Silicon Valley Hike & Bike

Today was the second annual Silicon Valley Hike & Bike. I decided that I wasn't going to ride in this event (even though it was only a 33 mile route, which I could have easily managed) because I'm trying to devote all of my 'charity' money towards my ALC ride next year. So I figured that they next best thing was to donate my time and offer to volunteer. I felt that it was another great cause and I wanted to be a part of it any way I could.

Earlier this week I found out that volunteers were to check in at registration at 7am. Well, that meant I had to wake up at 4:30am so I could leave the house a little after 5am to make it there on time. I know, I'm a little crazy to drive almost 2 hours for an event that I was just volunteering for. It is OK, I've accepted my craziness. After  some early morning Mickey Dee's and a hour and forty-five minute drive, I arrived at Santa Clara University fifteen minutes early.

Mostly everything was set up when I arrived, so there wasn't much for me to do. I was able to help get the registration tent stocked up with the Hike & Bike shirts. Open box - grab stack of shirts- lay on table. Man, it was hard work :)

 

Once the cyclist started showing up, I helped a few of my friends get their bib numbers pinned on to their jersey. Yet another difficult task (that's supposed to be read with sarcasm). From the looks of it, they had a pretty good turnout. I didn't hear any official count of the number of cyclist and hikers they had, but it looked like there were at least one hundred cyclist. Therma had a HUGE team there. They were also one of the sponsors for the event. The South Bay Blaze was pretty well represented as well. Here is a little team photo I took of them in front of the Hike & Bike bus that had apparently been driving around San Jose for the last week or so.

Here are a couple shots I got of the cyclists getting ready to head out on their 33 mile ride. The cyclists started the ride at 9:00 am. 

Next up was the hikers. They started their four mile hike to the Health Trust's Food Basket and back at 10:00 am. There was quite a good turn out of hikers as well. The were even a few Blaze members in the crowd.

At about noon, the cyclists were heading back in to the finish line. Oh, I forgot to mention that they had an awesome police escort the entire ride. That meant no stopping at red lights, how lucky!

I stood at the finish line and cheered in the riders with our typical 'ALC Cowbell Welcome'! 

I hope I didn't look like this :)