blog slacking and general angst

Hi.

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with this thing. I’ve been out of sorts and funky since returning from Portland. I think it’s the let-down after the event. I worked so hard for so long, and now it’s over, and I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. I do a bit better with each passing day, and I think that much of this is a direct result of the intense physical effort of the two day ride. It just plain wore me out! I have finally edited my photos from the event itself. They’re not that interesting, because I didn’t take any while I was actually riding, nor did I stop at any scenic spots. With 9000 other cyclists on the route, not to mention cars and other distractions, I didn’t really have the nerve to pull over and stop. It was a bit crowded! But here are a few.

From Friday’s "shakedown" ride, around Seattle with the team:

From the first day:

This was the first free food stop, sponsored by REI. They had free Odwalla yogurt smoothies and Clif bars! And about a bazillion cyclists trying to enter and exit at the same time. Can you say mass chaos? It was quite entertaining to watch the carnage, the slow collisions, the poor, clipped-in riders falling over in slow-motion. . .And they had the LONGEST line of port-a-pots I have ever seen. This is the most horrible thing, but in the Northwest, the company that provides these facilities is called "Honey-Buckets." Isn’t that awful?

Darryl, Coach Rick, and Jillian, at the REI stop.

The line for water refills at the second main stop, sponsored by Whole Foods. We had lunch here, lined up at the Honey Buckets, and stayed way too long, almost an hour. It was nearly impossible to leave any earlier though, because we had to wait in line for everything. Unfortunately, we had cooled down too much, so starting back up was difficult, and I just wanted to lay down and read instead!

The 100 mile mark on the first day was in Centralia, where most cyclists were staying for the night. They gave us free Creamsicles! It was the best popsicle I’ve ever had, or am likely to ever have. We still had 13 more miles to go at this point, because the church we were staying at was further down the route. Those last 13 miles were absolute misery, and the longest ride I’ve ever had. It put us ahead for Sunday’s ride, but while I was pedalling away, I really, really wished we had stayed in Centralia! The church was awesome though! They had showers, the BEST FOOD EVER, and really nice people. Our team all crashed on the floor of a Sunday school room with a ginormous mural of Jesus on the wall. It was most comforting, even if he was a rather ugly Jesus. I slept surprisingly well, considering I was sleeping on the floor, but I guess riding 113 miles will make you tired.

Day two:

This is the REAL reason I rode the STP Classic: the world’s largest wooden egg. No kidding! There it is, in all its splendor! I had to pose with it:

I started to really hurt after this point. My right knee was in agony. If I coasted and then started pedalling again, it hurt. If I was riding in a too-easy gear and bouncing a bit, it hurt. If I had to start out in a hard gear, it hurt. In short, it hurt. I called Heidi and whined, and she told me to buck up. I called Chad and whined and he told me to buck up. Meanies! But I listened to them, popped four aspirin, and bucked up. FORTY MILES LATER, it stopped hurting. But those were some long, painful miles! It helped to think of the dead when I was in pain, of my Mum when she was in the worst part of her chemo, of my Grandma, when the drugs addled her mind and made her hallucinate. This gave me the strength to just push past all the pain and keep going.  When I was merely tired and worn out, it helped most to think of the living, all of you who were praying for me. I could feel it!

Here I am at the last stop before the end, at St. Helen’s. My knee miraculously stopped hurting altogether at this point, and we only had 30 miles left! Before we started riding, I was worried that it would be the worst part of the ride, but strangely enough, when we got back on the bikes, I felt stronger than I had the entire ride! Those last 30 miles were the best! And I can’t even tell you how emotional and happy and teary I got as we neared the finish. When I rode down the shoot, between rows of cheering people, that was really something.

After the end: