My team the Gears of Joy were on breakfast and morning sweeping. This means that we were to help serve and clear up breakfast (that's not the sweeping part). Sweeping entails hanging back and following the last riders, making sure that no one has fallen by the wayside or needs help. The sweeps on bikes are followed by a member of the Road Safety crew in a van. Some people don't like sweeping because they have to ride slower than they usually would. Seeing as I'm generally on the slow side (but usually reasonably well ahead of the sweeps), I volunteered to sweep. Marco and I took the first shift to the first break. During the bike rally sweeps are designated by lovely dusters attached to the helmet. Some people managed to make them stand right up but I thought mine looked jaunty hanging off the back.
Sweeping was fine although it was nice to change off with two other team mates at the break. The downside to sweeping was that I missed out on my usual ride buddies. I rode alone for the second half of the morning which actually was quite fun. You're never truely alone on the bike rally which is reassuring but riding alone meant that I could test myself a bit and ride as fast as I felt comfortable without worrying about loosing or keeping up with someone else. As the route was quite flat I was able to motor along pretty quickly (for me) and I got to lunch just short of the main pack of riders (we were all pretty fast on day five). I managed to pick up Sharon my riding buddy after lunch which was good because the afternoon stretch was a lot more challenging. We were dealing with our second heat alert and the afternoon was simply baking. Having Sharon nearby was very encouraging we also had Dairy Queen to look forward to. I have to say, I've never had better Dairy Queen in my life! The shop was just a few kms from the campsite and really was the end of the day's ride.
To wrap up a really great day, I had my very first massage (ever!). The Wellness crew included a number of Massage Therapists. Riders and crew could get massages at lunch or in camp. Being one of the slower ones (thus arriving in camp a bit later than everyone else), I didn't usually get to the massage line until it was all full up. On day five Nicole the Massage Enforcer (she who is in charge of the massage list) decreed that those of us who hadn't yet had a massage would get priority. I still had to wait quite a long time but it was worth it.
The evening activity was a candle light gathering down on the beach. We heard from a number of people about what the ride meant for them. A couple had been living with HIV for over 15 years, one was relatively recently diagnosed. I was struck by their courage. Courage to do the ride, courage to turn personal struggle into something worthwhile and courage to stand up in front of 300 people to talk about it. Something I really loved about the ride was that it didn't matter... whether you were slim, fat, fast, slow, gay, straight, single, HIV positive, whatever... everyone was accepting and welcoming and really how often does that happen?
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