Stefan Furst, LMT Documents the Ride.
Amtrak left at 8:45am Saturday from the Vancouver Train station. 3 hours later it dropped us of at the King Street station in Seattle. Paul and I made our way along the waterfront, passed Pikes market to the Seattle center. That is where the Livestrong foundation took home for this weekend, changing the park to yellow colors. It made the center look bright in the drizzle, but the forecast was better for the next day: am drizzle, partly sunny! We saw familiar faces and met Erica from SANCA(School of Acrobatics and new circus arts) for dinner.
7am Sunday morning, the street lined with cyclists and Doug Ulman sent us on our way, with an inspiring speech. Down 5th avenue, beneath Monorail to the I-90 freeway, across Lake Washington, over the floating bridge to Mercer Island. About 30 miles into the ride it started raining, and the rain got stronger each mile of cycling. Paul got a short break, while I made my way up and down Tiger Mountain. It felt like going upstream and downstream, because there was so much water on the road. Coming down was especially tricky, so I only went 45 mph on this decent. Paul joined me for a couple miles, and stopped for lunch. Since he is doing the 70 mile ride, our friend Erica is watching him while I am riding my extra miles to make it a 100 for me. I caught up with a group of strong cyclists and we raced around Lake Sammamish in record time. When Paul jumped back on his Fuji Junior race bike, I had 70 miles down and 30 to go. Cougar Mountain is a 5 mile climb and it was still raining fairly strong. Coming down that hill gave us all chills, because of the soaked clothes we had after 40 miles cycling in the pouring rain. At rest stop #6, every cyclist was given an emergency blanket, and hot cider. I never liked hot cider till this day. Back on the bike you ask yourself the question: why am I doing this! Then you see a Cancer survivor walking his bike up a hill with a flat tire. He blew three flats and was out of CO2 cartridges (to inflate the tire). We stopped and gave him one, and made sure he got back on his bike alright. He had the biggest smile on his face and thanked us, not only for the cartridge, also for raising money and awareness for his cause. Making our way to the last rest stop, was maybe the toughest part. We have seen 2 cyclists crashing earlier, but on a steep downhill one cyclist blew a tire and came down so hard, that his helmet cracked and caused some facial abrasion. But a Livestrong support car and other cyclist could help and comfort him already. The last 10 miles we had Cancer survivor David along us, and he guided us through the car crowded streets of Seattle. We stopped with a mile to go and took of our rain jacket (yes, I was wearing it all day), for the finishing photos. Even with the rain still coming down the Livestrong cheerleaders stayed all day and greeted us with enthusiasm. After some great food and drinks, it was time to jump into the shower to clean up. Lesson to be learned would be not to were white socks on a day like that. A wet suit would be better suited for this day. Paul was not complaining all day, and got lots of good feedback from many of the 1600 cyclists out on the road. Like me, he is committed to the Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation, and will ride again next year. I just hope for better weather some day.
I wish I could stop Cancer from killing people with my actions. The money I raised is going towards research and support, and I take a day in the rain over having to fight cancer. So, to my two co-workers Molly and Ron, my old friends Daniela, Gianni, congratulations on successfully beating Cancer.
To all of my sponsors, especially Merilyn, Clients and Staff at Back in Motion: Thank you!
LiveStrong and healthy!
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