It was foggy, and trees and nursery stock are starting to turn.
The afternoon was descending into the 10th circle of hell that is the Cell Phone Store, but then on to a way fun party for our Portland to Coast Walking Team. But home early because the next morning was:
THE LIVESTRONG RIDE
I had volunteered to be a riding course marshal; we were to meet at Nike at 6:45am. Nike being all of 3 miles from the house, I was riding there, detouring by Jason's to leave my single bike and get on the tandem. Cecil and I were meeting at the usual place at 5:45am. It was...raining. Not a nice little drizzle. Not an annoyingly persistent mist. No. Buckets. I had planned for this, and had on all my best raingear, plus a pair of allegedly waterproof socks. Seemed like a good day to test them.
I got to the top first, and listened to the rain pound the building under construction across the street. It was very dark. After a few minutes, I saw some blinding headlights emerge from the side street, and Cecil and I set out for Jason's. Maybe 15 minutes later we were there. Jason was not entirely ready, so Cecil and I amused ourselves nibbling on grapes and chatting.
Tandem out, tires pumped up, and we tried to take off. Hmm. BG did not set the seatpost back where it needed to be. Dropped the seat. Better. Off to Nike. There was an amazing lineup of cars on Walker Rd, and we weren't sure they'd notice us, so we did a 270 degree turn onto Meadow and entered Nike with the light. Got to Tiger Woods, found Linda, dumped the bikes and went inside to find John for our pre-event briefing. Met Fitz there. He was rethinking his entire clothing configuration, so I went to meet Cecil and he rode directly there.
I learned that Doug R does own raingear:
We found a helpful volunteer to get a picture of all the Portland Velo riding course marshals:
(goodness, we are a shiny bunch)
and then headed out to our posts. Cecil, Jason and I were to ride the 70 mile course. If we hadn't been committed to that, I would have gone for the 40 mile course, what with the heavy, persistent rain. Saw lots of riders who did not look well prepared for the conditions. We stood out in the rain for another 40 minutes or so, listening to speeches and such, before they let us go. I had to explain what a course marshal did... "we are here to make sure you are all ok!" to several riders. One rider wanted to know if we'd fix her flat. Or if there would be roving mechanics. She might have had to wait awhile under those conditions. (soapbox: one should know how to change a flat AND carry the necessary equipment for doing so, before starting out on a 70 mile ride!)
Off we went. It was very slow and crowded for the first mile, kind of like STP, only much less experienced riders. There were sheriffs and local police at every major intersection, holding up traffic for us. Wow.
We stopped at the first rest stop, because Portland Velo was staffing it. Got a hug from Carlo and Mary and Genny. I knew there would be hidden coffee and hidden Maggie's baked goods, and went to find them. Monique made me up a NICE cup of coffee. I was chilly, and the waterproof socks, even with booties over them, weren't. The hands were wet, but not gone, feet were cold and wet. The rest of me was fine.
Fitz, John, Martin and Alan showed up after awhile; they were riding the 40 mile course. Then off again. The sheriffs had STOPPED traffic on Hwy 219; we could just ride across at the Burkhalter/Simpson crossing. Amazing. We thanked them profusely. We passed on the next two rest stops, and proceeded off to Hagg Lake. The traffic was stopped for us on Hwy 47 as well. Profoundly amazing. Stopped to help a woman who downshifted, lost her chain, and tipped over. She mostly needed dusting off. We leapfrogged her for quite awhile, and she kept dropping her chain. I suggested she visit the mechanic at the next rest stop and get it adjusted.
We did stop at the Hagg Lake rest stop. It was staffed by a cheery group of pirates, singing chanteys, sloshing mugs of grog, telling very bad pirate jokes, and posing for pictures. This rest stop ALSO featured Pacific Foods Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup. Excellent stuff, both warming, and tasty. Cecil and I went to visit the facilities. There was a heated hand blowdryer; Cecil tried to crawl under it:
Then off again. Cecil's rear derailleur cable broke, so she was down to 3 speeds from 27. The next rest stop was 5 miles ahead, where she had a new one installed, and I had more soup. Back through the Fern Hill wetland, north through Cornelius, and a stop at Tim's memorial bike.
Then Long, Susbauer (for longer than usual) and Cornelius-Schefflin. C-S is still very busy, but now has a SHOULDER. Definitely an improvement. Then north on Gordon into North Plains, and the last rest stop. More soup. I changed to my spare dry gloves, and asked another rider about the efficacy of her booties. Visited with John, who was doing repeats on West Union between North Plains and Bethany Blvd. As we were toward the end, he said we could just go on in, rather than do a repeat.
West Union is fun, at least until Helvetia Rd (police stopping traffic for us again). Then it gets very busy, is narrow, and has no shoulders. It was creepy. My phone started squirming repeatedly around Laidlaw, so we finally pulled over to see what was going on. Fitz left a message - he'd finished, ridden home, gotten the van and drove back. No one needed to ride home if we didn't want to.
Turned right onto Bethany - again, a busy, narrow road, crossed over Hwy 26, left onto Cornell, right onto 158th, then south to Jay, left, and into Nike. Done! Fitz was even cheering for us at the finish - he figured we'd finish right about then. Parked the bikes, got our food tickets, got our FOOD, and found a quiet table to sit and eat. Fitz had dry shoes for me. Aaaaaahhhhhh.
Here are the happy ride marshals, now that the ride is finished:
Enjoyed my burger and chips and dark beer, then drank some Free Radical Scavenger. I guess all my radicals are captive now. Co-worker Ian and wife Lynn-without-an-e came by and visited for awhile. Carlo stopped by. John and family came and sat with us.
Then dropped off Jason, dropped off Cecil, and home for a very hot shower...
Cecil's pictures (ever so many more than mine) can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecilanne_r-s/sets/72157602221174745/
complete with a pointer to her writeup.
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