# STP one day...



## banosser (Sep 22, 2011)

So my wife and I along with about 1500 other riders completed the 203.5 mile Seattle to Portland ride in a single day... our first double centuries...

We breakfasted on sausage egg mcmuffins on the drive down, and polished off a few pieces of cheesecake in the parking lot.. started at 4:45a... looked for a paceline cruising in the 20mph range, but everyone was either 17- or 22+.. So we had to make due with the views of Mt Rainier as we rode making our way around the slower riders and giving room to the faster.. Around the 70 mi mark my wife slowed significantly... she had been drinking but she uses a small bottle and was getting dehydrated.. tho she didn't initially share the nausea and leg cramping with me.. so finally at the 85 mi mark we stopped and began to re-hydrate her.. spent a good hour pushing fluids before we pushed on.. by mile 100 she was perking up (choc milk and ibuprofen will do that).. by 118 at Winlock (our fallback layover site) she was good to go... and we had arrived 6 min before our cutoff time to continue.. So we made a good steady pace but did not overly push it... Mt Adams, St Helens and Hood led us in to Portland... we arrived a bit after 9.. a far cry from the strong groups who finished up to 6 hrs sooner.. but we made it just the same. 



Weather thankfully was perfect.. mid 70s and a slight breeze to help push us... Next time I will just mount 2 bottle cages on her bike instead of asking...


----------



## smcnees (Aug 5, 2008)

I read somewhere that ~2700 completed it in 1 day. That tailwind from Rainier to Portland was glorious. Stoplight to stoplight through Portland....not so much. Congrats to her for soldiering through.


----------



## banosser (Sep 22, 2011)

Yeah.. I was pretty proud of her.. especially since she didn't have adequate time to train since injuring her tailbone this last winter.. at least she had been running.. and had _some_ time on the trainer.. She looked like hell at mile 85..

Your number of one day riders is probably correct.. I had looked for the number before my post, but could only find '15%' mentioned a few places, but nothing official... Last year the number of one day riders far exceeded their expectations.. that I remember for sure as they ran out of patches to hand out.. 27% is a pretty impressive number.. albeit is a purely recreational ride..


----------



## AllanB (Feb 5, 2013)

Congrats to both of you!!! I also one day STP. My first STP. Rode very defensively after seeing 3 crashes on the Tenino McKenna Highway. Made it up "the Hill" in Puyallup...but the two hills after (Napavine and Vader) got me to walk that final 50 yards of both. I basically got off for fear of not unclipping causing a fall which may take out riders behind me. I'm okay with it. The walks actually got me to use different muscles. I was reminded of walking backwards the Haight Street Hill during the San Francisco Marathon (running). I was laboring after crossing the St. Johns Bridge. Lot of folks were complaining about the red lights in the city...but...I was actually hitting them perfectly. Yes..i was going that slow.  The weather was perfect especially coming from the heat and humidity in Va Beach. It was my first encounter with hills since there are none in Va Beach. My main lesson was to learn how to eat real food. I was on the saddle for 14 hours. Burned 14,000 calories. I did have a spaghetti dinner for lunch in Centralia...but...had to get a quarter pounder in St. Helens to fuel my last 20 miles. A great day. An even greater ride. The event was well-organized with 10,000 riders. If you are looking for a point-to-point double century, the STP is #1.


----------

