Pos Peds and other members of the Secret Society of Riders

It will be 30 days tomorrow that we bought our bikes. Can you believe it?? You’ve been following us for approximately the same amount of time. I know, it feels like you’ve known us forever and we’ve been making you LOL all year long, but really, it’s barely been a month. The two of us have gone from novice newbies to somewhere in the middle. We’ve had second thoughts and we’ve been grumpy. We’ve also laughed a lot, been amazed at what we can accomplish and met all kinds of new friends.

For the most part, we try to keep it light and not get all heavy and stuff, but some of this ride is not about LOLing and getting in shape and being amazed at this whole new world. Some of this is about, in the words of one of my best friends from college, getting to know the Secret Society of Riders and telling their stories.

This weekend I rode 40 miles (the route sheet says 44, but my bike computer says 40…either way, it was A LOT) up and over Topanga, down PCH, through Santa Monica and Brentwood, up Sepulveda and back into the valley. It was a training ride called “Pos Peds do Topanga.” Pos Peds was the host of the ride and is a group of riders that are all HIV positive. Pos Peds are a group of people living with HIV/AIDS eliminating stigma through their positive public example. (Learn more about this group at http://www.pospeds.org/) The ride was super hard for me, but, after a bit of up-front insecurity, I really enjoyed myself. Meet two of the characters:

Big Tim – he showed up on a big ole crossover/mountain bike/road bike with straight handlebars contraption, including a kickstand. He is massive. Sitting on his bike he’s probably 2 feet higher than me. Massive. I was scared. And then, half way up Topanga I notice that he’s hanging back, totally riding much slower than he could be. And then he let me catch up and he gave me tips about riding up hill and gave me sympathy because I was the only girl having to ride with all of these lithe little men who bike all of the time and are basically pros.

TRL Tom – looked me up and down when I drove up. Asked me what I had done to prepare and warned me that it was going to be challenging. I wasn’t a fan of his approach, to say the least. It wasn’t until about mile 35 that TRL Tom and I became friends. I was pedaling, oh so slowly and lonely, up Sepulveda (5 mile climb) when I noticed that TRL Tom was waiting for me. He proceeded to talk me through the rest of the ride, gave me more tips on riding up hill and told me stories of all the fun “non-official” things that happen on ALC (there’s a lady who bakes cookies for every rider!!). At one point, TRL Tom looks at me and says (I apologize specifically to my mom for the following quote; I promise, I did not use this language, but I’m just repeating a story. Don’t yell at me!! :-)): “I don’t really know any type of motivation to get you up this hill except to say just keep fucking pedaling.” And then we cracked up. I made it up that hill and the ones that followed. TRL Tom gave me a hug and told me I was awesome.

These are two specific individuals that are no longer a part of the faceless crowd of HIV/AIDS. I don’t know TRL Tom or Big Tim well enough to know whether or not they utilize the services of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center, but I do know that if they needed those services, I want the services to be available to them. So, we’ll keep riding and we’ll keep you LOLing as long as it takes to wipe out HIV/AIDS. As you (religiously) read our blog, please consider making a donation on our behalf by clicking on the links to the right.
~~Autumn