Day 3 - King City to Paso Robles

Tuesday, June 3

Good morning day 3. After allowing myself a couple minutes to fully wake up, stretch out those sleepy muscles, and adjust to the temperature difference outside of my cozy sleeping bag, I headed over to get some breakfast. The lines were better today, but I still choose to hit up the express line. Some oatmeal and yogurt would be just fine.

After eating I got changed into my cycling clothes for the day and got all my gear packed up. I took my bag and tent over to the gear trucks and then headed over to bike parking. 

As soon as I saw my bike I was relieved, there was no safety warning! (To refresh the memory, on Day 2 they informed us that too many people were riding too fast and too close together. My friends and I thought for sure we were going to get in trouble because we too were going pretty fast, even though we were pretty safe about it and always called out when passing) I got all my stuff on my bike and into my top bar bag. By stuff I mean my Garmin and GoPro as well as the items I carried in the top-bar bag, like sunscreen, ibuprofen, chapstick, route sheet, etc. I also made sure that my tires were properly inflated. We ended up having to wait for Jamie to get his bike back from the bike techs. He had dropped it off the night before to get some new tires since he had gotten several flats already. I think it was about 7:30am by the time we rolled out.

Getting out of King City was a little slow, but once we got moving it wasn't long before we were at the first rest stop. The rest stop theme was a 60's diner. One guy even had a shirt on that said "Mel's Diner". Even though we had a little warm up getting to the rest stop, I wasn't quite in my happy place yet. I was feeling tired and a little sluggish. I think this photo really says is all...

Right after the rest stop was the dreaded Quadbuster (one of the two named hills on ALC). Unfortunately, my quads already felt busted before I even started up the hill. That would be in thanks to the 190-some miles I had done the previous two days. I geared down and took it slow. By this time, the guys had dropped me, but I wasn't alone. I had caught up with my tentmate Jen and we tackled the hill together. Just before the top there was a little pull out and I needed to stop to stretch out my knee. I would have loved to have made it all the way without stopping, but there was no point in pushing through it and injuring myself more.

As we got to the top, we saw an ALC photographer and we both smiled at him hoping to get a good shot. Unfortunately, he informed us that he was told to only take photos of people not wearing sunglasses.... LAME!


It was all down hill from there to the second rest stop. I found the guys at the rest stop and hung out with them while we got some snacks, water and stretched out. There is no better place than the back of a truck to do some stretches....

I decided to stick with the guys, so I sent a quick message to Jen letting her know that I was going to head out of the rest stop.


We had 12 miles to go before getting to our next rest stop. It was mostly flat, with a little uphill. It was nice to ride with the guys again. They help me keep up my pace and push me to ride faster. We made it to the third rest stop without any problems. The rest stop had a race car pit crew theme, which was fitting for the location (Pleyto Plaza Store).

As I walked over to the rest stop someone mentioned to me that there was ice cream inside. As good as that sounded in the heat, I was avoiding all dairy this week. I have discovered in the past year or so that I am somewhat lactose intolerant, so I've been cutting out most of the dairy in my diet. For ALC, I didn't want to deal with any discomfort so I cut it out completely. Anyway, you don't really care about my internal issues with dairy. I headed over and got some snacks and refilled my water bottles.  

Soon we were on our way. There were about 12 miles until we got to our lunch stop and it was all pretty much downhill from the rest stop. Our lunch stop was in a little town called Bradley (the town's population was only 93 according to the 2010 census). Even though there is an official ALC lunch provided, most of the cyclists opt to buy a lunch that is served by the local school kids. The Bradley Elementary School uses the ALC event as a fundraiser for their school. Thanks to the money they have raised from the riders each year, they have been able to increase class sizes and get necessary supplies for the kids.

Unfortunately, my knee was really bugging me by the time I got to lunch (I had a started to walk with a limp), so I knew I needed to go over to Sports Med. Since the line was so long for burgers, I figured that I would put my name on the Sports Med list and wait in the burger line with Ken and Michael. Jamie and Scott had decided to get the ALC provided lunch so they headed to the food tent and ate over there. I made sure to keep an eye on the Sports Med list every so often. We ended up making it through the burger line before they got to my name at Sports Med. I got my burger and ate near the Sports Med tent so that I wouldn't miss my turn. This meant that we didn't all get to eat together. Scott was also waiting for Sports Med and he was just before me on the list.

