N24HC
By Gary Gilbert
Thursday, September 02, 2004
National 24 Hour Challenge
June 19-20, 2004
Gary Gilbert
One of the advantages of being president of a bike club is that you get to see all the cycling oriented mail that comes to the club’s mailbox. Earlier this year, I went to the park district to pick up our club mail and along with all the other announcements for rides was a brochure for the National 24 Hour Challenge or N24HC as it is sometimes called. The N24HC is a 24 hour bike ride in Michigan, held annually on Father’s Day weekend that encourages cyclists to do their personal best. That notion appealed to me.
Let me digress a bit and describe how I ended up participating this year. Every year in the 9 years I’ve been actively cycling I’ve searched for new and interesting places to ride. I did my first invitational in 1994. It was probably either the Melon Metric or the North Shore Century and I most likely rode the shortest option available, somewhere about 30 or 35 miles. In 1995 I discovered the weeklong tour and managed to survive Ragbrai on a Trek 750 Hybrid. Since then I’ve been hooked on weeklong tours of 400 to 500 miles.
For the past several years I had received notices of the RAIN ride held in mid-July. RAIN is a one day Ride Across Indiana, from Terre Haute to Richmond. It is a distance of 160.5 miles. I had considered attempting such a ride for several years before taking the plunge in July 2003. Before that ride I had done the math in my head about 100,000 times. I multiplied by speed by the 14 hours available to complete the RAIN ride and it always came up with a few minutes to spare or a few minutes too few depending on how conservative I was with my rest time. The ride started promptly at 6AM and riders needed complete the ride by 8PM. Not having a support team, I signed up for the return bus from Richmond to Terre Haute, which meant I had a hard deadline. July in Indiana is typically hot so that added to my anxiety level. I convinced fellow Arlington Heights Bicycle Association members’Greg Konieczny, Barb Swasas (Barbara Barr), Tom and Deb Wilson to also sign up. Fortunately when the day arrived, temperatures had fallen to the mid 70s and more importantly there was a 5-10 mph tailwind and the course is extremely flat. Despite my constant worrying about being left in the middle of Indiana with no way home, I managed to finish the ride by 6:30PM with 90 minutes to spare and with an average speed of 15.8 mph a distance of 155.05 miles. I left from the hotel rather than the official starting line and cut 5.45 miles off the course.
That left me wondering. Was it a fluke? Did the flat course and tail wind mean I would not have been able to complete the ride in the time allotted if it had been warmer or without wind assistance?
When the brochure arrived to the bike club announcing the N24HC I decided immediately that I had to try. I had to answer the question, was it a fluke? I knew Scott Sitler, a co-worker at Tandem, had done similar rides but I always considered him an athlete with cycling ability well beyond my abilities. I talked with Scott and he encouraged me to give it a try. Joe Keenan, a cyclist I met in Nova Scotia in 2001, had qualified and rode in Paris-Brest-Paris in 2003. He too encouraged me to ride. I didn’t really need that much encouragement, but I did need some suckers, I mean other cyclists up for a challenge. Greg Konieczny signed up for the ride but was unable to go due to work commitments. Barb had been ill during RAIN 2003 and decided to do RAIN in 2004. Tom had Achilles’ tendon problems in early 2004 and was not able to train. I get daily email from one or more of my Ragbrai cycling friends (Team Blazing Saddles) or by indirect extension from a group that has ridden Cycle Oregon for several years. I sent email to that crown and Peggy McIntyre was quick to respond that I was f***ing nuts. That led to further emails among the group to discuss whether I was crazy or nuts; or perhaps it was nuts or crazy. Anyway after a few more dozen emails, suddenly Peggy McIntyre and Joe Florian were going to drive up from Dublin Ohio to Middleville Michigan and ride the N24HC with me.
The whole idea appealed to me. Besides providing a way to figure out if last year was a fluke, it had the advantage that it was simply a matter of seeing how far I could ride in 24 hours. The clock and time limits didn’t become apparent until later, much later.
As the day approached again my anxiety level began to increase. While I was going on the ride with other cyclists, rides like these assume one had a support team, do not have any SAG support, and one might find themselves 50 or 60 miles from the start with no easy way to return. I’ve been riding slower this year than in previous years. I assume it is partially my inability to shed my winter weight gain. It may also be related to the often-rainy season we’ve had this year leaving little room for riding more than once every few days. I am, by some accounts, also a year older than I was last year. I had ridden 1063 miles in 2004 before the N24HC but had fewer training rides. My longest ride of the year was 83 miles, one week before N24HC. I had planned a century for early May and 125 miles for early June but neither of those materialized.
