A Tale of Two Rides
The One and the Two Day STP
The annual Seattle-to-Portland 200-mile Cascade Club Bicycle Ride has grown in popularity over the years. This 200-mile bicycle ride is the largest multi-day bicycle event in the Northwest, with up to 9,000 participants riding from Seattle to Portland in one or two days. The route takes you through the scenic valleys, forests, and farmlands of western Washington and Oregon. Bicycling Magazine has listed the STP as one of the best cycling events in the nation - and it's in my own backyard!
Some stats (from the official STP website, http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/index.cfm):
The ride is offered in one or two day sessions. I have ridden it both ways. My first ride was in 2006 and was done in two days. My second was in 2007 and was done in one day. My son Ryan rode with me both times, and both times we rode with other friends. Both times I made the ride we had a nice tailwind and the weather was warm and dry.
Following is an assessment of the one and two day rides.
Two day Ride
Day one:
Seattle to Centralia, 100 miles.
Start at the UW at 7am.
Set off on a brisk, leisurely pace.
First stop is in Kent. Enjoy food (you paid for it by admission) and drink, have a rest, chat, enjoy the weather. After 20 minutes, hit the road.
Ride to Puyallup and to another major rest stop at mile 50. Again, more food, more rest, more drink. After 30 minutes, hit the road.
Enjoy some pace lines and really stretch out a bit. Go fast and enjoy the early afternoon sun.
Another major stop at mile 80-ish. Get some more food and drink. Lay around for 45 minutes. Enjoy the camaraderie of other cyclists. There's even music playing at the rest areas, all contributing to the enjoyment of the day.
Wheel into Centralia amidst the fanfare of the overnight stopping site. It's the mid-afternoon and time to park the bike, fellowship, enjoy the sun, get plenty to eat, and lounge around.
Get a nap on the lawn before eating some more. Why not? It's warm and you're done for the day and it will be light out for another five hours! Chat with friends and new friends and kick back. Life is good!
Day two:
Centralia to Portland, almost 104 miles.
Get a light snack-breakfast and set off around 8am for the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the VFW 20 miles down the road. Eggs, ham, pancakes - all for $5 a person. Hot food, really good!
Join another pace line and stretch out some more. Do some sprints for a bit, pass up the slow pokes (they are all along the route) and feel like a big shot racer!
Enjoy a couple more major stops. Tank up with free food and beverage. Rest a bit. Take 30 minutes at each site, or more. The sun is warm and the day is nice.
Enter the City of Roses around 4pm. Crowds are cheering. What a fun ride! This is easy, you say, and maybe next year I'll do it in one day rather than two!
Ride back to Seattle on the bus, get to work the next day feeling fine. No aches or pains. No mishaps along the route. 200 miles isn't that bad at all!
The One Day Ride
Start at 4:45am. It's still dark out!
Get on your horse and fly. Race along at 20 mph.
Fly past the Kent stop. Don't even stop. Can't even smell the food and barely can hear any music playing...
Run hard, still at better than a 20 mph average, all the way to the 50 mile stopping point.
Eat a banana and three fig newtons. Quick bathroom break and then back on your bike. Total rest time - maybe 8 minutes.
The wagonmaster says this is where we will be splitting up into the fast group and the slower group. He's right.
Foolishly I stay with the fast group until mile 66. Then I have to climb a hill and the flyers are gone and I'm not doing all that well.
Ride past another free food stop without stopping. Gotta keep pushing. Pain is weakness leaving the body, as the US Marines would say!
At the 70 mile mark the flyers of my group are now well gone, and I'm out of energy. Eat a dry energy bar and by mile 75 recover enough to get back into double-digit speed.
At mile 95 my feet start hurting, especially my next-to-little toes on both feet. This is a first on a bike trip for me. I seriously consider cutting holes in my shoes at the toes.
At mile 100 we ride into and out of Centralia, missing all the fanfare because we have to keep going. We leave all the food and drink behind.
