STP 2012

As I started out writing this report, it was starting trouble as always. I started off with when I woke up on race day, but then … I thought maybe I should start from when we left home - Silicon Valley - to drive to Seattle. Hmm…. no, I think a race starts from the day you register for it, if not right from the time you first seriously think about doing it.

And so, my STP 2012 really started in May 2011. Anshu was registered to do STP 2011 and used to train every Saturday. That was the first I heard of it. I had just started biking in April 2011, and was training for a 100 mile ride later in the year. 200 miles seemed daunting. And then he mentions he is doing it all in one day!! This seemed incredible. Well, incredible or not, Anshu did it in mid July …. almost 16 hours straight of endurance biking! I knew then I had to do it too in 2012, and so my race had begun.

The rest of the year went by in training for our Napa 100 miler in August, and some winter rides, more for fun than for any particular goal. Meanwhile I casually asked Raghu if he would be interested in doing STP and, quite surprisingly, he jumped in without much hesitation! On another ride, I asked Prakash and Sunil without really expecting a positive response, but Prakash sounded quite optimistic. STP registration opened up on Feb 7th 2012 - I had been waiting for it eagerly - and I wasted no time in booking my spot. I pinged Raghu and Prakash, and in the space of 30 minutes we were all set ….. jersey and shorts included (at, IMO, quite an exorbitant price, but you only do it once …. famous last words? :)) We now had a target, and the date July 14th was etched in my mind. It became a focal point around which most everything else in mid-year revolved.

We had ample time to train - the event was in July, and I had a relay triathlon to train for in May anyway, so we kind of took it easy. My excuse was that I was already training anyway, and I hoped Raghu would start biking with us too. STP puts up their own schedule for the 1 day ride that starts in Feb but Anshu started in May, so it was easy to take it lightly. Besides, we had the TA Biking program starting in April so we would be riding anyway, albeit short mileage. Well, March turned into April, and April into May, and before we realized it we were now way behind the STP schedule. We made up our own schedule abridged from the STP suggested one, with all our endurance activity experience, and felt very satisfied now that we were on our way. Just around then, Prakash announced he would be going to India for 6 weeks, coming back in mid-June with 4 weeks left and would switch to the 2-day event! That was disappointing, but I still had Raghu to train with. Training these long rides alone is not easy at all, as we had seen from Anshu's experience the previous year. With about 9 weeks to go, our schedule read something like 60, 70, 90, 70, 110, 70, 130, 70, 50 (yeah, I like the 70s :)) for the long Saturday rides, followed by about 40-50 on the Sunday (TA) rides. Things didn't all work out as planned. Raghu often had to work, and was not well one weekend. Not to mention, he was also training for the SF half in parallel, 2 weeks after STP! I brought up many times how this was an insane idea to be training for both, but Raghu is not one to yield easily. He made only every other Saturday ride, but he managed to join me for the all-important 110 and 130 rides. For my part, I diligently followed the schedule. The 70s became 80s thanks to missed roads and wrong turns on the route maps.

I was unsure what we needed to achieve in training, apart from doing the mileage. By this time, we felt we could do 200 given time. It was the 16 hour cut off that worried us. We had to average 13 mph with stops to get there. By the time July came by, my mom would have been amply proud of my ability to multiply numbers in their teens at great speed. All combinations of mph and time to get to 204 or thereabouts were uppermost in my mind, including factoring in stop times. It seemed evident we had to maintain a riding speed of about 17 mph to survive this, and I was keenly aware how hard that was in general. We did the early 60 miler around the Canada area but took about 5-6 hours. It was one of Raghu's first rides though this year. Our 90 miler turned into an 80 miler around the Uvas area and we took a good 8 hours. Raghu seemed a little disappointed, exclaiming "This is pathetic. I am a 10 mph rider!" I tried to be supportive - "there's still 7 weeks" with doubts creeping into my mind too. We did the 110 in east bay across the famed Calaveras "wall" and back. Our goal was 8-9 hours. We figured the 40 miles of flats in east bay we would race through. We took 4 hours for that segment, thanks to a ton of headwind, and took just 3 hours for the 40 miles back over the hills! A solid 10 hours end to end. Not to mention we (at least I) were quite drained at the end of it, having run out of water a couple of times in the middle as well. Not very encouraging. I did the 70s turned 80s by myself up to San Bruno and down to the airport and back along the bay. Both of them I pretty much did 80 in 6 hours after pushing real hard to get to 13 mph. I started too late on both, and had to stop because of darkness on one and have Raghu pick me up. After the second of those rides, I was completely drained …. with just 80 miles …. and I was beginning to get scared. Raghu was always the epitome of optimism, so much so that I stopped believing his attempts at consolation …. He pointed out that there was a lot of headwind, it was really hot one of those days, I was riding alone and the elevation gain was a little more (proportionally) than what we would see in STP. All true, but I hated to hang my hat on things like that.

