My pal Nick Craswell was in town, which means he was up for another attempt for me to prematurely end his life by doing something “fun.” Last year about this time, he went with me on Chilly Hilly while I trailed Laura. This time around, he opted to take my Bianchi Veloce that I use for commuting (and trailing) and I hopped on the Trek 5900 race bike, as Laura would be unable to join us this year due to a birthday party. Now, for those thinking I just set Nick up because I gave him a heavier bike, you’re sort of right. However, the lighter bike doesn’t have a granny gear like the Bianchi, and has a maximum rear gear of 27, as opposed to the 25 on the race bike.

We decided to bike down from my place after MK got back from church, meaning we started out about 10 AM for the 11:25 ferry. For some reason, I thought that “Course open until 3 PM” meant they’d have day-of registration until noon… silly me. We got down there about 11 AM, couldn’t find anyone, so paid our way on the ferry and started off with about 15 other random riders.

This turned out to be a brilliant idea, as the course was generally unoccupied, allowing us to wind our way up some of the bigger climbs and letting us bomb down the big down & ups. Also, the fog and clouds parted for a beautifully sunny day for the last half of the ride. We also didn’t feel terribly guilty at the VFW hot cider rest stop as they were pushing the late-comers like us to eat everything left over lest it go to waste.

Last year, it was a typically cold and rainy Chilly Hilly, so Nick and I bailed at the VFW and headed straight home. This time around, we decided to go up the extra big hill - Anderson! This must have been my first time up it, as I don’t recall it being that bad. Ah well. I got up it pretty well, Nick was dying. Here he is near the top:

Sadly, the decent down isn’t nearly as rewarding, as it curves a bit and ends at a T, forcing the use of brakes. Bah! Anyway, we trucked around the south end of Bainbridge, and then grumbled up the final sets of hills to the finish. Why do we keep forgetting about those final hills? Ah well, Nick kept his composure… here he is cresting one of them:

We decided to skip the finish chili and just head straight home as we were spent… plus all that was left were the dregs. We realized at this point that biking down was foolish given we had to bike back. It took us about an hour for what really should be 30 minutes… yeah we were tired! But all in all, a good day. We ended up totaling 50 miles and for me a bit over 3500 calories burned, so a full pound! The beers at the finish were also quite tasty!

5:25 AM, I left with a pack of riders for my third STP, sporting the ever popular Pastry Powered jersey. About 13 and a half hours later, I pulled into Portland, exhausted but triumphant. 204 miles, 18.8 MPH average moving time, 10,000 Calories burned, 1 broken spoke. The day started early, and I found myself in a paceline towed by some BBTC riders and then by some Byrne folks. In both cases, the team was rotating in the front, leaving the bandits like me behind to sit in. While I know what I’m doing, I wasn’t sporting my Wines jersey but my PPTM colors, so no reason for them to know that I knew what to do. And hey, I’ve got 160 miles to go or so…. no problem sitting in for me!

The morning progressed without much event until near Centralia, when I broke a spoke. Fortunately, I was able to make reasonable time and get into Centralia, where the fine folks from Gregg’s got me a new spoke and trued the wheel for the everyday low price of two PB&Js — turns out they hadn’t had any time to get some food for dealing with all the riders pulling in!

The afternoon I went a bit slower. Pacelines were a bit harder to find, so there was a decent amount of solo riding. This was fine, as I could keep to a good heart rate and still push the gears and hit about 20 MPH pretty easily. About mile 125 or so, I started to feel it — I had only done one century so far this year (Flying Wheels), and while I had nearly twice the miles under my belt this year as last year, it was lots of 40 and 60 mile rides and 3 hour races. So about hour 7 or so, the legs started to hurt. Badly.

I ran into another Wines teammate in Castle Rock and rode with him for a bit, and then at St. Helens ran into a guy I worked with at Real. We rode together with another co-worker of his, until I caught a paceline he was unable to. However, a few miles to the end after the paceline had disintegrated he caught up to me with another group, and we all rode in together — exhausted, but exhilerated!

Here’s my HRM… fairly consistant heart rate and speed, which is good.

I was talking to another 1-day rider who left at 4:45… apparently, leaving earlier means you’re on some bigger, and faster, pacelines. Apparently he found one that was led by a well organized, rotating paceline with two riders acting as sweep, preventing anyone from entering the group — but also allowing everyone to sit in and enjoy the pace between 23 and 25 MPH. He made it down in under 10 hours, if I recall properly.

