30for30th is done and it is quite difficult to believe it's over. I've had a couple days to recuperate and rest, so now I can reflect a bit on the ride. I've never felt such a distinct shutdown in my body than after the end celebration Sunday at BORP. It was literally like my mind said to my body, "ok, you made it, you can power down now." I fell asleep in the car on he way home almost instantly.

Oh yea, just for the record I did not have a mud bath in Calistoga! That was a joke I posted during the ride, a bad one I guess! Several people have asked me that. I have had a mud bath in Calistoga before and it was weird. 

What a ride it was, leading up to it and during. The whole thing could not have gone any smoother, I trained hard, prepped my food and route as much as possible, the weather was spectacular, and I had great friends and family support me on the way. I knew it would be tough and indeed it was. In your mind you run through all the possible scenarios, potential problems and obstacles, planning all along how you would tackle them. Then you're prepared mentally for whatever comes. I was lucky to avoid some of the worst that ran through my mind, very lucky.

I felt great from the get go and about mile 40 I started to feel a bit of an ache in my left knee, and I thought uh oh, that's a bit weird, but I just kept pedaling and by about mile 75 my legs felt  totally warmed up and ready for anything. It's amazing how sometimes an ache or pain just disappears or leads to the physical space you want to be in if you keep going.

The ride itself:
I started right on time at 6:00AM from my house in Corte Madera. Photographer Scot Goodman and my wife Melissa saw me off as the sun was beginning to rise. I wanted to ride alone for the first hour to get my head straight with what I would be tackling the next 30 hours, which I think was a really good call. This allowed me to get in the zone and have fun the rest of the 29 hours. John Ormsby rode with me from about 7am to 10:00am or so to Penngrove where there was giant Motorcycle Rally. It was great having someone to start the journey with, many thanks to him. Periodically I would see the talented Scot Goodman throughout the morning, mostly hearing the clicking of his shutter first. Thanks to him for capturing some great moments. After John left it was on to Santa Rosa where I met the best sag team ever, my wife Melissa and daughter Matilda. There I reloaded on food/fluids and was off again. Beautiful ride north of Santa Rosa into Healdsburg and north of Healdsburg was particularly gorgeous and a bit more desolate which was nice. Geyserville was a quick quaint little town before I headed on to Cloverdale. From Geyserville north to Cloverdale it was a bit tough, because it was the heat of the day at that point and I knew I would be doubling back on the same road 30 miles later. I carried on though and it was fine. I was super cautious about sunscreen Saturday, applying diligently every 2-3 hours, I knew it I didn't stay ahead of that game it could really bite me later on. Back to Geyserville after Cloverdale and I met the A team again for a reload, then it was on to route 128 east and south to Calistoga. The first part of this section to Calistoga was great, so beautiful and interesting, tons of vineyards, cows, hills and spectacular views from the bike. The second half of the ride to Calistoga was not as awesome; the road was seriously gnarled up, no shoulder, fast cars, and a fairly intense climb for 3-4 miles into the town. There were definitely many peaks and valleys, physically and mentally throughout the entire ride but I always knew there would be a flat sections or downhill at the top. Next stop after Calistoga was Napa on the Silverado Trail, which was a spectacular section of the ride, I think my favorite actually. The sun was setting, temperature dropping and I felt great as I was at 120+ miles and 14 hours in at this point. I met Melissa, Matilda, Brent and Tommy in Napa at 8:15 for the changing of the guard. Melissa and Matilda headed home for the night and the adventure was just starting for Brent and Tommy. With our warm clothes now on, lights blazing and bike wrappers glowing, Brent and I headed into the night back north on the Silverado Trail back toward 128 east. Tommy, AKA: the man, drove behind or beside Brent and I for THE ENTIRE NIGHT, providing light for our path, tunes for our souls and jokes for the mood. I am so gracious for the millionth time to both Brent and Tommy for tackling the night with me. Without them I think it could have truly gotten under my skin and into my head. We made it all the way 20 miles back north to 128 where we would head east on 128 towards Lake Berryessa and Winters California. Here was the section of the trip I was without a doubt most concerned with. Specifically because, this was the most challenging section of the ride with the biggest climbs, the darkest roads, and the most desolate mountains, all from 11pm to about 2am at miles 150-200 for me. I am so glad I drove this part of the ride the week before. We trucked through the climbs and were able to bomb down the downhills with Tommy's illumination and all in all it wasn't that bad, again I was prepped mentally for the worst, but always thinking of the best. After 4 hours through the mountains and countless 80's tracks, we emerged in the east valley towards Fairfield and eventually Vallejo. With the hardest physical section behind us it was getting to be 3 to 5am, hours 21-23 and 200+ miles with some seriously cold temperatures. We gritted through the cold and rode through cows mooing at us, cats making odd mating sounds and Brent hit a rat! We think it survived though. At around 6:00am my friend Micah showed up with his master of slobber dog Pablo. The night was long and cold so the sun coming up felt amazing and refreshing to the soul. Micah and Pablo ran a couple miles with me as Tommy rode the bike and Brent drove the car. The hills from about 6am-7am were kinda rough, but then I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel so it was all good. I knew at this point I was going to make it and everything would be fine if I kept eating, drinking and riding at a safe pace. About 7:00AM Micah hopped on Brent's bike and decided to finish the ride out with me, which was a great surprise! Micah and I rode through sleepy Vallejo over San Pablo bay on the Carquinez Bridge. Melissa and Matilda greeted all of us at the base of the bridge with coffee and donuts. I past on the donut but guzzled the coffee. I changed awkwardly and quickly in the car out of my night riding clothes to my BORP/touchstone kit. Micah and I set off to ride through the refineries of the east bay as we made our way through the small towns of Selby, Torney, Rodeo, Hercules and Pinole. We had some pretty steep hills through Richmond as my mileage clicked over to 260. Micah and I were riding on the Chloe Greenway towards Berkeley when this guy comes running after us. Turns out it was Marham Connolly from Touchstone Gyms (also on BORP's board) and he had been following on the Spot GPS unit. He knew I was nearby his house and on the greenway, so he ran out to try and find me. He was happy to see me and know that this was all going to be a success. Thanks Markham! Micah left me about 10AM once I got to the Bay Trail to go pick up his wife Denise and their 8 month old Max. At this point I was early as planned so I wanted to spend the last ~2 hours riding on the Bay Trail with several adaptive cyclists from BORP. Greg Milano, the head of the cycling program at BORP along with cyclists Kelli King, Kelly Klain, Sher Sheldon, Jenny Kern, Lin Chorng,  David Gisson, Trooper Johnson, Richie Bennet, Steve Lau, Karla Gilbride, Martin Greiner, Laurie Largent, David Omoto, Zach, rode the last hour with me and in a true grand entrance we all rolled into BORP to a great welcoming party. It was spectacular to see everyone there, thanks again to everyone that came to celebrate. There was cake, the happy birthday song and lots of "how you feeling?" I felt great, alive, happy, glad to be done. We stayed for about an hour and then it was time to head home. At 1PM the party was over for the Briggs family and within moments in the car I was asleep. We got home, left everything in the car, I instantly showered and went straight to bed for the next five hours, woke up had some dinner, did a few chores around the house, stretched and went to sleep for the whole night. 