With 3 weeks left, we were at 130 finally. Prakash had come back from India as well, and would be joining us for about 80. I was adamant that we really had to do this one right. I had always suspected that our lack of overall mph was thanks to stop signs and lights on our regular routes, and so I suggested we pick one free of such interferences. I chalked out a loop around the Uvas and Chesbro reservoirs - a 33 mile loop that we would repeat 4 times. We would drive there, park our car, and use it as SAG once every 33 miles. There were just 5 stop signs on the entire loop and no lights. Raghu was good with it and the plan worked like a charm. Raghu and I did 4 loops, Prakash, 2 and a bit. Our splits were 2:20, 2:30, 2:30, 2:25 with about a 10 minute stop after each loop. So we did overshoot by about 25 mins, but the distance was more like 133 anyway. The best part was our consistency and we even felt like we could have gone for one more loop after that. We were finally there! I had been rapidly losing hope we could ever maintain 13 mph on a long ride, and we had very close to done it! I had told Raghu before the ride "give me 130 miles in 10 hours and I will be happy" and I was. This might have been the single best thing that happened during the training. Finally I started to believe, very cautiously, that we could pull it off - even Raghu :) Yes, I had been very worried that he would not be able to stay with that pace, and the dilemma had been voicing itself more and more as July came by - should I stay with him or should I try to do it under 16 hours, if it came to such a choice. I knew he would say of course you should go for the 1 day cutoff, and I realized I was leaning that way too, and it made me feel bad.

It was the crunch time now. There were 2 weeks left. Training was pretty much over. We solidified plans for the trip - places to stay in Seattle, Portland and along the way, packet pick up, driving logistics, took printouts of everything we would need. and logistics of synching up with Prakash. I got my bike tuned at Sports Basement 2 weeks before the ride. On the very next weekday ride, my chain fell off 6 times in the space of 20 miles and I almost had a heart attack. I took it right back to SB for a quick check and they assured me it was all fine. I reluctantly conceded. But as I mentioned to a couple of friends, butterflies were beginning to form colonies in my stomach already. I got that spare tire for my car that was missing since September when I had my last flat!! I asked Raghu if we had to worry about booking a place mid-way, just in case we didn't make it in one day, and he said, with absolutely no hesitation, "No". It was very decisive, and I didn't ever think to revisit that question anymore. Our plan was clear - leave Thursday afternoon, stay at Roseburg that night, drive via my friend, Sanjay's house in Portland on Friday to drop off some clothes for Sat night after the ride, get to Seattle for lunch to meet the rest of our one-day riders, stay at Raghu's friend Akshay's house on Sat night, drive ourselves to the start on Sat, ride on Sat to Portland, rent a car back to Seattle on Sunday morning, drive both cars back in time to see Prakash finish, drive to Corvallis on Sunday evening and stay at my friend Sourabh's place, and drive back on Monday to the bay area. I have to say these logistics went almost perfectly to plan, except that the times kept moving out :) We listened to podcasts along the way and shared the drive and on the whole we had quite an uneventful journey, not counting a speeding ticket, and I, for one, was not complaining about a lack of excitement. We kept checking the weather too, and as it had been all week, it was predicted to be in the high 80s reaching 90 in Centralia, the 100 mile point. I had cursed the heat all week long - I don't work well in the heat at all - my body heats up quickly and I start fading very fast after that. I would need to pour water on my head very often but the rest stops were not less than 25 miles apart. I didn't know how to handle this. If we were pacelining, I couldn't ask to stop off every dozen miles to buy water - that would just kill the paceline and pace. Finally I decided on carrying my camelbak and filling it with water as soon as it started getting hot. Extra weight, but might be completely necessary …. I had even got a Bento Box in the front near the handlebars to hold the salt tablets and food so as to avoid reaching back when pacelining. The night before we left SV, Chakri had come over and done a complete oiling of my chain and any moving joints - one more detail attended to! Details details details, but I felt confident I had thought of almost everything, and I liked that feeling.

