Seattle to Portland

Get yourself some coffee. This is gonna be a long one.

Before I get started...
*DISCLAIMER 1* If curse words offend you, you may not want to read this. But I feel that sometimes to really drive a point home you have to drop an F-bomb.

*DISCLAIMER 2* If the thought of seeing me without makeup makes you want to jump out of your skin, then you may want to stop right here.

DAY 1

Our day started at 2:00am. We got up, ate some oatmeal, and our friend Mike picked us up at 3:00. We hit the road for Seattle. I tried to sleep most of the way, but as we got closer and started seeing other cars on the freeway with bikes on them, the reality started setting in and then I was too excited to sleep anymore.

We got to the University of Washington around 4:30. There were motor homes, cars, people and bicycles everywhere. It was still dark out and pretty cold! At this point they were letting the one-day riders take off every 10 minutes.

Here's a pic of me and Dale getting ready to take off:















I snapped this picture real quick as we were at the starting line. They let us go in groups of a few hundred at a time (remember, there were a record 9500 of us!) As we took off, they were making announcements over the loudspeakers such as "Remember! The biggest danger you face out there is your fellow cyclist!" and "If this is your first STP, congratulations! The hardest part is already over...you're here. "












We made our way out of the parking lot and through the streets of Seattle. They did have the streets closed (just until we made our way out of the city) and cops guiding us through intersections because there were so many bicycles we took up the entire width of the street. We wound down around to the edge of beautiful Lake Washington and rode along the shore for about 15 miles, and I was reminded why I love the Northwest so much. This was my favorite part of the ride.

We rode through Renton, past Boeing, and into Kent. It was a little boring through here, mostly because it was just industrial areas. I was, however, thankful that it was pretty flat.

We had our first pit stop at REI headquarters in Kent. Here's a pic of our bikes:















It's funny. People just ditch their bikes wherever.












Drinking lots of water makes for long lines if you know what I mean...

















I ate my 2nd breakfast for the day. Here's a pic. Oh, while I'm at it, here's a list of everything I ate that first day:

Oatmeal
1 protein bar
1 banana
1/2 bagel w/ cream cheese
Peanut butter wrap
2 Cliff bars
1 mango juice
1 Gatorade
3 diet pepsis
1 bottle of water
Spaghetti
1 roll
carrots
1 pulled pork sandwich
1 bag potato chips
3 creamcicles
1 iced coffee
1 mini frappicino


















Remember I was number 666? I had no idea how many comments I would get. At least 50 throughout the weekend. Lots of different reactions from people. Here's a sample:

"I can't ride by you. You're the beast!"
"I would have sent that number back!"
"We'll call you El Diablo (the devil)"
"Did you see that girl? Her number is 666."
"Don't let that number jinx you!" (from one of the medical riders)















I've come to the conclusion the past few months that to get the slender, feminine legs that I've always wanted, I will have to hang up my road bike. My suspicions were definitely confirmed as I checked out other riders. Everyone has these bulky, muscular legs with big calves. I think I will switch to running for a while.














We rode on into Auburn...then to Puyallup and on towards the dreaded HILL! Honestly, I had it so built up in my mind. It ended up being no biggie. We had only ridden around 50 miles by this point, so we still had lots of energy. We actually passed lots of people on our way up...and made that hill our bitch!! Haha. Little did I know the hills the next day would be WAY worse.


A ways past that we were on a two lane road where we came upon a car accident that took up the entire road. There were two cars involved, and glass and wreckage everywhere, and the police made us get off our bikes and walk right through the middle of the scene. I was really thankful for my super light, carbon fiber bicycle!

Oh! Remember my story of falling over for not freeing my feet from their clips in time? I saw that happen SO many times. Every time it happened, I thought to myself...been there.

Also, everytime we passed a rider on the side of the road fixing their flat tire (which was about 497 times), I was thankful Dale talked me into buying puncture-resistant tires. No flats for either one of us!

Here I am at one of the pit stops enjoying a diet pepsi. I should have been drinking water...but sometimes I just don't feel like following the rules!


















