Seattle to Portland 2008...Conquered

Seattle to Portland 2008 is done.

Mile 1 - 25

We set off at 4:55 Saturday morning with thousands of other riders. The first 25 miles went by quickly and easily. There were a bunch of small hills to climb getting out of Seattle, but there were police at almost every intersection letting us pass through without stopping. There were a few crashes behind our group in the beginning, but it seemed to be due to people not paying attention and trying too hard to pass.

Mt. Rainier at Sunrise

Our first stop was at mile 25 and we were a solid group riding strong.

Mile 26 - 50

The ride started levelling out and although there were a lot of people on the road, we started getting into some good pacelines and our speed started to increase. Then we hit "The Hill" at mile 43 and that slowed everyone down, but we regrouped at the top and continued on to our next rest stop at mile 50.

Paceline (from back: Christa, Sally, Sean, Kurt)

Mile 50-100

WOW! This was the best ride I have ever been on. We decided that except to refill our water bottles, we were going to ride straight through to the lunch stop in Centralia, WA. The roads were flat and fast. Several times, our group met up with other groups and we formed an awesome paceline. We were riding at about 24 mph and flying down the road. We had a quick stop at mile 75 for water and found out that Myron's bottom bracket was coming off. He stayed behind to get it fixed and since he is such a strong rider, we said we'd meet him at lunch. And we were off a few minutes later.

We made it to Centralia in a total of 2 hrs and 30 minutes including breaks.


Sean and Christa at Lunch

Total time riding - 5 hours 39 minutes.
Total time on the road including breaks - 7 1/2 hours.

Mile 100 - 146

After lunch, we set off again. We decided to slow things down a bit since some of us couldn't really sustain those speeds over the long haul. But, as luck would have it, the roads were still too great to slow down and we continued at about 21 mph for the next 46 miles. But the road was starting to undulate and some pretty good sized-rollers were breaking up our group. The day was getting hot and we were getting tired. Sean was doing great...as always, but I was starting to feel the effects of the day. Dry peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watermelon, lukewarm water, GU, shot blocks, sports drink...none of it was tasting good. We rolled into Longview, WA, I choked down what I could stomach and after a 30 minute break, we took off again.

Mile 146 - 178

Hell. This was awful. We broke up just after the Longview Bridge (but we were finally in Oregon again). Sean, Myron and Sally were up ahead and feeling great. Sally was pulling them at about 23 mph across long hard flat and false flat sections of Hwy 30. Don and I stuck together and tried to maintain 15 mph. With about 10 miles to go, Don stopped to help a young woman change her tire. I couldn't stop. It was in the sun and I was starting to feel pretty sick. I ate my last GU and almost threw up...but I finally made it to St. Helens. I rode past Sean, Sally, Hanna (our support driver) and Mel (our main cheerleader) and headed straight for the misters. I stayed there for a bit to cool down. Then I went to check out the food tables hoping for something new...and there it was. A whole bit paper bag of salted popcorn. No sugar...no gu. Just salty goodness. That revived me and after another 30 minutes I was ready to tackle the last 30 miles.

Myron, Don, Christa, Sean and Sally in St. Helens

So for the last 30 miles, we kept a steady pace of about 19 miles per hour. We pulled into Portland and crossed the finish line at about 8:30 in the evening. My total time on the bike was 11 hours 56 minutes. Sean's total time riding was 11 hours 18 minutes. After 15.5 hours on the road with breaks, we were done.

I swore I would never do it again. I was hurting and so tired and couldn't imagine ever riding 200 miles in one day again...but after a good nights sleep in my own bed, I woke up stiff, but not sore and decided that with just a little more training I could do even better next year.

Next week...The Deschutes Dash. A Triathlon for me and a Duathlon for Sean.