What a difference a day and two gallons of fluid make.

After a day of cramping I decided not to head back to Centralia, but rather ride the final 56 miles from Kelso to Portland with the rest of my team.

Don’t worry, I intend to cut off a quarter of my finishers patch because I only rode about 150 of the 200 miles. I also rode the final 50 miles with a mark of disgrace. My wife took a highlighter to my bib number, 9150. She crossed out the 9 and circled and highlighted the 150 to draw attention to how many miles I was actually riding.

As painful as my killer cramps were Saturday, the heat was much crueler to another member of our team.

Rick Beitelspacher of Puyallup finished the first 150 miles strong Saturday and looked fine at dinner. But before he could order he excused himself back to his room.

By 1 a.m. he asked his wife, Kim, to take him to the hospital where he was treated for dehydration. He smartly chose to sleep in Saturday while Scott Wagar and Russ Meyers and I finished the ride.

I was a little nervous getting back on the bike, but I actually felt pretty strong. Russ and Scott on the other hand are always strong.

Russ is a cycling nut (he’s in a Tour de France fantasy league) and Scott is naturally fit (he didn’t even break a sweat in the 90 degree heat).

Once we crossed the bridge over the Columbia River into Oregon we flew into Portland with just one stop in St. Helens. We maintained a 23 mph pace for about 10 miles before Russ got a flat tire.

We were over 20 mph most of the way into Portland before the slow final roll through the city dropped our average to 18.6 mph.

After we crossed the finish line, hugged our kids and kissed our wives we posed for a picture. For good measure we called Rick at the hotel and held up the phone to complete the team picture.

The team photo at the finish. (L-R) Russ Meyers, me, Scott Wagar. That's Rick Beitelspacher on the cell phone.

Read tomorrow’s News Tribune for a story about some of the people I met along the route this weekend. Until then here are some interesting folks I met but couldn’t squeeze into the article:

- The four-person Braden family of Port Townsend did the entire ride on one bike. Dawn Braden and her 11-year-old daughter pedaled the first 150-miles on a tandem bike on Saturday. Sunday her husband, Peter, and 8-year-old son Tate finished the ride.
Tate hates wearing sunscreen – a must in 90 degree heat – so he compromised by wearing long sleeves and knee-high yellow socks.

- Mike and Alex Blore of Bellevue were a little older father-daughter couple doing the ride on a tandem. Alex is Mike’s 21-year-old daughter and joked that she sometimes fell asleep on the back of the bike making her dad do all the work.

- I met Team Tailwind in St. Helens, Ore.. The team of six men – Phil Meyer, Pat Burton, Matt Kincade, Tim Hegg, Kelly Cammack and Steve Blann – have done a combined 21 STPs and 10 of those belong to Phil. Phil owns Phil’s Cyclery in Federal Way.
While they enjoy the STP it’s probably not their favorite ride. The men are partial to their ride, the May Day Metric held the first Sunday of May in Federal Way.
The ride is best known for passing out Twinkies and Ding Dongs at rest stops. It also has a fire pit and hot soup for riders at the 50-mile mark and riders get a slice of apple or mixed berry pie at the finish line.
“No pie at the finish today,” Phil said. “Just beer.”