Empire State AIDS Ride this year or ever??

[maryellen]

hi, has anyone ridden in the Empire State AIDS Ride (New York) in the past or is anyone planning to this year? I'm considering taking a spot on a team that lost a member, but would like to talk with someone who has done the ride or is further along in preparing.

thx
Maryellen

[spazzdog]

Hey Maryellen... is this what the Boston-NewYork became post-Pallotta?

I'd also post to the F&F yahoo group. There may be someone there that has ridden.

What's the route anyway?

spazz

p.s. good to see you back

[Trek420]

Hey Maryellen,

check out

http://caree.org/events.htm

for a link to various AIDS rides. At the bottom of that page is a link to "the Good Cyclist" which has rides that benefit charities (both with and without pledge goals) listed by state and even country.

[maryellen]

[QUOTE=spazzdog] is this what the Boston-NewYork became post-Pallotta?
. . . .What's the route anyway? QUOTE]

NY state only. A big emphasis on the high proportion of the $$ going to the charities. The route is Niagara Falls to NYC.

[spazzdog]

The link for the Empire State is: http://www.empirestateaidsride.org/

Reading abt the ride a couple of things struck me; 1) it's got a very small rider limit (100) and 2) a pretty hefty fundraising requirement ($300 registration + $3200 donations).

Not a lot of company for a 7 day, 560 mi ride.

curious-Spazz-george

[maryellen]

Curiously, Braking the Cycle, another AIDS ride in the NYC area, has similar #s: 100 riders and a $3,500 fundraising requirement, but for 275 miles over 3 days (Chesapeake Bay to NYC). Go figure . . .

[MM_QFC!]

Hey all,
I was in contact with the director of this ride the year Pallotta folded ('02), which was when a lot of us AIDS rider veterans (Ride for a Reason '97,'98, '99; Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride 2000, Montana AIDS Vaccine Ride '01; Ride for a Reason Breakthrough Ride, '02) were already working to coordinate our own events so as to increase the amount of $ going to AIDS service agencies, researchers or other like beneficiaries. This was primarily a result of our Pallotta-experience (my term). I know firsthand how tough it is to coordinate a multi-day event in a cost effective way (how do you safely get a load of cyclists, crew, staff to ride/move hundreds of miles over the course of several days, supplying rest stops, overnight accommodations, tons of food, water, safety throughout, etc, etc w/o mucho overhead and keep most of the funds raised going in the direction of the beneficiaries.
Defeating AIDS is still the reason I ride, but I wanted to look my loyal, generous, supportive sponsors in the eye and have them know that their donations were NOT going to go to slick ride marketing brochures, or staff transportation and the like. I now believe that the way to go is a self-supported ride, so that the rider pays their costs and all the $ raised can go directly to the beneficiaries. It's incredibly tough and I did it in '02, not only coordinating the ride, mapping/planning the route and all rest stops/meals, overnight lodging with colleagues, friends, family but training for and riding it as well. We had 3 riders and 4 crew, who all shared in our communal costs (gas, the 1 night we had to be in a motel) and were able to use matching funds and corporate grant money to raise $35k for UCSF, AIDS Research Institute. It was a 2nd job though for the better part of a year prior but oh so worth it, especially after getting the final report from Pallotta Teamworks about the AIDS Vaccine rides net return to beneficiaries for the 3 rides in 2001 was a miserly 21% - ugh!
The Empire State AIDS ride is one of the rides that had the same intent in their creation and I've heard great things about their efforts. I was and remain impressed with the volunteer organizers, crew and whole effort.
I'm a native New Yorker and, while I can't get there this year, I'm hoping to support the ride next year by fundraising and riding.
While none of the rides "replaced" the Pallotta rides, previously sponsored by Tanquery and others, the various grassroots efforts are commendable in working for the same goal, no? and in a much more productive and beneficial manner to support the likes of AIDS research, Doctors without Borders and the like - kudos to them all - and those of us who can contribute and continue the battle with our pedaling, eh?!

[maryellen]

hey MM_QFC, thx for the background. Very helpful and inspiring.

Now I just have to wrap up a few details, including scheduling and making an educated guess whether I can get my butt in shape to sit on a bike saddle hours and hours a day for a week!

[Trek420]

maryellen writes: "Now I just have to wrap up a few details, including scheduling and making an educated guess whether I can get my butt in shape to sit on a bike saddle hours and hours a day for a week! "

sure you can! more details needed I guess.

I'll try to throw in some tips as I think of them. This was my second time riding also crewed in '97.

First off, and this goes for any multi day ride as soon as I registered I treated every ride as a training ride. You want to work out all the equipment issues.

Always be asking "what hurts?" and if anything does take steps to fix it, is it technique, fit, equipment? Don't even ask how many gloves I went through till I found the perfect ones. Small problems will become big ones and no pain is going to get better over 7 days.

You want to go into it feeling that everything fits poifectly ;-) More later, gotta get to work

[spazzdog]

Thx Mary! Good info to know.

Good luck Maryellen... you'll be fine.

[maryellen]

hey, spazzdog . . . your "you'll be fine" was particularly helpful--as you've actually seen me ride . . . even if just to starbucks from central park.

I love the chili peppers. I'll have to come up with one of those thingamajigs one of these days.