Speaking of huge calves, check out Dale's!





















After Puyallup we rode onto Spanaway then into Yelm. I was starting to drag, but then in Yelm we got onto the Chehalis Western Trail. This is my and Dale's old stomping grounds! It was like having the home field advantage. We rode the trail for about 15 miles on into Tenino where the final pit stop of the day was at the park where we've taken our kids a million times. We decided to skip it, getting a second wind knowing the next town was the half-way point and we would be done for the day!

We picked up the pace and passed a lot of riders. Through this stretch we averaged 17-19mph. I couldn't wait to be done for the day. The end was in sight! Then we hit one of the hardest parts of the whole ride. It was about a 12 mile stretch of road that had just been resurfaced in chip-seal, but it was black and shiny and really rough. I have never seen a road surface like that. It sounded wet as you rode over it, it was really sticky and made it feel like you had two flat tires. It sucked!! We came upon an ambulance and we saw one of the riders lying there with terrible road rash up one side of her body. Ouch! I felt really sorry for her. Oh! and another thing, by this point (about 1pm) it had gotten super hot out (one of the riders had a temp gauge that read 102).

Finally, after 8.5 hours, we rolled into Centralia, found the college, and got settled in. I was proud of us!! And it wasn't that bad. After we wolfed down some food and took a much needed shower, I got on the waiting list for a massage. Pure heaven!







Here's Dale enjoying some spaghetti:















Starbucks was serving iced coffee...FOR FREE!















Dale talking on the phone.













I still can't figure out why these guys hung their bikes up in a tree.

















Haha...check this out. This little strip of skin was exposed in the position that I rode in and it got scorched! (Oh, ignore the stretch marks. I've had 2 babies. Sorry, not perfect :))













Just hanging out waiting for my massage!














Dale hates massages...why? I will never know. So he skipped this part.















They really take care of you when you are on the STP. They secure your bikes for you in a locked corral...valet even!!















They even take your bags from A to B for you and organize them in numerical order by your bib # making it really easy for you to find your stuff.













On the campus it's a free-for-all where you want to pitch your tent.














Dale and I making "100" with our hands, signifying completing our first century ride!
















Crappy pic, but look closely at the bikes these guys rode on. There was also a unicyclist, but I didn't get a pic in time.















*WHINE ALERT!* Saturday night was one of the most miserable of my life. I was so looking foward to laying down and getting some rest...it was still freakishly hot outside and even hotter in the tent with no air flow. I was hungry, we did not have pillows, the ground was harder than granite, and we were right under a street light. My body was achy, I was sweaty and sticking to the sleeping bag and about to completely freak out. I had just barely dozed off when...


BEEP BEEP BEEP!




DAY 2




The alarm on the cell phone went off at 4:00am. Ugh. If I let myself think about riding ANOTHER 100 miles on about 20 minutes of sleep, it made me want to cry, so I just tried to think positive. We stumbled half-awake over to the cafeteria for breakfast.

It's funny. Everyone had bed-head and bags under their eyes and a I-have-to-do-this-again? look to them.

Ugh...4:30














If you look up "Exhausted" in the dictionary, here's what you'd see:















Here's our breakfast.



















We packed up and hit the road at exactly 5:30. It was cold and foggy and smelly (cow pastures) but really pretty and fairly flat. I rode with goosebumps for the first 2 hours. Centralia onto Chehalis,then onto Napavine (another big hill) and next Winlock.

My boss is from Winlock, which is a tiny little farming town. I love to tease him relentlessly about this (only because he is a good sport about it). I'll say things like "I am sure you were valedictorian. There were only 8 of you in your graduating class." or "Which of the two girls did you take to your prom?"


Here I am in front of the giant egg monument right in town. When I asked Dr. Bowers why Winlock is famous for eggs, he said that back in the day, Winlock was the egg capital of the world. He had a little smile and a twinkle in his eye as he told me this, and I could tell he was quite proud of his hometown's heritage.















Winlock was also the first pit-stop of day 2. Only a bunch of riders on a double century would eat onion burgers at 7am, just 2 1/2 hours after a full breakfast.













