Stp 2010

[XMcShiftersonX]

Well, I did the two day this year for the first time, and it was an experience!! I had a lot of fun, but I always get so nervous before things like this. I even got more nervous after I made it to Centralia the first day and heard about all the crashes! I saw two myself on the first day (a friend saw 5, and his Dad ended up in the hospital after an inexperienced rider cut him off sending him into a guard rail over one of the bridges), and then I saw two people after their accidents on the second day. One being that guy who was taken away in an ambulance on HWY 30, causing all of us to take a detour up through a residential neighborhood while they closed the highway. I wish someone would have taken a picture of hundreds of us walking our bikes up this steep hill to go around the accident. I hope that guy ended up okay, I don't know what caused the accident.

Needless to say, after I saw my first accident on the first day, caused by someone not saying they were slowing with enough time for the person in front of me to slow down and consequently hitting that person and flying off into the shoulder of the road, I decided not to get too close to anyone. I spent most of my time passing people, and ending up in areas where I had some space to myself. I was cruising at about 18MPH most of the time, which felt great! I even had a few guys get behind me to draft for quite awhile and then would eventually fall off the back. That's a confidence booster, haha.

I'm glad I decided to change my wardrobe Friday night, because it was COLD!! Instead of wearing sleeveless jerseys, I ended up wearing regular jerseys both days with arm and knee warmers until about the last hour of each day, and I still felt really cold most of the ride. Anytime I stopped, it took forever to get warmed up again.

The first day I stuck with my three friends for most the day, but the second day I decided to do my own thing, stop at the stops when I needed to pee, otherwise just eat on the side of the road. The first day I got stuck at a port-a-potty for about 30 minutes, which was ridiculous! Also, I can't eat real meals while riding so I carried a bunch of Gu, Shot Blocks and Clif bars, which was all I needed.

The first night we arrived in Centralia at about 4pm after starting at 5:50am. The last 20 miles or so were rough, but my energy levels would come and go and I would get spikes of energy. We ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant the first night and I got a shower and massage, which were great! I found I couldn't eat much though, I think it was a mixture of nerves, and the heat that came at the end of the day. I'm not sure if I slept Saturday night. I remember just tossing and turning the whole night, and the ground was SO hard.

I woke up so stiff Sunday morning, but as soon as I started to get moving it got better. I also couldn't eat my cereal in the morning, because I felt sick to my stomach. I thought it was going to be a rough day, but I actually felt pretty good once I got going. We started at about 6:30 am and I finished just before 4pm. It seemed like I was the only one communicating though on Sunday (you know on your left, car up, car back), so I guess everyone else was pretty tired. But I started to get tired of people behaving dangerously around me on their bikes. The last 40 miles I just wanted to be done. The bridge into Oregon was pretty scary because you were going so fast, and those damn bumps! But yes, we had a motorcycle escort so we got to use the whole right lane.

I also didn't care for the detour through that pedestrian bridge in Portland, talk about dangerous. There were families with strollers, etc coming towards us, and pedestrians walking in front of us. It was scary. And I just kept thinking about how sad it would be to have made it this far and get in an accident in the last couple miles. I felt that way going through the Portland streets as well. It didn't help that a long train was passing me on the left as I was coming upon a lane of parked cars on the right and even though I was telling them I needed to get over, they didn't move! I also hit every red light on the way in and I remember saying, "Goddamn all these ****ing red lights, they should all be green for us!" which got a couple chuckles from the people on the sidewalks.

But, nevertheless, once I got to those last two blocks and there were all those people cheering, I couldn't help but be ecstatic that I had made it!!!!!! And I was alive and uninjured!!!!!! Then I saw my husband and dog, ate and showered, and we left for home. It was perfect.

My final stats were -
Time: 13 hours, 56 minutes
Distance: 202.77 miles
Average: 14.54 MPH (I actually increased my average the second day and at one point I was averaging 14.7)

Overall it was a lot of fun, and I'm really proud that I did it, and had a good pace each day. I was pretty consistent. It was really cool to see so many cyclists everywhere as well!

-Jessica