Online Registration Closes
6:00 pm Thurs. Sept. 10th
Vashon Island, WA · September 12, 2026
Take a Ride on the Wild Side
And the podium girls say: "P 2P 2P 2P2P P 2P2P 2P2P P2P2P P 2P2P P 2P2P 2P2P P...”
Passport2Pain is a bike ride around a hilly island that shouldn't exist this close to a major city.
12 miles for the sensible.
80 for the optimistic.
Arrive 6:30 am for 7:00 am start.
It ends with tacos.
In between, there are hills with names, a Devil with a pitchfork, and roughly 400 people making the same face on Burma Road.
"P 2P 2P 2P2P P 2P2P 2P2P P2P2P P 2P2P P 2P2P 2P2P P..."
And the podium girls say,
"P 2P 2P 2P2P P 2P2P 2P2P P2P2P P 2P2P P 2P2P 2P2P P..." And the podium girls say,
WHAT'S HAPPENING THIS WEEK
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This Week's Training
If you signed up for the Idiot and haven't been on a hill since last October, this is the part where we say nothing but our silence is pointed.
This week: two rides, one of them hilly. The other one is for your legs to remember what they're for.
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Get Off Your Street
The best P2P training is riding somewhere that actually has hills. Chilly Hilly on Bainbridge in late February. Daffodil Classic in April. RAMROD in August for the truly unhinged — and if you can do RAMROD, you can definitely do P2P. Possibly even enjoy it.
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How It Went
In 2025 the theme was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Knights Who Say "Ni" guarded Checkpoint 1. Someone finished the Idiot in handlebar streamers. The tacos were, as always, excellent.
THE COURSES
Pick Your Poison
Twelve miles to eighty. Eight hundred vertical feet to ten thousand. You have time to think about this. You also have time to sign up for the Idiot, realize your mistake in June, and quietly switch to the Weasel. We won't tell anyone.
Cancelled
The Tourist
12 mi · 800 ft
Cancelled due to road construction
on Judd Creek Bridge
For people who want to be part of this without making it a whole thing. Cruise up to Vashon town, get your passport stamped, eat something good, go home with your dignity intact. Also about half the price of the other courses. Genuinely excellent value.
The Weenie
33 mi · 3,600 ft
Don't let the name fool you. Three thousand six hundred vertical feet over 33 miles earns you the right to eat whatever you want at the Taco Feast and not explain yourself to anyone. The name is historical. The hills are not.
The Weasel
58 mi · 6,900 ft
A full tour of the island's greatest hits: Burma Road, the Evil Twins, the Lisabeula rollercoaster. You skip Maury Island. The Idiots will mention this at the Taco Feast.
The Idiot
80 mi · 10,000 ft
You go around Vashon. Then you go around Maury. When you meet the Devil on Burma Road, you are roughly one third of the way home. Handlebar streamers are traditional. No one knows why. Don't ask. Just ride.
What Riders Said…
“Loved this event, first-time participant. Thank you and thank you to all the volunteers!!”
“This was my first P2P ride, and it was a great day. I have done RAMROD several times
and STP three times but P2P was very challenging on account of some of the grade reaching 22% according to my riding buddy.
I commend you on how well organized the ride was. Pavement markings were good, food at the stops was better than average, and the volunteers were great. I look forward to doing the ride again next year. I have a year to think about whether to become an Idiot or remain a Weasel.
Thank you for a job well done.”
“Thank you so much for organizing such a great event. I haven't stopped raving about it.
From the organization to the route to the food it was all excellent.”
You have time. Use it.
TRAINING: GET READY!
The Idiot route's 10,000 feet of climbing is not a metaphor. Even the Weenie — a course named after cowardice — has 3,600 feet of vertical and will remind you about it for the better part of a week.
Start 12–16 weeks out. Build mileage before you build intensity. Practice on hills, not on flat waterfront paths where you feel fast and sort of immortal. The island will have opinions about this.
The schedule below assumes you can ride 20 miles without incident. Adjust based on your course. Then actually follow it.
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Two to three rides a week, 15–25 miles each. Nothing heroic. The goal is consistency, not suffering — that comes later.
Ride hills if they're convenient, but don't chase them yet. You're teaching your body to be on a bike for a couple of hours without complaint.
