At some point we decided if we ever rode Seattle to Portland again, we would do it in a single day. The group ride has around 10,000 riders and the vast majority (75% or more) plan to ride 2 days to finish. They stop somewhere between Centralia (the 100-mile mark) and Kelso (the 150-mile mark). One of the great things about the STP ride is how available it is to riders of all skill levels. There are people riding all sorts of bikes, from tri-bikes, to road bikes, to ten-speeds, to mountain bikes. There are unicycles, recumbent bikes, tandem bikes, trailers, tag-alongs, etc. You see people riding scooters, skateboards, etc., and at every skill level imaginable. I have to think that a good chunk of the non-standard riders do not finish. But a great time can be had by all… unless you are trying to finish and keep finding yourself stuck behind these types of riders. We hoped to avoid that fate by riding with the 1-day riders, who are allowed to start 30 minutes earlier than the masses.

We thought about all the ways to do the ride. Would we fly to Portland, rent bikes in Portland, get on a bus or train to Seattle, then ride the rented bikes back to Portland and fly home? Would we buy bike boxes and fly our bikes up? Would we drive all the way from San Diego to Seattle and back just to do this one ride? The answer to all those questions turned out to be “no.” We did end up driving all the way up for the ride, but it wasn’t just for the ride. It was also to spend time with relatives in Oregon and Washington, and to take some time to drive down the Oregon coast after the ride was over. In fact, we’re in the process of driving back down the coast right now.

Two years ago, we rode STP in two days with Brett, Jess, Dave, and Rob. It almost killed both Dave and Rob, but especially Rob. When we told everyone we were going to ride it in one day this year, Rob was out. Dave was in. Brett and Jess were out. Ryan was in. Julie was out. This meant some interesting planning to get us to Mount Hood / Parkdale, then to get 4 bikes to Seattle, then to get the car back from Seattle, etc. Out of the blue Rob joined the crew to drive the car and provide ride support. That was fantastic and made life much much easier.

We stayed in a hotel close to the starting line. I was a bit nervous about starting the ride without a solid breakfast, but there wasn’t a McDonald’s close. The hotel did serve a breakfast at 4:15 for the riders, but it was mostly just some fat-free yogurt, and that doesn’t get you very far. We let Rob sleep in at the hotel while we rode to the starting line and officially started around 4:50. At approximately 4:50:01 Dave dropped his chain and then crashed when he realized he was stopped and his feet were still clipped into his pedals. He sliced his leg pretty well, and bashed his finger up, but he was determined to carry on.

The first 25 miles of STP is always insane. There are just too many people doing too many stupid things. We tried to take it easy and just ride safely until the crowds had dispersed a little and it was safer to start passing people. But plenty of people did not follow our strategy. We saw lots and lots and wrecks, ambulances, fire trucks, etc. I was actually surprised how many crashes we saw, especially since they were all involving 1-day riders that should have slightly better skills. I’m glad we made it through without anything other than Dave’s initial crash while stopped.

Our original plan was not to stop until we had ridden 50 miles, but we changed our minds and decided to pull over at the 25-mile stop (REI headquarters) to get some food and clean up Dave’s wounds a bit. It had taken longer to ride those initial 25 miles than I had anticipated, and then we stopped for a good 20 minutes. By the time we rolled back out of there, we were almost 45 minutes behind my original schedule. I started to wonder if we were going to be able to make it to Portland before dark.

We made better time between REI and the 50-mile stop in Spanaway, but we were still more than 30 minutes behind schedule as we rolled out of Spanaway. At our current pace, it would take more than 17 hours to finish. I had to believe we would be slower at the end (after riding 150 miles) than we had been during these first 50 miles… and that would mean even more than 17 hours to finish. Would we even finish before midnight? It was an interesting thought.

Ryan pulled us through some long sections with headwinds, but managed to keep our speed higher than any section yet. We rolled into Centralia (100-mile mark) just before noon. I wasn’t sure how it was possible, but I was really happy. We were still slightly behind schedule, but we had made up a lot of ground. We rode straight to the massage table for a quick 15 minute work-over that made me feel like I was just starting the ride. Rob was waiting for us in Centralia and planned to meet us every 25 miles from there on out. He showed up with food, specialty drinks, more food, medicine, more drinks, etc. It really help take some of my anxiety away.

I pulled a few times with Dave right behind me and Charmaine and Ryan behind him. We had a pretty good system going. Dave would tell me how fast he could handle riding and I would try to ride that speed. If it was too fast, he would ask me to slow down a bit and I would do it. Sometimes we would catch up to a group of riders going slower and Dave would make the call on when he was ready to pass them. Sometimes he would say it was time to pass when I wasn’t feeling particularly strong, but he kept saying, “Pass! Pass! Pass!” and somehow I found a little extra to pull us past them. Eventually I needed a break and Ryan jumped back up front and pulled a lot too, but Dave liked drafting behind me (and who can blame him? I cut a big hole in the wind as I ride through it).

The more we rode, the more obvious it became that we were going to make it before dark… not only before dark, but before 9:00 when they stop handing out patches (don’t get me started on how disappointing it is to get a patch instead of a medal). When we crossed the final bridge into Portland, we were taking it easy. There was a long string of riders ahead of us also taking it easy. There was really no incentive to pass, because we were almost there. But then Portland just kept going and going and going and we were still not to the end. And the riders in front of us kept getting slower and slower and slower. Eventually we had to pass. We couldn’t stay behind the ever slowing riders forever. And so we did. And Portland kept going. It was a really nice route through Portland, but it always takes longer than you think it will.

