Tweeting for a Cause

So for the non-Web 2.0 among you... you probably have no idea that on my most recent ride, I was incessantly tweeting my progress. And if you are Web 2.0 literate... you probably have no idea that on my most recent ride, I was incessantly tweeting my progress (since I only have 10 tweeps on for my @lukechafes account).

Thus, to make my diligent efforts of keeping you in the loop in real time, you know... worth something. I'm going to pepper this update with my tweets:

To start this update (the final one before the Hill Country Ride for AIDS this weekend!), I'm just going to list the first six roads I was riding on:

• Mt. Bonnell Rd.
• Westslope Dr.
• Lookout Mountain Dr.
• Mountain Villa Dr.
• Ledge Mountain Dr.
• Cat Mountain Dr.

So, as you can tell from my incredibly subtle bold-italicizing... yesterday was a pretty low-key, flat day. Probably you should just imagine the great plains of Iowa or something.

Here's the elevation chart for my Sunday morning:

Considering I wasn't quite awake yet as I started to climb Mt. Bonnell... I was a bit surprised when I got to the top, so I decided to celebrate with a picture of the view of Lake Austin:

But there's no rest for the weary... after Mt. Bonnell (which is the shaded part of the first bump in the elevation chart), there was a quick decent (which doesn't really make an appearance on the chart) followed by a series of steep but short hills... which basically amount to that last 100ft of climbing.

At that point I'm pretty sure I sent a text to Hillary with something along the lines of: "I'm in pain... and I've only gone 5 miles so far." To which she replied something along the lines of: "Quit being such a girlie man." [Editor's Note: she actually responded with some really flattering and helpful encouragement... I've just found self-deprecation to be a better tool for getting laughs than sincerity, but please don't judge Hillary for my creative liberties.]

I then got a nice little leg break, as I got to descend the Spicewood Spings hill... which I would meet again later, under less favorable circumstances (namely, that I would be starting at the bottom next time).

I then made my way down Highway 360 to Highway 2222 to Jester Rd. This road is one of the biggest hills in the area, and I've never attempted it before. So I started climbing. And strictly for the benefit of my tweeps (and you all!), and certainly not because I needed a break of any sort as I climbed, I snapped a couple photos:

Obligation to my masses of adoring fans completed, I finished up the hill. You can't see it super well in this picture, but on the right hand side of the road are a series of three signs showing that road turns... but if you look closely, you can see they quickly disappear below sight because of the steepness of the hill... to date, I think it's the toughest hill I've climbed.

But having conquered the hill... I was greeted at the top by an old friend from childhood:

So that was cool.

I had a pretty rough decent from the top of Jester... the road I picked (due to ignorance of the route I should have taken) was Beauford. And was super steep, which isn't ideal for a decent. It also had grooves cut into it. Apparently, this helps cars maintain traction on such a steep hill... but for cyclists who are clamping the breaks as hard as possible, and still managing to be descending at 20mph... they don't help traction. In fact, they make your handle bars shake bar and forth incredibly hard to where you don't have control over your steering... and make you decide that if you see a car coming up the hill, that your best bet for not dying is to purposefully try to crash into something other than that car. Luckily... I was able to somehow get myself to the side of the road and stopped and off my bike before a couple cars came driving up the hill. So crisis averted. I walked the rest of the way down.

So I was alive, and uninjured, which probably makes my mom happy. But it also meant I got to keep riding... so, remember my foreshadowing earlier? Spicewood Springs was my last big hill:

It hurt a bit... but I made it. The rest of the ride was kind of a cool-down recovery cruise. Which was good.

So three big hills... not bad for a weekend's work. As I mentioned before the Hill Country Ride for AIDS is this Saturday. I'll try to do a similar live-tweeting thing again, for anyone who's interested in real-time photo and 140-character updates. You can find me @lukechafes, these tweets will also show up on the right-hand side of the blog (but I think you have to refresh the webpage for it to update with the most recent tweets).

Thank you all for your support and putting up with my ramblings about hills and lycra.

If you'd still like to donate to support the Ride and services for those living with HIV and AIDS, there's plenty of time. You can find my donation page here.

Something that's pretty amazing, and totally because of your very generous support so far, I've already cleared my fundraising goal! So thanks a million! Since I've already cleared my goal, I'd encourage anyone still interested in donating to send some love to my Chafing for a Cause teammates Spencer and Bethany, who are still working hard towards their goals. You can find their donation pages here and here, or you can find all our donation pages and updates at the blog.

Thanks again everyone!

Ride Happy,
Luke