STP, Day 1, continued

So where was I? Oh yeah. Perry. Doing well, alert, biking responsibly and quickly! This was going well.

After the REI stop, there was more biking around Puyallup. The big Thing was the anticipation of The Hill.

It's The Hill, yes, capitalised. One of the STP rites of passages, the one people talk about (how'd you do with The Hill?). Me, myself? I mostly walked it the first time, and the second time, the same, but it was instrumental in killing me enough that the bloody blisters on my butt (I was taking Accutane. It thins the skin. OUCH!) were just the final straw. (The second time I attempted STP I wanted to avoid the enourmous weight gain I'd had the first time, and decided to stick to Weight Watchers Points, despite the amount of exercise I was doing. This did not work, and I bonked. Took a long time to get my blood sugar back up, and I was shaky, I had blisters, and I was DONE. This time I decided I'd eat and take the weight gain, which was pretty bad but not awful. Anyhow.)

The other issue with The Hill? There is a light at the bottom and it's invariably red, so you start from a dead stop. Which we did.

And up we went.

Dh and Perry are better hill climbers than I, and off they headed. Me, I followed, flipping down gears as the road got steeper. Granny gear, eventually, but I kept going. I made it without walking, and I was completely thrilled! Perry and dh were waiting for me at the top, but not for long, and off we went, having braved and overcome an STP bugaboo! More on The Hill later.

The Hill is where I encounted my first asshole rider. I was having some problems shifting (which didn't go away on the rest of the ride, but I learned to deal with them) so I told dh and Perry to go ahead, I was exploring gears. There were a few hundred meters ahead of me and this guy started drafting me. He was REAL close, much too close for comfort, so I asked him to back off. He ignored me. I slowed down. He slowed down. I stopped, which I didn't want to do. He had to pass me then, and I boggled at his attire. He was in full Israel regalia. Bike jersey, with an Israeli flag, blue and white bike, pretty pretty pretty, wtih stars of David stencilled on it, Israeli flag bike SOCKS, and more stars of David on his helmet. I have to say, he looked impressive, though I'm not fond of white bike shorts on men, and I'm glad I never got to see that! (Men should not wear any colour bike shorts but black. Google polish cycling team if you don't beleive me.) I got some water, and got back on my bike to get going. Get going. Three seconds later... he's behind me AGAIN. Grr. I wasn't able to lose him until the lunch stop. After lunch I saw him head out right before we did, drafting on a group that was clearly together and he wasn't. The problem wasn't the drafting, really. People do that. It was how close he was drafting. Dangerous. And not backing off when I asked him to.

I caught up with Perry and dh, my drafter still drafting, and we got to the top of a hill. A group passed us. I noticed the young woman in the group. She barely had any clothes on, as in biking in a teeny tank top and teeny shorts. I don't know what else I noticed about her, but it was something because I had a bad feeling.

A few minutes later, we were at the bottom of the hill, traffic was being diverted, and the gal I'd just seen was standing skakily, her bike on one side of the road, her body on the other. Blood freaking everywhere. Road rash, and at least one severe gash on her elbow. Ugh.

That shook me up a bit.

Anyhow, we got to lunch! Boy this is getting long.

We grabbed some quick food, Perry went to get in line for Free! Jamba Juice. I went to get in line for the potties. Which were far from the food, and the lines were humongo. I think I waited almost 30 minutes.

More food, and then I saw a triplet, a triple tandem come in. Dad with his two kids. They parked it right next to us... And I'll have to finish this later. Dh and the kids are ready to go!