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Ride Length: Close to 160 miles out of 204.
Elevation: 3000 ft?
Where: STP Route
Start Time: 6:15, 6:30
End Time: 5:30, 1:30 in the afternoon
How long: appx 19 hours
On bike time: Forgot to get this before the trip home, which added time and miles to the counter
Total Calories: 9000? more or less
As you can see, I didn't finish the full ride this year. I managed day one pretty well, even with the 90F/32C heat. The second day it got up to 95F/35C and after crossing the bridge into Oregon and going over one of the last really steep hills, I found some shade at the Gobel rest stop and decided that I just could not deal with the heat.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shereld and B went on to finish the ride, while I opted out for a milkshake and a burger and a cool ride back to the motel, courtesy of my wonderful husband. One day of riding in the heat I could handle, but two days was just too much for me.
Don't feel bad for me, though! I was really pleased to finish nearly 160 miles of the route on such hot days. I've never done well in heat, and it really was the better choice for me to opt out. I didn't want to push myself and end up with heat exhaustion or worse; I'd already come pretty close to that when I did the Tour de Cure this year, and I didn't want a repeat.
Taking out the heat factor and looking back, I did enjoy myself. (I did whine a lot more, but I'm laying that at the heat factor too. If only it have been the average 75F/24C! That would have been just perfect.) On the first day, we took an alternate route to the first rest stop, and I was able to count 9 rabbits hanging out by the roadside along the way. We kept startling them as we threaded through parks, trails and little used roads during the wee morning hours; We didn't catch site of any other STP riders until we hit Tukwilla. We saw six other riders during that first section of the ride, which was a wonderful thing. When we turned off the Interurban trail in Kent at 228th to join up with the rest of the riders, we picked up another few thousand people, and we didn't get rid of them until near the end of the trip. I didn't clip in much at all because of how unpredictable the crowds are; I just didn't trust the people around me to behave responsibly.
The first rest area is pretty fun, even though it is a zoo. The theme this year was Vegas, and they had a Los Vegas Elvis helping to direct traffic. Plus the speakers are blaring good music, people are happy and excited, and everyone is milling around just waiting to go.
The big problem this year--and this was a continuing theme--was the huge line for the portapotties. It took us a half hour to get through the portapotty line, and that was pretty consistent for the entire trip at almost every official rest stop or mini-rest stop we were at. (The two exceptions are the Yelm rest stop and Castle Rock, both of which we managed to be in and out of in about 15 minutes. Well, okay, we spent longer at Yelm because they had flush toilets and let us inside the air conditioned school, which at that point was our definition of heaven...)
I did notice that in general, we had more groups than individual riders, compared to what I experienced last year. Lots of matching shirts, cycling club groups, etc. Last year, I could pretty much find a group of stragglers going my speed when I was tired and latch on for a bit; this year, not so much, and I ended up riding alone between large groups that had just passed me and groups that hadn't passed me yet. ;) As I got more tired, it was almost befuddling, and I wondered if maybe that was part of the reason the ride filled up so early, as groups signed up en-mass, rather than the onesie, twosie, threesie from last year.
Seriously, the things you think about on long stretches when you're trying to avoid dwelling on hot you are...Sandy at least kept me entertained at times with ideas for stories that she wanted me to write. I mostly grunted my replies, as I really didn't have the brain cells to plot a darn thing, but the visuals were nice.
Anyway, after Kent we headed to Puyallup, which seemed like a nicer stretch of road this year than last. Maybe there was less construction? I did miss not having the guy with the dog trailer pass me, as I loved keeping an eye out for his last year. This year, I kept an eye out for the guys in viking horns where one of the guys had a super-huge bike, or this other set of riders where the guys had picked up old 1960s house dresses at a thrift store and wore them over their bike shorts. I thought that was hysterical.
The unicyclist though, man, he was really hard core.
We bypassed the portapotties in Puyallup, and managed to find a grocery store where the lube, oil, and filter place next to it had opened up one of their rest rooms to passing cyclists. That was awesome, and very well timed, as we had less than a mile before the hill at that point.
The hill was the hill, 7%-8% grade, with a false top that lets you rest for a bit before the final push up to the top. It's not the only 7% grade hill on the route, but it is the longest one, and it deserves its press.
The Spanaway rest stop was better organized and had better food, not that we ate it. Mostly it was just pee, sunscreen, and grab some of what we brought to eat out of our bags. It may seem weird to ride one of these big events with a huge trunk filled with my own treats, but seriously, you never know what's going to be provided or if they are going to run out. This way, we were covered.
Oh, they also turned on the sprinkler system while we were waiting at the restrooms, and we got splashed. I did not mind in the least, and it was a theme through out the day and the next. We cyclist was a very popular look.
