Aids Lifecycle

Last Saturday I took another adventure down to Los Angeles to volunteer my services to the LA riders training for the Aids Lifecycle. The riders were doing a sixty-five mile ride from Santa Monica to San Pedro and back. I was there to see what a typical day on the ride may be like to help prepare for what seven full days on the ride will be like.
It was a beautiful day to be outside. My day began at 4:45 am to get down to Santa Monica by 8 am. As one may expect traffic was virtually non-existent on the way down. I got there just as the riders were going through their pre-ride stretching program and then watched them head out onto the route. My first task was to meet Tony who is one of the Sports medicine team captains for the ride. Once I met up with Tony we helped the other volunteers break down the bicycle staging/parking apparatus and then headed down to San Pedro to set up our treatment tables and wait for the riders to arrive at the lunch stop.
As the riders began filtering in to the lunch stop we started to get busy with riders needing a little TLC. This was a great opportunity to meet the riders. As I worked we engaged in pleasant conversation and began to get to know each other. Quite a few of the people I helped explained that this was their first year doing the ride as well. I met one USC student who when I asked why she had decided to do the ride was simply because she heard there was a ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles and that was something she wanted to do. Many other riders were supporting or honoring loved ones living with or no longer with us because of HIV/AIDS. I also met a gentleman named Carlos who quit his job at a production company to run an outreach program for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Los Angeles area.
In the short amount of time I spent working on each rider that asked for assistance I was excited to be able to chat with them and get to know them. They were all very grateful and appreciative of our effort and helping them out. I didn't get home till about 9:45-10 pm that night and immediately crashed on my bed till noon the next day, but it was totally worth it. I am looking forward to volunteering for the ride and meeting more people.
I am supposed to help out this Saturday as well when a group of riders are going to take part in what is called the double century. The double century is basically a one hundred mile ride up to Santa Barbara from Los Angeles on Saturday and then the one hundred miles back to Los Angeles on Sunday. Hopefully, there will be more stories to share.