There was once a time, a long time ago, long before the Renault Fuego was considered a stylish and sporty import, around the time when people would stand in line to use a payphone, during an age where one would hold up a cassette tape recorder up to the TV during Soul Train to record songs for mix tapes (“QUIET!! Can’t you see I’m recording here?!”), when I was a young lad, and I could hop onto a bike and pedal away. Of course back then I was on my imitation Schwinn Stingray from Sears, and wore bell-bottom jeans and striped T-Shirts, even though bell bottoms and stripes where no longer cool..they just happened to be the fashions that were handed down to me from other families, but enough kids were still wearing them that I didn’t look too dorky. If any of this sounds familiar to you, then you know that this was a while ago.

Biking was a care-free proposition then. Later, I grew older and got a real bike. And by “real” I mean an assemblage of surplus parts, Suntour, Modolo, Dia Compe, bolted onto an old, and apparently-abandoned Schwinn frame that someone found in a basement. My franken-bike might’ve been ugly, but I could ride it fast, and far. I rode for miles, without “nutrition” or training.  Riding was my training. Up hills. Through headwinds. Didn’t matter. Nothing stopped us. Felt as strong as Lance on an EPO binge. I loved biking. It was exhilarating, and most of all, effortless.

Fast forward to 2003. Jane is very pregnant with our first child, and I’m employed as an Oompa Loompa at a large company. And while on paper the pay is good, in reality the company is definitely getting their money’s worth out of me. One thing for sure is that I haven’t been biking in a while. Somewhere along the way I had to buy all new pants, because I could no longer close the buttons around my waist. Around this time I decided that I’m going to have to do something about this, or else I may go broke having to buy bigger and bigger pants every year.  And thus began my odyssey to get back into shape. What took Sylvester Stallone a mere 15 minutes of plot time in “Rocky III” getting ready for his bout with Mr. T, took me about 10 years.

And, ok, let’s be honest here: I really haven’t made it back to where I used to be. Yes, I can fit into some of my old pants again. But as Jane calls it, my “muffin top” doesn’t look good (by the way, I can NEVER say that to her). I’m slower. Hills require excessive levels of exertion. My lungs burn, alveoli clawing for Oxygen. Breathing is so intense that I can taste blood. My heart sprints for dear life, like a baby gazelle chased by a hungry cheetah. My legs push as hard as they can, but I progress as if pulling a cable car up Nob Hill. Sweat drizzles down from my head, while white cakes of dried salt stain my helmet straps. This is what biking is like for me now. So naturally one asks “why, then, do you do this?” I don’t have a great answer: I do it because I love to bike.

This year was like recent years, with weekend sessions down to the Black Diamond Bakery, to Snoqualmie Falls, or laps around Lake Washington, except that I never really felt strong on any ride. I especially felt discouraged on the Mt. St. Helens ride, where I completely broke down, unable to keep pace with the others. I remembered a Greg LeMond interview where he described his return to racing after a couple years away, and how he couldn’t even make it up some of the climbs that he used to dominate, felt psychologically and emotionally broken, discouraged, and considered retiring right there on the spot. It was later during the same season where he went to win the Tour de France for the 2nd time.

Like most others, I trained to ride the STP in 2 days. What I especially like about the 2 day ride is the casual pace, the banana bread, cookies, and brownies. Unfortunately this didn’t happen. With 2 weeks to go, Doug gave me a phone call (not from a pay phone): “Hey, Eddie. Would you want to join William and me to attempt a 1-day ride? We’ll give it 12 hours. Wherever we are at that point, we’ll see whether we can finish. What do you say?”

Well, the rest is history. Doug, William and I started off at 5am sharp, and rolled into Centralia around 10am. We would’ve arrived sooner were it not for a mis-communication at Puyallup hill. William and I thought we were going to all regroup at the top, while Doug continued on. We spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure out where each other were. We celebrated Centralia with noodles and peanut butter sandwiches (MANY MANY thanks to Lori, Esther, and Daniel!). More delays were caused by a derailleur adjustment I needed, and also by the 15-minute bathroom line, which I stood in because William didn’t want me to be “one of those people” who go in the bushes.

The 2nd 100 miles were tougher. I found that I could maintain a consistent 17.5mph pace, whether I was plowing through headwind, or drafting behind a group. William was very frustrated by this, since I would go long stretches without drafting, and burning more energy than needed. Truth is, I prefer to draft, and agree that it’s much easier. However, to draft meant I had to accelerate to catch up to a group to draft, and acceleration simply wasn’t in the cards. On top of that, whenever I did manage to find a group to draft, they’d speed up, then slow down, then speed up again, and I found that even more exhausting.

