Redmond resident Tim Grieb will be one of 10,000 riders in the Cascade Bicycle Club’s 30th annual Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP) this Saturday and Sunday, July 11-12.
It’s not Grieb’s first time in the STP. He completed the 202.25 mile route in 2004. But less than a year later, a brush with death left him doubting he’d ever ride again.
NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL
In April 2005, Grieb was driving around the University District, on a lunch break from his job as a financial analyst at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
He suddenly felt sharp pain in his back and chest and started to sweat profusely.
“I got out of the car, tried to breathe through the pain,” but it wasn’t going away, said Grieb.
He drove himself to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, not quite realizing that he should have called 9-1-1. The Overlake operating room was busy and he was sent by ambulance to Swedish Medical Center.
It was there that he was diagnosed with an aortic dissection, a tear in the major artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. It’s the same kind of medical emergency that caused the death of TV and film star John Ritter.
Grieb received a temporary patch in his aorta “to hold things together until I could get a better planned and more comprehensive surgery,” he explained.
For the next three years, he was stuck in a “wait and watch pattern,” as doctors monitored his heart condition. Throughout that time, his physical activity was severely limited.
In May 2008, he underwent another surgery, overseen by Dr. Craig Miller of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, “who is famous for replacing aortic arches,” said Grieb. During the 11-hour surgery, a mechanical aortic valve was installed and 10 inches of Grieb’s aortic arch was replaced. He nearly died and required 40 units of blood products. He was kept in a coma for 48 hours.
“I thought I’d wake up on a Wednesday and instead woke up on a Friday,” he recalled.
However, not long after the ordeal, Grieb got the green light from Miller to “push myself as hard as I could,” said Grieb. The doctor’s advice was, “Do anything you want, except for crazy, 250-pound bench presses.”
That was good news, but it took lots of positive self-talk to get back in the saddle, so to speak.
“When I started training again, I thought, ‘I don’t know if I have it in me’,” Grieb said. “My confidence improved but it took a while to get back onto a bike after three years.”
RIDING OUT OF A RUT
He took his first post-operative ride in March of this year, traveling 10 miles. Then it was a 20-mile ride around Mercer Island, “in the snow,” he noted.
Little by little, Grieb began to believe he really could exercise without fear of another medical crisis. In mid-June, he completed the Flying Wheels Century, with scenic loops throughout Puget Sound, in about nine hours. Two weekends ago, he rode all around Lake Washington one day and around Lake Sammamish the next day. He’s averaging about 50 miles on his bike each day.
Folks participate in the STP for a multitude of reasons — fun, fellowship, to enjoy the scenery. In Grieb’s case, “I just wanted to prove to myself, from a health standpoint, that it was do-able.”
He also had considered incorporating a way to raise money for autism research. One of his two young children is autistic. The fundraising aspect didn’t come together in time for the event, but to honor the cause, Grieb recently got a tattoo of the Autism Speaks symbol, a puzzle piece.
Participating in the STP will also be a way “for his family and friends to celebrate his triumph over his illness. People are flying in from California, Georgia and Texas,” said Grieb’s girlfriend, Jessica Stetson.
The supporters will ride or drive alongside Grieb wearing matching jerseys that Stetson, an illustrator, designed. The jerseys bear the logo of a fictional sponsor, a beer company called “Grieb’s Aortic Ale.” It’s a way to coax a smile after all that Grieb has endured.
“Last year at this time, it was scary,” Stetson admitted. “Last summer, we’d try to go out to dinner and he’d start bleeding through his t-shirt. It was emotional, frightening. This is a way to close that chapter.”
HE WON’T BACK DOWN
We asked Grieb how he’ll stay motivated during the STP. Are there certain favorite landmarks along the way or just intense concentration on reaching the end of the route?
“It’s really meditative, I get into a rhythm and will sing the same stanza of a song in my head over and over,” he replied.
This time, he’ll be thinking of the Tom Petty hit “I Won’t Back Down,” but in a nod to the Pacific Northwest, he said it will be “the Eddie Vedder version.”
The STP, which supports bicycle education, advocacy, commute and riding programs, begins at the University of Washington E-1 parking lot on Montlake Blvd., just north of Husky Stadium, and as the name suggests, concludes in Portland, Ore.
