Bicycle Diaries II - Triple Hills & Fundraising

While the count-down clock is clicking, training and fundraising have been going well and intense. With two weeks left before the ALC, this past weekend was actually the last one for “hard” training, after that, we’re going to slow down.

On Saturday, most of the riders were doing the Mulholland Challenge organized by the Different Spokes. It was one of the most challenging century hilly ride in the San Fernando Valley. I did the ride last year but decided not to do it this year.

Instead, I leaded another ride from the Rose Bowl, to my surprised, 22 riders showed up for this half century hilly ride. We did Lida, La Tuna and Chevy Chase, three of the famous hills in LA. As usual, I was sweeping for the group, there were 8 of us, all of them are first time riders.

Before we started the ride, Brad had to fix a flat tire, but when we were ready to ride out, his rear tire didn’t look good and I wasn’t able to tell what went wrong. So he had to quit and sent the bike to the store. I felt bad for him.

Then Sonia’s chain dropped and got stuck in the front cassette on top of our first hill, Lida. Pedro and I stopped to help but it was beyond what our ability could do. So she walked her bike down the hill and back to the Rose Bowl, it was about 2 miles of walking!

She then drove to a close by bike store, had her bike fixed and came back! She met us at the lunch break point in Montrose. If I was her, I would have quit after the ‘not-my-day’ incidents, but that’s the kind of spirit we were looking for. Never give up.

We finished around 3.30pm and I stopped by Old Pasadena for the bike expo held in conjunction of the Pasadena Bike Week. It was another surprised to Pam from the ALC office at the expo. There were some freebies giveaway and raffles.

On Sunday I went to the temple to celebrate Buddha’s birthday. There was a “food fair” right after the ceremony and I had my first “public fundraising.” It was so nice to have the masters from the temple allowing me set up a little booth, together with a self made poster and my bike, Dragon. I raised a significant amount of money for ALC from this successful fundraising event.

Total mileage of the week: 72 miles

I sent Dragon to the bike shop for a tune-up before ALC. Next week I will be leading the last ride of the season, a 36-mile ride from the Rose Bowl to Duarte.






Nice weather, nice ride. New friends, old friends

Jeff helping Brad changing his flat tire













Pedro take a look at Sonia's stuck-chain















(l to r) Larry, Stuart, David looking good at one of the rolling hills












Lia joins us for the first hill


















O-M-G, that's a 6 foot long sandwich, can feed at least 10 people
















Charlie showing her happy face after getting to the top of La Tuna












Another happy faces, David




















Another David, another faces

















Regrouping and catching breaths on top of La Tuna












Kelly finishing her 3rd hill strong


















Betsy could not be stronger after conquering Chevy Chase




















Sonia come back strong after fixing her bike


















Cool bike @ Bike Expo

















Does that look comfortable to you?











Fundraising at the temple- Master Yin Hai & Master Hong Zheng












Mmmm... delicious vegietarian soup (they've the BEST food)


















BOCA Sunday School students participate in Buddha's Birthday ceremony