all exactly the same size and color. This camp we provided our own tents. I brought our tent, which is a well… it is, a very large tent, you can stand up on the middle and it has two separate bedrooms, including privacy curtains.

Well everyone thought it was very humorous, so they started calling my tent City Hall, and asking if they could have tours.

They also gave it a nickname of Taj M’Tent. Later on, when we were told that we did not have the secured place for bikes, and that they would have to put our bikes by our tents, I just rolled our bikes into my tent, and then zipped up the privacy screen. (My friend Peter stayed in the tent with me)

Then it was time for dinner, we had Chicken marinated in artichoke hearts and cut–up baked potatoes, with some kind of pasta salad and a regular salad as well, I got drafted to help serve so that the line would go faster. Actually that was kind of fun, it allowed me to flirt with the men that I had been too shy to flirt with earlier.

After dinner, we had entertainment down by the campfire. It was provide by my friend Mark, who was going to ride, but his brand new bike broke (while riding it) and he broke his ribs, anyway he told the story while singing. He also played the accordion and banjo

Then it was off to bed, after riding 75 miles on a bike, you tend to be tired, and the next morning we were going to get up and go back.

The next morning, well my mornings always start with having to pee, so I lie in my sleeping bag until, I just have to get up, I throw some clothes on and then walk to the restroom, then it is back to bed to try to get back to sleep until it is time to really get up.

In camp I lie in bed until I think that I better get up or I will be the last one tearing their tent down, in reality, I’m about in the middle. Because the tent is so big, we have the luxury of being able to pack our bags in the dryness of the tent, with out getting in each other’s way.

The tent came down easily, and since our bikes were in the tent, our bikes did not have any early morning dew on them. After a brief breakfast, oatmeal and warm Croissants (I had three) no eggs, sometimes I just can’t stand eggs.

Then it was time for another safety speech, a review of the route, and on the road.

More later

Jonathan Pon Ride - part 1

The moon was just a sliver in the sky, barely visible through the mist of early morning.

The highway had not yet started to roar with the hum of people starting their day, a lone car here and there.

My bike was loaded along with a tent, sleeping bag, and a change of clothes

I was on my way, another ride to start in a few hours, the two day 150 mile, “JONATHAN PON” memorial ride.

The ride starts at the south end of Mill Valley (where we can park and leave our cars overnight), and goes to Duncan Mills.

I was the first one there, I parked my car, and soon the others started to arrive.

First one, then another, and then many more, we unload our cars and get our biking shoes on. Then we started giving hugs to those we know and introducing ourselves to new friends. We stretch and complain about the cold. We wait for the sun, we log in and sign insurance waivers, we chatter some more. We load up the moving truck; we check the air pressure in our tires and fix any last minute flats.

Soon it is time for the safety speech, we introduce our training ride leaders, and then we are off. I get a plum spot, sweep of the first leg. Though it means I will be behind everyone on this first leg, it also means that when my duties are done, I can ride as fast as I like.

Before we know it we are at the base of Camino Alto and doing the climb. A rider is up ahead, and we stop to help fix his flat. The rest does wonders and the rest of the hill is no problem, fastest I’ve ever been up it.

Then down the hill and into Fairfax (through Ross, San Anselmo, etc). We regroup, get some coffee, chat for a bit and then we (the sweeps) get our people on the road and up White’s Hill we go.

At the top, our duties are done and we hand over the sweep duties to the TRLs waiting at the top. They brought cowbells and have been shouting words of encouragement to all the riders riding past them (White’s Hill is a longer climb than any single hill we do on the ride).

We zoom down the hill, and Donald (my sweep partner) flies past me, But I catch him on the long straight portion, and we ride this portion as fast as we can, until we need to turn and start our climb up Nicasio Hill. Donald stays with me during the climb, and we chat while climbing.

Once we reach the top, he is off, and I behind him, he isn’t listening when I yell out “car back!” and a car comes too close to him for my comfort, but he is fine ((I tend to ride more cautiously than some others))

We get to Nicasio and take a brief break, chat with some other riders who are taking a break as well. We get on the road, and head down skirting the edge of the Nicasio Reservoir and get to the base of the “Alps de Fromage” (the road to the Petaluma Cheese Factory).

Donald soon leaves me, and I ride up the hill, staying with some other slower riders. We eventually reach the top and then we ride into the Cheese Factory, another water break.

I meet up with some friends, and make some new ones. We ride together up (yes another hill) to the top of “D-Street- Petaluma Hill” and then we ride / coast down into Petaluma for lunch.

It is a nice day and we have lunch in the park. For some reason I catch the eye of Ginger Brewlay, and next thing I know she/ he has his arms around me, and I am blushing. I get on my bike before things get too embarrassing and I ride off.

We ride out to Valley Ford, and this is against the wind, so it is slow and steady, the wind is not that bad, so we bitch to each other when we reach Valley Ford, but we are not dead tired.

After a short break, we get on the road, and we go around the bend, now the wind is at our backs and we ride a short ways to Freestone, there is a nice bakery here, we rest munch and sit in the sun, for here we are sheltered from the wind.

Now we have a ride to Occidental, one last climb, and then a nice long gradually dropping rolling curve of a road into camp.

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