We met the Asha Seattle folks for tea at Victor's Celtic Coffee Company on Friday evening, which was when we first met our co-one-day riders, Sankar, Aravind and Sai. Jyoti had introduced us to Sankar a few weeks earlier, and Anshu confirmed that Sankar had ridden with him in 2011 as well. It was with great relief that I read Sankar's first reply - he knew all about how to do this …. he had done it not once but twice before, and I was thrilled he would be with us. I told Raghu I would stick to him l like a leech. That way I wouldn't have to worry if we were going fast enough, or if our breaks were too long. He knew what to do to get there before the cutoff and I would just stick with him. It felt like we knew an insider in the mob. Sankar pulled out the plan from last year, and changed it around a bit for this year. We were to start at 4:45 am - the earliest they allow you to start, and finish by 6:45 pm ….. 14 hours later!! This was way more aggressive than we had planned, but we were sensible enough not to say anything. Sankar turned out to be quite the athlete as we found out at Victor's, a really good runner, biker, swimmer etc. People assured us he would vanish on the hills on the bike ride. I made a mental note of that with a little trepidation. Sankar rode his motorbike to the coffee house prompting Srijan's comment "he's a biker and he's a biker" - I thought that was funny. It was good meeting old friends and future co-riders. Most importantly, I really wanted to know what they looked like to find at the start line the next day. I dreaded having to find someone in the midst of 10000 people.

I got to Akshay's by about 8. My original plan had been to sleep at 8:30 and get up at 3:30 - a solid 7 hours - Stan always said sleeping well the night before was the most important part. Well, there was little hope of that now. In fact, we realized getting up early would be too hard, so we wanted to ready as much as possible that night itself - I even considered changing into biking gear before sleeping! We did everything we could, attach bib #s to jerseys, helmets, and bikes, fill up air, ready food and electrolyte/salt that we would carry, put aside gloves etc. And then we ate a hearty delicious meal, and went to bed at 10:30. We had to leave by 3:30, Sankar had said, so our alarms were set for 2:30 am. We would have to make do with 4 hours. It was very fitful sleep. I kept dreaming and waking up, but it wasn't all too bad. It was quite a warm night. At last check though, the mid-day temps on Saturday had dropped a bit according to Prakash's weather app. Mine still said high 80s. Oh well, it was what it was.

I got up, I am sure, at the first ring of the alarm, and went about trying to rouse the others. Raghu seemed bent upon grabbing another 15 mins and was getting me very anxious. Still we were done and ready to leave by 3:40 am. Sankar was already on the road! We opened the car door to put our bags in and heard a loud hissing noise. My front tire was leaking rapidly and went flat in a minute! We decided getting to the start line was more important, and raced off. There were unexpected freeway closures, we missed our exit on an on-the-fly reroute, and almost couldn't find the right parking lot, but still managed to get to the start point by 4:45 am. Raghu called Sankar and he was still there, ready to leave. We told him about the flat and starting fixing it, my mind racing, anxious that we would miss the Seattle folks. I cared much less about starting at 4:45, but I felt we needed to be with them to have a chance. We found the puncture, a hole in the tire, used a dollar bill to patch that, and had a new tube in in under 10 minutes. That might be most I have ever bought for a dollar in my life. One quick picture together, wished Prakash a good ride, and rushed off to find S, S and A. Finding them was easier than I thought. Sankar was in his TA jersey and it stood out a mile. Finally we were waiting at the start line together for the next wave. I felt the same nervous excitement I had felt 2 years ago, before running the Chicago marathon, as I looked around me. It was cool but not cold enough for warmers. Phone, Id, keys, Perform, 50 salt tabs, 3 bars and my faithful 2 sandwiches of toast and jam - something that has been with me almost every ride in the last one year - were all I carried.

