We did it! July 9th and 10th Skyler, my Dad and I rode our bikes 203 miles from Seattle to Portland. (along with 10,000 other people)
The event was well staffed at each rest stop (every 25 miles or so.)
the volunteers were super friendly and happy to help.
2nd rest stop, just a picture of how the rest stops look- hundreds of bikes EVERYWHERE!
The ride was beautiful. We left the starting line at UW about 6am,
we wound through Seattle and then along Lake Washington.
We continued on through the burbs in huge swarms of riders. While passing through my dad's home town he pointed out where his friends used to live and where his paper route was :)
It was pretty amazing and fun to be a part of something so big. Everyone looked out for everyone else by using proper hand signals, calling out car up or car back, slowing or stopping and pointing out potholes and glass to those behind you.
We made it down on to Yelm, where my Aunt lives and Grandma visits frequently. We rode for probably 20 miles on this long bike path, and Grandma and Aunt Liz actually met up with us along the way and brought us smoothies.
After that...the landscape got pretty flat and warm. We made it to Centralia about 4pm. Which is the 100 mile half way stopping point for most riders. We took a long break which was great because I had gotten a bad case of dehydration cramps in my chest/stomach and felt I couldn't go on. But they went away and off we went in search of dinner. Which was subway, even though a juicy burger and fries sounded so good, we all knew that probably wouldn't be a good idea with 24 miles still to go.
After 124 miles, about 6pm we stopped at our rest stop in Vader, where we reserved 3 carpet spaces and camped out with a bunch of other people. Much to our surprise, Lynn and Joell were waiting for us! They were on their way home from a trip and thought they would greet us at our resting place.
(Nevermind Dad's elbow, he was trying to be discreet about taking the pic.)
The volunteers at The Assembly of God church were awesome. So friendly and accommodating. They even had a couple kids taking bikes as riders showed up exhausted ready to eat. Dinner was pretty good, pasta and bread with pie a la mode for dessert.
Day 2, just getting going out of Vader about 6am.
There were quite a bit more hills on day 2. Which I wasn't expecting. There was the Longview bridge into Oregon, which was a bit scary considering at each break in the pavement there was about 20 water bottles that had popped out of previous riders bikes. Then it was on into a stretch of road much like the palouse. Constant up and down rolling hills that got pretty old and tiring. Since we went further the first day and started early, the first rest stop wasn't open when we rolled by at about 7:30. Disappointing but we weren't in dire need of replenishment yet so it was fine.
These pictures are at the St. Johns bridge outside Portland. We still had maybe 1- 1 1/2 hours to go at that point but it was the last huge hill. It was gorgeous both days and so cool to ride by all the mountains in clear view.
We rode on through north Portland, being stopping at lights and starred at by the unknowing citizens that would soon have thousands of people coming through.
We made it! The finish line was at Holladay park in NW Portland by Lloyd center.
They had tents, booths, music and general chaos going on. My mom, sister and the kids all waited as patiently as kids can at the finish line as we rode by.
They had a pretty cool set-up, accommodating riders in any situation. Including a bike check in the Doubletree Hotel parking lot so you could go get a massage, and not worry about your bike getting ripped off. They also had huge semi trucks parked in the streets that were portable showers, in case you were traveling home back to Seattle that night. I forgot to mention, as part of our accommodations in Vader, it also included baggage drop off. We put our bags on a truck labeled Vader at the Start line and again once we were done in Vader and they brought them to the finish line for us.
We recouped in Portland that night, hobbling to dinner and crashing hard that night for a decent night rest before our 6 hour drive home to Pullman the next day.
We're so glad we did it and cant wait for our next big adventure.
So...you may wonder, how were we training? I cant speak for Skyler or my Dad, both of which have pretty regular workout routines. But for me, it was a huge adjustment. I logged each ride, day and length and set a schedule of how many total miles I needed to get that week. Here's what my chart looked like:
