2014 Seattle to Portland, One Day

211 miles, 5600 feet elevation, 18:15 hours (14:30 hours on the bicycle) 

It was finally time for the event that I focused my training on for the past few months. I last did the Seattle to Portland ride 3 years ago.  That time I rode with my (Seattle-based) friend Unmesh and we chose the two day option, spending the night in a hotel near the midpoint.  This year, our (Portland-based) friend Subhash is joining and we are doing it in one day.  The last time the three of us met was about a year ago, when we all came to Seattle for a triathlon.  Unmesh and Subhash did the Olympic distance version, while I bicycled the sprint distance as a team with Vaishali, who ran, and Prabha (Unmesh's wife), who swam.

Not having done a double century in 6 years, I needed to make sure I was prepared.  My usual training keeps me in shape for centuries, and I can do one of those without too much advanced preparation.  However, a double century is nothing to take lightly.  This route has less elevation than some of my 50 mile training rides, but spending so much time on a bicycle needs preparation.  I was not concerned about my conditioning, since I was pretty sure I would have plenty of strength and energy.  The part of my body that suffers the most on long rides is my neck (and to a lesser extent, my back), and I wanted to be sure that I got my body adjusted to the strains.

The ride requires significant logistical planning.  The ride is on Saturday, starting in Seattle and ending in Portland.  I would definitely need to take Friday off for travel, and I would need to arrive early enough in the day to prepare.  Because we know many people in Portland, we made this a full family trip, and considered making it an extended trip.  But since everyone is busy on the weekdays, we decided to limit it to the weekend.  We had the whole day free on Sunday, and decided to take an early flight on Monday, so that we could go directly to work (and day care and summer camp) upon returning.

Our flight arrived in Seattle on Friday afternoon, about the same time as Subhash arrived, who opted to take the one-way train transport organized by the event.  I assembled my bicycle and we went to pick up our ride packets.  We then had a large pizza dinner with Prabha's sister and her family.  We went to bed early.

4:00am, 0 miles, 0 feet elevation

We planned to leave the house a 4:00am, so I woke at 3:00am to prepare.  Vaishali snapped a quick picture of us before we left.  We rode the 4 miles to the official start in the dark.  We arrived at the start line and joined a mass of riders.  Even more joined in after us.  The official start is at 4:45, so we had to wait about 20 minutes before we could get under way.  They have the official start because they arrange to have policemen direct traffic through many of the signaled intersections in the city.  With thousands of cyclist flooding the road at the start, this is a necessity.

Unmesh, Subhash, Murali ready to start.

The temperature at the start was pleasant.  Last time it was chilly, but this year the forecast was for unseasonable heat (90's F), so the day was starting off at a comfortable mid-60's.  The first few miles consisted of riding with a huge pack of cyclists.  The thickness of the pack meant that most kept the same speed.  We found early on that two of us had unique auditory identifiers – Unmesh had a squeaky left pedal and Subhash had a rattling water bottle.  Prabhash's wife Aparna had asked him to use a steel water bottle instead of a standard plastic one.  So the metal bottle in the metal holder was a noisy combination.

6:15am, 30 miles, 300 feet elevation (Kent REI)

The first food stop was 25 miles into the route, but seemed to arrive quicker than expected.  We agreed to keep it brief and quickly had a snack, bathroom break, and bottle refill, before resuming.  The pack had started to thin out, but there were still many cyclists ahead of and behind us.  We did not need to do any navigation because we just took the same turns as everyone else.

Just like last year, we had a clear view of Mt. Ranier.  Seeing the majestic peaks along the route is one of the highlights for me.

8:30am, 59 miles, 1000 feet elevation (Spanway Jr. HS)

After this stop many people were putting on sunscreen in preparation for later in the day.  It was still pleasant at this time.  This part of the route contained a long stretch of bicycle trail.  This is a different experience than riding on the road.  Although there was bicycle and pedestrian traffic it, was sparse.  We kept a faster pace as there were fewer intersections and obstacles.

11:00am, 93 miles, 1500 feet elevation (Tenino)

Soon after this mini-stop, we re-experienced an event from the last ride – we were delayed at a train crossing.

11:50am, 106 miles, 2000 feet elevation (Centralia)

We reached the midpoint well before the time we made it last time.  Of course, previously it was the end of our day.  This time it was the halfway mark.  We decided we would make it an extended stop to rest and prepare for the second half.  I managed to get a peanut butter jelly sandwich at the lunch table, but when I went back for seconds, they had run out (only the meat sandwiches were left).  They did have fruit, which was a poor substitute (I needed something more calorie-dense). We found an open spot in the grass (it was not easy to do with riders resting everywhere) and lay down for a while, stretching our overall break to one hour.

There are three ways to navigate the route.  The authoritative way is to carry and ready the route map as you ride.  This is not practical because it is published as a small booklet and there is no good way to hold/read it while riding.  The second way is to follow the road markings.  Before and after every intersection, there is a painted arrow on the pavement indicating which way to go.  You check the direction before you go through, and double check the confirmation after you go through.  If you see both, then you are still on the route.  The final, easiest way is to follow other riders.  This is very reliable closer to the beginning of the course when all the riders are in one huge pack.