5:00 am, and our wave was off. I reset my bike computer and looked at Raghu and smiled. The clock was ticking. We had 16 hours to do this. Would we keep up with the Asha Seattle riders? Would Raghu stay with me or fall behind? He had been a bit rebellious at pacelining in practice, insisting he didn't feel much benefit and often times would ride too far away or by himself, all of which worried me. The same question came back to me - what should I do if he didn't keep with us …… I was afraid without company he would find it that much harder to finish in time …. but I put off worrying about it to when I needed to.

The first 24 miles went by in a rush. There were a so many riders, I was focusing more on not crashing into someone - the last thing I wanted was a fall now. Dealing with a flat first thing in the morning had been enough excitement. The crowd was so thick, it was only moments before I couldn't spot Raghu behind me anymore. I slowed a bit and looked for the others. Sankar was right next to me - true to my promise I had focused on staying close to him. I noted that Sai was in a green jersey and Aravind in a blue one. Raghu, Sankar and I were in TA jerseys. Eventually I spotted Raghu and continued, a bit more relieved. We didn't bother pacelining or anything - it would have been too hard. Besides there were just so many riders in front of us, I could easily feel the draft pulling me in. It was like pacelining behind a big truck!! Traffic was stopped for us for the most part till we got to the REI headquarters at mile 24. Nahappan caught up with us along the way, making us a solid half-dozen. The first rest stop was teeming with riders. I was extremely conscious of not wasting any time. I would even have skipped that stop happily. I parked the bike and raced off to check out the food, restrooms, and Nuun, the electrolyte on offer at STP. Nuun was odd, somewhat sparkly, and advertised boldly the lack of calories. Chandrika had switched to Perform because it had more calories than Gatorade! Very puzzling all this, but I was in no mood to investigate. I would go the road more travelled by and stick to my Perform. I finished and rushed back to my bike in minutes, only to get tired of waiting for the others and went back to find them. They seemed in no great hurry, and had found Varadan too, and were chatting :) Oh well, maybe we were okay on time after all. I checked emails, saw that Anshu wanted check-ins at every stop and decided to accede - he was, after all, my inspiration for STP :) It was about 6:40 am.

Sankar said it was time we pacelined from here, and started describing how pacelining works. This was a tad worrisome if people did not know yet how to go about it and the 11th hour was really not the appropriate testing ground :) In retrospect, he was probably just going over the rules again as everyone seemed quite adept at it. We found our groove and settled into a nice rhythm of about 17-18 mph till mile 40 or so. Then came the "big hill". For someone from the bay area this would surely evoke some mirth, for it was all of about a mile long at best and about 5-6% grade. I didn't even need to shift off of the upper chain ring in the front. I got my first glimse of Sankar's famed hill-riding, and yes, he was really good at this! I was happy to notice I could keep him in sight all the way. We regrouped at the top and went the rest of the way to mile 54 - stop 2 - Spanaway elementary school - in similar fashion. I got my first mild scare when Raghu dropped behind after the hill. I waited for him and we managed to find our way back to the rest of the paceline - phew! 54 and so far so good. Both the REI and Spanaway stops were very well stocked with food. I ate more than I should have and carried some along with me. Padma's advice came to mind - eat well during the first 100 cause that is your fuel for the second 100, and I excused myself for gorging a bit. We took a few pictures and left there shortly. Arvind did some math and declared we were about 20 minutes behind our plan - that didn't sound bad at all, but somehow I had thought we were further behind. It was 9 am.

