We left the Salvation Army in Centralia where we had spent the night for the start line around 615. I had originally intended to go without my wind breaker because it was supposed to warm up and it was only going to take up space in my jersey pocket I could use for food instead (I was practically a grocery store with the amount of food I had by the end). It was mid-50s with a decent head wind though so thankfully I opted for the jacket. Frances wouldn’t draft off of me so I decided to draft off of her for the first ten or fifteen miles since she was pulling anyways.
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| Waiting to go over a bridge |
Fran was struggling but I expected that. I pushed her pretty hard the day before. However, this was the day of long steady climbs and some steep shorter climbs. Frances who hadn’t even seen a hill for several months before coming to Seattle was not happy. It turns out that her left cleat was in a bad position and was pinching a nerve every time she pushed down on it. I didn’t realize this until mile 160 or so when it hurt too much for her to keep quiet. I moved the cleat which prevented the pain from worsening and she had a medic tape it up but whatever pain was there stayed for the rest of the day.
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| Puppy in the Burley! |
On the flip side, I hadn’t had legs that good in a long time. Granted, I was stopping at the end of every rolling section to wait for Frances but I was flying up the hills, passing tons of people I normally would not be passing. At mile 150 there was a bridge which we had to cross in waves because of the traffic pattern. We were near the front of the wave, maybe 70 people back. I told Fran I would meet her on the other side of the bridge, then I went for it. I wasn’t riding too fast for me, but I kept passing everyone whose wheel I was hanging onto so I decided to go for it. I picked up the pace and made it to the top of the bridge well before the rest of the wave. I took a minute to look around me, then bombed down the rest of the bridge. Seems like my climbing efforts of late have been paying off.
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| Frances riding up the road |
We finally rolled into Portland around 430, grabbed some food, then headed over to our hotel to shower. We left for dinner around 930 which limited our options but we ended up getting sushi. We over ordered but figured we would just save it for breakfast. As it turns out, the chef gave us the wrong rolls so he made up the ones we ordered too. We took the rest home and watched the tour de France before we passed out. Slept for eleven or so hours and woke up to explore Portland.
In summary, Fran is still alive and speaking to me so I can’t complain too much.