I spent a number of miles spinning at 17.5, head down, pushing against the wind, watching the asphalt roll by. I tried not to look at the odometer. Just keep spinning. Drink. Eat. Spin. Then, we made it to St. Helens, the 12 hour mark. Actually it was 13, but at this point I there was no question in my mind. With only 30 miles to go I was going to complete the ride. The next 20 were tough. I was tired and wanted to finish. My back, shoulders, wrists, all very sore. Finally, we hit the last big hill climb up to the St John’s bridge over the Willamette, where my legs finally gave it up. I managed to maintain 17.5 for the past 100 miles since Centralia, powering over the rollers and short climbs along the way, and now I ran out of gas, crawling my way up the hill, over the bridge, and into Portland by 8pm. We made it. I gave it my all, as it took my all to make it in. Total time 15 hours. Ride time, 12 hours. Glad I did it. Glad it’s done.

To close, I have a few random thoughts:

• I need to tweak my handlebars, rotating them upward 1 or 2 degrees. I felt like I was leaning over too much on my hoods. Fatiguing.
• I want to change out the synthetic tape on by handlebars. I’ve always used cork in the past. The synthetic chafes my skin. Don’t like.
• Want new gloves, with thicker padding.
• Leather Saddle = Happy Backside (this is for Jon Okada)
• Will try chamois butter on my next > century ride. No need for details here. Move along.
• I really like my Vittoria Diamonte Pro tires (220 tpi). Always used Michelins in the past.
• Would like to try aero bars for my next > century ride.
• Proper Nutrition > Conditioning. I’m proof. Take Heather’s workshop. It works.
• William and Doug have proven that with just a couple of short training rides, you too can do the STP in 1 day

This was an event that I had been wanting to do for many years, ever since my first STP. So this year, I finally
decided to do it. Kary had planned everything out, with Gail and Kathryn providing support. Kary even had a customized spreadsheet to figure out the time points and you could enter various speeds. According to the spreadsheet, our projected end-time would be 7:15pm

We started at 4 – as in dark, cold, 4am. We started out this way to avoid burning the matches early. Riding in the dark with headlights slows you down. Naturally, Eric P. rode to the start getting in an extra 12miles. It was kind of neat riding in the dark with the group. I usually just ride solo in the dark on my commutes. Kary lead us all the way down to the first stop near REI; there were very few people there. I took off the Tyvek jacket that you always get for the STP. Kary and Gail brought some onigiri with umeboshi. This stuff is awesome! Food from my childhood and beyond.

We worked our way toward “the Hill” but not before our team hit a tack field. Some thoughtless person decided it would be fun to see cyclists fixing flats. Peng was in front of me and took two tacks. Chao and Kary both got one and Tom nearly got one. I swapped out Peng’s flat since I figured he took my tack. After 10 minutes fixing flats, we got back on course. As we hit the hill, I decided it wasn’t time to burn out so I kept it easy. Kary was at the top first, so in addition to being king of the mountain, he is king of the hill. We got there 15min ahead of schedule despite the flats! Kary picked up another tube, we got more food and we were back on the road. On the way to our next stop, some screeching noises came from Kary’s back wheel. We couldn’t figure out what it was – we thought it was just something that got stuck in the brake so we kept going. I had my own mechanicals; my front derailleur was still out of tune. I had to be very careful so it didn’t flip off the big ring and if it did, I switched gears to the small ring so it flipped back on. I learned this trick from Eddie. If you want to really learn how to ride your bike, ride with Eddie. Unfortunately, one time it flipped off the small ring and you can’t get away from that one – or at least I don’t know how other than to stop and put it back on.

McKenna: normally we take lunch on the two-day, but here it was just another stop. I made my pit stop – and here’s a hint for you if you’re a guy: sit down to take your bio-break. You get to sit on something else other than a saddle. Howard was saying his knee and ankle were hurting a little so he took some ibuprofen. As he was talking about it, my ankle and knee started to hurt too so I took some ibuprofen myself. I tried out one of the humbows that Tom brought. He got it from Duk Li in the ID – they have some good Chinese pastry. If you go there, try their iced tea too. We took our fifteen minute break with seconds to spare and got back on the road. Gail’s timer was relentless, but we were determined to be ahead of schedule.

Tenino: our plan was to stay on the road instead of taking the narrow bike trail and as we got near it, Peng missed a turn. We got back on the route, but then we got fouled up and missed the turn and ended up on the trail. Chao and I hung back a bit, but never too far from the pack. I’m glad there weren’t too many people on the narrow trail unlike the coming two-day riders. We made it out of the trail and hit the restrooms. We waited a few seconds as Eric finished talking about World Bike Relief to another rider. World Bike Relief is what we were riding for this year. Check it out and make a donation! We stopped at Tenino and got some food and ice cold water. Chao and I talked up QM4 – you might want to check it out. I saw Eric Y. sitting down on the ground. I could not do that! If I did, I would not be able to get up. Another hint for you – I took at least 3 Endurolytes every stop, used Nuun for every bottle, and I forced myself to try to finish a bottle just before each stop. No kochin for me!