The weather till now had been all that you could ask for as a rider. It was on the verge of cold, with dew drops forming on my helmet - wet enough that my bib # sticker on the helmet came off and I stashed it in my bento box. There was dense fog/mist and clouds and not a hint of sunlight. I don't know any other time I would praise Seattle's lack of sun this much. I was almost afraid of jinxing it. We got back on track and eventually hit a long bike trail. It was quite narrow, only allowing for 2 riders in parallel and with all the traffic, somehow Sankar, Arvind and I got a bit separated from the other 3 but I noticed a couple of times that they weren't far behind. We set up our 3 person paceline and did a fantastic job doing almost 19-20 mph at times. It was a beautiful bike trail - I thought - with volunteers blocking off roads so we didn't have to stop. In fact, in almost all the towns we passed through, traffic was usually stopped for the riders. I can't say enough about how good the local communities were to us riders. While we had 5 organized STP rest stops, there were multiple mini-stops run by the communities where we got free water and Nuun, and food for purchase. The water was a blessing and all that I really needed. We took a mini-break at mile 85 at Tenino middle school, where Sankar proclaimed the bike trail to be very boring :) Raghu and I exchanged amused glances - we had found it very beautiful! Raghu, Nahappan and Sai were almost right behind us when we stopped there.

A longer break than anticipated and we were off again. The weather was unbelievably still holding up. This was just amazing. Almost halfway and no sun. We had barely done 2 miles and again Raghu fell behind. I stopped and let the rest go. After what seemed like an eternity in my impatience, I still could not spot him behind me, and finally decided he would find his way there - it was only 13 miles after all, and we had a long break at Centralia for lunch - and raced off to catch the others. Time passed slowly, and I didn't think too much on this leg. I was behind Sankar and was impressed with how good his form was. His upper body hardly moved an inch and his spinning was very uniform and consistent. Very easy to draft behind. I tried to emulate that as much as possible. There were many others on the road, and we kept passing others or getting passed by others. One bunch went by talking and chatting away, and lo and behold, there was Raghu behind them!! He turned, smiled at us, and merrily continued along with them. We had a good laugh and decided it was the beautiful girl in their midst that had given him the extra oomph!

Centralia came and Raghu had drifted back to us and we stopped for lunch. It was exactly noon. I had been doing mental math, and I remembered from Sankar's original schedule that we were supposed to take only 6:30 to Centralia, so we were at least 45 minutes behind schedule now. We had taken exactly 7 hours for our first 100. On the positive side, I was still feeling positively fresh and good! We parked our bikes and followed the others on a quest for lunch. Not the organized STP lunch spot, for the food there was bound to be more "riding" food. No, we wanted a real nice hot meal, and I got quinoa with tofu and veggies and cheese. Mmmm…. this was delicious. Topped off with an ice cream bar. We spent a hearty 45+ minutes here and soon after we got there, the sun came out. The moment it emerged, it started feeling plenty hot, and I was happy we had got through half the ride. It would surely have been too much to expect no sun for the entire 200!

After a brief hunt for the missing Nahappan, we found him and start off on the second half of our journey. We had 8 hours and a bit for the second 100. Given how we were feeling I was feeling guardedly optimistic that we would surely pull it off now, but 100 is still a long way away so I checked myself. Besides this 100 was supposed to have rolling hills. The first part went through mostly fields and we promptly lost Raghu and Nahappan again! This was becoming a regular feature, but Raghu seemed to find his way back to us every time, so I was less worried this time. The sun was beating down more and I could feel the heat. This was the hottest time of day as well. Soon the rollers came … the rollers were not short enough that you could collect enough steam on the downhill to get to the top of the next uphill - you actually had to treat them like small hills and soon we started losing people. We pulled off for a restroom break after a moderate hill at around 111 at Napavines, where most of the 2-dayers were scheduled to stop for the night. Prakash would be staying here too!

