riverrun past Charlie Lilley's...

The summer after my senior year of high school I received an email from Pete Giese, the freshman rowing coach. He told me that in order to "hit the ground running" in the fall I should do 60-90 minutes a day of cardio with my heart rate in the 120-150 range. That very day I laced up my running shoes, headed out the door, and proceeded to run for 65 minutes. The next morning, upon rolling out of bed, I nearly collapsed from the searing pain in my quads. Still I got out on the road and ran for another 60 minutes, albeit much slower. Each step felt like knives were being thrust into my legs, but I stuck it out and over the course of the summer worked my way up to a solid 13 mile run.

It was with this, um, fond memory in mind that fell asleep last night. The last time I rode my bike before yesterday was May 24, ages ago! I feared I would awake with leg cramps, hobble over to my bike, ride for 65 miles, and arrive in Carmichael around midnight.

Fortunately, my legs felt great. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, but another 65 miles was certainly doable. After the best breakfast I've had in a while (2 pancakes, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and a steak) the team waved goodbye to Barbara and hit the road. The first part of our trek was smooth sailing. Dave and I weaved in and out of the California golden hills, practically alone on the country roads.

We stopped in Davis, a good 35 miles from Fairfield, and met up with Lauren for snacks from the van. After about an hour Dave and I jumped back on the bikes and headed towards Carmichael by way of Sacramento. The bike path we took ran us parallel to the I-80 and the headwind from the oncoming traffic created greatly slowed our process. The after-lunch sleepiness started to kick in and I was delighted when Sacramento finally came into view.

After crossing the American River, we picked up a bike path that goes all the way out to Folsom. The path follows the river and makes for a beautiful, car-free ride. Around 4 PM we rolled into Carmichael to the house of Charlie Lilley. Charlie is our good friend, teammate, and as of yesterday a Stanford graduate! We enjoyed a wonderful evening of food, stories, and laughs with his parents and sister, Laura, and have just sat down to relax before heading to bed.

Tomorrow is a big day in the Ride Against AIDS. The road since Palo Alto has been relatively flat but 15 miles into our ride tomorrow we hit elevation. The road rises and falls (but mostly rises) all the way up to Carson Pass which is over 8,500 feet above sea level. Tomorrow we will take try to take out between 5,000 and 7,000 of those feet. It will be, most likely, the hardest day of the summer because we haven't totally adjusted to riding yet and because it will be the most elevation we will encounter in a day.

The story with which I opened this entry was actually incomplete. As hard as the 2nd day was, the 3rd day was worse and still ranks as #3 on my list of worst physical experiences of my life (racing up Half Dome and the Petite Finals of the IRAs this year are #1 and #2, respectively). I can only hope that the 3rd day of the ride is not as bad as the 3rd day of running.

In closing, today marks the beginning of the "Ride Against AIDS Trivia Game"! I'll include various questions with point values throughout the blog. The first to answer the question correctly received the points and the overall winner at the end of the summer gets a Face AIDS DVD and a kiss from Dave. (Note: you do not have to receive the kiss if you do not want. It's totally mandatory). Daily winners will receive a Face AIDS pin. Anyways, here is the first question:

What is the title of this blog entry a reference to? (10 points) Anyone named Matt Keeley is not eligible to answer this question.

The Ride is Underway!

As our dear, loving, and extensive audience is aware of, the ride started today! We met at a quarter to nine in the Oval, took some photos, and then headed out on the road. Dave and I were joined by Lauren and Dave's brother Nate for the leg up to San Francisco. We encounteredour first road bump 15 miles in when Nate was sidelined with a flat tire. A quick tube change later we were back on the road and on the way to San Francisco.

Once in the city we gathered at the Ferry Building. Dave and I bought tickets to take the ferry to Vallejo while Lauren grabbed the car and headed across the Bay. I was very excited to see the Richer family, albeit for only a few minutes, before jumping on the boat.

Now, I just want to say one word about the ferry. Some people have called it "cheating" or insinuated that we weren't really biking across the country. Initially, these naysayers got to me. Then I remembered I'm biking 4,500 miles- that's 50% more than the width of the country- in less than two months and I feel better. You know who you are.

