On a glorious fall day, 360 bicyclists intentionally rode out of Jensen Point in an event with the word “pain” in its title.
Many hours and miles later they rode back to down a taco feast and share stories from the day. At the finish area, when asked how it went, they universally said “awful” with a little grin. Great weather, no smoke and excellent ferry karma: organizers and cyclists couldn’t have asked for more.
The annual ride is a fundraiser for the Vashon Island Junior Rowing program and three other charities on the island. This year, those participating were the Vashon Food Bank, Vashon Youth and Family Services and Journeymen/One Village.
Passport2Pain, or P2P as it is frequently referred to, was started by a group of master rowers looking for an off-water cross-training activity. They searched all the many challenging hills on Vashon’s back roads to string together an 80-mile circuit. From the beginning it was characterized by the twisted humor that shared suffering induces.
This year, on Sept. 13, the theme was Monty Python, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the movie, “Monty Python and Holy Grail.” As fans of this movie would recognize, there were many knights, rabbits, slices of spam, coconuts and shrubbery at play in this year’s P2P.
Seventeen checkpoints along the course provided ample fluids, food and entertainment. With muffins and coffee at the dawn start, a sandwich stop in the middle, and tacos at the finish, riders typically don’t end up with a caloric deficit. The ride is widely viewed as best supported amongst all Pacific Northwest events on the annual bicycle calendar.
About 60 percent of the riders sign up for the 80-mile “Idiot” course that circumnavigates Vashon clockwise before heading out to Maury to do the same.
That course touts 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. The 50-mile “Weasel” course skips Maury, and the 30-mile “Weenie” cuts the Vashon route roughly in half. But don’t let these monikers fool you – the Weenie —with about 3,000 feet of climbing — is anything but. There is even a shorter route that goes into downtown Vashon labeled the Tourist which has become popular, especially with families.
An effort like P2P isn’t possible without an enormous stable of volunteers — in fact, there is about one volunteer for every two riders. These included junior and master rowers, parents of junior rowers and members of the other charities, as well as other volunteers from Vashon and the surrounding communities — P2P thanks you!
Some statistics: 21% of the riders were women, 54% were older than 50, a quarter of the riders were from Vashon with some coming from as far away as Maine and Massachusetts (thirty-five cyclists were from out-of-state) and half of the riders had not ridden the course before.
Although we have offered a shuttle before from the ferries to Jensen Point and a return after the ride, we did this in a more organized manner this year and sixty riders took advantage of the service. In addition to reducing traffic on the Burton Loop, the shuttle greatly reduces Ferry Derangement Syndrome if the system is backed up at the end of the day.
Finishing the “Idiot” is crazy hard but every year one or more riders go above and beyond. One year, a young man made P2P the bike leg of an Ironman triathlon (swimming back and forth across Quartermaster Harbor prior to the ride and running dock to dock to dock afterwards).
In another case, a rider rode from Woodinville to Fauntleroy, rested on the ferry, rode to the start at Jensen Point, rode the Idiot and then reversed his route back to Woodinville. Last year, an Idiot did all the big hills twice. This year that same person became the first “double Idiot” starting at 1 a.m. and completing the first “lap” in time to be at the starting line with the rest of the riders.
There are a lot of sore people around Vashon this week, but by next week all that will remain are the fond memories of camaraderie, watermelon and a nine-foot-tall knight at the finish line who said “Ni”.
Pat Call, who writes about non-traditional sports for The Beachcomber, chaired this year’s P2P event and when asked how it went, said “awful” (not really).
An “Idiot” route riders dismounts her steed under the watchful eye of the knight who said “Ni.” (Martha Ormseth Photo)