When my name was called, I told them about the pain that I had been dealing with as well as what happened with Sports Med the day before. After taking a look, she informed me that I had a little swelling in the back of my knee and that I should try to take it easy and think about cutting out some of the miles in the next day or two. She said that I wouldn't want to miss days 6 and 7. That wasn't really what I wanted to hear, but I knew I needed to make sure that I didn't injure myself more. I would really be unhappy if I couldn't finish the ride or ride across the finish line. They were able to put some rock tape on my knee to help relieve some of my pain. But because of the swelling, she wasn't sure how much the tape would help because of how they had to put it on to avoid the swelling.

And yes, that is the start of bruising on the back of my knee. I think that may have been from the massage I got the day before at Sports Med. I sometimes tend to bruise easily. Oh and I have a weird tan line on the back of my knee from that tape now. 

With only 3 miles to go to reach rest stop 4, it didn't take us very long. One of the first things I did was to take off my jersey and switch to just wearing my wind vest.

After some stretching and a quick trip to the porta potty, we headed back out onto the road. We had another 12 miles to go before getting to the last rest stop of the day. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the higher speeds that the guys tend to ride, but thankfully Ken decided to keep a little slower pace with me. We were rolling along and I was in front, when I could tell that things were starting to take a turn for the worst. I could feel the emotional breakdown coming, but I was trying to ignore it. Sometimes I can let myself get worked up for nothing and I had been trying to channel my yoga practice to calm myself. Ken could tell things were not going to well for me and he called out, "You OK?" I think I responded, "Yes, well No". About three miles before we made it to the last rest stop there was a stop sign that we came up to and had to make a left turn. There was a nice wide shoulder on the other side of the road and Jamie, Scott and Michael had stopped to wait for Ken and I. As soon as we crossed the street, I got off my bike, set it on the ground and broke down. It was like someone had let the flood gates open. I was full out crying, hyperventilating... not good. They guys were all worried and I just told them I would be ok, I just needed to have my moment. They were very patient, and thankfully no one took a photo of me (i'm sure i looked ridiculous). As many told me afterwards, it wouldn't be ALC if someone doesn't have a complete meltdown and a good cry. I think that dealing with my knee pain, the thought of not being able to keep riding, and the heat was what got to me. Soon enough I was able to laugh about it and we were able to keep going.

(photo taken by Gino Ledesma)

It was amazing how much this simple change made a huge difference in my body temperature. As you can tell from the photo above, I was in a much better mood. Crazy to think that not too long ago I had tears pouring down my cheeks.

We headed over to get some snacks and cold water. It was important to drink water and Jamie and Ken told me to drink a full bottle before leaving the rest stop. They even had ice there for us to put in our bottles, which was so amazing.

The theme of the rest stop was Victoria's Secret runway show.

(photo taken by Greg Ripa)

As my friend Robert said, I think we know what Victoria's secret is. :) 

I found it interesting that this was all going on at a Mission. I made sure to look around at Mission San Miguel as well and found the architecture to be very nice.

We only had 12 more miles left before making it to camp and they were fairly flat so it didn't take us very long to get to Paso Robles. We got to camp around 4:00 pm. Before heading to bike parking we decided to take advantage of the bike cleaning station. Ken, Michael, Scott and myself hosed down our bikes and put on some new chain lube. Jamie headed over to park his bike because he didn't want to worry about cleaning his bike. When we headed over to the parking area we were handing letters that were written to us by local school kids. It was so cute to read their encouraging words. 