All in all, a good experience… although we’ll have to see if next year I try for 1 day again, or just put a big pastry cart on the Bianchi and do more of a fun ride!

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. We hit them all (and decided to add the 6th stage which often occurs in breakups: Revenge) as we mourned our lost GPS data.

Overall I have to say it was a very very very good STP for team Pastry Powered. None of us got injured (although the sad hit and run - Greg/Ebeth - I heard it might have been a .83 guy?), and I only heard about Anthony’s flat just outside Scapoose, OR.

Leaving at 5:30 is WAY different from leaving at 6:30. First, you’re at the tail end of the “bell shaped curve” for the 1 day riders. Most of those who leave that “late” are actually fast one day riders, and hooking onto one of their pace lines is hard. But you’re at the front end of the two day riders. This became VERY apparent as we went passed Centralia.

One bonus of leaving early - you get to see a gorgeous sun rise over Lake Washington as you head south on Lake Washington Blvd. AND you actually can find good food at the REI and Spanaway rest stops, and the other rest stops aren’t nearly as crowded and (at least the first stop) the port a potties are less “used.” And you beat more of the heat. All in all - worth getting up for an earlier start.

Joanna and Linda left very early - Linda even before the 1 day riders. Joanna bypassed the start. The rest of us met up by the espresso stand around 5:15 and kept an eye out for Erik - who apparently left around 5:25. I guess there were so many people we missed him (or maybe because we were looking for a pastry powered jersey). Looking at what GPS data I have, we left in the 5:35 wave.

One huge negative - the Dan Henrys (the signs on the ground) where INCREDIBLY hard to see as they used eco-friendly red paint which didn’t show up well on the black pavement, and I think it wore off since last weekend. It made it hard to find the route until we hit Oregon (I think the Portland club marks the route down there).

We saw our first injury just as we got on the University bridge - not sure what happened (it has just happened), but reading the cascade bulletin boards - she was apparently being taken away on a backboard later.

We bypassed the Seward Park stop, and made good work of the hill there. I saw the unicycle on Rainier Ave. I never did see the skateboarder, but I heard rumors he made it.

At some point down in Tukwila a chain of very fast riders passed us - and I could just tell Ruben wanted SO bad to pace them! So I told him “but it’s PRETTY - go follow them and I’ll see you at REI” and with a bit more convincing (good husband), he was off. That became one of our code words on the ride: “oooh pretty” meant a nice pace line to follow…

We stopped at REI which had yummy tortillas with peanut butter, fruit and small Odwallas - very helpful for me who was having a lot of tummy upset from some antibiotics I was taking. Ugh. I didn’t want to eat. That made it harder later in the day when I was just simply running out of energy.

Not a lot to say about the next stretch, including the “Hill” - which quite frankly I did better this year than last. I actually managed to pass a few people!

At the top of the hill, Ruben discovered his GPS wasn’t recording since REI. At first there was Denial - “NO I DIDN’T HIT THE BUTTON.” Then there was Anger - he got pissed off that his tech got screwed up… Bargaining - “I’ll go back and re-ride that part of the route, anything, just to get the data” (and yes, Ruben thought about it). Depression - not much more to say there, and … well I’m not sure he’s accepted it yet. Ruben said there’s one more stage if you’re breaking up with someone - Revenge. So they started thinking about ways to get revenge on the tech. I believe Anthony came up with the best: “I’m going to turn you on and put you in a box with the LID CLOSED!!!” I was laughing so hard I was crying.

By Spanaway, it was starting to get warmer and the group fragmented a little bit. We still hadn’t caught Joanna (who apparently did see Erik at the REI stop around 7am)… Ruben, Anthony and I left Spanaway first… then Greg, Elizabeth and Rich did a bit later. Ruben spotted Joanna in the line for the port a potties in Yelm, which is at mile 72.

The Tenino trail was nicer this year than last - hotter, but fewer people trying to do side by side lines on those squeezed in small bridges. Anthony had left yelm a bit before us, Ruben and I stuck together and took turns out in front up.

