STP Ride Report

Oops, I did it again.

I rode STP.

And all in one day!

Oh baby, baby

Oops, I think that I'm sore

And sitting's a chore...

My bike's not innocent.

Yeah, baby. That's what I did for 192 miles yesterday: re-wrote the lyrics to "Oops I did it again" by my favorite Britney Spears for my blog post about the Seattle to Portland ride.

Funny how ridiculous things get stuck in your head when you've got a lot of miles to cover.

Other songs that spent time in my head:

Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston (I actually hate this song, too, so that wasn't fun)
Um, some song by Crystal Method with the lyric "Are you ready? We are a go"
The theme song from Sponge Bob Square Pants, because I saw a couple of Sponge Bob jerseys

Okay, seriously, I'm not going to spend 11.5 hours writing this blog post (because I know I usually do spend as much time writing my report as I did doing the event). Let's just list some highlights:

-- John did the ride for the first time and kicked ass! He kept asking, "When can we pick up the pace?"
-- We stuck to the same plan as last year: start out at between 17 and 18 mph and let all the big groups pass us. Stay conservative through the first half, then do whatever for the second half.
-- We pretty much did that except for 13 miles of trail in the second quarter of the ride - it was so flat and nice it just felt good to open it up and go 20-22 mph.
-- The third quarter remained the hardest, and where we focused on sticking to the plan and not going crazy. Those rolling hills are easy to forget - they're really not significant, but after you've eaten lunch and already ridden 100 miles, they kind of are.
-- We took turns leading, but I probably led the most, and John the second-most. There were four of us - me, John, Matthew, and Danielle. Matthew is a poor leader because he stops pedaling periodically and I think Danielle just prefers to be in the pack, not in the lead.
-- I have a lot of trouble giving up the lead - even when I'm tired and need to. I'm so competitive and I just want to be in front! But John was so strong it was nice to let him lead sometimes.
-- Our last 50 miles, like last year, were FAST. We really picked it up at the end - although I did the same thing I did last year. At every stop from about 150 miles on, I said, "So I don't think I can hold this pace for the next section." And then I did anyway.
-- We started from home, again, so we didn't do the full 204 - instead, I got about 192. Good enough!
-- I had some serious mechanical issues twice, and both times, Matthew the bike magician solved them. My bike wouldn't shift into the big ring at all.
-- We had no other mechanicals or injuries, which was nice. We also argued a bunch in the beginning, but by the middle of the ride had mostly figured out how we were going to work together.
-- At the end, in Portland, a train was literally STOPPED on the tracks - and the route crossed those tracks twice. At the first crossing, there was some space around the front of the train to get by, so we rode around it. But at the second, we would have had to literally climb over the connection between train cars. Matthew and Danielle did it; I refused. Instead, John and I followed some other cyclists to this bridge - where, in cycling shoes, we carried our bikes up the equivalent of probably five flights of stairs (it was TERRIFYING) to get on the bridge to get back on course. Scary scary scary.
-- 6100 calories burned. Definitely less than that consumed - but I did eat a few yummy things, like a Creamsicle.
-- Overall, it was a fabulous day. And I have ridiculous tan lines. (White hands from my gloves; brown arms, legs that look like I'm wearing thigh-highs even though I'm not!)
-- I'm so proud of John. He was so strong the entire way through, he managed his blood sugar well, and was just a great riding partner. Lucky me!