Day Two - Off to a rocky start

Day two started with me being late because I could get all my sh*%t to the luggage truck.  Ugh!   I get to the luggage truck with half of my sh%*t and have a melt down.  The luggage roadie came down and game me a hug ask me what was wrong, by this time I was having a asthma attack, he got my inhaler for me, gave me a hug, helped me with my remaining crap.  He was my hero!  

Asthma sucks and I need to ask for help (not easy for me to admit I need help), but it was the kick in the butt I needed to make sure I manage myself better.   No more attacks the rest of the week and I really did learn how to manage the asthma, I'm still hoping its temporary but if not I can live with it.  By the end of the week I was carrying my own luggage again!





The rocky start continued but not for me.  The event was on probation by the city of Santa Cruz and with that they only let 100 cyclist out at a time which provided a big backup and cranky cyclist.

Once all of the cyclist were gone we broke down bike parking and headed to the next camp.

Day One Santa Cruz

We set up bike parking on the ball field at Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz.


First order of business was to decide on the layout of the bike racks.





Each rack is comprised A-Frames and poles.  The racks consists of 6 poles and 7 A-frames.  Each row had 2 or more sets of 6 allowing breaks for accessibility.  

Each pole takes 10 bikes, so we set up approximately 250 poles to accommodate the 2350 cyclists.






When is was all done we parked the bikes that beat us there (yup a few cyclist beat us to Santa Cruz) and spent the rest of the afternoon parking and scanning all of  the bikes.

The bikes were scanned and put into a database for a number of reasons, medical hold, warning/praise citations, violation pulls, and helping cyclist find there bike if they forgot the row name.

The food table was set up and manned 

(or womanned as the case may be)

Water stations was supplied with water and Poweraid.










Roadies directed the cyclist.

 Roadies parked the bike

 Roadies may do a little dance...

We all got to take a break and get our luggage and put up our tents.  And lucky me Will put up mine!

At the end of the day all of the bikes were parked/scanned and security came to babysit them for the night.

Day One - One the bus

Everyday after breaking down bike parking we all loaded on to a bus, each day a different bus, each day we were sent off by Julieanna's sister.  Each day we got a flash from Rachel, a tradition started by another ALC gal. 

So the story goes that years ago the cyclists were cranky because of delays and to get their attention Rachel's predecessor flashed the crowd and the crowd went silent.

There were 5 buses to transport roadie's and riders.  Each decorated and the first bus for us was a school bus with a music theme.

Roadies Russell and Emilia

Day One - Ready Set Go!

Day One is here, we (Rob & I) left Pleasanton at 4:30 to Meet Will in San Francisco.

 Riders got a bit of a stretch...

Again we heard from Neil Giuliano Chief Executive Officer and Center CEO Lorri L. Jean.

The tradition of the riderless bike continue...  The bicycle is wheeled into the hall to honor those we’ve lost to AIDS.

Opening Ceremonies  Video

 

 Riders wait for the start 

And they are off!

Now it's time for us, with the help of day one volunteers to break down bike parking and head to Santa Cruz

 

Our Bike Parking Team!

Day Zero - Orientation Day

Orientation and the start of AIDS lifecycle event is at the Cow Palace in Daly City.  With a map & e-ticket in hand I took Bart into the city and met Will (my tent mate) at 8:30 so we could make the 9:30 training video.

First stop the Safety video.

Before the video Neil Giuliano Chief Executive Officer and Center CEO Lorri L. Jean talked to us about the ride.  Safety, Issues in Santa Cruz and more... 

Next Check in,  Medical, Fund raising Incentives, & the Lifecycle Store

 

Will rocking his fund raising incentive hoodie!

In possion of our wrist bans, ID tags, and luggage tags we went off to the Roadie meeting

 

 

We sat with our team for the general meeting and then broke off in to groups for information about our teams.

This is Jon one of your bike parking leads...

 

We got the scoop about the day in the life a bike parking roadie and a few of us learned about scanning the bikes.

After the meetings we head home via bike parking, yikes tomorrow I'm going to have to park thoes bikes for the next 7 days!

Let the Event Begin

T – 5, the event starts this coming weekend, where did the first half of this year go!  Orientation day (day zero Saturday) and the event start (day 1 Sunday) are at the Cow Palace.  Orientation day is all about standing in lines, roadie meetings, medical check-in, safety video, & tent assignment, probably sucking up most of the day.  At least I’ll be with my tent mate Will catching up on life.

Day 1, the event start will be an early start for both the cyclist and the roadies.  We will meet at the Cow Palace at 5, leave our luggage at the luggage trucks and head off to the first camp, Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz. We will setup bike parking hopefully in time for the first riders.

Ready, Set, Get Packing!

I finished my theme tee's yesterday,  I really need to keep in mind that this stuff is a lot of work!

But it was fun and I improved my silk screening skills!

So now it packing, a bag for the event and a bag for Rob to bring down when he picks me up. 

 

Packing my event bag will be a lot like packing for Burning Man, work gloves, water bottle, ear plugs, sleeping bag & pad...   At least no dust storms!

I'll need a day pack to keep the thing I'll need during the day, sunscreen, water bottle, camera, etc.




Our bike parking lead sent out a great informational email with things to bring, a bit about the weather (cold morning, windy afternoons, and dewy evening oh my), and to my surprise a call for database help.  I hope she picks me!  Okay I know I'm a freak...