After leaving the mid-point, we lost the company of all the one day riders.  Also being later in the day, the remaining riders have further dispersed.  We found much fewer riders at this point, but we would still pass a few and be passed by a few.  At one point we had been chatting for a while when one of us noticed that we went through an intersection with no markings.  We were off course.  We immediately pulled over and pulled out our route map.  A friendly motorist let us know that the big group of riders were on a different road a block away.  Even though we went off course a mile back, we where headed parallel to the route and noticed before the roads diverged significantly.  As a result, we missed a mini-stop, but it was one that was not needed.

2:50pm, 132 miles, 2400 feet elevation (Vader)

At this mini-stop, the contrast to our last experience here was stark.  Then, it was the first stop of the second day, thus it was an early morning stop.  As such, it was pretty cold, and I remember my fingers being numb and painful.  This time, it was early afternoon and the unseasonable heat kicked in.  Our stop included getting sprayed with a garden hose to cool off.

I enjoyed seeing the next notable mountain on the route – Mount St. Helens.

3:50pm, 142 miles, 3200 feet elevation (Castle Rock)

This mini-stop would have been omitted, except we were on a quest for ice and a refill of water bottles. Like the previous stop, we took turns dousing ourselves with a garden hose.

4:35pm, 150 miles, 4100 feet elevation (Lexington park)

This was the lunch stop of day two last year, but just a somewhat extended break (half hour) this year.

6:20pm, 167 miles, 5000 feet elevation (Goble)

This mini-stop came at a good time for me.  Through the whole ride, I was not having any problems.  However, a few miles before this stop, I started feeling sleepy.  Not just tired, but I felt like I was about to fall asleep – while pedaling.  Although the idea of falling asleep while pedaling a bicycle sounds comical, I was very concerned for my safety.  I knew that, at the very least, my alertness level was compromised.

I have experienced this before, so I knew what was happening.  My blood sugar must have suddenly crashed.  Even though I had been regularly eating, my digestive system must have shut down.  After we pulled into this stop, I told Unmesh and Subhash that I needed to take a break.  I found a clear spot on the gravel parking lot, put my helmet under my head and closed my eyes.  I woke up feeling refreshed (when you're exhausted even a bed of gravel is comfortable).  I asked Unmesh how long I had been sleeping and he said 10 or 15 minutes.  That was enough time to rest my body enough to get my digestive system to process its fuel.  I would have no more problems after.

7:55pm, 180 miles, 5300 feet elevation (St. Helens)

We reached a point where all three of us were getting tired.  No one had any serious issues, but the effect of spending 16 hours (so far) pedaling was apparent.  We decided to stop at a convenience store for a quick snack.  We were having trouble estimating the distance to the next rest stop.  It turned out to be just a couple miles away.  But we did not want to take any feelings of hunger or tiredness lightly, so stopping probably was the right decision.

At this point we started hitting an issue that we did not really anticipate.  We were about to lose daylight.  One part of this was good, in that we were no longer subject to oppressive heat.  But on the other hand, we were riding by the side of a well trafficked road nearing dark, and we did not all have lights.  I had a rear taillight and a blinking headlight, but not a powerful enough headlight to illuminate the road.  The biggest danger was that if it got totally dark, we would not be able to see the road surface that we were riding on.

Keeping this in mind we rode purposefully.  We skipped the last mini-stop to save time (and we did not need a break or water refill).  We kept as strong a pace as we could so that we would cover as much distance as we could in the remaining light.  We did not have to (and could not really) get to the finish before night.  We only had to get close, because once we get near Portland proper, we would benefit from streetlights.  Until then, however, we were on an unlit stretch of state highway.  We tried to stay behind another group of riders who had lights.  We knew that by following them, we would be following a safe path.

10:15pm, 211miles, 5600 feet elevation

Once we got close to the city, as we expected, street lights helped illuminate our way.  But now we could no longer read road markings to find the route.  And we would not be able to read the route map as we rode in the darkness.  But the narrow city streets with signal lights bunched many riders together, so we simply followed the pack.  There was always someone who knew the route to the finish.

One minor disappointment is that in the darkness, there was no way to view Mt. Hood, which we did get to see last year.  However, I don't know if it would have been visible earlier in the day because there may have been cloud cover.

As we rolled to the finish, we were met by two of our three wives.  Vaishali could not come to the finish because she and the kids were with our friends Tony and Sheilagh.  It was well past the kids' bedtime so she needed to stay with them.  Aparna and Subhash headed back to their home.  Prabha and Moon dropped me off at Tony and Sheilagh's before heading right back to their home in Seattle.  We found out later that, as expected, Moon slept during the whole drive back.

The ride was a success.  No one had any significant issue.  Subhash demonstrated what a superior athlete he is.  He mentioned that all his training rides previous to the day did not add up to 200 miles, yet he had no problem keeping pace and finished without issue.

We spent another day in Portland and visited other friends and family.  We did manage to meet Aparna and Subhash again for lunch.  Subhash and I found that both of us had been insatiably thirsty and hungry the whole day.

