Reflections on the STP Finish Line
When I (with some gentle pushing from my wife) decided to get more involved with the PBC, I hadn’t intended to go from zero to 60 in one step. The club’s need for a finish line coordinator (thanks to Eric Hendricks’s decision to ride the STP this year – the nerve!) got me thinking that maybe I could do it. I ride with Eric fairly often and talked with him about it. Of course, in his eagerness to pawn the job off on me (ha ha), he gave me the encouragement to give it a go. My only experience with the STP was riding it in two days more than half my lifetime ago.
So, I jumped in around January and quickly connected with the incredible group of people who are essential to our work on the STP: Ann Morrow, Lynn Blanchard, Corey Eng, Dave McQuery, Eric Hendricks, Scott Poindexter, Joel Loh, and others who started bringing me up to speed as we problem-solved some issues from last year. I discovered how much of a team effort this was going to be and breathed a little easier knowing that I didn’t have to do it all. ✎
As the months went by, I communicated (mostly by email) with scores of people, ensuring that we had all the necessary permits and contracts. Our PBC team often asked or reminded me about items or procedures I may have overlooked, but they were always supportive and patient with me. (I know there’s supposed to be no such thing as a dumb question, but I felt like I asked a few of those.) I was pleased to enlist the help of the Benson High School Cheer Team, who supplemented the effort of the Prairie High School wrestling team.
Things seemed to be rolling around OK, and then the end of June came. The you-know-what hit the proverbial fan, and I began to realize that I had to switch to a different mode. The emails were flying, and the details were coming together. A couple of trips to Costco for water and other beverages, sign-making, printing maps and permits, etc., started filling my days. I know that I didn’t work as hard as Lynn (isn’t she amazing?), but it was feeling like a real job.
Before I realized it, we were out of the planning stage and into the doing stage. I found myself working on things I didn’t expect to do: helping to load bikes, schlepping water, setting out road signs, and more. I also had to deal with a couple of issues, which are worth sharing:
First, I was given the ultimate power – calling to get cars towed who were in the way of our operation. That took some patience, but I gained greater respect for the Portland Police, who were quick to call a tow truck. (And I felt no pity for the car-owners who had ignored the warning signs.)
The most memorable event, though, was the Tri-met bus, whose young driver thought it was okay to drive past a large “road closed” barricade and come up NE 11th Avenue almost to the finish line. When she realized she had goofed, she released her passengers and started to turn the bus around, only to get stuck horizontally stretching from one side of the street to the other. She ran over a sturdy orange cone, which got wedged between the bus’s axle and tie-rod. A few of us tried unsuccessfully to remove the cone. She called her supervisor, who gave it a try. Finally, he and I were able to pull out the offending cone, and the driver eventually turned the bus around and left. Boy, was she embarrassed! Will she still have a job? By the way, the soap in the DoubleTree bathrooms was excellent at degreasing my hands and arms.
There were a few glitches here and there, but to no surprise, somebody or other figured out what to do. What a terrific group of team leaders, volunteers, and board members! Guess I’m stuck with the job now. See you all at the STP next summer.
Richard Rosenberg, STP Volunteer Coordinator