Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Bridge pedal

On Sunday I was one of the 20,000 riders of the Portland bridge pedal. I did the 8 bridge/24 mile ride which covers most of the bridges except the sellwood bridge. I went as far up at the St. John's bridge. I left my house at 7:35, got there at 8 and by the time I got through registration and the queue to start, I didn't get going until 8:30. The Marquam bridge was a big party and you had to walk your bike to get through. As it was, I slipped under the police tape to the side just to get through a little faster. As a result, I missed the water there. The next stop was out of water. And then my chain got stuck between the gears. I had to walk to the top of the Freemont bridge and then wait to get help from the mechanic's station there. That took about a half hour. I ended up walking the last portion up the St. John's because I was tired by then and it's kinda steep. I swear, the wind was blowing against me to and from the St. John's. I finished at 12. It took me another half hour to drag my self home afterwards. My ass is still sore from the ride.

3 comments:

xire said...

uh, who's going to judge you? It wasn't competitive. The whole thing was more of a party when you got to the top of the major bridges (I-5 northbound and the 405) I did it with my crappy, heavy, steel frame bike with knobby tires, so it couldn't have been that hard.

gl. said...

why did you decide to do it?

xire said...

Someone at work was doing it. He asked me if i wanted to do it also.