I guess the best place is the change in our title. If you scan our pics you will see why we called ourselves, Team TMOBILE, but more importantly, what happened to TOM you ask? Well we have asked ourselves the same question. He kinda ditched us and our inspiration vanished. No worries though we kinda rocked!
I don't know how to put into words this experience so I will do my best to sum it up.
We got up early- 4 ish on Saturday and set off to the UW stadium for our big event. It was a bit chilly and we were all nervous, mostly because we were all STP virgins and the unexpected is scary. We were released from the start line in large groups- having said goodbye to Steve and the comfort of a car we rode off! IT was about 6:15 am.
Our route took us South over the UW bridge and across Montlake, under 520 and onto Boyer heading South. We hit Lake WA blvd and then Lakeside and up to Rainier and then all of a sudden we were in Kent for our first STop- 25 miles down... only 175 to go! THe stop was packed with music and fans, food and goodies. We didn't stay long, we were off to Puyallup then Spanaway for lunch. Spanaway was mile 55 for us and we had a picnic lunch at about 11 am with Jocelyn's sweet family.
This part of the ride wasn't so pretty- after all Auburn and Sumner etc.. are not known for the scenery. But we were in a groove and had already conquered "THE HILL". Really, who named it? It wasn't awful at all- thank goodness for all of our hills on our training rides.
On our way we had mini cheering stations and saw some darn cool bikes.
I would say that 90% of STP riders were on a road bike and then there were a few mountain bikes, a unicycle, a dozen or so tandem bikes, some with trailers for kids, a pedi-cab type of bike with three across and then the ever cool Elyptirunners- Elyptical Machine meets road bike..... Our Hybrids fit right in, though when a pace line sped by us, we did drool a bit at the ease in which they rode.
We rode on and made it to the Centralia halfway point around 3:30 pm where we hit the beer garden (worst idea once again) becuase this was NOT Our resting point for the night, we had 10 more miles to get to our campspot in Chehalis. This is where heavenly Peter comes in.
Peter is Leo's dear friend from years back who drove down all of our stuff (and I did NOT pack lightly) and even set up our tent for us. He was amazing- our new inspiration. What a selfless act!
So while Peter hung in the tent we all showered at the community pool, Joc and I took a swim test to use the tube slide- which in the end after passing the swim test, we also passed on the tube slide. Then Heavenly Peter drove us to dinner at a MANCAVE with mediocre food and weird locals. Enough said.
Peter dropped us off at our tent and Leo and I fell asleep instantly while Jocelyn struggled. (I guess we snore a bit)
5:30 am came early for Day Two.
We had a slow start but at 7 ish we were at the Espresso Stand having a quick caffeine boost and breakfast. Then we were off, we rode through Napavine and Vader and Castle Rock (all kinda strange places... The meth lab signs and the GUnsmith in a church for one) and into Kelso for our lunch stop. Prior to Kelso we met a guy named Carlos who also works for TMobile, not with Joc but near. He became our team photographer and joined us for the rest of the route. Carlos was doing it by himself, a sort of bucket list thing, and at lunch we found out that Carlos is from Downey, CA! THis is where my hubby is from and of all the high schools, of course he went to Warren with STeve. Carlos is a few years younger but still, small world!
Carlos helped motivate us and mix things up for the rest of day two as we hit hill after hill! They felt at times like rolling mountains but still doable and never at any point did any of us need to walk!!!!!!
We had the world's greatest sandwiches at Subway before going over the Longview bridge. This was a scary idea for us but turned out to be way fun. Joc's family met us again in St. Helen's where they motivated us (and me with Fritos) to finish the last 25 miles.
It seemed that the last few miles through downtown Portland and the steep hills within that took forever but it was worth it as our team of four crossed the finish line with smiles on our faces at about 5:30 pm! We did it!
We were met my Joc's parents and Steve who congratulated us and quickly rushed us to the showers!!!
At dinner we all agreed that if a hotel could be arranged we would in fact do it again!
