Larry at the half-way point in Centralia (100 miles). Apparently I'm the #1 Support Vehicle!
Feeling fine at the finish. Next year I told Larry he needs to wear a yellow thong to go with his banana (hammock) jersey.
I'm too tired to post, but am feeling blogger guilt for not posting for almost 4 days. We woke up at 1:45 am on Saturday morning and was officially on the road by 3:00 for Seattle. The men were suited up and on the road by 5:15.
Larry was the only 1-day veteran (his 11th), with Dave the only other with experience of riding 200+ miles (he did STP last year in 2 days).
Joe was the oldest at 51, and he completed his longest ride ever and did it 30 minutes better than his goal time (he wanted to finish under12 hours and finished in 11h 34m).
Larry finished in 10h43m, almost a personal best time (that's averaging about 22 miles an hour by the way).
Dave P was first to finish, and he said next year he'd like to try to do it without rest stops. He's a sick-o. But I was always happy to see him, he was the first to show up to ease my boredom of waiting for the crew to show up to each rest stop.
Scott was 3rd to finish, and his longest bike ride ever prior to this was 80 miles. He seemed pretty uncertain at the 100 mile mark, but recovered and finished well. Dave H and his two friends Mischa and Damond were having an excellent ride until they entered Portland and crossed wheels, promptly breaking 3 spokes out of Mischa's wheel. They were on bridges at that point so I couldn't backtrack to them to give them a new wheel, so they had to walk the last several miles (in bike cleats). They were wiped out but happy to have finished. I teased them that STP is not a Duathalon.
I met up with my college friend Shu in Longview, we had a brief but nice visit. Sometimes it's nice just to check-in face to face with each other. But inevitably, immature behavior arises when two girls are surrounded by 3,000 hot, sweaty men.
The ride home is when things fell apart. It was 10:30 by the time we got out of Portland and found some dinner (men that have been up for 18 hours and rode 202.5 miles tend to get a little punchy without food) thanks to OR DOT deciding to take I-5 down to ONE LANE. With full bellies for the men and me with 2 cups of coffee and 2 glasses of iced tea in me, the men settled in and started snoring (as well as a much-appreciated "Stop!Stop!Stop!" from Joe in his sleep. Nothing shakes up a van full of sleeping people more than that!)
At this time I'd like to apologize to my passengers for my midnight karaoke and also thank the following artists for helping me get my crew home safe and sound (at 4:30 am, yes 26 hours after we left): Michael Jackson, The Beach Boys, 10,000 Maniacs, Sly and the Family Stone, and my old school rap compilation.
I also need to thank Tracy for helping with the kids (even though you gave Larry a panic attack), I hope they were well behaved for you. And thank you and I'm sorry to my mom for taking the kids for 2nd half of the day plus 8 hours of unexpected delay. I feel so bad, we thought we'd be home at 9-10, then come home 8 hours late?! I think I might be grounded, I feel like I was abusing my mother by rolling in so late, but at 4:30 am I wasn't equipped to offer a proper apology and I don't think she would have been equipped to accept it. So... I'm sorry mom, I really, really appreciate it and I won't ask you to stay up until 4:30 watching my children again... until you're retired. Which is in like 17 days. I think a 2 week restriction is reasonable, no? I promise to reign in my curfew in the future too. Love you!
