My friend Gwyn just finished a 600 mile bike race from San Francisco to Los Angeles over 7 days to raise money for Aids awareness. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden more than 15 or 20 miles at most!

I can’t even imagine the range of emotions and feelings one would have over an exhausting and exhilarating 7 day bike trek. Fortunately, Gwyn wrote a short summary of her journey and is letting me post it here so you can feel like you’ve taken the ride with her.

As you enjoy her story, think of the last time you took on a challenge that seemed overwhelming. What great hills have you climbed recently? Was there a beautiful view when you finally arrived at the top?

We should all try to have an adventure like this at least once per year as a way to continually fuel our fire and stoke our spirit.

Peace and Possibility,
mj

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Hi everyone!

Well, I did it! I rode my bike 585 miles over 7 days from San Franciscans LA last week. It was by far the most challenging, exhilarating,exhausting, fulfilling and intense experience of my life. It’s hard top out into words what it was like, but I’ll try.

I have to say, I think I experienced every possible emotion in the span of the week. There were times when I was laughing so hard I was crying,and other times when I was simply crying - either way - there were a lot of tears. The physical exhaustion leads to emotional exhaustion which means that everyone finds everything either really funny or really sad.

Here is what the week was like in a nutshell.

I flew to San Francisco on Friday June 2nd. There were about a dozen other riders on the flight and at the end of the short flight, the flight attendant wished us all luck on the ride and said that if anyone wanted to donate to find a rider (we were pretty obvious as we were all talking about how excited we were). One woman wrote a $200 check to a rider. That was just the beginning of the kindness we experienced.

The next day was orientation where we started to get used to standing inline for everything. We got our bike numbers and all the other info we needed, and at the end of the day had a big Pasta dinner to load up on Carbs.

On the first day of the ride, I had to wake up at 3:30 to get on the van to go to the cow palace to ride out. As I was getting ready, my always chipper mother told a joke. I found it funny, so I’ll share it. “Why is this morning like a pig’s tail?” answer: “Because it’s Twirly” (get it -too early) Anyway, at 3:30 am it was funny.

The ride out was really beautiful. We saw some amazing parts of Northern CA that day and every day. We rode about 80 miles the first day.

Day 2 was long - 105 miles - and it was hot!!! Day 3 was the infamous Quad Buster Hill, which was harder than I thought it would be. But I did it! Day 4 brought us half way to LA, that is after we climbed the “evil twins.” Day 5 was a short day mileage wise, but in many ways it was the hardest. It was hilly and I was really exhausted. Day 6 was better. I got my groove back. And day 7 was the last day when we rode into LA.

I won’t go into all the details about each day, but I will say that thank god that for every hill we climbed, there was a beautiful view at the top followed by an amazing descent.

Camp life was incredible - the people were kind and friendly, and even at their most exhausted, everyone helped each other. It was beautiful. I met some amazing people, and grew closer to people I had met on some training rides. Our HollaBike Girl team kicked butt, had fun and grew really close. The people really made the ride what it was. Special beyond words.

I am pulling together all of my photos and will send out the link as soon as I do, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you all know I survived the ride. I also want to thank all of you for your support, the messages you sent and the good vibes you were sending all week. I totally felt it!!! Thank you!

Much love,
Gwyn