Day 3 Ride Stats

Total Distance: 65.1 mi

Elevation: 2,473 ft

Ride Time: 4:29:20

Average Speed: 14.5 mph

ALC total Miles: 256.1 mi

After grabbing all my stuff off my bike, I wanted to head over to Sports Med to get some ice for my knee. Ken, Scott, Michael and I headed out of bike parking and made a pit stop at the porta potties before splitting ways (the guys were going to head to get their gear and tents). As soon as I stepped out of the porta potty my knee gave out on my and it felt like I had pulled the muscle. I was in a lot of pain and I keeled over in pain and tears (of course). Thankfully there was a table right there that I could lean on (not that I wanted to lean on the table right outside the porta potty which was often called the poop table, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, and it could have been worse, I could have gotten stuck in the porta potty or fell back into the porta potty. either way, the table was a saving grace at the moment). Good thing the guys were still there with me because they were going to help me get to the medical tent. Unfortunately, I couldn't really walk too well, so Ken and Scott went to seek help from the medical staff while Michael stayed with me. Two guys from the medical team came and allowed me to put all my weight on them as they helped me hobble over to medical area. Since they really were not sure what had happened they started to take my information and got me some ice. They determined that I most likely did not pull the muscle, and therefore, I would need to be seen by someone at sports med instead. Thankfully, the physical therapist from Sports Med came to me, so I didn't have to worry about how I was going to get up and move myself. He was able to massage out the muscle a bit and showed me some stretches that I should do to help continue to loosen the muscle. He also suggested that I ice my knee at least one more time that night and continue to do stretches. 


As I limped out of medical, I headed over to try and find the guys. I needed to get my gear bag and tent and knew there was no way I was going to be able to lug my bag on my own. Jen, my tentmate, was going to be staying with her friend in town, so I was on my own to set up the tent (which in normal circumstances wouldn't be a problem). I wanted to see if the guys would help me out and to my surprise, Scott already had. Since he knew my tent grid number he had grabbed my bag and tent and got everything set up. What a great guy!

As I sat in my tent, slowly gathering up all the things I would need for dinner and a shower afterwards, I decided to clue the facebook world in to my situation.

I had already decided... well started to mentally prepare myself with the idea... that I was going to take it easy on Day 4 and probably wouldn't be doing all of the miles. With how much of a limp I had currently, I didn't think that I was really going to be able to pedal much at all. The only thing holding me back from completely saying that I would stay off my bike was the fact that Day 4 was the 'Halfway to LA' photo opp. And I did NOT want to miss that. I had worked so hard and trained for this and I wanted that photo dagnabbit!

Michael was around and he headed over to dinner with me. I had to walk very slow because I didn't have much in the range of motion. Michael stayed with me, at times he would start to walk faster and get ahead of me forgetting that I was miss slow poke, but no worries, he would soon look back and stop to wait for me. Of course dinner was at the other end of camp and felt like it was miles away. After we got in line for food Michael walked over to the drink line and picked me up some soy milk. As we were waiting, I realized that I had forgotten my water bottle so I asked if he could go grab me a cup as well. The guy behind me was surprised at how helpful Michael was and asked if he could borrow him. I explained that I was injured and Michael was being an AWESOME friend (he was kind of my own little man servant).

After dinner I headed back towards the shower trucks and got cleaned up. It was not fun trying to climb the few steps up into the truck and it wasn't any easier to get down. But it was nice to take a hot shower and get all of the days grime off. Those hot showers can really help relax and rejuvenate you. 

My last stop on this trip was medical, so that I could get another bag of ice for my knee. I slowly headed back to my tent and finally put my little camping chair to good use. It was easier to ease myself down into the low chair than all the way to the ground; also made getting back up easier too. I checked my facebook one more time and noticed that I had gotten some comments on my earlier post.

While I was back at my tent, Michael asked if I had seen his tentmate Delilah. I had not, and unfortunately neither had anyone else around us. I asked him if he had checked with Participant Services, Medical or bike Parking. He had but did not have any luck. Since it was almost 8 pm and the route had closed at 7 pm, he was starting to get worried. He headed over to find Jamie to see what could be done about tracking her down.

As I sat in my tent, icing my knee, I heard Delilah's voice. I called her over and told her that we were all worried about her. I got a hold of Michael and told him to call the search off, she had been found. Now that the search party had been called off and I had iced my knee I wanted to get up and move around a bit to stretch out my knee. I also wanted to head back over to medical to get another bag of ice before they closed.

I found the guys over near where all the service tents were (kind of in the middle of camp; camp was always set up a little bit different each day, but today, tents were on one end, food was on the other end, and all the services were in the middle, like medical, participant services, camp store, etc.). We also came across the pet therapy woman. I knew nothing about this, but apparently this woman brings her bunnies and cats out in a baby stroller for the ALC participants to pet. She does it every year and she goes to at least two of the camps. The bunny loved to sit on your shoulder and would actually try to climb up to you shoulder if you were just holding him regularly.

