Lael Loyd Tackles the 'Impossible'

SEATTLE/PORTLAND – Lael Loyd, manager of Dayton's Wenaha Gallery, may have not known anyone else who took part in the Cascade Bicycle Club's 2015 Seattle-to-Portland ride, but she says she was far from alone. Loyd said she felt and experienced the presence of friends and family with every push of the pedal during the 206.2 mile ride earlier this month.

"It was literally the best experience of my life," Loyd said of the ride. "I've finally found my thing. It took me 30-plus years to realize I had a thing and this is apparently it. It's something that I can't imagine living without. And the biggest thing for me was that unconditional support I experienced from the time I decided to do it, to the actual event."

Loyd still describes herself as a relatively novice biker. She says her husband, Richard, has been an avid mountain biker for years, but that she could never keep up with him on rides. The couple began riding together in northwest tandem rallies several years ago, so that she could keep pace.

She said they also rode in some sponsored rides, the longest being 65-75 miles, but that she didn't understand about "bike fit and all of that" and it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as it could have been. It was when her mother-in-law loaned her a proper road bike in 2011 that her outlook changed.

"The difference between a road bike and a mountain bike on the road is amazing," Loyd said. "It was like flying on asphalt!"

After that she began riding more extensively, and in 2012 she purchased her own bike, a raspberry-colored Specialized RUBY Elite Apex that she named Ruby.

Loyd said Richard prefers the power and strength of flying down the trail on a mountain bike while she likes participating in sponsored rides.

"I prefer the endurance, and the joy of the ride, for me, is that you get to enjoy what you're doing and see what's going on," she said.

Loyd said she was immediately drawn to the idea of the STP ride when she first heard about it three years ago.

"If you're a hiker you might want to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and if you're a mountain climber, you might want to climb Mount Everest. To me, the STP was Mount Everest. When I first started thinking about it I didn't think I could do it. I couldn't even wrap my head around riding 206 miles," she said.

Loyd said she mentally committed to the STP ride while on the 8 Lakes Leg Aches sponsored ride outside Spokane in 2013. Loyd said she and a woman in her mid-60's, riding a bike that wasn't even a true road bike, were poking up a hill together as the woman recounted her recent knee surgery. The woman then added that she and a friend were going to ride in the STP that year.

"I had to ask myself then, 'what is my excuse?'" Lloyd said. She let the next year slip by but decided 2015 was her year and committed by putting dates on her calendar and talking about it with others.

"I signed up with a group called Sufferfest. They really mock you through the pain and agony," Loyd said, laughing.

She began training in January and completed the structured Sufferfest beginner and intermediate 10-week training programs, which are a combination of indoor rides on a trainer and longer outdoor rides. Cyclists watch streaming workout videos, complete with music, instruction, and "mocking," during the high-intensity indoor interval workouts.

Loyd says fellow cyclist and Dayton dentist Mike Strang has been her biggest support on the road, and she began referring to him as her coach as the ride drew near.

"I still don't understand all the technical stuff. I can verbalize how something feels and if it's not right, Mike can instruct me in those microscopic changes that make all the difference," she said.

Loyd said that had it not been for the support of others, she would have quit back in the beginner segment of her training. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done. They're basically breaking you down and then building you back up," she said.

That's when she began to really appreciate the support of friends on Facebook and encouragement from outside sources.

"When I would tell Richard I wanted to quit he would say, 'It doesn't have to be pretty is just has to get done,'" she said.

Loyd took that support with her to the STP starting line at the University of Washington in Seattle on July 11 where she joined 10,000 riders from seven countries and 45 states in the largest multi-day bicycle event in the northwest.

"People would ask if I was alone and I wanted to say, 'No! Can't you see the hundred people here with me?!" Loyd said.

Loyd's mother had "Yay Lael" shirts printed; friends posted encouragement on Facebook, texted scriptures and support, and followed her in real time on a GPS app. Richard drove support vehicle and would "pop up" unexpectedly along a bridge or roadside along the way to offer encouragement.

"I put out there that I needed prayers for my butt on the second day and people would be like, 'yeah, praying for your butt,'" she said laughing.

Loyd said the ride itself was a great experience, and loved the sense of camaraderie shared by cyclists of all ages, fitness levels and skill levels. She rode 102 miles the first day and spent the night at her parent's home in Lacey, Wash. before heading back to Centralia to head off the next morning.

"All the fears that I had before I left were completely taken care of as I rode. I really felt like I fit in and was a part of something," Loyd said.

One of the many highlights of her ride was the 12-mile segment that went through Joint Base Lewis-McChord military base, where her brother had been stationed. There was almost no traffic and military planes and vehicles were on display.

Loyd said arriving at the finish line in Portland was like "the best party ever. I felt like a total celebrity."

Loyd said the biggest take-away from the experience was learning the extent to which people cared and what her ride meant to them.

"The experience was overwhelming on so many levels," she said. "The ride itself was phenomenal and was the best first STP ever, but what made it was just everything that surrounded it. The reason I set out to do the STP was that it seemed like an impossibility. Then, to come back and realize that it had little to nothing to do with the actual ride, as much as it did everything else on the other side."

Loyd said she is "absolutely" planning to ride the STP again next year and hopes to take as many people with her – both physically, and in spirit – as she can.