OK here is my STP report.
DAY 1
Got up at 3:30. Yep 3:30 A.M. I barely slept anyway because I was nervous like a kid before Christmas. I wasn't completely prepared, packing and such but I just finally decided to go to bed and worry about it in the morning. So the alarm went off at 3:30 and off we went.
We picked up Dan and Jim at 4:30 and headed down to the start line. I was a little surprised by the traffic as we got close. (I guess I hadn't pictured what 9500 people and cars would look like). So we pulled over in a parking lot and unloaded.
Me and my gear. This is my imatation of a yellow peanut M&M (some day I hope to be a plain M&M)
Here is Jim and Dan, we have been training together for several weeks.
I felt pretty good. I had been eating and drinking all night and leading up to the start so I felt that I had plenty of fuel and fluids in me. We got started right at 5:30. My plan was to average 14 mph and take 5 minute breaks at the rest areas. I wanted to go 128 miles to Vader, which is beyond the halfway point. This way the second day would be shorter. So my plan would get me to Vader by 4:00.
One thing you really can't plan for is what it is like to ride with that many people. You have to ride with the pack as best as you can. So I did. I lost Jim and Dan right away, had the chain fall off and got stuck behind a bus. So by the first stop we were hopelessly separated. So from this point on I just focused on riding my ride. It was a beautiful morning with the sun rising over Lake Washington. Great views on Mount Rainier the whole first day.
There was a huge rest stop at the REI headquarters in Kent. Tents, displays, food, music. You could spend and hour there but that would have really slowed me down. The 5 minute breaks obviously weren't going to work. You needed a strategy for the breaks. Eat while in the potty line, they really frowned on pottying in the food lines.
Anyway after Kent I got rolling again. As I approached Puyallup, I knew The Hill was coming up fast. Even the people directing traffic were warning us about it. My main training for hill climbing is my commute to work and Lowell hill. So either I was up to The Hill or I would be walking.
My strategy is just to get into low gear and crank. Nothing fancy, just keep the heart rate under control as long as possible. I had my new Garmin so I could measure the length and height of the hill. AS we started up people were ail lover the road. Some slower some faster. And pretty soon, some walking. An older man passed me and said hi. I later passed him and said hi back. The hard part about The Hill is it is really two long sections. So you think you are done and you get hit with the second part. But I was up to the task and climbed at about 6 mph the whole way, 1 mile and 300 feet of gain.
We turned at the top and then continue towards Spanaway. A couple of miles ahead I see the older guy again. He is stopped on the side of the road and says hi. He asks if I have a cell phone and I stop and help him make his call. It turns out his buddy was waiting back at the top of The Hill. We figured out a new meeting place for Stan and Gord and I went on my way.
There was a bad traffic accident as we we coming in to Spanaway and we had to walk (or carry) our bikes right through it. They were still pulling people out of the cars. Nasty scene. The Spanaway stop was a zoo. I took the chance to reapply my Chamois Butter. (if you don't know what that is it is the goo that makes long bike rides possible, lube it or lose it). I ate my lunch and kept going. I was 50 miles in and feeling pretty good.
I was enjoying the new Garmin and seeing the towns coming up. Although it did seem painfully slow to get to some spots on the map that were not much more than a wide spot in the road (yes Roy I am talking about you). I have to say the views of Rainier were amazing. The East side of Ft. Lewis was a nice section. Tall trees giving shade. Chinook helicopters coming in low. wop wop wop.
My average speed had been under 14 for most of the morning because of the slow start in Seattle. But as the miles rolled on I was up to and above 14. Still I was running behind schedule with the stops. There were two bad sections of road on this first day. One was just gravel with tar on it. It looked fresh and new but was not smooth and was pretty slow. A woman ahead of me got a tire off the tar into the gravel and fell. I almost ran over her head. I stopped to make sure she was OK. There was a Goldwing support rider right there if she was hurt. So after she said she was OK I went on.
The other bad section was the only dedicated bike trail we had for the whole trip. I liked having a trail but there were a lot of bumps from roots. That made the trail punishing.
I have to mention that I had great support on the whole ride. Jane was already ahead of me and had our tents set up at the camp area (all 3 of them). I called ahead and mentioned I was having "issues" with my padded bike briefs and I would need to change when I came through.
I finally rolled into Centralia about 1 hour behind schedule but averaging 14.2 mph. There was a girl there handing out creamcicles. I don't know if there was ever a food item that was more appreciated. I fell in love with that girl right then and there, but I knew Jane was right around the corner so I left my new love for my true one. So after 100 miles on a bike it takes real will power to sit down next to you tent, air mattress, pillows, wife and a cooler of cold beverages, and get up and leave. But I held the stop to about 15 minutes (any longer and you start to stiffen up).
By this point it was hot. In the 90's which for the Pacific Northwest is very hot. I grabbed 2 more Gatorades out of the cooler and rolled on. So 28 more miles doesn't sound like a lot. But after the first hundred and in 90 degree heat it was tougher than I thought. After Centralia the landscape seemed to change and the land heaved and rolled in the most annoying fashion. There was a climb into Napavine that made me long for "The Hill". There was a little girl at the top with a garden hose spraying the riders as we went by. (If my heart didn't already belong to creamcicle girl...).
Vader, as in Darth Vader. It did seem ominous and somehow so far away. The heat was really sapping what little energy I had left. I finally roll into Vader and see Jim and Dan for the first time since this morning. They are sitting on a porch swing in the shade at a gas station drinking 24 oz Coors lights. I don't know what the experts say but at this point nothing sounded better. Dan offered to buy me one and I was more than happy to get a spot on the swing and wait for Jane.