The stretch of road to Roy went faster than I remembered, and there was no Wilcox Dairy handing out chocolate milk this year. We bypassed it and then passed McKenna, and went straight onto the lovely indoor Yelm comfort stop.
The trail after Yelm was less happy making than I remembered from last year. The downhill was still wonderful, but for some reason, I remembered that there had been a lot more shade. It was getting really hot by then--upper 80s I guess--and we found several places just to pull over in the shade and have a quick electrolyte shot blok and something to drink.
At the end of the trail, Tenino rest area is pretty much a large ball field with woods on one side, which is where everyone parked to hang out in the shade. They also had ice cold water, which tasted fabulous, even through we only sipped at it in fear that too much too quickly might bring on stomach cramps. It didn't, and it was just perfect for that particular moment.
The road out of the park had recently been repaved with chip seal, which meant we got to ride over a bumpy road that smelled strongly of tar for the next six miles. At one point, Sandy had pulled off in some shade--She was riding faster than I was, and so I always met up with her in some shady spot on the roadway--and when I joined her and B, I left my bike at the very edge of the road rather than pull it off into the gravel. B said I should get it off the road, and I can remember thinking 'but it's not in the road, it's at the edge', yet apparently, I never said a work, I just stared at her like English no longer made sense. Sandy pulled my bike into the gravel, and B handed me the last of the cool water, and I had a couple more shot bloks; within a couple of minutes, I was fine, and able to communicate once again.
Just, you know, heat freaky. I really don't handle it well.
Fortunately, we were very close to Centralia by then, and rolled into the mid-point at about 5:30; I finally got my mid-point orange creamcicle, yay! Sandy and I flopped into the shade of a tree and lay back, wolfing down our prize, and then I called Lar to pick us up for the trip to the motel. We had a little confusion for a meetup point--at one point, Sandy, B and I are sitting in the shade on this little hill front of someone's house, when we hear "hey, hey! You want a fruit bar?" The lady who owned the place brought out a frozen fruit bar for each of us, which was sweet of her, though only Sandy accepted as I had just had the ice cream and wasn't yet ready for more--but we made it eventually. Lar's mom had sent some cranberry muffins fresh from the oven with him, so we snarfed those and chocolate soy milk on the way to the hotel.
By the time we showered, it was 7pm already, so we headed to the closest restaurant, had dinner, did whatever prep we needed for the next day, and crashed for the night.
Elevation: 3000 ft?
Where: STP Route
Start Time: 6:15, 6:30
End Time: 5:30, 1:30 in the afternoon
How long: appx 19 hours
On bike time: Forgot to get this before the trip home, which added time and miles to the counter
Total Calories: 9000? more or less
As you can see, I didn't finish the full ride this year. I managed day one pretty well, even with the 90F/32C heat. The second day it got up to 95F/35C and after crossing the bridge into Oregon and going over one of the last really steep hills, I found some shade at the Gobel rest stop and decided that I just could not deal with the heat.
shereld and B went on to finish the ride, while I opted out for a milkshake and a burger and a cool ride back to the motel, courtesy of my wonderful husband. One day of riding in the heat I could handle, but two days was just too much for me. Don't feel bad for me, though! I was really pleased to finish nearly 160 miles of the route on such hot days. I've never done well in heat, and it really was the better choice for me to opt out. I didn't want to push myself and end up with heat exhaustion or worse; I'd already come pretty close to that when I did the Tour de Cure this year, and I didn't want a repeat.
Taking out the heat factor and looking back, I did enjoy myself. (I did whine a lot more, but I'm laying that at the heat factor too. If only it have been the average 75F/24C! That would have been just perfect.) On the first day, we took an alternate route to the first rest stop, and I was able to count 9 rabbits hanging out by the roadside along the way. We kept startling them as we threaded through parks, trails and little used roads during the wee morning hours; We didn't catch site of any other STP riders until we hit Tukwilla. We saw six other riders during that first section of the ride, which was a wonderful thing. When we turned off the Interurban trail in Kent at 228th to join up with the rest of the riders, we picked up another few thousand people, and we didn't get rid of them until near the end of the trip. I didn't clip in much at all because of how unpredictable the crowds are; I just didn't trust the people around me to behave responsibly.
The first rest area is pretty fun, even though it is a zoo. The theme this year was Vegas, and they had a Los Vegas Elvis helping to direct traffic. Plus the speakers are blaring good music, people are happy and excited, and everyone is milling around just waiting to go.
The big problem this year--and this was a continuing theme--was the huge line for the portapotties. It took us a half hour to get through the portapotty line, and that was pretty consistent for the entire trip at almost every official rest stop or mini-rest stop we were at. (The two exceptions are the Yelm rest stop and Castle Rock, both of which we managed to be in and out of in about 15 minutes. Well, okay, we spent longer at Yelm because they had flush toilets and let us inside the air conditioned school, which at that point was our definition of heaven...)