Getting back on track, Dave, Lauren, and I lunched in the car with the food we bought at Costco. After a particularly gooey PB&J Dave and I hit the road again to Fairfield. The 30 miles went great, but the extra 5 we tacked on because we got lost weren't all that great. Still when we did find our final destination we were greeted by an extremely friendly and welcoming host. Barbara Cruz is the mother of a Stanford alum and graciously opened her home to us. We are currently chilling in her living room watching the NBA Finals (why are the Magic terrible?) after having had a delicious pasta dinner.

I'm pretty tired but am looking forward to tomorrow. We're heading to Carmichael, CA to stay with our good friend and teammate Charlie Lilley (shoutout to Charlie for graduating today. Congrats!). But right now I'm thinking about heading to bed. Thanks for reading, and come back for more tomorrow!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

In less than 48 hours, the 2009 Ride Against AIDS will be underway! Pretty crazy to think about. Dave and I are frantically throwing our things together (check that, DAVE is frantically throwing things together, I'm all packed and taking time to blog) and trying to move out of Toyon. The dorm is empty and it's always sad to see another year end.

We have our final team meeting today before we set off on Sunday morning. I know this is a recurring theme, but it's hard to believe that after 6 months of meetings here we are at the end, ready to hit the road.

Anyways, I just wanted to post some photos that just came in from the Los Altos Rotary club. That was our first speaking event way back on May 28th. 

That's pretty much all I got for you right now. Give me two days and I'll have plenty to talk about ;-) See ya then!

IRA Update, New Article, and Public Safety Announcement

June is upon us! That means we have less than two weeks until the start of the ride. The planning has been going on since I first contacted Face AIDS in the fall when I was spending a weekend in Dublin... I can barely believe it is actually happening!

Dave and I are currently sitting in a hotel room in Folsom, CA with our good friend and teammate Tyler Scott. The IRAs start on Thursday and we are all anxious to hit the water. We've been up here since Saturday rowing twice a day, but as all the East Coast teams arrived today its nice to see some fresh faces in boats we line up against.  We're rowing only once tomorrow and then we have our heat Thursday morning. 

The JV event works a little bit differently than other events. The winners of each of the three Thursday heats advance directly to the finals on Saturday. All other crews race in the three "reps" on Friday and the top boat advances. What this means is that you have to win a race to get the chance to race for the title. We're ranked #7 and are going to have to beat our seed to end up in the final. Wish us luck!

In other news, this morning I was greeted with a

 text from my father alerting me to the newspaper article on our ride that appeared in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. I had a 20+ minute interview with the reporter, Steve Foskett, the other day and he did a great job portraying our ride. You can check out the article at "Ride Against AIDS" by Steve Foskett. His mention of the IRA also got us a link on the coverage of IRAs at www.row2k.com/ira!

This leads me to my final point: a public service announcement. In most of

 our publicity photos and videos, Dave and I are not wearing helmets. We've received concerned feedback from our parents, friends, and other well-wishers. I would like to address this issue so as to avoid confusion.

Dave and I will certainly be wearing helmets this summer! We strongly believe in bike safety and try to take steps that will promote safety in daily riding. The reason we were photographed and filmed without helmets was purely for publicity's sake. We wanted our faces to be prominently featured in our materials so as to personalize our ride. In retrospect this was a poor decision as the magnitude of the ride speaks for itself: we don't need our faces to publicize it. All media materials were produced around the Stanford campus and we felt too comfortable with our circumstances and felt that a few minutes on a bike without a helmet would be ok. This was an incorrect assumption. 

So I would like to offer an apology to those who were offended or concerned with our lack of helmets. Not wearing a helmet sends the wrong message to people that we are trying to reach. Even for short rides, such as a 5-minute photo shoot, helmets are important to promote the general safety of riders and project a positive message regarding the use of helmets. We sincerely hope this apology will be accepted and we will make a concentrated effort to ensure that any future photos of us us in motion on our bikes will feature us wearing helmets.

Thanks for reading, this has been a long update. I've got to get to writing a paper before heading to bed. Thanks for following, and make sure to check www.row2k.com/results on Saturday to find out how we did!