By the time I got into Centralia (the century mark), I was sick of “non food nutrition” - I could not get myself to eat another sportsbean or drink more Accelerade - my usual nutrition of choice on long rides. I needed a latte and a turkey sandwich, which we found at the student center in Centralia. (They were also showing the Tour De France in there. )

Oh let’s not forget the creamsicles - I think Anthony had 3. Joanna was the next to arrive, all Smiles! She knew she was done - well given she only had ridden 150? miles for her own training this season - making a century on the first day was really impressive. Elizabeth and Greg must have followed shortly after, but we didn’t see them - they found a spot on the other side of the “compound” but we eventually all got back together in one place. Then Rich came in.

We got a chance to all touch base and meet up with our heroine Joan. Someone was giving out packets of the Anti-Chafe cream (it was also in our packets from the packet pick up)… so I ran to the bathroom and lathered up. I figured I had used the Chamois Butter in the morning and it was probably all worn off, so I might as well. Now you know how they say you should never try something new on “race day?” - I have never felt this more than 20 miles down the road. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Anthony left first, Ruben and I left like 15-20 minutes after him. Megan thinks she saw one loan Pastry Powered shirt on the overpass - I think that was Anthony. Elizabeth and Greg also left, Joanna and Rich got a ride to Kelso and Joanna sacked out in blissful sleep.

I was dog slow those next 20 or so miles, even drafting Ruben (who 25 lbs lighter is much less of a wind-break if I must say so). The cross and head winds were just killing me, even though it’s largely flat all the way past Chahalis. At mile 120 I suddenly felt like I had a blister that had popped right where my leg meets my butt cheek. It was so painful I had to ride sideways a bit. I realized it was that (@)*#$ Anti-Chafe cream- which I would recommend no one uses. I think the Tea Tree oil in it is an irritant.

I did find some mole skin in my first aid kit (not just the ouch pouch - I got a new one from REI- small and well stocked). I was able to use that on one side (both sides were hurting at that point). We blasted through Napavine. I think that’s where I noted the Napavine Jail (1913-1935 - right on the train track to stuff the criminals on the train). At Winlock we stopped for more water and to see if the volunteer Gold Wing riders had any more mole skin (nope). It was really HOT and humid, and we did feel some drizzle as we left. I took a picture of the espresso stand we tried to get espresso from last year, but forgot to get a picture of the egg! That’s 2 years in a row I’ve missed that damn egg. (Who knows how I can miss the world’s largest egg.)

We stopped at the Vader store and I put the mole skin I had on my butt. We also ate a really yummy chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. Ruben ate an Egg. That just sounded nasty. But I have to give kudos to the Vader store for having a misting thing up… that felt awesome.

Somewhere in there a really really sweet family had a lemonade stand set up - REALLY refreshing lemonade and water… Oh it really really really really (did I say really?) helped. Kudos to those guys.

We made it up and down the rolling hills - my legs were sore, but still functioning - in fact since it was cooling down I was doing much better. Ruben was still as strong as ever. I caught Ruben and his secret of how to get up hills - he found an Oar on the road - a truck pulling a boat had just recently gone by. We had heard it bouncing around. A few blocks later he found the oar in the road. I figure that’s his secret of how he gets up hills.

We did one more stop in Castle Rock at 5:30 - they were just about to close down the stop. The Lexington stop was closed by the time we got there. Ruben and I made it into Kelso and the hotel around 6:30 that evening. I don’t know what time Linda made it in, but it was before us (starting early and taking no stops was her strategy). Anthony was probably there 30-45 minutes before us). He had powered his GPS with a nifty battery powered charger once it got down to 1/4 of his battery power left. I found that my GPS unit made it all the way to Kelso - all 13 hours and didn’t run out of battery. I think that’s the longest it’s ever gone.

I should also mention one other person: Ruben’s friend/co-worker Scott wound up riding with his friend Sally. They were also staying in Kelso. When we arrived in Kelso the front desk at the Red Lion first surprised me by saying that they had overbooked - I thought they were going to tell me I didn’t have a room. On the contrary, they upgraded us to a suite. Ruben had already invited Scott to shower our shower, so we invited Scott to share floor space… and he joined us for dinner.

We washed off the salt and jumped into the pool, then met everyone for dinner at Azteca. Ruben and I went on a walk afterwards to find more moleskin for my poor butt for the morning.

Elizabeth and Greg got picked up in Castle Rock - it was just getting a little dark and given the headwinds Ruben and I were hitting, they made the right decision.

I think we all slept like a rock.

