Caitlin is a Hero

She's back!!! And in one piece and doing amazing. OMG. You should see her muscles!! Seriously. Anyway, I'm sure that it will take a few days, but she will blog and give you her highlights. Until then, here's a look at the welcome we had planned for her and the other riders:

We had such a great time waiting for Caitlin to roll by -- the 1 mile to go corner went literally in front of Caitlin's apartment, so we spent 3 hours cheering for the riders and making sure they knew how fabulous they are. When we finally saw Caitlin, with her ribbons in her hair, I'm not sure what the rest of the group did (I managed to gather 12 friends and a few strangers wandering by to wait on the corner) but I made a complete and utter fool of myself and screamed at the top of my lungs. And when my dear friend got off of her bike to say hello again, I dissolved into tears and hugged her tight. She is amazing. She is a Hero.

ALC9 raised over $10 million. There were just under 2,000 riders, 200 or so Roadies and even more support staff. They rode for 7 days and changed lives.

One of Caitlin's new friends, Jay (whom I met at the Candle Light Vigil in Ventura, CA on Night 6...Caitlin will give more details, but the dark pictures above show the 3,000 people gathered on the beach), stopped at the corner to say hello. After chatting and laughing with him for awhile, I asked him why he decided to ride in AIDS/LifeCycle. He told me that he rode this year because he has been HIV+ for 10 years, so he rode to celebrate living this long. I asked him if he would ride again. He said, "IF I make it to 15 years, I'll ride."