My last post was on May 17, right after the 2010 NorCal Ride Ataxia, now it's 6+ months later and this last weekend I did the 1st annual SoCal Ride Ataxia. The two rides are very different; 100 miles vs. 80 miles, the sunny Sierra's vs. the cloudy Highway 1 south of Long Beach, and a 2,333 foot elevation rise vs. 213 feet! lol In common the two rides shared wonderful people bound in a common purpose, outstanding food both at the rest stops and at the Outback Restaurant provided meals, and at least for me 2 days of riding that left me emotionally and physically drained. Below is a chronology of the SoCal Ride Ataxia.

Ride Prep: I continue to average one 23 mile ride a week with a riding buddy, not really enough to sail through any 40 mile ride but better than the alternative of less to none! lol

Thursday, December 2.
The morning was spent in last minute errands. Mid afternoon found me at my brother-in-law's tow company shop for 2+ hours where he graciously undid half the work he had done previously on Brianne's converted wheelchair bike trailer, and re-routed the tow bar from just under the bike seat back down to the frame next to the rear wheel hub. Dinner and final packing and in bed by 10:30pm.

Friday, December 3.
Up at 4:30am to beat the Bay Area morning rush traffic and to reach Long Beach before their evening rush traffic. Tried to sneak around not to wake Susan, who stayed home to do Christmas projects and babysit our 2 youngest grandchildren (Kayden all day Friday, Chelsea Saturday until 4pm-ish when the baton got passed back to Kayden who stayed the night) I wonder who was tireder from the rigors of the weekend?! lol
On the road at 5:15am and on 5 just before 7am with no traffic jams, yess! For the whole trip I set the cruise at 57mph and reaped the reward of 24.5mpg with my 3/4 ton PU diesel. I reached my motel at 1:15pm, got settled and was at the Long Beach Outback Restaurant for pre-registration and to fit a local FA young woman to Brianne's trailer so she and her team could do the Saturday 10 mile course in Dana Point, the 1st day destination for the 2 day riders. I met Kelly and her wonderful friends and family, got her fitted with no problem, then enjoyed the company of the other riders for a bit. Ride starts at 10:30am so I was in bed by 11pm. BTW, there was a huge dog show last weekend so you had to watch where you stepped all over town! Well, at least there were a lot of pampered dogs all over.

Saturday, December 4.
Got to the Outback Restaurant starting point at 9:30am, ditched the truck in a parking garage, and was ready to go by 10am. Awesome Outback continental breakfast with all kinds of biking foods; it would be hard to lose weight on this ride! Weather was iffy and in fact as we started so did the rain, a light intermittent teaser for the first half hour. After that just a cool cloudy day. The route is flat for the first 22 miles and more than half of that is on the beach boardwalk, with the rest on or next to Highway 1. My bike computer was inop for the first 9 miles because Kayden had fiddled with the speedometer sensor a week or two previously and I had forgotten. The first rest stop was a bike shop and he tweaked it back in less than a minute. I think we had a bit of a head wind 'cause my legs were a tad tired even before we hit the 18 miles of coastal hilliness. The last 5 miles my leg muscles were on high alert for cramps and felt like mush. The courtyard of the Double Tree was a welcome sight.
Shortly after I arrived Kelly's team came in and I got a report on the trailer's performance. Flawless she said with a big smile! It made the whole weekend worth it right then. I like it when my FA niece's look happy. Even better Kelly's friend's husband is going to build her one from scratch! So then I hooked the chair to my bike so I could tempt the other FAers to ride in it and maybe do a conversion for themselves. Matt Rupel and Bart gave it a close scrutiny.
Then Lauren Williams asked for a ride "up a hill". Up another hill?? Whew! So OK, all we gotta do is turn right in front of the hotel, there's a little bridge (uphill) and I would pull a U-ee and pedal right back; no sweat. We pop out onto the road, turn right and 30' up the road I realize all the big white arrows on the pavement are pointing toward me! Oops. No traffic; quick U-ee and we're street-legal again. So I figure (on the fly) all I gotta do is go to the next intersection, do a left, left, left and we're back at the hotel. HaHaHaHa, silly boy. I make the first left and discover there are not interconnecting streets for 2+ miles and half of it is up hill! We stopped 3 or 4 folks for directions, Lauren's shoes kept falling off because of the front tie-down strap, she got a heel scrape from the strap ratchet (I wrapped my extra nylon pants around it), a borrowed light jacket put on backwards kept slipping off, daylight was fading (rear blinking light OK, no front light) and it was getting distinctly chilly. It took us nearly an hour to make the big loop and get back! There was a group watching for us! lol By then I was tuckered! And it was 5:30pm with dinner at 6pm and me still in riding gear.
I was on time and the dinner was wonderful; a choice of salmon, steak, chicken and/or shrimp with side dishes, catered by Outback Restaurant. After dinner there were several research presentations that I found really interesting but my body had trouble staying focused on; there were a lot of tired people there. We got an update on HDAC's from Scripps Institute, the EPI 743 from Edison and a new way to detect FA treatment impacts in the brain; cool stuff! Pics at 9am, ride start at 9:30am so in bed at 11pm after taking another set of Advil.

Sunday, December 5.
Up at 7:45am, more Advil, checked out, breakfasted and smilin' for pics by 8:50am. Took off straight into the 18 miles of hills but it was OK, I was fresh. Again the last 5 miles was high alert for cramps. Weather was better with broken clouds. On the ride back my riding time was 3 hours, 5.5 minutes, total time with stops was 4 hours and 10 minutes. Average speed was 13mph, with a max of 33.5mpg (some of those coastal highway 1 downhills were fun!). The route was 40.3 miles long.
So I had a celebratory beer, hugged everyone and left at 3:30pm for home. Arrived at 11:30pm after going through a lightning storm and intermittent rain up 5.

So if you're still with me by now after this lengthy chronicle, thank you. The ride was good, the FA extended family was wonderful and the ride support was enthusiastic and helpful. And by tomorrow (Wednesday) I'll be pretty much recovered. ;-)

My network of financial supporters have already been involved in both NorCal RA and my August Outback Restaurant lunch fundraisers so I didn't even put together a fundraiser page until last week Thursday when a friend on Facebook asked how to get sponsorship money to me, so I quickly put one together, and I see some wonderful folk have used it. If you would like to support me with a post-ride sponsorship by all means go to https://sna.etapestry.com/fundraiser/FriedreichsAtaxiaResearchA/socal/individual.do?participationRef=968.0.287365167