 

It was starting to get a little late, so I headed to my tent to ice my knee one more time before heading to bed. I had no idea what the next day had in store for me, but I was just hoping that my knee would be a little bit better in the morning. Only time would tell... Goodnight!

Day 2 - Santa Cruz to King City

Monday, June 2nd

Rise and shine, wake up time was 4:15am! It is true what they say, camp gets up around 4am. By that time you can already start to hear bags and tents zipping, the whispered chatter start up and the snoring starting to quiet down. My first night camping went okay. Yep, that's right, I've never been camping before now. I may be from Pennsylvania, but we didn't do much outdoorsy things when I was a kid. My sister and I were too busy with dance and gymnastics for things like camping. I managed to get some sleep; my sleeping bag was nice and warm and my mattress pad made sleeping on the ground a bit more comfortable. I did vaguely remember hearing Jen, my tentmate, complain about the "snoring sympathy" around us at least once or twice during the night. Needless to say, she didn't get all that much sleep. Thankfully I can usually sleep through snoring.

Once I fully woke up, I got changed into cycling gear, which I conveniently stashed inside my sleeping bag the night before so that it would be nice and warm. We headed to get something to eat before packing up all of our gear and tent. We hit up the express line for some oatmeal, yogurt and fruit. I wasn't interested in standing in a long line for the regular breakfast, which I think had eggs and bacon (which I don't eat anyways). After getting our gear over to the gear trucks, we headed to bike parking.



We rolled out of camp with the guys, Jamie, Scott, Michael, Ken and Patrick (a friend of Ken's). I think it was almost 7am when we left. Out of camp, we made our way onto a bike path that took us out towards the ocean. We strolled through the cute little town of Capitola...

Shortly after our little downtown stroll, he hit a crazy steep hill. It was short, but felt rather steep. Thankfully, with all my training and hill climbing, it wasn't too challenging and I was able to make it to the top without having to get off my bike and walk. The guys were waiting for me at the top.

We made our way to our first rest stop at Manresa State Beach. After parking my bike I headed over to the medical tent to see if someone could show me some more stretches I could do to help with my knee pain. They showed me some that I was already doing, but also a few new ones. The key was going to be doing them repeatedly, at each rest stop, to keep the muscle loose and warmed up. I then went to get some snacks and refill my bottles, and we were soon on our way.

We had about 23 miles until our next rest stop, but they were mostly flat miles. We rode along some farm land and unfortunately over some wet and dirty roads. The back of my legs were covered in dirt, what fun.

The one exciting thing that happened right before we got to the rest stop was that we rode right past Ione Olson Elementary School in Marina, CA. This was fun because as we passed, the kids were outside on their recess and several of them were lined up along the fence cheering us on. It was so cute to see them all so excited to see us on our bikes. I loved seeing all of the people out cheering us on along the entire route, but these kids were by far my favorite.

We pulled into the rest stop and parked our bikes. We realized that we hadn't taken a group shot that day yet, so now was as good a time as any. :)

The theme for rest stop 2 was park rangers. Everyone had on little ranger vests and they even had 'activity books' with stickers.

I grabbed an Owl sticker and added it to my helmet. (My sister likes owls. Unfortunately they don't have monkeys in the forest, otherwise I would have grabbed one). While we were at the rest stop the guys and I took some time for stretching, always a good idea. I just thought they looks silly in their little pigeon pose semi-circle.

Our lunch stop was only another 9 miles down the road. Today's lunch stop theme.... Christmas. There was a traffic roadie naming out who was naughty and who was nice as well were directed into the stop and towards bike parking. However, it seemed that everyone was Naught this year :) We wanted to make this a quick lunch stop, so the guys and I grabbed our lunches and found a picnic table that would accommodate all of us. After eating, I wanted to check out the Sports Med tent to see how long it would take to see someone about my knee pain. They had a clipboard for signups, but since we were trying to make it a quick stop I didn't want to wait. However, Scott wanted to go to Sports Med as well and said that we could just let the others go and we'd roll out later together. So I put my name down on the list. We had to wait about 30 to 45 minutes. When my name was called, I explained the pain that I was dealing with to the physical therapist. She did some different stretches and some massaging to help loosen up the muscle. She told me that hopefully this would help and the muscle would continue to loose up and work itself out.

