Braking The Cycle 2008 (AIDS Ride) Pictures & Thoughts
Posted by: Ducky in AIDS Ride, Ducky Does TV
Braking The Cycle 2008 is over and I’m back home… in one piece. Sure that piece is shriveled, prune like, still jammed up in my abdomen possibly never to descend but nevertheless… one piece.
That’s right, after 3 days, almost 300 miles, 5 million hills, 400 pounds of horse dung, 16,000 gallons of rain, 200 liters of gatorade, 1,000 laughs, 100 clif bars, 50 screams, 40 bananas, 20 Gu packets, 10 packets of butt balm, 5 flies eaten, 1 big good cry at the end of Day 2 and 1 vomit, the weekend is over.
Usually I do some huge write up of each days events and I try to be all fun and witty but right now with the layer of skin missing from my ass and the blisters on my feet, I’m not in the mood to wax properly but I’ll do my best.
On Wednesday night I headed from Boston to NYC on the Acela. I watched the Sex and the City movie which I hadn’t seen yet. It was good, not great but good. It was exactly what I wanted it to be and the perfect extension of the show so I was a happy man on my train ride. I had dinner with my friends Matt and Armando in Hoboken then some Pumpkin ice cream. Yummers.
Day 0 aka Thursday I lounged around a bit, roamed around the city for a while then headed down to The Center to meet up with everyone to take our chartered buses to Gettysburg. As none of my previous BTC bitches (Dan R., Hector, Paul, Jim, Leslie) were riding this year, I sat near some familiar faces. I caught up with Amy, Charl, Greg, Hot John, Roger and Team MTV. The bus ride was fun but long. I won’t confirm nor deny that I dropped a whole container of homemade brownies on the bus floor… you can’t prove a thing, none of you!
Once we arrived it was time for our registration, safety orientation, etc. I had to check on my bike which I shipped the week prior and sadly a spoke broke in transit so the amazing bike techs had to replace it. I paid up the man then headed out to the hotel as it started to rain. I checked into my hotel with every intention of walking up the street, getting something to eat and then coming back to watch the premiere of Survivor but damn if forcing myself to be social didn’t win out.
I headed to The Gingerbread Man with Team MTV and some others and ate. Greg ordered a couple plates of fried pickles which though they may sound hideous, were seriously the frakkin’ best things I ate all weekend. Across from us was a table of Civil War reenactment soldiers in full regalia… only in Gettysburg. Dinner was a blast, I’m so glad I went and missed the premiere of Survivor. I did however catch the new Tabatha’s Salon Takeover when I got back and the minute it was over, I passed out. Love that bitch!
Day 1 or Friday to the rest of the world started out nicely. I woke up at 4:45am and stretched, took a shower, packed the plums and banana into my cycling outfit and headed off to get my bike and head to breakfast. The Opening Ceremonies started at 7:00am, they were touching and inspirational I peed 2x during them. Sorry everyone, when we hydrate as much as we do, there’s bound to be a few inappropriate times for relieving yourself. After a moment of silence and some more amazing speakers, we left Gettysburg on our 95 mile day.
The thing that always kills me about the first part of the morning is that about 10 miles after we leave, we circle back about a block from where we began. If you’re wondering WFT? then all you need to know is that sometimes they have to get creative with the route to make the day longer or harder for us.
I don’t remember much of Day 1 (I think I blocked it already) other than the fact that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog got me through the worst parts of the route. From “My Freeze Ray” to “Everything You Ever” I sang every word out loud and you’d be surprised how it helped. Hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do!
Continue reading my account of the ride and all my photos after the jump… (more…)
Entries (RSS)