i rode my bike to portland!

SWEET BABY!

i’m riding my bike to portland!

i don’t know how this happened, but i got suckered into doing STP - an annual event where 10,o00 people from all over the world lather on butt cream, put on spandex shorts, and hop on their bike for a 200 mile ride from seattle to portland.

it was never my intent to do anything remotely serious with cycling when i bought my first bike a few years ago — a hybrid road/mountain bike for a couple hundred bucks at target. generally speaking, i would go for maybe 10 miles per ride  (15 if it was a really nice day, or if i had a lot of soul-searching to do). i would usually ride at night when there weren’t many cyclists out on the trails (the big groups that rode during the day were too intimidating), and i would usually ride because i wanted some quiet space to process dennis’s death. it was more for my spiritual/psychological health than for anything physical.

a couple months ago, my friend started bugging me about signing up for STP. every time i saw him, he’d try to get me to sign up, telling me how fun it would be, how it’d be an adventure. initially i refused — almost entirely because i didn’t think it was possible for me. 200 miles is really far. i was certain i didn’t have it in me. but he kept pushing. then i finally gave in. i didn’t come to any new conclusions, and nothing had really changed. i just simply caved.

bye seattle supersonics =\

i am gonna miss the sonics. they were a big part of my childhood – i loved “working” on my math homework while watching the sonics game on tv, and i loved waking up in the morning to read the game’s box score in the seattle times. despite a 41 year legacy, greed and inept leadership from the city had the final say. 

oh, howard schultz. we bought your $4 latte’s, and in return you sold a seattle icon away. disgusting.  

kemp’s 10 greatest dunks — what a showman. #1 will definitely be one of my enduring memories.

gary payton + shawn kemp = great memories.

ray allen’s 3-point barrage. this is just absolutely ridiculous — especially that last shot.  

it’s not about the bike

about a year ago, i decided to buy a bike.

the week before i made the purchase, i had a dream about biking, where i was cruising along the burke-gilman trail past gasworks park. i had nowhere to go and nowhere i had to be, i could just enjoy the ride, the view, and the night. the dream turned into a daydream at work the next day — the happiness & calm i felt that night really startled me. it made me nostalgic for my childhood, where i spent much of my time biking with my brother in our relatively large back yard that doubled as a basketball court in the rainier valley. i loved rolling around with my training wheels, dorky helmet (that featured some cool pink streaks!), and stupid grin, chasin’ dennis around. that was a time when everything was perfect.

it was a total impulse buy. if i had thought it out more carefully, i wouldn’t have bought the bike. despite the fact that i hadn’t hopped on a bike since elementary school (and really didn’t know if i’d even like it now), i went to a sporting goods store near my parents house and dropped a couple hundred bucks on a cruddy mountain-road hybrid bike. fortunately for me, it was something i instantly loved.

what’s it like to be a giants fan right now?

this is the most ridiculous play ever. wow.

the game was over when the patriots went up with some two minutes left. the game was REALLY over when the giants return man got dropped at the 15 yard line on the kick-off. they kept finding themselves in third down situations — and somehow, they kept converting them. then, in the third down play in the video above, eli manning evades the grasps of a few 300lbs+ linemen, and throws up a prayer. then the miracle catch that shocked (a record) 97 million households… how the heck did tyree — a nobody slot receiver — pin the ball to his helmet? it was just incredible. you gotta believe fate carried them the rest of the way.