About an hour after we had finished eating our lunch we finally rolled out of the lunch stop. Jamie and Michael had decided to wait with Scott and I, so we still had most of our little group.  Since we ended up staying longer at lunch and we still had a little over 60 miles, we really wanted to pick up our speed. While we were trying to get out of downtown Salinas, I accidentally dropped my water bottle as I was trying to get it back in the cage. I didn't want to stop and pick it up since the guys were flying ahead of me, and I knew that I had an extra one in my gear bag. That unfortunately meant that I had one water bottle for the remaining 60 mile ride, but Michael helped me make sure that I had enough water by sharing his extra bottle with me when need be.

There was a little bit of climbing along the 21 miles between lunch and rest stop 3, nothing steep, just a gradual incline. This, combined with the heat started to take a toll and slowed me down a bit. At some point, Jamie got a flat tire. We pulled over to wait with him while he changed it out, but he insisted that we keep moving. So Michael and I headed on to rest stop 3 while Scott waited with Jamie.

We had to deal with some crazy tailwinds and side winds before getting to rest stop 3. The tailwinds are nice but the side winds are a strange thing to deal with. You actually have to lean into the wind, and hope that it doesn't stop all of a sudden so you don't fall over. Thankfully, we made it safely to the rest stop.

Rest stop 3 was Day of the Dead themed. It was neat seeing all the roadies with their face paint. These are ALC photos (so I don't know anyone in the photo).

We got some snacks and refilled our water bottles. We hit the road as soon as we could so that we could keep good time and make it to the other stops before closing. We had 12.5 miles to go before getting to the water stop.  The water stop on Day 2 is well known. It is the famous Otter Pop Stop.

The water stop was at Mission La Soledad. We walked over to the Mission and they had post cards that you could fill out to send to your family and the Mission would pay for the postage. I thought that it was a nice thing to offer. There was a woman there who worked at the Mission and I overheard her telling another rider how much she loves working on this day every year to see all of the riders come through. She said that she looks forward to it every year, and even if she wasn't scheduled to work, she would still be there that day. It is so cool to hear how much of an impact ALC has on the public, not just for those receiving the life saving treatments funded by this event.

After getting an obligatory otter pop, we got back out on the road. We had another 14.6 miles to go before getting to the last rest stop and we needed to keep an eye on the time. When we got to the water stop we had 45 minutes until the stop closed.

Thanks to the relatively flat landscape, we were able to keep a good pace. We made it to the last rest stop with just under 30 minutes before close. We knew that we had to get moving, so we quickly grabbed some snacks and refilled the water bottles. We enjoyed the last little show that the rest stop 4 boys put on. The theme was My Little Brony and the guys had on pony themed sweatshirts that even had rainbow colored manes.

When we went to get our bikes from the rack, Jamie noticed that he had a flat tire. Figuring that the bike techs would be faster, he took it over to their tent. As we were waiting for the tech to fix the flat we head the dreaded "5 minutes left before this rest stop closes!" Oh no! There was only 12 miles left in the days ride and I was only 4 miles from hitting my first century ride. There was NO WAY I wasn't going to make it out of this stop on my own. I was determined not to get SAG'ed. Jamie had me, Scott and Michael get out of the rest stop and wait for him around the corner. As we stood there, waiting, hoping that he would make it out on time I kept looking back at the rest stop. All of a sudden I saw someone running with their bike. There was Jamie, doing all he could to make it out in time. 

Four miles down the road, we hit the glorious 100 mile mark! :) My first century ride ever! 

This was the first century ride that Scott and I had done. Crazy little Michael had just done a double century only a few short weeks ago (yes, that is 200 miles in one day; I did say he was crazy). The guy in black is Les, one of our training ride leaders on our team. He happened to be riding past as we were getting ready to take this photo, so we stopped him and had him join,. The guy on the right is Justin, another first time rider on our team. This was also his first century ride.

We made it to camp around 6:45pm. The route closes at 7:00pm, so we really didn't have much time to spare. But we made it, and that was all that mattered!

