Monday, July 14, 2008

Seattle to Portland Marathon aka STP


Alan did the STP when he was a teenager and now that we are back in Washington he set his sights on doing it again. He's always loved to street ride. He did a triathalon in Georgia and got hooked on those as well. So before we moved back he bought a ridiculously expensive triathlon/street bike. The bike is so fast he crashed it the first two times he rode it. He has since crashed it two more times for a grand total (so far) of 4 times. I'm beginning to wonder if the bike is cursed.
This last weekend was the annual STP ride. It's approximately a 200 mile ride from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR. You ride the first day 100 miles to Centralia, WA then you get up bright and early and finish the last 100. I seriously cannot think of anything more horrible than doing this. Apparently many people including my husband disagree with me. The race has 9,000 paying participants. Many more ride along without paying the entrance fee (like my father in law, brother in law and sister in law) shame, shame, shame. Anywhooo, It's really a site to see. Alan was flying the first day and made it to Centralia in 6 hours. Well, he made it to 8 miles outside of Centralia in 6 hours. Then the curse kicked in! Two people ahead of him crashed and he had no time to stop so he went down with them. The road had been newly asphalted and it had all that tar and rocks on it. It tore Alan up pretty bad. He had road rash on his leg, hand and butt. The medic came and bandaged him up. He could have ridden a service vehicle the last 8 miles but NO, he's a real man and he can take the pain. They told him to go straight to the medic tent when he got to camp. Did he? NO, he a real man, he went to the bike repair tent and has his bike fixed. All the time covered in blood, people staring! Finally he goes, wait, hobbles to the medic tent to have his wounds looked at. Can they fix him, NO! He needs stitches and he has to be taken to the hospital. The gash on his knee was down to the ligament...uh gross! So he spent like 4 hours in the hospital being scrubbed, drugged and stitched. Alan's Dad was only riding for day one so he could have gone home with him but NO, he's a real man and he drugged himself up and finished the marathon. You would think that a seriously busted up leg would have slowed him down but it didn't, he finished the last 100 miles in only 5 1/2 hours. I told him it's because he was so drugged up he felt no pain, he just rode hard the whole time. To give you an idea of how fast he is, he got into Portland at 2:00 and his brother and sister in law got in around 6:00. They all left at the same time. This man totally amazes me. Even though I think he's crazy, I'm soooo proud of him! He even went to work the next day (today) but he ended up coming home early really sick from the combination of pain meds and exhaustion. I suppose he'll realize one of these day's that he's not super human, today's just not going to be that day!


5 comments:

Gillian said...

Way to go, Alan! Although, I'm with you, Karina. I would have called it quits after the accident. Ouch!

Sarah J. said...

Wow! I'm impressed. Even with the broken-up leg. Ouch. That's crazy. Way to go, Alan!

KatSpy said...

Yay Alan! I'm not surprised. Any man who'll take out a little lady in the name of competition, must have a stong desire to win! ;o)

Natalie said...

I'm so proud! My brother in law, aka my second husband, has done the STP. I don't think that my little butt would be able to sit on a bike set for that long. Way to go Alan!!!

Tasha Horsley said...

wow! that is really cool even though he got hurt, he stuck it out. Pete also did the STP as a teen and has lately been talking about wanting to do it again. He has been working on getting back into shape first though. Maybe next year...or whenever they are. ? I think the antiquing would be fun! We should do it sometime! Even if we just go downtown Puyallup or Sumner or something. Do you have a favorite place nearby?