The easiest part: 
The last 3 hours, I was on such an adrenaline rush and at that point knew everything was going to end as planned. Once I'd biked 27 hours I knew the last 3 would be a piece of cake.

The hardest part: 
The food. It was a serious challenge to keep calories coming into my body. My watch would go off every 15 minutes and after the first 12 hours I would hear the beeping and just groan. Food just started to taste so gross and truly nauseating even though I had a good variety. It took me a while to get my digestive system on track with all the food too. Thing is, if I hadn't been so diligent and persistent about eating and drinking there would have been seriously dire circumstances like bonking, cramps, dizziness, hallucinating, all the bad bad stuff that could hinder completion.

What I learned: 
Preparation is everything. Mastering my route, my diet, training hard, resting hard the final 2 weeks before the ride, and working through all possibly scenarios in my head was paramount to the success. My mind was at ease while riding and I was able to just focus on pedaling, the scenery and the people riding with me. I also learned I have some great friends and family who I love very much.

What hurt the most:
Probably my shoulders. They still feel a little loosey goosey three days after finishing. I basically had something nagging me the whole time rotating from my neck, to foot, to shoulders, to wrists and hands, to saddle, to lower back and then back around again. Once I noticed one thing the pain moved onto one of the other spots, so it was never that bad.  

How are you walking?
Pretty good, little stiff but I thought I'd be a more frankenstein honestly, careful stretching and fluids has limited that. 