On the other side of the freeway my motorhome is waiting, like an oasis in the desert. I gobble food and drink, take off my shoes and socks and apply salve to my aching feet. It's barely 10:30am and we're only half way there.
The flyers came and left before we got there. We won't see them again until we get to Portland.
The plan is to now stop every 25 miles. The flyers, we learned, stopped for only 3 minutes at each place. The slow group stops for 15-20 minutes, more if you're the first in and the others are catching up.
At each stop my feet are killing me. I learn later this is from the constant pushing on the pedals and the swelling of the feet that occurs on long, hot rides.
At mile 180 I fall of my bike at a stop. I can't get the clip off the pedal and over I go. Of course this bends the back wheel so I try to get it straight with a spoke wrench, but I'm only partially successful.
Half a block later I fall over again. This is getting old...
We finally get to Portland and all is good in the world again. No sore feet. No hunger. Lots of energy. Ryan and I plan to ride side-by-side through the finish line.
Pow! A mere half mile from the finish line, after riding 203.2 miles, my rear tire explodes. The side wall ruptures and tears a 2-inch gash on the sidewall. Wonderful! It sounded like a bomb went off. Of course, when I tried to dismount my cleat stuck again and for the third time I fell over on the bike.
30 minutes later I had the bike "fixed." The air pressure was probably 40 psi, just enough to get me to the finish line before the sidewall might come apart again. The blast actually dislodged the spring from the brake. I don't notice this until I have the wheel on, and I have to take the wheel off to fix the brakes and then remount the remounted wheel. Bother.
Just after 8pm we cross the finish line! More cheering and fanfare!
The flyer group arrived at 5pm. The slower guys first came across at 7:30pm. Ryan and I, thanks to the blowouts and tumbles, came across at 8pm. The last of our team crossed by 9:30pm, just as it was starting to get dusky.
So for the "glory" of doing the STP in one day, I had to...
Get up at 3am
Bypass all of the free food.
Learn what foot pain is really all about.
Sweat like a pig.
Get a numb palm and forefinger due to prolonged pressure.
Have sore legs.
Fall off the bike three times.
Miss the VFW breakfast, one of the greatest disappointments of the entire event.
Get passed continuously and unmercifully (the two day event I was passing everyone; on the one day event the flyers come out and they all pass you, including probably 10 girls!).
Bonk out at mile 70 (I never did this on the two-day event).
Ride alone when the hills kept me from keeping up with the group (this didn't happen on the two day event).
Next year...
It looks like more of the family (Leslie and some of the kids) may want to ride too, so I will have to do the two-day event. Fine by me!
Lessons Learned
A quarter of the STP riders do the event in one day.
The fast ones do it in one day.
The leisurely ones do it in two days.
Two days is pleasure, it's fun.
One day is work, it's a test of endurance. It's all business.
Two days is a better bargain - you get to eat the food you paid for.
Your ego gets a boost for doing it in one day, but it also gets clobbered because you are constantly getting passed - even by girls.
Either the one or two day ride is a darn good exercise session!
Have good equipment, good gear, and a good support team (Leslie in the motorhome is the best!); next year I'll have a carbon fiber bike with fast wheels.
In order of difficulty, I'd rate the one-day STP at level 5 (severe), the Chilly Hilly ride as a 4 (difficult), the 80-mile Snoqualmie Pass training ride a 3 (uncomfortable), and the two-day STP as a 2.5 (not hard or strenuous, lots of rest and fun - just long) and my 26-mile Sammamish River Trail ride as a 1 (good exercise). Canasta would rate a -3.
If possible one should participate in the STP. It is a classic ride and is meant to be enjoyed. Two day event is plenty satisfactory unless you're a bean-pole, 2% body-fat, well-conditioned athlete then go for the one-day. The one day is a challenge, the two day is an event that you can make of what you want (push it at times, ease off when you want).
Bob Jordan
July, 2007