100,000 Miles and 35 STPs: at 79, Art Burrill is Still Chasing Big Cycling Goals

  • Art Burrill’s hand-written logbook is a 34-year history of his bike life, documenting his mileage, STP facts, bicycles, riding partners, triumphs, injuries, and losses.
  • Now 79, Art plans to ride 3,000 miles and finish his 33rd STP in 2025.
  • His goal: 100,000 miles and 35 STPs by age 81.
     
Riding my electric cargo bike is my favorite thing

Paul Tolmé

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Art during STP 2022

Art Burrill, 79, has been logging his cycling miles in an old-school spiral-bound notebook since 1991, the year he took up biking seriously and completed his first Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic.

The facts, stats, dates, names, and notes documented in pencil are an archive of one man’s passion for biking, goal setting, and life on the move.

His year-end entries for 2024 show he rode 4,400 miles last year, spun 700 miles on his indoor trainer (which he rides in winter), and surpassed 91,200 miles over the past 33 years.

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Art's logbook

“I’m a person who sets goals,” says Art, a cheerful and retired steam fitter who lives in West Seattle. Also a devoted runner, he has logged more than 24,100 running miles since 1978.

“I look healthy but I’ve had triple-bypass surgery and I’ve got diabetes. Between biking and running, I think that’s why I’m still here.”

Art turns 80 in October, and he has a goal of at least 35 STPs, 100,000 biking miles, and 25,000 running miles. “I should be able to do that in three years if I ride 3,000 miles per year.”

For context, 100,000 miles is more than 12 flights between Seattle and Australia. That’s a lot of biking!

Register now and join Art on STP 2025!

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Art looking refreshed at the end of STP
Looking refreshed and ready to ride back to Seattle after completing STP.

Biking Through Loss

In an era of big data and cloud storage, Art’s spiral notebook is a reminder of simpler times and the value of storing memories. The handwritten notes offer a glimpse into Art’s life, loves,  losses, friendships, and bikes.

“Nancy passed on 10-19-14,” reads an entry for 2014, the year his late wife, a career school teacher, died. 

It was Nancy’s idea to ride STP for the first time in 1991. They had bought two Motobecane road bikes in 1980. “We would only ride one or two times per year until she came up with the idea to ride the STP,” Art says.

After Nancy died, Art logged 5,000 miles (his highest annual total) in 2015 as he pedaled through his grief. He has topped 4,000 miles every year since, slowing in pace but increasing his mileage through his 70s. 

“When Nancy passed I had more time to ride,” he says. “Biking gave me something to do.”

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Art rides with Gruppetto Cycling

Training Partners, Favorite Rides, and Cotton Sweats

Art’s logbook is sprinkled with the names of his STP riding partners, some gone and others living: Debra, Gordon, Lisa, Rich, Paul, Bill, Evan, Rob, Tim, Mark, and, starting in 2020 his new training partner Merilyn. 

Art has learned a lot about biking since that first STP in 1991. “I had the cheapest pair of bike shorts, a cotton T-shirt and cotton sweats,” he says. “It rained like crazy and I was a sponge. My blood sugar got low and I bonked.”

He learned that proper cycling apparel and fueling up on food are critical to success. The only STPs he missed were in 2004 and 2009 due to injuries–all recorded in his logbook.

Art grew up in Lake City, and he fondly remembers his first childhood bike: a three-speed Schwinn with an odometer and speedometer connected to a friction roller on his front tire. “I remember getting 1,000 miles on the odometer and I was like, ‘Wow, 1000 miles!’”

Little did he know that someday he’d be tripling and quadrupling that number. His favorite training ride now is an 80-miler out to the Issaquah Troll and back to Queen Anne, where Brenda, his new girlfriend, lives.

Judging from Art’s positive attitude, cheerful disposition and fortitude, there are many more chapters to come in the logbook of Art’s bike life. We look forward to celebrating his 100,000-mile goal with Art when he turns 81.

Register Now and Join Art on STP 2025!

Planning for a Lasting Legacy

Art has also ridden RSVP, Chilly Hilly, and other Cascade rides many times. He is grateful to Cascade for enabling his bike life and for its mission of spreading the joy of bicycling.

Art donates annually to Cascade, and he has included the organization in his will. He encourages other retirees to include Cascade in their estate planning.

“I like Cascade’s mission," he says. "It’s a really worthy cause.”

Learn about including Cascade in your estate plans 
 

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