In the morning Joan drove Elizabeth and Greg back to Castle Rock to get the good breakfast grub and continue on their journey. Rich and Joanna left from Kelso around 9:30. Linda left much earlier apparently, we saw her at the finish line alllll cleaned up. We had our crappy breakfast at the Red Lion hotel (Rich and Joanna’s choice of Shari’s would have been better, we decided the only thing the scone (pastry) would power would be a gas powered car - it had to be a petroleum by product).

Anthony, Ruben and I left close to 10am… We stood out in front of the Red Lion acquiring signal with our GPS units. Anthony had re-set his GPS back to 0 (the other data saved in memory), and I told him “it’s all one ride!” His comment “two days, 2 rides”. Ruben… well his GPS once again crapped out on him by not charging the battery the night before. More of the 6 stages of grief ensued, but acceptance came quicker this time.

I bumped into one of my softball cohorts on the approach to the Longview Bridge into Oregon. I didn’t even know he was riding. He’s a group health “medic” on the ride. His first ride - he was all smiles.

The Longview bridge was uneventful, save for the plethora of water bottles on the expansion joint on the downward slope. Anthony, the king of found treasure, had a field day. He missed the walky talky that dropped off of someone though.

Route 30 was hot, noisy and windy - as always. Worse this year was that we had a headwind. I don’t know which is worse: a tail wind when it’s sunny and hot, or cloudy weather that’s cooler but with a headwind. This was the worst of both - a headwind and 80 degree cloudy weather.

At Goble we heard rumors of the hit and run accident further up the road. There was some talk that the road was closed for a while but that cyclists could get through. I didn’t know much more than a cyclist was hit. Later we found out the cyclist was hit by a guy who had once been convicted of murder, it was a DUI (at 9:20 am?!?!?!?), I hope they throw the book at him. I’m pretty damn steamed. (There was also talk on the cascade site about a guy in a white truck in Vader backing out of his driveway recklessly and hitting cyclists. Very nice considering it’s the one time of year Vader gets any amount of tourism. )

Anthony kept to his own pace, the wise man that he is, Ruben and I kept finding pretty drafting lines and I pushed myself a bit harder than I should have. In the end it was fine, but I think I’m more sore than I would have been had I held back. We passed Rich and Joanna at one point.

We stopped at St. Helens and I jammed on the cookies there. Rich and Joanna showed up next (NOT missing it this year like they did last year). Erik sent me a text message to look out for him and yet when Ruben and I took off, I thought to look for him AFTER he had passed us. Suddenly he came up from behind and said “HEY Great Jerseys” or something like that.

Apparently he had passed by Anthony near Scapoose, he was changing a flat but was in the ditch. Given the noise was so bad on 30, Erik couldn’t hear Anthony call to him.

We all connected back up at Scapoose where we got a very long rest. Check out the pictures of Ruben and Anthony! Rich bought a Creamsicle. Oh here’s where we saw the “Bat Woman” - it was a woman dressed in black lycra pants, and black tank top, with OBVIOUSLY manufactured breasts practically falling out of the top. She had tatoos on her back. I think Anthony came up with the term “Bat Woman.” I actually managed to snap a shot of her when I was trying to get Rich coming into the rest area - here’s the shot:

This also prompted the discussion about other folks we’ve seen on various rides, including one woman on a couple of cascade rides completely decked out with scary Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

Joanna took off and Anthony asked if we’d regroup once more. I told him that I KNOW Joanna will wait for us - it was her idea to cross together in the first place last year.

Ruben stuck with me through most of the trip, even though he could have ridden MUCH faster. One of the other running themes between us was every time a rider would pass him, he’d say so only I could hear - “I could take him”… This would happen over and over “I could take him,” “I could take HIM” etc. At one point on the trail, a guy passed us and Ruben said under his breath “I can’t take him.”

Once in Portland, there was this train paralleling our route. The train was going pretty slowly - maybe 20 mph… probably waiting for a track to change. So I told Ruben… “You could take that” - and Ruben did. He raced the train and managed to “beat it” … Then the conductor slowed the train down and started waving - he got a wave from both Ruben and from me. Then he sped up and took off.

Other than that, the last 14 or so miles were pretty uneventful, until the last major HILL - very short, very steep and very very very annoying. There at the top was Joanna, waiting patiently for all of us to meet up with her. I put Maltby at the front of my bike at this point, so he could ride in with us.

The rest of the ride was pretty annoyingly slow because the BULK of the 2 day riders arrived at the same time.