Day 2 Ride Stats
Total Distance: 108 mi
Elevation: 2,723 ft
Ride Time: 6:30:32
Average Speed: 16.5 mph (this is the fastest average speed I have ever gotten!)
ALC total Miles: 191 mi

We parked our bikes and headed to the gear truck to get our stuff. My tentmate had already made it to camp so she had already grabbed out tent. When I found my bag, my friend Gino offered to roll it to my tent. I wasn't going to let the offer pass by and I thanked him for the help. After 108 miles, I really didn't have the energy to struggle with rolling my bag over bumpy campgrounds.

Since it was later in the day, we all decided to go straight to the food tent to get dinner. During dinner, we listened to the announcements. Unfortunately it had been a bad day out on the road. They reported about 12 ER visits, including many broken bones, a concussion, and facial lacerations. The road conditions at times were not ideal, but all in all, too many people were riding too fast and too close together. Michael, Scott, Jamie and I all looked at each other. We had been cruising along at some pretty fast speeds that day. At one point, a rider in front of us looked back and called out "Car Back!" and when we looked behind us to check for ourselves, we saw nothing but open rode. She just called us a car! :) We were slightly proud of ourselves. We wondered if we were going to have warnings on our bikes in the morning.

After dinner, I got a shower and hit the sack. I was exhausted. I couldn't believe that I was going to get up the next day and do another 67 miles. I had never done this many miles back to back before, and I had never done three days in a row.

Day 1 - San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Sunday, June 1st

The morning started out bright and early (well, not so bright, seeings how I got up at 3am). I needed to be at the Cow Palace around 5am in order to drop off my bag and get to the opening ceremony on time. It was way too early to be up and moving around, but it was just a taste of what was to come in the week ahead. We made it to the Cow Palace on time and got to the drop off area.

I got my bag and rolled over to the gear truck. It was kind of crazy and there were people and bags all over the place. As a noobie, I wasn't really sure which way to head and hoped that I would figure this whole thing out quickly. I made my way toward gear truck D and dropped off my bag. On to the Cow Palace....

They had some breakfast items available for us that morning. After I found my friends I grabbed from fruit to supplement the cliff bar I ate in the car on my way over. We then made our way into the arena area and towards the stage. We wanted to get positioned close to where they let everyone out to get to their bikes.

I knew that the opening ceremony would be an emotional experience. We were all so excited to hear that we had set yet another fundraising record this year....

* * * $15,000159.00  * * *

After that wonderful announcement they spoke about the reasons we all ride: for those who cannot, for a cure, courage, strength, determination, etc. There was also an unmanned bicycle that was accompanied to the stage. I had heard about this part of the ceremony and had seen photos before. I have been luck to not have lost anyone I know to this disease, but I can only begin to imagine all of the pain and loss others have felt over the years. I was never more proud to be a part of something so amazing.

Following opening ceremony, we were released from the arena area and corralled towards our bikes. And I do mean corralled, it was almost like a stampede as everyone was rushing to get to their bikes so that they would not be at the end of the line.

I made my way to my bike and got my GoPro ready. I wanted to get a video of the roll out from the Cow Palace to always remember the excitement of the moment.

A fellow teammate who wasn't riding in ALC this year also took a video of the ride out. Here is the video... sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embed it like I can with my own videos.

I started out with my group but soon it was just me and my friend Michael. There was a bit of climbing that we had to do to get out of San Francisco and I am a slower climber. There was a water stop right before mile 5, but we skipped it since we didn't need water yet. At this point Michael went on ahead to catch up with the other guys.

I made my way to the first rest stop, which was at about mile 18. My first official rest stop of ALC 2014 and I was greeted by the King.... Elvis that is.

The first thing that I did once I got into the rest stop was to head over to the bike tech tent. I had been told while riding that my back wheel was looking a little wobbly. The mechanic took a look as determined that I needed to get my wheel trued. However, if I would wait to have them do it at this stop, it could take between 30 to 45 minutes. He said that it would be ok for me to wait until I got to the lunch stop to get the wheel fixed, so I went with that option.

I parked my bike on the rack and headed over to get some water and food. When I was ready I headed back over to my bike and found a couple of my teammates.

I ended up rolling out of the rest stop with my tentmate Jen. We made our way to our next big climb, up Highway 35. This hill is apparently known as Strawberry hill because they hand out strawberries to riders at the top. There were strawberries smashed all over the place. What a mess! Anyways, we were rewarded with a nice downhill after the climb. I stopped at the top to get my jacket all zipped up and turn on my GoPro. Here is the fun video I took of our descent down Highway 92.

