Portland Bridge Pedal 2009

Last weekend I participated in one of the most fun weekends I've had this year. Nate, Nate's Dad David, a friend of the family Tim and I decided to participate in the Portland, OR annual Bridge Pedal event. It's a bike event that takes you over 6, 8, 9, or 11 different Portland bridges depending on which route you sign up for. We decided to take the plunge and sign-up for the 11 bridge route which would take us across 37 miles of hills, bridges, freeways, and side-streets. As it had been about a month since I'd been on a bike I was a little nervous about how I would do. Overall, though, I'd say I did really well. Here's a map of the route we took:

We started the morning at about 6am with a yummy breakfast, got into our biking gear (a BIG thank you to David for the padded pants - they made a HUGE difference in my soreness the next day), and drove out to our starting point to start biking at 7am. Once there we had a minor hiccup in that Tim, one of the Carstens' former exchange students, had gotten lost on the way to the starting point and was in danger of missing the first couple of bridges as we were on an 8am deadline to get across this one bride (Sellwood) which closed down to bikes and opened back up to traffic. Eventually Nate, David, and I said that we'd start the biking and keep in touch with Tim to know if we needed to meet up later on in the route. It turned out that Tim is a fast biker as we weren't even across the second bridge when he caught up to us. That was his work-out for the day!

David, Me, and Tim on break!

During the bike ride we past a lot of interesting sights. There was the man on the old-fashioned bike that stood up much taller than the crowd, a tandom bike with four people and a baby carriage in back, and a woman with a seat that squeaked the entire time she was pedaling, among other things. There were also a couple of accidents that I hope everyone recovered from. The scariest one was around the second or third bridge just as you were leveling off from the downhill side. It looked like the rider lost his balance or ran into the barrier, but either way the bike was all twisted and the rider was taken away in an ambulance. Very scary! And a great lesson in the necessity of helmets and caution.

What Great Form I Have!

Towards the end of the bike ride my thighs were deciding between being pretty much mush or screaming in agony. Luckily, though, Nate was there to help push me up the big hills. It was a sweet surprise the first time. I was biking along trying to keep up a good steady pace (I was the slow rider out of the four of us) as to not get too far behind everyone, when suddenly I felt this reassuring hand on my back and my bike just flew! It was much nicer having the help up the hill to keep up with everyone. I'm sure I could have done it on my own, as I was NOT getting off the bike and walking, I would have just done it at a much slower pace. Around hill four or five, which was the very end of the day I was praying for that hand on my back again. I'd worked myself out of energy!

Nate and I taking a break!

Overall, though, I had a great day. So much of a great day that I'm actually thinking of buying a road bike and better gear and taking up biking. We finished the route in about 3.5 to 4 hours and I burned (as I was wearing my heart rate monitor) over 2,000 calories!!! Great exercise! The rest of the day was spent in exhaustion, though. We got back to his parent's house, had lunch, took a 1.5 hour nap, got in the car to drive back to the Tri-Cities, I took another 1.5 hour nap, got home, and I was in bed by 9pm (a very early night). My little body was tired!

I DID IT!!!

All in all, a lot of fun and something I DEFINITELY want to sign up for next year.