I (used to) Ride 545
This is a week that always brings back memories, good, bad, but always important. This is AIDS Lifecycle week. It’s the week in which a couple thousand people get on their bikes and ride 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles after raising a minimum of $3000 to support services for HIV and AIDS. Years ago I had my left knee replaced and I knew I needed to rehab, so I said to Jerry, “Let’s do the AIDS Ride on the tandem.” He said something to the effect of, yeah, right, figuring it would never happen. While Jerry was a cyclist, I had not been on a bike in years and had never ridden the tandem that had been hanging for years in our garage. But we started riding. First a 15 mile ride that I thought would kill me. Then 20, 25, 50 and 100+ mile rides. We would be near the back of the pack on those long Northern California hills, but speed past everyone on the downhill. I had the cyclometer in the back, so uphillI I knew when I had to give it an extra kick to keep us from falling ov