Still, they announced a few of our names (including Rich - and they butchered the pronunciation of Chappaquah)…

Joan, Paul, Megan and Josh were all RIGHT on the corner smiling and waving to us. Linda and Mitchel joined us in the recovery area for a bit, we got our requisite swag (Whole Food Green Bags!!! WOOT!), and headed over to Eric Koldingers for a quick shower. (Most of us rode our bikes there - Greg was kind enough to drive the van - I think Joan had had enough of the behemoth after 2 days in it :)) After that we had a great dinner at the New Old Lompoc, where I was fully embarrassed by the generosity of my fellow riders - thank you all - I will be silk screening stuff for all of you with the gift card!!!!

When we got home it was my turn to go through the stages of grief. I uploaded my GPS data only to find it lost 22 miles of mapping data from the beginning of the ride! I am still not to acceptance yet. I am still thinking revenge.

ARGGGGHHH!!!!!!!

The final tally did say between 15.4-15.6 mph average which is slower by a bit than last year (I did 15.7). However, I met my own personal challenge of making 150 miles in a day - a huge feat given that I had only trained to really make 120 or 130. Next time I will train for further distances and think “it’s only 50 miles more?!??!?!” Training for 100, vs training for 150 IS different. We trained for 100 each day.
Anyway, lesson learned.

I have to once again than Joan, Paul, Megan and Josh for helping to ferry us and our stuff. I have to thank Eric and Kirsten for letting us crash and trash their place and shower in real porcelain. And I have to thank Linda for her fore thought to book extra rooms in Kelso!

Next year?

P.S. Scott did the STPTS - he biked home from Portland on Monday. I heard from Ruben he did it in just over 11 hours? Amazing.

204 miles, 1 day baby!

About another hour and a half

3/4 done!

Broke a spoke… But repair is at hand!

50 miles!

On Saturday, James, Anthony and I went on the Cascade century ride down to Flaming Geyser state park. I didn’t post sooner because I’m missing quite a bit of data apparently (I pressed a button by mistake). Anthony’s garmin may have done better. I saw Linda on the way home - she was the sweep for the yellow group. I saw her husband Mitchel back at the Cascade headquarters - he was apparently the lead for the crazy Orange riders.

(Anthony, James and I were in the Green group.)

Today I ventured out to Fall City to Linda’s house. We did her “Red Barn Loop” - a leisurely ride up through Carnation and near the Nestle farm. It was gorgeous today! We got to see the foals along the route, but the Osprey apparently are not nesting this year. Oh and Sandy’s in Carnation is a great place to get a cold drink. There was a parade/vintage car show/craft fair in Carnation as well.

Good Morning Ride Fans,

Saturday morning found Greg and myself up at 6:45 am and driving towards Lakemont to the start of the ride. The hill climb up Lakemont is daunting because as you are driving up the steep hill, you realize the only way home at the end of the ride will involve you climbing it again to get to the car. The sprinkles while we were loading the car were making us wonder if this ride were a good idea, but by the time we got to the ride start everything is partly sunny and dry. The ride was a 100 mile loop south to Enumclaw via Ravensdale and back up to Lakemont via Black Diamond and Factoria. The ride leader was especially cruel in that he specifically chose side routes that had the steepest/ugliest/gnarliest hills I have ever seen on a ride. The majority of them were relatively short, but to end the ride on a 1200 foot climb is just not nice.

The only things of note were that for the first time this season my inner leg cramped while I was in the 95th mile and I realized I was just pushing to hard for too long. I was doing a paceline with a bunch of young’uns who were leading it out at 22-25MPH pacelines which was a little beyond my capacity (at least for 100 miles). Luckily some of my compatriot riders realized the same and we ended up taking the last hill at our own pace. Fortunately, the cramping disappeared after a mile of riding (slower) and standing up and stretching on my bike. It was intense enough I was worried it was going to lock up my right leg and cause me to fall off my bike.

I still want Lauren’s triple for RAMROD, but I was able to slog out some very steep hills on my double.

Greg was a trooper in that he did the entire ride using a very heavy bike, and large tires which put him completely out of drafting zone of the rest of the group. That said he soldiered through the entire ride and we were both able to get back in time to do kid duty and let Lauren and Elizabeth go out for a ride.

Obligatory trip stats:
104Miles, 7700 feet of elevation gain. 15.9mph base

5 _very_ steep multiple mile ascents.