We crossed the finish line around 8:20. Our moving time was almost exactly 12 hours. Our total time (including all stops, stoplights, crashes, etc.) was 15 hours and 30 minutes (3.5 hours of “rest” along the way). We are awesome.

Charmaine signed us up to ride the Tour of Borrego this year. Although we didn’t know it at the time, we wound up riding with a man famous for his legislative successes, a man called Murphy.

Our problems started a few days before the Tour when I ate the last of our Shot Blocks and sucked down the last of our Gus on a quick ride along the 56. Both Charmaine and I had great rides, despite only having a little over an hour to ride. As we were leaving the house for that ride on Wednesday, we told ourselves that we would order a bunch through Amazon Prime when we got back, hoping that they would arrive on Friday, in plenty of time for the Tour on Saturday. We were so excited after finishing such a good ride, that we completely forgot to order anything. No problem, we though, we’ll stop by somewhere on Friday and that will be that.

Friday came and went without a trip to a bike store, no trip to REI, no trip anywhere that sells Shot Blocks or Gus. It wasn’t that big of a deal, since we would still have our drinks and the Tour is well supported with food and drink stops about every 10 miles. But I did take the opportunity to tease Charmaine about not going out of her way on Friday to get some.

That night we had Massaman Curry, which was delicious, probably a little too delicious. I quickly found myself eating more than I should, which lead to not being able to fall asleep easily, and not being able to stay asleep.

Suddenly morning came. Actually, it wasn’t morning yet, but the alarm clock woke us up. No, it didn’t. Charmaine woke up on her own before the alarm clock went off. I’m betting she wasn’t sleeping all that well either. But there we were, awake, and I said, “We don’t have to do this. It’s not too late.”

But it was too late. Google Maps said it was a 2-hour drive from home to Borrego Springs, much of it on narrow, windy, mountain roads… and this morning it was extremely foggy. We decided to get up and try to get there anyway. We threw stuff into bags and carried things down to the car and started driving. The car had been in the shop just 2 days prior, getting things done like checking the brakes, etc. But instead of being ready for this trip, the car decided today was the day to burn out a headlight. That meant an even slower, more stressful drive through the mountains. We had originally planned on taking the big car, but we didn’t have the right tools to put the rack on the back, so we were stuck in the Subaru, which only has one bike rack on top.

Knowing we were starting late and that we would be driving slower than normal through the fog with only one headlight, I decided we didn’t have enough time to stop for our usual pre-ride breakfast at McDonald’s. Instead, we drove straight there. This proved to be another in a long series of mistakes.

We made much better time than Google Maps had estimated. After we arrive. we had a few minutes to stop at the general store and pick up a few things for breakfast. It was one of the worst breakfasts we have had in years, despite the suggestion from the girl in the store that the sandwich would be “so good”.

We drove to the start, parked the car, and began the process of getting ready for the ride. It was just before 8:00 and already over 70 degrees. We didn’t have sunblock. We didn’t have ibuprofen. We didn’t have any Gus, Shot Blocks, or other energy sources. Charmaine didn’t have sunglasses. We decided we would only be riding the 40 mile loop once, instead of the 80 miles (twice around the loop) like we originally planned.

The ride itself was pretty nice. The roads were rough, but they were mostly flat, which made for a nice warm-up section. As we rode through the first 5 miles, we somehow managed to wind up at the front of all the riders. This was not a good place for me, as I had no idea what the course looked like. We dropped back a little, but were still way up front compared to most the riders.

The 40 mile loop had an out-and-back section that was 6 miles each direction and included most of the climbing for the entire loop. We headed out and climbed one of only two hills on the course. The descent on the other side was steep and fast, but my bike started feeling wrong. I pulled to the side and stopped. My rear tire was flat. It wasn’t a blow-out; it seemed like a leak that had slowly been making my ride worse. My tire had a lot of wear on the side-walls, like I had been riding flat for quite a while. Why do I always manage to get a flat at the place on the course where I’m as far from the start/finish/cars as the course goes? I thank my riding companion Murphy for that.

Charmaine changed my tire as riders streamed past, each asking if we were OK, if we needed anything, etc. Cyclists are an extremely helpful bunch. We told them all to continue on. We were fine. But we were not fine. This is when we realized that we had no way to pressurize the new tube. Sure, we had CO2 cartridges, but both of our tire inflator attachments were broken and didn’t work. Of course, we wasted 2 CO2 cartridge figuring that out. As we were contemplating what to do next, we saw some parts fall out of my bike bag. We used the parts to reconstruct most of one of the inflator attachments and managed to fill my new tube. Unfortunately, the reconstructed inflator attachment wasn’t perfect. It was stuck and wouldn’t release from my tube. I eventually managed to yank it off, but it bent the valve opening in the process, making it impossible to screw down tight… meaning I was slowly losing air again.

We decided to cut our losses and try to go directly back to the cars. My rear tire was damaged and could blow-out at any point, plus I was slowly losing air. I knew I couldn’t finish the 40 mile loop. I wasn’t even confident I would make it back to the cars if we rode their directly, but if we didn’t make it all the way, at least we would be closer and Charmaine could ride back to the car alone and come pick me up. We must have lost Murphy somewhere on the way back, because nothing else bad happened. We both made it all the way to the car, packed it up, and went home. It was only 11:00 and already over 90 degrees.

Despite everything that did and did not happen, it was still a good experience. Coming over the pass and looking out over the Salton Sea as sunrise was painting the entire sky red and orange was really amazing. The drive out and back was long, but through some really beautiful country. If we sign up again next year, we’ll be better prepared.

https://app.strava.com/activities/44642457