After getting our preride chores taken care of John and I waited on the line for about 15 minutes for the 4:45AM start. Dave and Laura planned a two day ride and would start about 2 hours later.
John hoped to ride a 10 hour STP. I had no such yearnings, with RAO coming next weekend I was going to be happy to one day it.
At 4:45AM the ribbon dropped. Well, actually they said "go" and I started pedaling. I believe there may be a picture of me in some Seattle publication leading the charge with a long yellow start line ribbon trailing behind me!
The usual "blaze of glory" of the STP start was in fine form. We moved along at a quick pace. The difference this year for me was that I'm in better bike shape than normal. When I saw a group of riders that I was not comfortable following I had enough legs to go around them.
I held with John, within sight of the lead riders, up until 24 miles in at the REI stop. I pulled in for a banana as John continued on his trek for a 10 hour ride. (no stops until Castle Rock was his plan)
After eating the banana I hopped back on the bike and did not stop until Centralia, the half way point. I pulled into Centralia at 10AM, right near a 20 mph average over the first 100 miles. A trailing wind was developing that helped speed us along.
I realized that if I kept this pace up I would beat the baggage truck to Castle Rock, (137 miles) and not be able to enjoy my "personal rest stop" supplies. I lingered a half hour in Centralia, then proceeded on at a slower pace, hoping to get to Castle Rock after the 1PM planned baggage truck arrival.
I pulled into Castle Rock at 1:15PM really looking forward to that can of V8 juice and a fresh pair of cycling shorts. I ended up doing the "full meal deal", V8, instant breakfast, wipe off with a few baby wipes, fresh cycling shorts, and a Gu (Orange Burst!)
It was getting hot and I went into my planned "hot weather mode". I had a Gu every 20-30 minutes, alternate water bottles with electrolyte solution bottles, stopped about every 25 miles to fill my empty water bottle and take off my jersey, saturate it with water, wring out about half, put it back on.... and ride. The plan worked great. I had lots of energy, and the wet jersey kept me cool for a full half hour before drying out. I just flew!
I rolled across the finish line just a few minutes before 6PM. I logged just a bit over 13 hours total, and 10.50 hours on the bike. That's a lot more down time than on my previous STP's, but the water stops and cooling put me at the finish line with a lot of energy to spare and still a very respectable time. I was surprised by my sister waiting at the finish line, I had not expected her to be there.
With John and I riding a somewhat circuitous bike commute to the start line in the morning I ended up with 205 miles for the day, and more notably a 19.4 mph average!
I had considered riding the somewhat light hearted "Night Ride" in Portland tonight, likely the only rider to commute from Seattle by bike to do so, but given that I arrived much earlier than expected I just didn't want to to kill three hours waiting for the ride to begin, then not get to bed until midnight or after, knowing I planned to ride with the two day STPers early the next morning. I bagged such thoughts and was sleeping by 9PM!
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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today..........205...............0................205
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
YTD...........3722....+.......743....=.........4465
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