Every year before the Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic , I reach out to riders to hear their stories. It never ceases to amaze me what baggage people are riding with as the pedal down the road. And I'm not talking about what's in their panniers. David S. was diagnosed with spina bifida occulta in 1980 and was supposed to be in very bad shape by now at age 63. He has managed to buck that prediction, finishing his 16th one-day STP. He rides with a brace, a leather weight lifting belt with ace bandages wrapped around it. "I just saw the doctor and had an MRI," he wrote. "The doctor said that I had completely stopped the degeneration that was supposed to happen to my back." Jamie B. said her husband first road the event with his parents just before starting high school and it gave him a huge boost of confidence. "He still had his 1997 STP jacket hanging in our closet, faded and wrinkled to sight yet its significance had not faded at all," she said. Fast forward 12 years, and he rode it again, this time making a video . Jamie watched the video over and over again before deciding that she, too, was ready to try. Her friends and family enveloped her in support, encouragement and inspiration as she made it to the finish. Jerry T. rode the event with a new aortic valve. (A new aortic valve, people!) Michael H. rode on new knees. (New knees, people!) Scott G. rode after an emergency appendectomy in mid-June. (Appendectomy, people!) Read more and see photos after the jump
