I grew up in Kailua, HI, but didn't get into biking until I had the inexplicable desire to ride to LA with a friend at the end of Freshman year at Stanford. With little training or understanding of what I was getting into, we made the 435mi trip in 5 days down Hwy 1 and absolutely fell in love with road biking, especially over long distances.
I finished my Coterm year in Mechanical Engineering in 2007, and spent the better part of that last Spring quarter planning and anticipating my ride across the US. I knew I generally wanted to do something physically challenging that afforded me the opportunity to travel to many new places. In discussing wild ideas with a variety of friends, it quickly became apparent that my close friend JB was looking for something similar, and we both loved to bike.
As we planned out our trip, early on we realized we wanted to ride for a cause, and naturally developed a partnership with FACE AIDS. Johnny Dorse, Dave Ryan and the rest of the FA Crew provided us with amazing support to get the ride kicked off right. During the trip we wore our FA pins and raised awareness of the FA mission with all of the generous people we met along the way.
I am currently still living and working in the Bay Area, and I am FIRED UP to see the riders of 2010 make this ride a reality yet again!