It's a nice feeling to have STP both two-day and now one-day.  It would be nice to do it again.  It is always great to see the beautiful places and visit the wonderful friends.  Maybe we will keep doing this ride as a periodic tradition.

2014 Best of the Bay Century

95 miles, 8400 feet elevation, 9:45 hours (8:40 hours on the bicycle)

For my last century as a warmup before the Seattle to Portland double century, I decided to do the Best of the Bay, which I last did 4 years ago.  One reason this ride is attractive is that it covers some roads that I do not normally ride.

One aspect of this route that makes it rather unique is that it does not start and end at the same location.  Instead both the start and end are at BART (local commuter train) stations.  Most people go directly to the start then take the train from the finish at the end.  A few of us take the train to the start in the morning, then return from the finish.


Although the ride officially starts at 6:00am, the morning train riders are limited by the weekend train schedule.  The first train leaves at 5:45 and arrives at the ride start at 6:50 (with one transfer along the way).  By the time I got checked in at the start, I was ready to ride by 7:00.

7:00 am, 0 miles, 0 feet

The route offers several variations by offering a loop near the start and another near the end, either of which can be skipped.  Last time I rode the first loop but decided to skip the second one due to a lack of time.  This time I definitely wanted to do the second loop, so I skipped the first loop.

This meant my ride started by immediately climbing the Berkeley Hills, giving a scenic overview of San Francisco at the top.  As is usual for this time of year, it was too foggy to actually see San Francisco clearly.

8:45am, 17 miles, 1800 feet

By the time I reached the first rest area, I was still ahead of the main pack of riders who started before me but were riding the first loop.  The stop had outstanding food: hard-boiled eggs with pesto, and home made latkas (potato pancakes).

The route after the rest stop was mostly through undeveloped lands on the eastern side of the hills.  There was very little motor traffic.  It was a pleasant ride to the next rest stop in the city of Castro Valley.

10:20am, 35 miles, 3100 feet

Here again, the food was amazing – goat cheese crostini, frittata, puff pastry with caramelized onion, and I indulged myself again.  By this point it seemed that the main pack had caught up with me.

The route from here left the city and returned to mostly undeveloped lands.  It included a gradual climb, but my legs still had plenty of energy.  A couple riders who I recognized from the start passed me.  They had done the first loop (an extra 25 miles) and still caught me, indicating how much stronger than me some of the riders are.  The quiet road ended and then the route followed a fairly trafficked route with limited shoulders for a few miles.  It definitely was not pleasant being passed closely by cars on a 45 mile per hour road, but I had no problems.  This led to the town of Sunol and the lunch rest stop.

11:40am, 49 miles, 4800 feet

The rest of the route was back on familiar roads for me.  The next stretch in particular was part of the Mount Hamilton Challenge that I rode just two months before.  This time I was reaching it at an earlier point of the ride, so I covered it at a faster pace.

1:40pm, 67 miles, 5700 feet

The next rest stop was at the junction of the second loop of the course.  The volunteers asked that riders doing the loop check-in before and after so they can keep track of people on that part of the course.  The reason was that the loop contained a well known and steep hill – Sierra Road.  It's not that the road is impossible, but being so steep and coming so late into the ride, it is easy for riders to have difficulty making it.  Everyone remarked that it was fortunate that the day was cool and overcast, because it is easy to overheat on the exposed slope of Sierra Road.

I continued on and headed for the hill.  The difficulty of Sierra Road is not just its steepness, but relentless.  Once it starts climbing, it does not have any flat sections until the summit, 3.5 miles later.  I started out okay, but quickly felt the effect of already logging so many miles before this climb.  My legs started burning not too far into the climb.  I regularly kept having to stand and pedal on the extra-steep parts (I could have stayed seated if my leg were fresh).  There were ride volunteers at several points on the road to make sure the riders were okay, particularly that we had enough water.  I had not needed to drink as much as usual throughout the ride, but I was going through water quickly on this hill.  But I had enough since I filled up my two water bottles at the previous rest stop.  Eventually I made it to the summit.  Several other riders had stopped to rest there, but I just continued on knowing that the upcoming downhill section would give me enough chance to rest.  I looped back to the same rest stop and checked back in.

3:25pm, 84 miles, 8000 feet

Not needing to rest or eat, I just proceeded on.  There was nothing left but a few fairly flat miles until the finish.  There was nothing scenic about this stretch as it went through town, but the roads mostly had wide bike lanes.

I arrived at the finish point feeling good.  It was at a buffet restaurant, and dinner was included in the ride.  I ate salad (mostly beans for the protein), and (lots of) soup, and (lots of) cheese garlic bread.  It was the finale of a day with great food.  Most of the riders seemed to be talking about Sierra Road.  One other rider joined me at my table just before I left and that was the first thing we talked about.

4:40pm, 95 miles, 8400 feet

After eating I rode one block to the train station, loaded my bicycle onto the car, and left for home.  I definitely enjoyed the ride this year better than the last time.  The difference must be that I did the more challenging route.  Maybe one year I will be in good enough shape to do the most challenging route of both loops.  I feel like I will probably do this ride again.