We regrouped and started again. The rolling hills made sure everyone was spread out all over the place very soon again. Regardless, I made sure I stuck with Sankar as always. We stopped at a mini-stop at 136 for a restroom break at Castle Rock high school. I found it amusing that we had stopped at Spanaway elementary, Tenino middle and Castle Rock high in order … was it going to be some university next? :) It was decidedly hot and I started my ritual of pouring bottles of water water on my head. Very soon Raghu and Varadan caught up with us and Aravind and Sai followed. It was 3:30. Sankar didn't want to wait too long, and headed out and I went after him. Though we had stopped here, we would have to stop again at 145 as there was no food stop till 175 after that. I found keeping with him was getting easier - i wasn't sure if he was going slow to let me catch up or I was handling the conditions better. We managed to paceline up the rolling hills as well until we got to 145.

I would have checked us in but there was absolutely no signal there. It was 4:30. Raghu came in about 10 mins later and soon after, the others followed. Surprisingly there wasn't much food left at this stop, not too much variety and no vegetarian sandwiches. A tad disappointing. But we didn't need too much anyway. I realized very pleasantly that I was really feeling quite good. My shoulders were still intact and not much pain in the shoulder blades. The last few weeks prior to STP I had noticed that this pain between the shoulder blades below the neck seemed to be arriving faster and faster, especially on flats and downhills, and stretching only held it off for just so long. With advice from the coaches, I had been very consciously keeping my shoulders and neck relaxed all through the ride, and stretching at every stop and often during the ride too, and it seemed to be working! Just about everything seemed to be going right right now. Raghu and I talked and concluded (wrongly) that we had about 55 miles (it was more like 60) to cover in 4.5 hours. We had done better than that till now, but a shade of nervousness started creeping in. We had come so far, we couldn't afford to miss the 9pm cut off at this point! And for the first time I felt some impatience while waiting for the others to start riding ….. soon it got the better of me, and Raghu and I started off followed by Varadan. I tried to convince Raghu to draft behind me, but as usual he seemed happier to stay at a slight distance, enough IMO to make it pointless :) Well, he still insisted it helped my being close by so he could try to keep with me, and we pushed on till we came to the famed Lewis and Clark bridge near Kelso at about 150. I relished the climb up the bridge and raced up it, suddenly feeling new energy in the legs. Sankar had passed by just then and I was eager to catch up. It was terribly bumpy - Sankar had warned me about this earlier, and on the downslope my bottle came flying out. How it made it across one full lane of traffic and then back to the side without getting run over (and there was a ton of traffic on the bridge) is beyond me. I waited for it to come back, picked it up and made haste to regain lost time. For the first time in my life, I took a highway ramp on a bicycle! The road seemed more like a state highway - it had a broad shoulder but cars also whizzed by really fast. There must have been a strong tailwind, because at this point I was just flying. I soon caught up with Sankar, but I was feeling so good, I didn't want to stop or slow down and I just kept racing away. It seemed like I was going uphill, but I was finding it so easy - I couldn't tell if it was the tailwind or some kind of zone I had reached, like a runner's high. I was doing 19-20 mph! I finally pulled over at a mini stop at around 165 to get more water on the head - the sun was still strong and hot. Sankar caught up almost immediately and so did Raghu shortly. We pacelined for a bit while Raghu pulled, and lost him promptly when Sankar started pulling.

The two of us roared away till the next and last food stop at 172 at St. Helen's high school. It was 6:30 - we had done the last 30 miles in 1:45, and I knew there was no stopping us now. We had 2.5 hours for 30 more and I was supremely confident at this point. I checked us in and promptly Pankaj called to ask how were doing. He was with Madhu and Bhanu and we talked to all of them, assuring them we were in no need of reinforcements in the cheering squad. The food was good, but I could barely wait to get back on the road. I egged Sankar and Raghu to move quickly. Varadan had caught up and as we left Aravind and Sai came in as well. We hadn't seen Nahappan since 145 though. Raghu announced suddenly that Prakash was doing the 200 after all!! This was news to me. We had tried hard to convince him to start with us and see if maybe he could keep with us, and he had thought about it and refused, and now he was doing it anyway? From his posts, it appeared he got to Napavines early enough and didn't know what to do the rest of the day, and so decided to finish it off! And what was more - he was keeping pace with us! This was quite incredible. Whoever would have thought someone could train as little as he did and do 200 in a day?