After Winlock came Vader.....where I had my crash!! (gasp!!)

We were riding up a long steep hill and were almost to the top. I was on the shoulder, about 6 inches from the edge, where the concrete dropped down several inces to the gravel. Well, my front tire caught the rough edge and it sucked me right down, and with Dale being right behind me without enough time to react, he crashed right on top of me. Here is a picture of my injury. They almost called in the medivac, but then decided I'd make it.













The stretch from Vader to Castle Rock was uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill. You were either struggling for your life of shooting downward at warp speed. I don't know why the Puyallup hill gets so much attention. The accumulation of all the hills the second day was WAY worse.

Castle Rock high school was the lunch pit stop. Here is what I had for lunch. Here's what I ate all day:

2 pancakes smothered in butter and syrup
Coffee
Banana/mango juice
Sausage
Scrambled eggs
2 cliff bars
A turkey wrap
Bagel
Grapes
Plum
Nectarine
2 Bananas
2 fig bars
2 pc watermelon
1 gatorade
1 diet coke
1 diet Mt. Dew
1 fudgecicle
2 popcicles
Oh, and a cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate shake on the drive home.


















After Castle Rock I knew it was just a quick jaunt into Longview, then onto the Lewis and Clark Bridge. I am sooooo disappointed because out of the whole entire ride, this was one thing I wanted to get a photograph of. See, a motorcycle escorts groups of about 500 riders over the bridge at a time. I had heard ahead of time that it is very impressive to see, and I couldn't wait to get some shots of waves of riders going up the bridge. Well, they make you wait with all the other cyclists on an onramp, which is positioned in a location that is beside/behind the bridge (it's hard to expain) so from where I was at I could not get any shots. I was bummed!!!

After the bridge...We were in Oregon!! Only 50 miles to go!! The stretch from the bridge to Portland...(sorry, there's no other way to put this)...SUCKED ASS!!! It was once again scortchingly hot out, by this point I was approaching The Wall, and mentally I was loosing my stamina. Oh! and it was a gradual incline for miles and miles at a time. No shade either!!! The only saving grace, and I was literally thanking God for this, was the wind was totally in our favor.

At the last pit stop you could tell people were about to start dropping like flies. People were hosing themselves down, laying in the grass all beat red, limping around like they could barely walk let alone ride 25 miles. I tried to mentally pump myself up by thinking Just 25 more miles...you can do that standing on your head, girl!

As we came into Portland, I was like hell yeah! But then I realized that I had 6 more miles to go. We had one final really steep hill up through a neighborhood. That one almost did me in. I only had 2 goals for the STP: To finish, and to never get off and walk my bike. So on that last hill, I had to dig deep. I was so close to just saying fuck this, I am done. I had to keep reminding myself that the mind gives up long before the body does. I could do it.

After that last big hill, we had to weave our way throught the streets of Portland, and people on the sidewalks were clapping and yelling you can do it! You're almost there! as we rode by. It was just enough to motivate me. I swear, I really did almost give up those last few miles. Have you ever been in one of those situations where you are just about to snap and go start picking people off with a rifle? I was almost there. But, by this point I could SEE the bridge we had to cross, then I knew the park at Lloyd Center -the finish line- was just on the other side.

It was pretty cool. As you enter the park you ride down this path lined with brightly colored flags and people cheering you on. It's enough to make you cry, but that would have taken me far to much energy. (Guarenteed, by dad would have had tears in his eyes. He was just that way. He'd always have to wipe his eyes during the medal ceremonies when we'd watch the Olympics.)



I tried to get some shots of the riders coming through the finish line.




I took a shower as soon as I could. They have these cool mobile shower truck-trailer things.






This picture shows how long the line is for the men's shower:






And here's why it pays to be one of the few women who kicks ass enough to finish the STP. No line for the shower:



Another pic of our bikes:




Sexy Dale:



















A few more pics of our numbers.




















I am really proud of myself and Dale. We finished in the top 25% both days. Dale informed me that next year he will do it in one day. I will do it again, but the 2-day. Who wants to be my partner?