To those of you hoping for a technical post I’ll say sorry in advance. This post is about my experience riding the STP (Seattle To Portland). Check back in a couple of weeks for a tutorial on obstacle avoidance.
My Motivation
When I decide I like doing something I tend to throw myself into it without reservation. Often I pursue my interests to extreme ends.
Four years ago I started doing a little distance running and found it to be pretty fun. In the next two years I ran two marathons, two half marathons, and an assortment of 5ks and 10ks. I’m still working on running a marathon in under four hours.
Three years ago I bought a road bike and started using it to get around the city. I quickly fell in love with biking. It allowed me to go much faster than running for a fraction of the effort, and it was often faster than driving or public transit. There was only one problem: I wasn’t very good at it. I couldn’t ride very far and I tired out quickly on steep hills. I obviously needed to become a better biker.
So I set a ridiculous, nigh impossible goal for myself. Having never ridden more than 20 miles in a day before, I signed up for a 206 mile ride from Seattle to Portland. I thought of it as ambitious, but the word “foolish” came up more than a few times in conversations with friends and family.
My Training
My training was pretty simple. Starting in March I used my bike to commute at least once per week. Since a trip to work and back is about 38 miles for me, this alone would get me over 720 miles by the day of the STP, July 11th.
Biking to work wouldn’t be enough however. The really difficult part of riding 200+ miles isn’t the effort required to keep pedaling for 12 hours, it’s simply sitting on a bike for that length of time. You need to get your butt used to sitting on a saddle for extended periods and you can only do that by going on long rides.
I had a friend, Kelly, who was also doing the STP and she invited me to join her team. Kelly told me in no uncertain terms that I should do at least one 100+ mile ride before attempting the STP. Because Kelly has done the STP a few times now, I trusted her advice. I ultimately did not follow it, however.
I attempted a 100 mile ride two weeks before the STP on a day when the high was over 100º F. I developed a serious case of heat exhaustion around mile 70 and was forced to call it quits. Exhausted and demoralized, I decided to attempt a 206 mile ride having only ever ridden a third of that before in my life.
On the night of the ride my teammates and I all crashed in my apartment, which was close to the start line. I went to sleep full of trepidation. Between that and my teammate’s snoring not even Tylenol PM could ensure me a good night’s sleep.
The Ride
We woke up at 4:00am and immediately there was a bad omen. One of my teammates, Stacy, blew out her tire while trying to fill it. The ride hadn’t even started and we were hitting problems. We managed to make it to the start line by 5:30, much later than we intended.
My team and I
(Left to right: Stacy, Drew, Me, and Kelly)
After our early speed bump though the ride was brilliant. We got incredibly lucky with the weather, which was mostly cloudy and never got above 76º F. There were definitely some down moments. Around mile 120 I fell into an apocalyptic despair: the result of my body almost completely running out of sugar and only curable by a giant Rice Krispy Treat at the next rest stop. Mostly the ride was wonderful though.
Long bike rides are a team effort. I did most of my training rides solo, so I had very little appreciation for this at the start of the ride. It is very hard to overstate the value of a good team for both moral and aerodynamic support. For the first hundred or so miles we were in pace lines of 20 to 30 riders and we were able to ride at upwards of 20 miles per hour without putting much effort into it. Toward the end of the ride there were only four of us but it still helped immensely to draft off of each other. I would not have finished the STP without my teammates. Both because of their wind-blocking abilities and the moral support they provided.
It is also hard to overstate the value of a short break. My instinct would have been to just get on my bike and ride continuously until I was in Portland but I don’t think I would have made it more than half way if we tried to ride the whole 206 miles in one go. We stopped about every 25 miles for ten to fifteen minutes to eat, fill our water bottles, and just get off our bikes for a little while and I’m glad we did. There were several times when I rolled into a rest stop feeling completely defeated, only to ride out fifteen minutes later feeling invincible.
We finished the ride around 9:30pm having spent 12 cumulative hours in the saddle. It was exhilarating and exhausting. I experienced heights of ecstasy and depths of despair that I’d never known before and that’s just one reason I will treasure the experience. Again, I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. Those guys were incredible.
At the finish line! (left to right: Stacy, Kelly, Me, Drew)
When my girlfriend, Alicia, picked me up later that evening I only had one thing to say about the experience: “Did you know you can drive from Seattle to Portland in, like, a fifth of the time it takes to bike?”