I am sure you're thinking that I've achieved Olympic gold medal status in postponement skills by now, so I'll try to catch up a bit on my AIDS ride effort this year: the AIDS Vaccine Ride 200 in May, supporting the Vaccine Center at Emory University, Atlanta.  


My longtime riding partner, Tracy and I arrived in Atlanta about 5PM on Thursday to a sweltering 93°, then quickly made our way to Emory University, as we were offered medical school dorm lodging since we were the riders who traveled the longest distance.  Turman dorm is a beautiful, new, 4-story 'green' building and we were the only residents other than the RA - nice!  This was great as all of the pre and post ride activities were literally across the road and so was the start/finish line for the ride.  When you already have to pack up gear and bikes, travel cross-country and rent a car for all said gear and bikes, it's a huge help to not have to find off-site lodging and commute for everything.

my side of the dorm room

We settled in quickly after meeting Marc, who coordinated all of the logistics for the ride; this ride is 100% volunteer - so, along with the riders and road crew, the ride management - everyone is a volunteer - donating our time and efforts so that all of the money we raise goes directly to the reason we ride: develop a vaccine to rid our world of HIV/AIDS!
We also quickly found the local Starbucks (we are from Seattle, home of coffee mecca, you know), pizza place, and local bike shop who sponsors this ride.  I spent Friday re-assembling my bike, sorting my clothes and ride gear in readiness to ride over the weekend and prepping all for a very early start on Saturday morning. 
We walked over to the Emory School of Medicine for ride check-in (get rider packets with route information, rider #, emergency contact info, etc) and had a yummy dinner, meeting lots of new friends on Friday then made it an early night as the alarm was set for o'dark hundred!

pre-ride breakfast; Rachel, Mary, Tracy

It was still dark when I brought my overnight bag for gear drop-off and rolled my bike over to the front of the medical school building again Saturday morning.  When I was putting it in the bike rack, another rider tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if he could get some help/ask me some questions.  As it happened, he was an experienced rider but using a borrowed bike with different components than he was used to, so he wanted to ask me if I could coach him on how to change gears!  I'm one of those who would not even use a new saddle or shoes or anything, never mind a new bike on a long ride - whew!  He quickly got the hang of it though and went to practice a bit on quiet campus roads while I went inside for breakfast.  

Mary's bike - ready to ride!

We were able to fuel up well, fill our water bottles, pocket some snacks and head outside for some last minute safety reminders and route updates before we enjoyed the send-off from lots of supporters and a brass band playing Lady Gaga on our rideout...through the streets to connect to a local bike path taking us towards Stone Mountain, site of our first rest stop.
Tracy and I were proudly representing our AIDS rider teammates and wearing our Puget Sound Riders jerseys 

We met up with lots of great folks along the way and we were all very appreciative that the oppressive heat and humidity had disappeared for us to ride out in a light mist, only requiring arm warmers and vests for the cooler early hours of riding.  As a rider who has unfortunately been caught in too many downpours, I now know to pack my rain jacket, just in case, whenever there is threat of rain.  Luckily I only had to carry it and not use it, as the temps were delightful and we rolled through the outskirts of Atlanta, rural backroads, past lots of farms, gorgeous magnolia and oak trees all the way to Rock Eagle 4-H center - our overnight camp 105 miles from the start. 

On Sunday afternoon we all met up at Decatur Square and riders lined up next to each other and our bikes alongside the path, as we silently paid tribute to all of those lost to AIDS - represented by a riderless bike.  We then climbed back on our own bikes, rolled out behind a police escort for the 2 mile ride back to the Emory University campus.  

This was another amazing experience and I'm encouraged anew that we're closing in on our goal: to end AIDS.  Thank you again to my generous donors; together we ARE making a difference!

Tailwinds!

Mary