A couple weekends ago, Brent and I went on an adventure with a couple of our friends. We took off and headed to Seattle to ride our bikes down to Portland. I was a little worried about how it would go because I had not had as many successful training rides as I wanted to have. We started the ride early in the morning on Saturday as we left the start line 1 minute before the cut off. Brent’s brother met up there and we all took off together. It was warming up outside and the view was amazing as we rode around Lake Washington. The first several miles went really well. We stopped at the first food stop and my legs felt great. We were about 25 miles or so into the ride and I knew that I could do it. I was finally getting into a riding rhythm. This was something I had not found during training. It felt great to finally get the riding thing down! I was ecstatic about continuing on the journey.
We went on our way towards the lunch stop where we encountered the “hill”. I powered up easier than I had done in training as well. The lower elevation was helping a ton. I was even able to pass people, not that it was a race. It just felt good to be doing better than I had ever expected. We also enjoyed a very nice downhill section where a guy rode off the side of the road for no apparent reason. Brent was a little ways in front of him and I was a bit behind the guy. He looked back and I think lost his balance a little and the next thing I new he flew off the road into the trees and bushes below. It freaked me out, but I was able to stop and others behind us managed to make sure he was okay before I was. He was fine, so I moved on. People need to be careful! Luckily, this was the only wreck I saw!
After the lunch break, we headed out to make it through the rest of the ride for the day. We hit a really nice section that was a Rails to Trails. We cruised down the path making really good time. I was still feeling great as we were approaching the last section of the ride. We stopped for a little bit of refuel about 10 miles or so way from the finish. Here we met up with our friends for a moment and then all parted ways until the finish line of day one. Brent and I headed out and I took the lead. When I knew that we were close to 5 miles left, I kicked it up a notch and pounded out the miles. It was so great when I saw the finish line! I completed my first century ride! It took about 7.5 hours of total time and about 6.5 hours of ride time!
The rest of the evening we spent putting up our tents, showering, eating food!!!, drinking water and electrolytes and relaxing. It was a great time just hanging out and chilling. We walked around a bit to help loosen up our legs since we had another long day ahead of us. Brent and I woke up early in the morning and found our way to the pancake breakfast. I was not very hungry, but I knew that I needed the carbs. I forced myself to eat as much as I could. We then headed back and packed up the tent. We were already to go and said goodbye to our friends. I wanted to get going because I knew I would be slower than the guys. We ended up heading out about 20 minutes before they left.
It was a very chilly morning. It took a long while before I was warm. You definitely do not warm up as quickly on a bike as you do running! This morning was a little more difficult than the first. The rolling hills were bigger and more frequent. We were still going at a great pace! There was a great view of Mount St. Helens while we were riding on the back roads around farms. It made for a great ride! We made it to the first be stop where by chance I happen to look out among the crowd and spotted our two friends. We all enjoyed lunch together and then rode into Oregon together. We were over half way done for the day and were ahead of schedule! I was riding even faster than the day before!
We were shuttled across the bridge into Oregon where we just went up the hill slowly due to all of the bikes around us. This made it a little difficult to get into a good rhythm. We finally got past everyone and our friends split off. I just couldn’t keep up on the hills. I took lead for a while with Brent as we climbed a not too steep but a steady incline that I wanted to end. I just kept going and had a great time. We were a few miles from St. Helens, OR when a lady rode up next to me. She said, “You’ve been pulling for a long time, let me lead for a while.” I was astonished because I only looked far enough behind me to make sure traffic wasn’t next to me when I passed or another cyclist. I never thought I could lead a pack or that people would follow me because I was doing well! This made me excited. My riding was improving my jumps and bounds! I came into STP wanting to not lead if at all possible.
We briefly saw our friends at this stop. Then we replenished our drinks and grabbed some fruit. As we were walking out, we ran into Brent’s brother! This was great because he left after our friends and none of us had seen him yet. We were able to spend most of the rest of the ride with him. As we rode together, the temperature was rising and my body was feeling the affects. I got really close to hitting my first wall in an event. I have yet to in a marathon and I almost did here. Luckily, I caught it soon enough and forced myself to down a jell and drink. We took a quick break on the side of the road. I got back on and slowly started to feel a ton better. We hit the St. Johns Bridge where Brent’s brother split off because he needed to get his car that was parked in downtown Portland.
We continued up the bridge to make our way into town. The last 5 miles seemed to take forever as we hit almost every stoplight. My legs were starting to shake and I was ready to just be done. We continued to hydrate as our liquids were running low. Good thing we were almost there! We made it into a very familiar part of town as some of the roads were the same as the Portland Marathon that we ran back in 2011. Everything became more and more familiar as we rode in closer to the Lloyd Center. We made it to the stop right in front of the finish line. They stopped us to allow people to cross the street. We were only about 20 feet or so from the finish line. It was so hard to be stopped there.
We rode into the finish shoot and saw both sets of the parents. It was so great to have had them at the finish line. I was exhausted but very excited to see family. Our friends made it in about 30 minutes before us. Day 2 ended up being about a 6.5 hour day with about 5.5 hours of ride time! It was a great day! I was very pleased with how well I did for my first 2 century rides! Especially with my longest ride prior being only 35 miles. I can’t wait to do more riding and see how it turns out!
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