STP 2008

I miss Gerald already. And it's only been 1 week since our first major bonding experience, 206 miles from Seattle to Portland.

Here are Gerald, Crash, and Chugg fresh at the start at UW. Pre-race regimen? Stella Artois, Delfino's stuffed sausage pizza for carbo load, then eggs, bacon, and dry rye oh my for breakfast.

The first part was pretty congested and full of jittery riders like myself, but at least familiar, the Lake Washington Loop. It was wild being among so many cyclists packed together. Bikes seemed to take up an entire lane the first 25 miles or so, and said "on your left" more times than in my entire life total. This is what 9500 cyclists waiting to pee when there are only 6 porta potties looks like:

After all the hype, Puyallup Hill was not so bad after the butt-kicking I experienced in Everett on a 78 mile training ride the week prior with Crash, Chugg, and Furnace. Or perhaps it was the 27-cog rear cassette I conveniently had installed 2 days before the event. It was hot, sunny, and there were many traffic lights/ bumpy terrain the first day, and stops in the shade were welcome (photo from day #2). I forgot sunblock and got a nice farmer tan and raccoon face, but it's all street cred, right? Proud to wear the Team Parkinson's jersey.

After the first 109 miles, the best creamsicles in the universe, but no beer garden (denied!):

It was not enough to prevent the bonk on the hill up to Michael's sisterinlaw's house where we had the best hamburgers and potato salad in the universe. Note to self: potato salad is not a good pre-race AM meal. Still the R&R and early start must have had something to do with day #2 being much easier (GI issues aside), beautiful rolling hills and scenery, much less crowded, you could go on forever.

Then 4 miles from the end (though we had been hearing "4 more miles" for about an hour), a carpet tack in Chugg's front wheel. Then the patch blew. But we were only 4 miles from the famed Portland Beer Garden, where we had the best beer in the universe.

Crash and Chugg talked about doing STP in 1 day next year. Next stop for Gerald is the Danskin Tri in 3 weeks.
It is looking like Sept 5 may be the only weekend free for the Central District Triathlon. It may be enough time to get key sponsors like "Beef" and "Vodka" on board for our team jerseys