Centralia: Philip was right behind me as we rolled in. Chao avoided the spray, but I told Philip to follow me through the spray. It felt great! We got our creamsicles – I had to eat mine during a bio-break (ok, don’t read this while you’re eating!) and we got back on the road. We missed a turn going to the Pepermill and Kary had to stop again for a flat. I told Eric P. that I didn’t need the extra miles. What I forgot to say was that I “dialed-in” my legs for only 200 miles. We got to the Peppermill and Kary swapped out his front wheel. At this point, I followed Chao’s old suggestion to take off my shoes. I knew from RAMROD and the High Pass Challenge that my feet start to hurt after about 100 miles and this was it. Craig decided to stop – he was battling gout and he’d done a century. Craig is pretty tough! After we took our break, we got back on the road, minus one of our lead cyclists. We were down to nine.

Vader: Getting to Vader, you have to go through a bit of a climb, but then you get to take a nice downhill. Part way through the downhill, I whizzed past Kary on the side of the road; it looked like he was adjusting his brake. Shortly after, we waited for him and we rode to a gas station where we met up with our support. It turned out that the bearings in Kary’s rear wheel were making those loud noises we heard before. Kary swapped out his rear wheel and used Peng’s spare wheel. I never thought we’d need a full wheel set, but it’s good we had one courtesy of Peng. We got back on the road and our group attacked the climb to Vader. The Vader stop that we use is a shady park spot. I took off my shoes again. There was some chip seal there – it was a great massage for my feet; it was also a very cool spot, out of the hot sun.

Longview: At the timer, I set out from Vader – the group started out a little slow so I was solo for a bit. The group caught up pretty quickly and we rode pretty much without incident to Longview. I again took off my shoes – very comfortable break for my feet. We got back on the road and hit the Longview bridge. Philip was leading and we got stuck behind this guy who was pretty slow going up the bridge. Normally there’s a dedicated lane across the bridge on Sunday, but for the one-day riders, you have to go up the narrow walkway – single file. A tandem and another rider passed early on taking a chance in the car lane. But we stayed behind the slow guy. It was torturous just sitting behind Philip who was sitting behind these two slow guys. It was also kind of scary going down the bridge too, but we had long since learned to space ourselves out on descents. Then we made our way into Longview where some event was happening and we had to stop a few times for people crossing the streets. We then made our way to the nice slightly downhill grade. You can pick up some pretty good speed in this area, cruising along at 20+. We then grinded our way up the slight grade leading to St. Helens.

St. Helens to the finish: I took the normal pit stop at St. Helens, taking my shoe break, and our support team got us some popsicles; pretty good, but a bit sugary for me. A few guys got some cokes from McDonald’s. Eric Y. had wanted coffee earlier but settled for a coke, and not just an ordinary coke, Eric Y. got a cherry coke. We set off for our final destination, but we ended up taking an unplanned break at Scappoose. I filled my water and Philip couldn’t resist laying down on the grass. A few minutes later, we started off – Chao and Tom set a blistering pace at 20; I tried to keep up and here’s where things get a bit foggy. I think they eventually slowed down and I took the lead. I kept up at 19, then dropped to 18, then 17 or so and then I rotated out. I ended up on the rear and started to run out of gas – I drifted back further and I just saw the team get smaller and smaller. I kept up at about 15 or so but all I can say is I was beat. I rode on for a while looking for a World Bike Relief jersey, but found none. Then I saw Eric P. on the side of the road waiting. He asked what happened and all I could say was I was getting tired. He pulled me along for a while and then as we got toward the climb up to St. Johns bridge he rode out of sight. I had to stop at the base of the bridge and eat something – I bonked pretty hard. Fortunately I had the umeboshi onigiri in my back pocket and my handy kochin bottle. I refueled and made my way across the bridge. I finally met up with the group and we made our way through some stop lights. At one, I managed to stuff a peanut butter sandwich in my mouth and grab a few more slugs from the kochin bottle; enough to get me through the bonk and across the finish line at about 6:45pm

Thanks to those who supported our team – rest stop supports, training, planning, and pre-ride carb load: Kary, Gail, Kathryn, Craig, and Eric P.!

PS – Eddie, William, and Doug did the one-day as well. You’ll have to ask them how it went, but I know they finished it!