While we waited I had the tech support guy put on my spare disk brake pads. My brakes had been acting funny for a while. (more about that later). So 128 miles, 14.2 mph, in 11.5 total hours (1 hour late).
THE STOP
We drove back to Centralia. It was interesting to see the same distance from the car. It was quite a ways. When we got back the guys were impressed with Jane's tent set up and site selection. We were right under a big shady tree. We pitied late comers setting up in the sun. We waited in a long slow moving line for the shower. It was $5 but I would have paid $50. We all were so desperate for the shower that we missed the food. Everything was breaking down by the time we were clean boys again.
On the plus side the guy selling hot dogs was selling them for $1 with a drink and chips, I got 2. As we were walking away the price had dropped to $0.50 and the drinks were free.
We went to the beer garden. That sounded a lot better in the brochure than the reality. don't get me wrong a cold beer for $3 was a nice treat. The TV was blaring rodeo bull riding (they had the Tour De France on but it was over and now we watched the other sport most likely to make your backside ache).
We went back to our tent and struggled to stay awake until 9:00. I finally crawled in put on my eye mask and ear plugs and slept like the dead until 5:30.
Day Two
After the pancake feed at a local church (those kids were great, up at 2:30 to make us breakfast). We loaded up the car and headed back to Vader.
We got on the road at 7:30. Although I think we were just about the last people out of Centralia we still had about a 2 hour head start on most of them. Right out of Vader was a pretty tough hill. I didn't find it too hard and soon we turned and got a little downhill coast. Another beautiful morning.
My bike seat greeted my back side like an old friend (the kind you don't talk to anymore because the last time they saw you they hurt you real bad). Actually it could have been worse. Without the change of briefs in Centralia I could have been in big trouble.
You hear a lot about The Hill and the overall climb of the ride only being 2000 feet. So it isn't technically a hilly ride. But it isn't flat either. I was glad to only have 76 miles ahead of me.
I decided to change my strategy on the stops. I was really carrying most of my supplies, food, water, Gatorade. So I went right past the first stop and just stopped on the side of the road. Ate my snacks, stretched and held my stop to 5 minutes. I could keep this up until I needed the potty or ran out of water.
There were some nice downhill sections coming into Kelso. Sometimes the fast riders in pace lines get in my way. They think we fat guys are slow all the time. But on the downhills gravity is my buddy. I had to pass some of these guys after riding my brakes on some of the descent.
Finally entering Kelso and approaching "the bridge", there were some rough roads that weren't marked. (the race organizers spray paint nasty bumps and holes in pink), I hit some real jarring patches and even a hard railroad crossing. Then I heard a sound-PING. I have heard that before. Sometimes it is a rock or something metal that you hit and it makes a metallic sound. You look all over your bike and finally decide it didn't come off your bike and keep going.
So just as I am figuring out what this, is I am coming up on the group waiting to be escorted across the bridge. I luck out and the group starts to roll right as I get there, no waiting. Only as I am getting onto the bridge do I figure out the thing that went PING was one side of my disk brake pads. At this point I am climbing up the bridge about 150 feet above the Columbia. We are being escorted by the Goldwing club (yeah Wingers) so I am kind of stuck and I know we will be coming down the bridge at a pretty good clip.
We finally make it over and are in Oregon. I was able to keep my speed under control with the back brake but I wouldn't be able to make a panic stop. Here is a picture of the bridge from the Oregon side. 
I really don't think it should be this high. Do they really need to bring big boats all the way to Portland? I nurse the brake into Goble and have it changed. I brought 2 spares. The first one lasted me 20 miles and cost $20. So I am spending a dollar a mile on brake pads. The bike tech is puzzled how I even managed to lose it.
From here on into Portland the road is basically a 4 lane highway with 50-60 mph speed limits. The shoulders are good and wide and the surface is good, but the cars are zipping by. Also with the wide road there is no chance for shade from the other side. It is afternoon and the pavement is radiating heat. There is a nice stop in St. Helens. They even have ice to put in your bottle and camelbacks. I can only manage to get a little ice in there and somehow didn't get very much water. So just a few miles down the road I am running out.
One thing you figure out is there are official stops and unofficial stops. At the official stops there is water and food for free. At the unofficial stops you pay for everything. Just outside of Scapoose I paid $2.50 for a Gatorade, but it was cold. I chugged the whole thing and it felt great. I think that actually helped me catch up on my fluids. By the time I finally see the "Entering Portland" sign I am almost completely spent. 
I am calling Jane to tell her when I expect to cross the finish line and I realize I can't calculate 4 x 9. For those who know me they would know I am pretty good with the old times table. So I knew I was exhausted, dehydrated or near heat stroke. I suggest she pick me up here. I mean I rode from Seattle to Protland. It isn't my fault the finish line is another 10 miles away. The pull of the finish line kept me going.
I originally planned to roll into Portland at 2:00. I made that estimate sitting at my desk at work several weeks ago. That was with an average speed of 14 mph. I didn't quite make my target. I managed 14.2 mph but I was 10 minutes late. luckily Jane waited for me. We decided to skip the 1 hour Wait for a shower and join the toddlers in the squirty fountain.
204 miles - 2000 feet of vertical climbing - 3 brake pads - several thousand calories - got the jersey to prove it!
One Big Goal checked off. What's next?
(BTW I did see the woman whose head I almost crushed, she said she dented her helmet but had taken enough pain meds to not feel anything until the middle of the week)
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