I did notice that in general, we had more groups than individual riders, compared to what I experienced last year. Lots of matching shirts, cycling club groups, etc. Last year, I could pretty much find a group of stragglers going my speed when I was tired and latch on for a bit; this year, not so much, and I ended up riding alone between large groups that had just passed me and groups that hadn't passed me yet. ;) As I got more tired, it was almost befuddling, and I wondered if maybe that was part of the reason the ride filled up so early, as groups signed up en-mass, rather than the onesie, twosie, threesie from last year.
Seriously, the things you think about on long stretches when you're trying to avoid dwelling on hot you are...Sandy at least kept me entertained at times with ideas for stories that she wanted me to write. I mostly grunted my replies, as I really didn't have the brain cells to plot a darn thing, but the visuals were nice.
Anyway, after Kent we headed to Puyallup, which seemed like a nicer stretch of road this year than last. Maybe there was less construction? I did miss not having the guy with the dog trailer pass me, as I loved keeping an eye out for his last year. This year, I kept an eye out for the guys in viking horns where one of the guys had a super-huge bike, or this other set of riders where the guys had picked up old 1960s house dresses at a thrift store and wore them over their bike shorts. I thought that was hysterical.
The unicyclist though, man, he was really hard core.
We bypassed the portapotties in Puyallup, and managed to find a grocery store where the lube, oil, and filter place next to it had opened up one of their rest rooms to passing cyclists. That was awesome, and very well timed, as we had less than a mile before the hill at that point.
The hill was the hill, 7%-8% grade, with a false top that lets you rest for a bit before the final push up to the top. It's not the only 7% grade hill on the route, but it is the longest one, and it deserves its press.
The Spanaway rest stop was better organized and had better food, not that we ate it. Mostly it was just pee, sunscreen, and grab some of what we brought to eat out of our bags. It may seem weird to ride one of these big events with a huge trunk filled with my own treats, but seriously, you never know what's going to be provided or if they are going to run out. This way, we were covered.
Oh, they also turned on the sprinkler system while we were waiting at the restrooms, and we got splashed. I did not mind in the least, and it was a theme through out the day and the next. We cyclist was a very popular look.
The stretch of road to Roy went faster than I remembered, and there was no Wilcox Dairy handing out chocolate milk this year. We bypassed it and then passed McKenna, and went straight onto the lovely indoor Yelm comfort stop.
The trail after Yelm was less happy making than I remembered from last year. The downhill was still wonderful, but for some reason, I remembered that there had been a lot more shade. It was getting really hot by then--upper 80s I guess--and we found several places just to pull over in the shade and have a quick electrolyte shot blok and something to drink.
At the end of the trail, Tenino rest area is pretty much a large ball field with woods on one side, which is where everyone parked to hang out in the shade. They also had ice cold water, which tasted fabulous, even through we only sipped at it in fear that too much too quickly might bring on stomach cramps. It didn't, and it was just perfect for that particular moment.
The road out of the park had recently been repaved with chip seal, which meant we got to ride over a bumpy road that smelled strongly of tar for the next six miles. At one point, Sandy had pulled off in some shade--She was riding faster than I was, and so I always met up with her in some shady spot on the roadway--and when I joined her and B, I left my bike at the very edge of the road rather than pull it off into the gravel. B said I should get it off the road, and I can remember thinking 'but it's not in the road, it's at the edge', yet apparently, I never said a work, I just stared at her like English no longer made sense. Sandy pulled my bike into the gravel, and B handed me the last of the cool water, and I had a couple more shot bloks; within a couple of minutes, I was fine, and able to communicate once again.
Just, you know, heat freaky. I really don't handle it well.
Fortunately, we were very close to Centralia by then, and rolled into the mid-point at about 5:30; I finally got my mid-point orange creamcicle, yay! Sandy and I flopped into the shade of a tree and lay back, wolfing down our prize, and then I called Lar to pick us up for the trip to the motel. We had a little confusion for a meetup point--at one point, Sandy, B and I are sitting in the shade on this little hill front of someone's house, when we hear "hey, hey! You want a fruit bar?" The lady who owned the place brought out a frozen fruit bar for each of us, which was sweet of her, though only Sandy accepted as I had just had the ice cream and wasn't yet ready for more--but we made it eventually. Lar's mom had sent some cranberry muffins fresh from the oven with him, so we snarfed those and chocolate soy milk on the way to the hotel.
By the time we showered, it was 7pm already, so we headed to the closest restaurant, had dinner, did whatever prep we needed for the next day, and crashed for the night.