We made our way to rest stop 2, which had a roller derby theme. We got some water and snacks (our typical rest stop routine.... eat, drink, pee... in no particular order). At the rest stop they had a 'Free Black Eye' station where they were putting on make up to make people look like they had black eyes and other facial bruises. Seeing people walking around all bruised up was freaky because if you didn't realize that it was fake, you started to worry that people were really hurt. I was definitely caught off guard by a couple of people.

Our lunch stop was at San Gregorio State Beach off Highway 1. The first thing I did was to drop my bike off with the bike techs. I told the guy that my wheel needed to be trued and he said it would only take 10 minutes. I was glad I waited to do it at lunch, because that was a lot faster than waiting around at rest stop 1. I grabbed a lunch and by the time I walked past the bike tech tent my bike was done. Love the Cannondale ALC bike techs! They are fast and do an awesome job! I parked my bike and joined my friends at a picnic table.

There were about 21 miles between lunch and rest stop 3, and it was all along Hihgway 1 and the beautiful California coast. I had done some of those miles when I did the Zen Mother ride a month ago. I love the scenery along Highway 1 and it is even better from the bike (because you get to enjoy it longer since you are moving slower).

As I pulled into rest stop 3 the roadies greeted us with "Welcome to Octoberfest!" I heard another rider behind me as "are there any beers?" I was not expecting the answer that came next, but laughed when I heard the roadie respond, " nope, but we got queers."

I parked my bike, found Jen, who rolled in shortly after me, and we headed over to get some snacks and refill our water bottles. At the water tent, we came across this road, who was offering to fill up your water bottle with his own special jugs of water :) As you can tell, Jen wasn't so excited about the offer.

We did some quick stretches and got back on our bikes. Another 12 miles along highway 1 and we reached our last rest stop of the day. We had been informed that rest stop 4 goes all out on their themes, which seemed hard to imagine when the other rest stops we had seen that day were pretty elaborate. We pulled into the rest stop and were greeted by Team Brasil soccer players. The theme was the FIFA World Cup.

Jen wanted to get her photo taken with the boys.... and yes, that guy in the middle isn't wearing pants. He had on a little thong. Trust me, this picture is rather tame compared to some of the other ones I saw being taken.

I ended up riding out of the rest stop with the guys (Jamie, Scott, Michael, and Ken). We were only 6.5 miles from camp so we were eager to get there and get cleaned up. We made our way into Santa Cruz and towards Harvey West Park. Unfortunately, about a mile or so from camp Jamie got a flat tire. We all stopped and waited with him while he changed it out.

Luckily, the locals were very friendly. A couple walking by told us, that if all else fails, we could walk to camp. Also, i think the person that lived in the house on the corner came out of their home and offered a floor pump for Jamie to use. That was very nice of him and made the tire change a little bit easier. We were on our way soon enough and made it to camp safely.

Day 1 Ride Stats
Total Distance: 83.0 mi
Elevation: 5,516 ft
Ride Time: 6:11:32
Average Speed: 13.4 mph

After parking our bikes, we headed to the gear trucks to get our gear bags and tent. Jen and I found our grid spot and set up the tent. The tent went up pretty easily, which is good, since we have to do it 5 more times before the week is over.  We were able to get our gear bags inside our tent along with our sleeping pads and sleeping bags. It was nice not having to leave our bags outside, because they would have gotten dew on them overnight.

Anyways, we gathered up our things and headed over to the shower trucks. I didn't take a photo of the shower truck, but they looked similar to these ones....

When you went into the truck there was a little common changing area and then there were several individual shower stalls. It was so nice to have access to a hot shower after being on the road all day. It was also great on those colder nights because it gave you a way to warm up and break the chill that you can easily get from being sweaty and outdoors.

After we got cleaned up we went to get some dinner and then hung out at the tents.

In our tent grid we proudly displayed a team banner that was made by one of the riders daughters. It looked pretty awesome, with the ACL logo as well as our team jersey design for that year.

Before the dinner tent closed for the night, we went back to get a little more food. The nice thing is that we can eat as much as we want/need for the week.

Finally it was time to go to bed and get some sleep, we had a big day ahead of us.