We set out again the 3 of us … one last time I wondered if I should wait for Raghu and finish together, but I found myself too excited to slow down. Besides he looked strong and fine at 172 and clearly didn't need any help to finish well within time. And so we raced off again. Sankar said there were two more small hills at 180 and 190. I barely recognized them to be hills - we just kept chasing that finish line doing almost a steady 20 mph now. All this time I had my bike computer showing me the time so I could take my salt tabs regularly every hour. I finally changed it and started to count down the miles. Around 195 we reached Portland city, and boy was it annoying. We had to stop at so many lights, and it just kept going on and on. We finally crossed the finish line at 8:30. Raghu and I had wondered idly in training what we would do when crossing that finish line. Would we raise a fist in celebration? Would we lift both hands in jubilation? Form V for victory with both hands off the bars? I think we settled the the third option. I didn't get a chance to try anything. The finish line was somewhat dark and narrow and came somewhat suddenly. Besides there were no cameras anywhere! Now that was an omission if there was one! Before I knew it, we had stopped and a volunteer was handing me my 1-day rider badge!! I was smiling ear to ear as I took it and returned Sankar's waiting fist-bump. 15.5 hours! The last 60 miles had been our fastest!

The next 10 minutes went by real fast. I talked to Madhu, Bhanu and Pankaj, and then Raghu rolled in. I waited for him to pick up his badge, and gave him a long hug. I felt a pang of guilt that I had not waited to finish together what we started months ago. I hoped he wouldn't mind too much. Aravind and Sai came in soon thereafter. Varadan had come in before Raghu and I had missed it. After a bit Nahappan pulled in too looking in good spirits. And an hour after Raghu finished almost to the dot, Prakash rolled in looking a little exhausted but looking thrilled and picked up his badge as well. Sanjay was there to greet us and take us home. We had a fantastic meal and finally crashed for the night.

The rest of the trip went off beautifully, though without the pressure of STP looming in the near future, it was easier to be relaxed about everything. We went back to Seattle the next day, met friends separately, drove back to Portland, and on to Corvallis late on Sunday. We took a nostalgic trip down memory lane - Raghu went to grad school in Corvallis - talked at length with Apte about biking and Tour de France, and only left Corvallis at 2:30 on Monday afternoon. We still made it just in time to the wildlife safari near Roseburg on the way back - a well kept Oregon secret - and spent a good deal of time with the animals. Prakash put the sunroof to good use - I think its the first time anyone has stuck their head out of that in my car! We drove back to more podcasts and music through the night and made it home in the early hours of Tuesday morning - 5 am. Spent but very very satisfied.

It was a wonderful trip, and I don't mean just Thursday through Tuesday. No, the trip started way earlier, when we decided to do STP in a day. The journey is the training and everything else. It was very educational as well. We took rather different approaches to the end goal, and I had serious misgivings about Raghu's training, but I have to hand it to him … he did a fantastic job in the end. We are of very different breeds - I am more conservative and methodical, and Raghu is more of a free-spirit, throwing caution to the winds and appearing brazenly confident. Maybe he knows much better about himself than I do. Regardless, I am thrilled it worked. Maybe there is something there for me to learn :) And if I thought Raghu's training wasn't good enough, what is there to be said about Prakash's - his max was an 88 mile ride with a nice hour long lunch in the middle. Maybe these guys are just really strong riders that don't need the training! For my part, I accept that I was probably a little overtrained ….. in the end it felt much easier than I thought it would be. I finished stronger and fresher than any race I had been in till now, and considering we had just done 15.5 hours of endurance activity that was pretty darn good.

It was immense fun, and my great thanks to Prakash and Raghu for being a part of this. Doing it alone would have been immensely tougher and nowhere near as fun. Thanks also to Anshu for the motivation and inspiration, and the Seattle folks for the plan, the company, and the confidence. But most of all, thanks to Raghu for humoring me on my demanding training schedule and idiosyncrasies - there are few, if any, I would rather have done this with than him!