In 1999, cycling fever struck me again and several friends and I participated in the 25th Annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP), which is a ride (not a race) covering the 200 miles between Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Participation is usually limited to 10,000 riders but there was no limit for the 25th anniversary ride. Riders may choose to do the entire ride in one day or may stop part-way and split it up between two days. Being manly men, we chose the one-day itinerary.
Training for the ride was a lot of fun. We began training several months ahead of time, when dry days were still infrequent. Most of our training rides were on the weekends. We followed routes through most of Seattle, Bellevue, and Issaquah and into the farming communities further east. Our rides were initially short, around 40 miles, but became progressively longer, culminating in rides of around 120 miles. We sought varied terrain, doing a lot of hill work. Otherwise, I worked on improving my aerobic capacity during my daily workouts in the gym. (See Weight Training for more information.) It was fun to be outside and active and it was fun to hang out with the guys, telling tales and good-naturedly ripping on each other.
Approximately six weeks before the ride, I developed tendonitus in my knees and had to reduce my training, rehabilitate as best I could, and hope that I felt better before the ride. I continued to lift weights, which didn't seem to hurt my knees, and carefully worked to increase the peddling tension that my knees could withstand without pain. I also took anti-inflammatory doses of ibuprofen and iced my knees, doing whatever I could think of to speed recovery.
On the morning of the ride, I took a dose of ibuprofen, put on my camelback filled with Cytomax, and rode the couple of miles to the starting line in the Montlake parking lot at the University of Washington for the 6 a.m. start. It was a beautiful clear morning with a nearly full moon ready to set over Lake Washington on the eastern horizon. There were very few cars since it was early on a Saturday morning so the road was almost entirely mine. It was exhilarating!
I was the first of our group to arrive at the starting line. I restlessly circled the parking lot like a shark looking for the others and tried not to over-react to the butterflies (or ibuprofen) in my stomach. Other members of our group arrived intermittantly and we managed to assemble everyone in a pocket of the crowd gathered at the starting line with only a couple of minutes left before the start. Everyone was in a very festive mood. The ride began at the sound of an air-horn and we all felt strong as we formed a line and rode swiftly over the familiar territory at the beginning of the route.
The first 90 miles of the ride were glorious! It was fun to see all of the other riders and to share a little conversation with some of them. We also joked and chatted among ourselves. There wasn't too much spectacular scenery along the route but the terrain was somewhat varied. We passed through many small towns where the police blocked traffic for us and people smiled and waved. We took advantage of the rest stops, which were well-stocked with food, water, and sports drinks. A friend who participated in a previous STP had told me that he actually gained weight on the STP and it was easy to believe. We were averaging almost 25 miles an hour and everyone felt great.
Around mile 95, the tendinitus returned in one of my knees and I was no longer able to keep up with our pace line, even though I had led it for much of the ride. I arrived at the midpoint rest stop several minutes behind the rest of my group. I had to search to find them since no one had noticed that I had fallen behind. I ate and drank greedily and took more ibuprofen. In retrospect, I may not have had enough to eat or drink along the way. I was ravenous and starting to get shaky and it was starting to get hot.
My group decided to accomodate my difficulty by going slower. I felt somewhat better by the time we left the rest stop although my knee still hurt. I did what I could to keep up with my friends but after 20 more miles realized that I just couldn't. Everyone except my friend Rick went on ahead. I was determined to finish the ride and thought that I could finish if I just took my time and kept going.
In the meantime, the temperature had shot up to somewhere around 90 degrees. Coincidentally, it was the hottest day so far that year. The temperature during our training rides had ranged from the 50's to the 70's. None of us were ready for the heat. I had been sipping from my camelback throughout the ride but obviously not enough. I got shakier as time passed and even fell down when Rick stopped to adjust some equipment. Rick and I limped along to the next rest stop, which was at mile 148.
Our entire group was at the rest stop when we arrived. This really surprized me because Rick and I had been going so slow. The rest of the group had been at the rest stop for a while and was almost ready to set out again. Everyone seemed to be a little bonked because they were tired and becoming irritable.
By this time, I had a terrible headache, didn't feel like I was going to be able to keep any food down, had stopped sweating, and was loosing my coordination. I finally decided that I wasn't going to be able to make it. Fortunately, our wives were headed down to Portland to meet us and we were able to call and ask them to come pick me up.
After arranging help for me, the rest of the group set out to finish the ride. I lied in the shade with my eyes closed waiting for my head to stop pounding and hoping that help would arrive soon. After about an hour, I felt enough better to sit up and look around a little bit. It was still an incredibly beautiful day and the rest stop was in a park in a nice little town. I watched riders come and go and tried to enjoy being there as much as I could in light of my difficulties.
Rick's wife Kirsten and my wife Dawn arrived after about an hour and a half to rescue me. We loaded my equipment into the car and drove the rest of the way to Portland to meet the other riders.
We arrived at the finish line quite a while before any of the other riders in my group. In the end, everyone else finished. The group had splintered over the last 50 miles. Tempers had flared over a disagreement about route or pace. Most people in the group came in feeling very cranky and exhausted and felt like they had barely made it. The long ride and the heat had taken a toll from almost everyone.
After returning to Seattle, I looked up the symptoms of heat exhaustion and found that I had experienced every one of them. I felt glad that I had stopped before the problem became more serious. I was happy to have experienced the good parts of the ride as well as the training and felt that I could learn valuable lessons from what happened. I might have been able to avoid heat exhaustion if I had drunk more early in the ride. I also probably pushed too hard too early in my training leading to tendinitus. Or perhaps I spent too much effort keeping up with my usual training regimen and didn't devote enough effort to cycling-specific training. Next time I'll be more aware and hopefully the outcome will be different.
Mark A. Martin <mark@mark-a-martin.us>
Last modified: Tue Jul 25 17:10:52 CDT 2000