First Speaking Presentation

It's a beautiful morning here in California and I just finished my last class for the year. What better time for a blog? Yesterday Dave, Maggie (our wonderful new ride director), and I went to the Los Altos Rotary club for our first presentation on our ride. I was a little nervous going in... there were over 100 people and I haven't spoken before that many people in a while.

It went really well though! Dave and I worked ourselves into a comfortable rhythm talking about the background of Face AIDS, the origins of the ride, and our expectations for the summer. The club was extremely welcoming and receptive to our message which was a big confidence booster on our first run through.

So if anyone from the Los Altos Rotary club ends up following this blog, thank you very much! We loved meeting you all and will hopefully come back next fall to let you know how the ride went. We appreciate the support you have given us!

In other news, the crew team leaves for Sacramento tomorrow morning. We'll be missing class next week (and some finals for some people) and get back on June 6. We've been waiting a while to get up to IRAs and are quite excited to get away from campus, focus our heads, and hit the water. 

Well, I have to go pick up my laundry (laundry rooms, if you've forgotten, can be vicious places in college dorms) so I have to run. Thanks for reading, and check back next week for updates about nationals and final preparations for the ride.

Your friendly Ride Against AIDS team,

Dave and Austin

Article in the Stanford Daily

Hey everyone, we are under one month to the ride and Dave and I are pretty busy. Whether it's logistics, getting ready for the national rowing championship (we leave in 8 days), or finishing up classes (believe me, it's really hard when its 75 and sunny out....I just want to hit the beach) we are busy 24/7.

Things are still going very well. Here are a couple of updates that might interest our dedicated readership:

1. Housing: Through couchsurfing.com we have met some very nice people who are willing to put us up for a night as we come through their towns. So far we are set for 20 of the 60 nights, so if you have any suggestions, please let us know!
2. Alumni events: We are currently working with the Alumni Center to set up possible events in DC, Philly, New York, and Boston for alumni receptions. Stayed tuned for more info.
3. Getting inked up: No, we are not getting sweet Face AIDS tattoos (yet). But there was a very nice article on the front page of the Stanford Daily about us. Check it out: "Biking to Battle AIDS"
4. YouTube Video: Some friends of ours had to create a video about an organization for a class and they chose to produce one about our cause. The first version is available here: "Ride Against AIDS 2009 Video"

Things are rolling and we are pleased with the progress. Please shoot us an email at rideagainstaids2009@gmail.com if you have any questions or ideas, we love to hear new ideas. Thanks, and hope all is well!

April showers bring May flowers

With just over a month to go before our journey begins, Dave and I still have a ton of work to do. But that doesn't mean we haven't been hard at work! In fact, a lot of our major objectives that we set out to accomplish in April are coming together. Here's a quick update of our new developments:

1. Team Car: Our coach, Craig Amerkhanian, is going to let us take one of the team vehicles this summer as our support vehicle! We are extremely thankful for his generosity and excited to get "The Sprinter" outfitted with our gear and on the road.
2. Team manager/driver: Dave's good friend, Lauren Kubiak, has signed our as our driver/manager. While we are on the road pedaling, Lauren will set up our meetings and perhaps give some presentations as well. She's a junior here at Stanford, an Earth Systems major, and an all-around cool girl.
3. Team Jerseys: Dave turned 21 last month (happy birthday!) and his parents got him a certificate for team jerseys and jackets. They are in production right now and we CANNOT wait to get them. Gonna look pretty fly if I may say so myself. We'll post pics when we get them.

Donations are still gradually rolling in and we are overwhelmed by your generosity and support. We've raised around $7,700 so far and are looking to keep the push going! Last weekend at the Cal Dual we received pledges of $500 and $1000! Those donors will remain anonymous until we get permission to use their names, but from Dave, myself, and the whole Face AIDS team, thank you so much! It means the world to us.

I've got to get back to some of my studies (you know, the things I do when I'm not rowing or planning this ride) but I hope everyone is well. Keep checking back for updates! I hope to update more and more as new developments come in. Bye!