Get your bike serviced now, not in September. Break in whatever shorts, shoes, and gloves you plan to wear. Discovering a saddle problem at mile 50 of the Weasel is a bad way to learn something you could have learned in June.
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At least one climbing ride per week. Target 1,500–2,500 feet of gain. Find the steepest thing near you and go up it repeatedly. That's the whole workout.
Start practicing descents too. P2P roads are narrow, patched, and occasionally gravelly, and the descents are where people actually get hurt. Being fast downhill is not a skill worth developing here. Being controlled is.
Sort out your nutrition now. Whatever you plan to eat on ride day, eat it on a training ride first.
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One big effort a week. Tourist riders: 12–15 miles is plenty. Weenie: work up to 25. Weasel: 40–45. Idiot: 55–65.
This is a good window for an organized ride if one lines up — Daffodil Classic in April, RAMROD in August if you're truly committed to the bit. Group rides teach you things solo miles don't, mostly about pacing and about how to behave in a crowd.
By the end of week 10 you should be able to finish your target distance, just slower and more grimly than you'd like.
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Peak at roughly 80% of your course distance. Do it two or three weekends out, then stop adding volume.
The taper is the part people ignore and then regret. Cut your volume 30–40% over the final two weeks. Keep riding — short and easy — but stop trying to gain fitness. There's none left to gain, and the hole you dig now doesn't fill by September 12.
Sleep. Eat normally. Resist every impulse to prove something to yourself in the last ten days.
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Eat before you're hungry. Drink before you're thirsty. Both of these sound obvious and both of these are the reason people bonk at checkpoint 9.
Start conservatively. The hills are cumulative and Vashon does not care how you feel at mile 12.
Stop at the checkpoints. Talk to the volunteers. They got up earlier than you did and they made the food themselves.
It's not a race. The tacos are at the end regardless of when you get there.
Starting late?
Skip to weeks 7–10 and adjust your course expectations downward. The Weenie is not a failure state.
Merch
Merch
Current-year merch is on Red Podium alongside your registration. Past-year items — for the collector, the completist, or the person who just needs a jersey from the year they finally finished the Idiot — are here.
About P2PRelentless Hills. Weird Checkpoints. Real Tacos
Passport2Pain started in 2011 with 53 riders and a dangerous surplus of optimism. It's a fundraiser for the Vashon Island Rowing Club - which means your registration fee goes toward keeping teenagers in boats and three other community organizations running on an island that needs them.
Checkpoints every few miles: food, fluids, and whatever themed chaos the volunteers have produced. Everyone ends up at the Devil's Taco Feast at Jensen Point, 1–6 PM. This is not a consolation prize. The tacos are legitimately excellent.
Your Entry Fee Does Something
P2P has been raising money for Vashon Island community organizations since 2011. This year's ride supports four of them.
16
Checkpoints
Benefits
4 Non-Profits
16 Years of Pain
400+ Riders Last Year
Getting There
Vashon Island
Vashon is a 15-minute ferry ride from West Seattle or a 20-minute ride from Tacoma. It's worth arriving the night before and exploring.
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By Ferry
Washington State Ferries run from Fauntleroy (West Seattle), Southworth, and Point Defiance (Tacoma) to Vashon. Check WSDOT for schedules — they fill up on event days.
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Parking
Jensen Point has limited parking. Arrive early or use the ferry shuttle. Detailed parking tips are on the website so you're not circling at 7 AM.
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Stay & Explore
Vashon has a thriving arts scene, great food, galleries, and enough eccentricity to make a weekend of it. Many riders book rooms ahead.
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Strava Club
Connect with other P2P riders year-round. Join the Passport2Pain club on Strava to share routes, segments, and pre-ride prep.
Your Entry Fee Does Something
P2P has been raising money for Vashon Island community organizations since 2011. This year's ride supports four of them.
Early Bird
CLOSED
YOU MISSED IT!
Early Bird Registration closes March 15.
Sign up for our newsletter to be next year’s early bird.
The Planner
March 16 – August 14
Idiot / Weasel / Weenie — $125
Still a reasonable life choice.
Procrastinator
Late Registration
Aug 15+
Idiot / Weasel / Weenie -$135
Online registration closes Sept 11 at 6 PM.
Your bib number won't reflect your age in the pecking order. You had months…
Day of Registration at Jensen Point gate
Idiot / Weasel / Weenie –$150