Stats:
Money Raised: $5,000 (more is still coming in!)
Final Mileage: 280 
Max elevation: 1145 feet
Total ascent: 5079ft
Total descent: 5167ft
Food intake: 
Almost 2 cheese pizzas
2-3 potatoes
6 granola bars 
10 bananas
4 apples
15 sport bean packs
5 cookies
2 bagels
4 PB and J sandwiches
Half a box of Quaker Oats cereal
About 1.5 gallons of Gatorade
Close to 6 gallons of water
Calories burned (at least 400 an hour) = ~12,000+ 
Pee breaks: I estimate 70
Rats:1
Drunk drivers: 1
Slobbering dogs: 1
Mud baths: 0

I'm glad to be finished, but I had a great time prepping and actually doing the ride. It is a spectacular feeling to be so focused for such a long period of time. It was an intense physical and mental challenge, but without a doubt the mental challenge was the harder of the two. 

Thanks again for following, if you haven't had a chance to donate yet and want to, click here. 

I hope to put together a video in the next couple days from the ride. Now, on to the next adventure!

Best, Lee

These  photographs were all taken by Scot Goodman, the BORP photographer. Check out his site to see more of his talent.  These are from the first 4-5 hours on Saturday and from about 6:30AM until the finishing party on Sunday. You'll notice they are substantially better quality than the blurry photos my iphone took during the ride. Thanks again Scot!

I want to thank everyone that helped and supported along the way on this successful adventure. John Ormsby, Kaia Burkett, Markham Connolly and Michael Cross at BORP for helping foster this idea into a reality. Thank you to all the adaptive cyclists that came out and rode in the last hour with me, you are such an inspiration and I wish you luck in your training for the Revolution ride! Thanks to Scot Goodman the BORP photographer for capturing some great moments on the journey and providing a smiling face around the next corner. Thanks to the sponsors that provided amazing equipment and support for the ride! Thanks to Tommy for driving with me and Brent during the night, he literally kept the headlights behind us the whole time which I can't tell you how much safer we felt and faster the night went, not to mention he's a mean DJ. Thanks to Brent for sweating it out over the night portion, it was a long cold and exciting night, but he's a dude you can always rely on. I can honestly say the night portion would have been 2-3 times harder without those guys out there. Thanks to my wife Melissa for her patience as I prepped for this pretty crazy thing and for her support and encouragement leading up to and all day Saturday and Sunday during the ride. She is incredible, I am so grateful for her and she recruited a great little helper to ride with her along the way named Matilda! And finally thanks to everyone that called, emailed, texted, facebooked, and followed online during the ride, I could feel the good thoughts and energy and would occassionally see the comments etc. come through on my phone. Most importantly thank you to everyone that believed and donated to BORP for this event, I can't thank you enough. They are truly an amazing organization with talented staff and inspiring participants in their programs, I was honored to be a part of BORP and look forward to doing the Revolution Ride in October!

More blog and photo entries to come about the actual ride!

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to the BORP Bay Cruisers Prep Team for winning the NWBA Prep National Championship!

From BORP:
"The Cruisers swept the National Tournament with four straight wins to become the 2009-2010 Champions.  The Cruisers opened up with a victory over the Dallas Jr. Wheelchair Mavericks 35-24.  Next, they played the #1 ranked Courage Rollin' Rowdies from Minnesota and defeated them 36-26.  The Grand Rapids Jr. Pacers went down 40-22 to advance the Cruisers to the Championship game.  
In the Championship Game, the Cruisers once again faced the Grand Rapids team and played an almost perfect team game.  The Cruisers started pulling away in the 2nd quarter and never looked back, defeating the Jr. Pacers 42-31.
Matthew Hatae, Daniel Diana, Isaiah Ahlstrom and Joi Mabrey played incredible defense during the tournament and continued to pick and set screens for their teammates throughout the games. Koda Inman-Ahlstrom and Chris Rodriguez methodically picked apart the opponents with balanced scoring between the two.
Joi Mabrey was named to the Female All-Tournament Team for her defensive role in the games. Chris Rodriguez was named to the All Tournament Team and was also named Championship Game Player of the Game. Koda Inman-Ahlstrom was named Tournament MVP."

How inspiring and amazing?! This is what I'm talking about, this win, this energy is what I will think of in my tough moments on the ride. Congratulations again to the team!

