Okay guys and gals. Many of you are
cyclists. Some of you are participating in the
2013 PPOT Weight Loss And Fitness Challenge. A few of you simply have nothing planned for the
weekend of July 13-14, 2013.
Which is when 10,000 hardy and not-so-hardy folks will ride the
2013 Seattle To Portland Bicycle Classic. Including . . . some flightless Pelicans?
I rode the STP last year for the first time. It was a fun time, a great experience, and I thought it would be even more fun to return the following year with a group. What better excuse to all get
custom Pelicans Ride jerseys?
In a nutshell, this is a fully supported and extremely well organized 205 mile group ride. Your bag will be carried by a truck, you're never more than 12 miles from a food stop and mechanics' station, usually never out of sight of dozens of other riders, and the Highway Patrol escorts you over the one dicey bridge. The route is almost entirely flat and if you can pedal a bike for seven hours, you can make it to Portland. The ride starts at dawn on Saturday in Seattle, at the University of Washington, where there is dormitory housing should anyone want the very shortest distance from morning coffee to start line. For two-day riders - that'd be us - you have a choice of overnight stops, the biggest and funnest being the 100 mile point at Centralia College where there will be showers, cool grassy campsites, beer gardens, bottomless pasta feeds, music, and several thousand happy cyclists. You'll get there shortly after noon. On Sunday you do the second 100 miles, ending up in Portland where I will personally buy all the beers for any Pelican who drags him or herself the whole distance.
Rest assured, it isn't all that hard. There is lots of training advice out there, but basically I found a 50 mile route in my area and rode it four times on four successive weekends, aiming for a higher average speed each time. Do a 18 mph avg awithout being particularly pooped, and you're good to go. IMHO and YMMV.
I will also say, having the STP coming in July will do wonders for your focus and resolve, should you have just started a weight loss and fitness challenge. I think I was at my fittest shortly after the ride.
Here is the
official website.
https://shop.cascade.org/content/events/stp
Here is my
thread about the 2012 ride.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/688701-seattle-portland-2012-a.html
Any interest? We have some Seattlelites and some Portlandians here, but really, the STP is just a cheap flight away for most of us. Especially you guys on the West coast.
Let's discuss.