Hippy Tee Shirt Art

Shirt Front

Shirt Sleeves

Hawaiian Tee Shirt Art

Shirt Front

Shirt Sleeves

Pirate Tee Shirt Art

After much surfing looking at pirate clip art I decided on a flag for the front of my tee shirt, pirate meet 'day of the dead'

I did had several versions of the art for the sleeve and today on my dog walk I decided it should be pirate speak. 

  

To learn about pirate speak you can visit the Talk Like a Pirate

website.  Yes a website that will teach you to talk like a pirate, the site supports 'Talk Like a Pirate' day September 19.


So this year I'll have a pirate tee shirt to sport on the day.

The event just gets more amazing!

So this week I found out that I have exercise induced asthma due to the pneumonia I had earlier this year.  For some undetermined amount of time I have to do breathing therapy twice a day and go nowhere without a rescue inhaler.  Ugh.

I thought it meant that volunteering at the Lifecycle event was out but it's not!  I emailed my lead yesterday and she said as long as I'm up to it they can meet my medical needs and that she would get this new information to the medical group.

So I'm still on the bike parking team!

Day on the Ride

So what is a "Day on the Ride"?   It is a training ride known as “Day on the Ride” so everyone involved will know what it’s like to be amongst a few thousand cyclists, traffic, SAG (Support And Gear) stops, etc.

The SAG stops have water, snacks, bike repair, and enthusiastic roadies to help with the cyclist needs. 

And at the end of the day there is bike parking and a hot meal.

 Each cyclist checked in to ensure all cyclist arrived safely

 You park your bike and head off for a well deserved meal

The ride is a big help to the less experienced riders, giving them a taste of what is to come.

It is also an opportunity for a roadie to get a taste of whats to come.  I volunteered in bike parking checking in the cyclist and when the event was over I helped break down the bike racks and canopies.  I got a good idea of what the event will be like for me.  

AIDS Lifecycle - 2011 - The Day in the Life of a Roadie

So it turns out it’s a lot of work volunteering as a bike parking roadie no slacking for us…

We are off to breakfast by 4:30 so we can be at bike parking 5:45. We set out water, make powerade (sports drink), help people find their bikes, hand out route sheets, & pump up tires. The course opens at 6:30 and the parking area is open until 8:30.

8:30 we break down bike parking, load it into two trucks and head to the next location. At the next camp, we setup the aluminum A-frames bike racks, sometimes put out snow fencing (the orange plastic stuff), tables, water, any decorations, etc.

We spend the rest of the day checking cyclists in and helping them park. We scan each bike (using a bar code on the bike frame numbers) to the row in which it is parked, which makes it much easier to find bikes we need to locate for lost cyclists, or holds, or other reasons.

There will be time for breaks so we can get away, get your bag, set up your tent, etc, but because we scan each bike and have other activities, the team will need us for much of the day.

7:00 The route closes

My day is actually short compared to some of the other roadie teams, Roadies really are amazing and I hope I do the job proud.

My AIDS Lifecycle webpage

AIDS Lifecycle 2011 - Bumps in the Roadies Road

I found myself with a bad lung infection early in January, the kind of infection that is not typical for someone as active as I am, so for the first time I had a doctor ask me if it was possible if I had AIDS. Well I guess anything is possible so I was tested and fortunately it came back negative. They never could explain the cause of the infection, but they bombarded the heck out of it with antibiotics and I’m back on track. This year has had a rocky start so my fundraising has suffered and the event is only two months and a smattering of days left, yikes!

I am now back on the road to health and need to get going on my preparation for the event. I did get bike parking, so I really can’t tell you what that means yet but I will keep you posted, I should be having training soon.

You can donate online or with the attached participant form.
My participant webpage

The main Lifecycle webpage

Who Benefits:
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center

AIDS Lifecycle 2011 - What is a Roady

In 2007 I participated in the Aids Lifecycle and road my bicycle 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles raising over $9000 (thanks to your generosity) to help in the fight against AIDS. This year I am jumping to the other side of the fence, and volunteering as a Roadie.

What is a Roadie you ask? Roadies take an empty field (a different layout each stop), and turn it into a thriving and efficient campsite for 3,000. There is a new camp in a new town each night, complete with all the amenities that are needed by the riders.

By the time most of the riders arrive in Camp, it is up and running. This includes, setting up the common area tents, food service, camp communication, bike parking, camp store, gear pickup, showers, porta-potties, massage, medical, sports med, and just about anything else you can think of!

Roadie’s tasks or teams are broken down into the following groups.

Now to what’s happening so far…

This journey will be different because I don’t have the physical challenge of riding my bike to LA but the next six months will be a journey and I would like to take you all with me with Roadie Ramblings. The first order of business is to choose which team I would like to be on. Once you register you pick three teams you would like to be on, and my 3 choices are as follows…

1. Bike Parking
2. Camp Services
3. Food Service
Fund-raising: I have set my goal at $1000( I hope to exceed this goal)

My AIDS Lifecycle webpage

Where the money goes…
San Francisco Aids Foundation reaches Over 1.5 million individuals through Community outreach, advocacy efforts, Treatment publications, & prevention Campaigns.

Luggage: This will be a lot easier than 2007, and will depend on the team I get. The rest stop teams have a challenge because they have themes throughout the week so they need to pack a lot. The teams I’ve chosen shouldn’t have a lot of extra stuff so this should be no problem.

Tent Mate: My friend Will is going to participate as a roadie so it’s mostly a done deal for the tent mate.

Camera: I don’t have to agonize over camera equipment this trip because I don’t have the same challenges, I can bring what I would bring for travel. I will be bring my new canon point and shoot (hated the one I got for the ride) as well as my Nikon SLR.