MAP PREVIEW

The link above is a preview of what the real time map will look like on the day of the ride. This was created today as I drove the second half of the route. The points on the day will obviously be much closer together. 

The second half of the route, AKA night into day portion is going to be challenging, there are some pretty good climbs Brent and I will be doing at 1-2AM in the morning roughly at miles 180-200 for me. Once we get to Winters everything mellows out but there are still a few hills in there as we approach Vallejo. It was absolutely POURING rain the whole time I drove today, BUCKETS!

It's going to be cold during the night, so I've stocked up on gear that will keep me warm and dry. Awesome fleece lined tights and a matching red wind breaker thanks to Gore Bike Wear, full shoe covers, thick shell gloves, and a skull cap. Hopefully this will be enough, just in case I've packed additional clothing in my gear bag that will be in the car. 

Wait, what are you doing?
I'm biking 30 hours straight, continuous, at one time from 6AM Saturday April 17th - 12:00PM Sunday April 18th. That's the plan.

Cool, what ride is it? How many people are in the ride?
30for30th, you haven't heard of it, it's new. Just me, several people are joining me along the way for short and long portions of the ride, but the whole 30 hours is just me.

Whoa Whoa wait, 30 hours straight?! Just you? Is that even possible?
I think so, we'll certainly see April 18th.

Why would you ever ever want to do something like that? What is the point?
Why not? I turn 30 this year and it's in conjunction with that. But really, does there have to be a point?

Are you stopping at all?
Just to use the restroom and stretch every now and then, I hope to never be off the bike more than 5 minutes for each of these. 

Dude, you're getting off the bike to use the bathroom and stretch? Isn't that kind of cheating?
No.

You're raising money?
Yes, for a great organization called Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP). BORP is the leading provider and promoter of accessible sports and recreation opportunities for children and adults with physical disabilities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.  www.borp.org

How do I donate?
You can donate directly online here (just put for 30for30th) or mail a check to this address.  $30 is the suggested donation (but anything above or below is greatly appreciated!)

BORP
2332 Fifth Street
Berkeley, CA  94710

How are you going to stay awake for 30 hours? Have you ever done that before?
I plan on eating a lot, talking to people I'm riding with and drinking lots of coffee when the going gets tough. Yes, I've stayed up 30+ hours many times in high school, college and when my daughter Matilda was born a year ago.

Can I ride with you?
You bet! Check out my route map and estimated location times on this website and also on the days(s) of the ride I will have a Spot GPS tracking device that updates my position every ten minutes, so you should know exactly where I am within 10 minutes!  Feel free to ride with me anytime you want along the route. 

Are you insane?
Not sure, could be after the ride though.

How have you found time to train with work and family?
It's certainly been challenging, I've biked to work a lot and taken some pretty gnarly long rides on the weekends to prep. I'm tappering now leading up to the ride but 2 weeks ago I did a 150 miler and felt right as rain afterwards.

Yea but 30 hours? Dude, are you smoking crack?
No, drugs are bad. I know it will be really hard, but what's the point if it's not?

What if it rains?
That would be lame.

Are people carrying food and stuff for you during the ride? 
Yes, my wife Melissa during the day will have a cooler full of food and fluids, then my buddy Tommy is pulling the night shift.

Can I track you on www.30for30th.com?
Yes, I plan on tweeting, posting to facebook during the ride and you can see my progress live on a GPS map.

Is there a party at the end of the ride? Can I come?
Indeed! At 12:00PM Sunday the 18th there will be a celebration party with cake at the BORP clubhouse 80 Bolivar Berkeley, CA. Bring your friends, food and drink if you want! Apologies ahead of time if I'm a little out of it...

During the ride I will be using a GPS tracking device called Spot and you will be able to see my position at all times on a google map. The way it works is I carry the Spot GPS device and every 10 minutes a signal is sent to a Google map of my exact location.  So, literally my every move will be viewable online during the ride. 

Thanks so much to Richard Weerts and Erin Grey for reaching out and lending me the device. I met Richard today and he was the nicest guy, who happens to be in the middle of Search and Rescue training with a couple other guys I know that are hardcore outdoorsmen, Logan Pribbeno, Ty Walrod and Elliot Hughes. Seriously small world. Thanks very much Richard and Erin!

While the route I've mapped out here on the site is most likely pretty accurate timing wise, the very best way to know when I'll be where is by check the site on the day(s) of the ride and looking at the Spot GPS Map.