I convinced myself not to search for an excuse to bail out or hope for rain. I decided it was to be an adventure and the best way to experience the adventure was to simply do it and see what happened.
When I discussed the ride with John Hausman, a founding member of Ragbrai Team Blazing Saddles, he described it this way. If you sign up for a century ride and only ride 97 miles then you failed to ride the century. Since this ride was 24 hours, there was no way to fail. If I rode for 24 hours then I would have failed to discover my limit. Since I knew I wouldn’t ride for 24 hours I would succeed to discover my limit.
John dug up this quote to explain why we do such things. Neither one of us knows the source of the quote – but I think it is right on target.
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather an invitation to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... Holy shit! What a trip!
I took off Friday from work to get ready and travel to Middleville Michigan, about 20 miles south of Grand Rapids. I printed off driving directions using Microsoft Streets and Trips. It did give me a direct and shortest route. It also directed me through about 6 miles of gravel roads in Michigan, an inauspicious start to the event.
Joe and Peggy arrived at Thornapple Kellog Middle School about 15 minutes after I did. I claimed space in the gym to sleep while Joe and Peggy set up their tent. The gym ended up being a good choice for me. It was a large gym and only had about 2 dozen people using it for sleeping. We purchased a spaghetti dinner from the school booster club and loaded up for the big ride the next day. I had eaten a burger and shake for lunch earlier on Friday ensuring a good protein and carbohydrate base.
We talked with the spouse of the ride director during dinner. He explained how his wife had started this ride 23 years ago after setting the woman’s national 24 hour record herself. Before this ride, she had to line up witnesses to stand at various checkpoints to confirm her ride. He also explained the rules of the road to us and reality began to set in. The ride consists of 3 loops, all starting and ending at the school. We also heard about his Irish heritage and the search for his great grandfathers grave.
The first loop is 126.7 miles and has to be completed within 10 hours, by 6PM Saturday evening. There are checkpoints at miles 34.4, 71.5, 96.2, and 126.7 miles. You must check in at each checkpoint and there are deadlines for each checkpoint. Your rider card is attached to your back and gets punched at each checkpoint. There is a passive RFID card attached to your bike and your rider number is also on your helmet.
The second loop is 23.6 miles. The second loop must be ridden at least once before 9PM. These first two loops make up the daytime part of the ride. There is one checkpoint on this loop, about half way.
And the final loop is 7.5 miles to be ridden after the daytime part.
There is some leeway in the 6PM deadline, up to the checkpoint director. The real deadline is to make sure all nighttime riding is on the third loop. You must be able to make the checkpoint on the second loop by 8PM.
The morning I took in the booster clubs pancake breakfast. More carbs.
There is a mass start at 8AM. Before the start, the high school bagpipe band plays a few tunes. I was hoping for Innagodavida by Iron Butterfly but that wasn’t one of the selections. The only one I recognized was O’Canada.. The start is true beautiful. The road out of the school makes several turns Left, Right, Left, Right allowing all the riders near the back to see the entire 400+ bicycle peloton spreading out.
The route was basically head East, then South, then West, then North for 126.7 miles with checkpoints at the 4 corners of a rectangle. Temperatures were in the 60s and I wore a long sleeved shirt under my cycling jersey. Overnight temperatures were as low as 42 degrees. Riders were wearing winter cycling clothes overnight.
The route was hilly.
The roads were mostly pothole free and clear of debris. There were very few cars to contend with. The roads were not however smooth and a bit rough in places.
There was a fairly strong wind out of the NW. Strong enough to make a flag stand straight out – probably 10 to 15 mph. That mean we had a headwind for most of the return route.
I selected my clothing based on the pockets. Each checkpoint had port-a-potties, water and fruit available. I chose my cycling jersey based on the depth of the pockets. Eventually stuffing them with a dozen Cliff bars and 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I also had my Camelback with 80 oz of water and 2 water bottles loaded with Gatorade.
I rode with Joe and Peggy for the first 5 miles or so, until the first hill. After that I was behind them all day. I did meet up with them at the first 2 checkpoints.
The scenery was beautiful. We rode by some beautiful lakes, and woods, and fields. There were cows, horses, deer, turtles, and wildflowers.
I didn’t eat enough during the ride. I was too slow and didn’t have time to stop and rest at the checkpoints. I basically stopped to checkin, used the port-a-potty, ate orange slices, apple slices, or a banana and was on my way.
I got to the 3rd checkpoint at 96.2 miles I calculated that I should arrive back at the end by 6:15PM at the latest. The wind was slowing me down, as were the hills.
At one point, the first loop and second loop coincided. Seeing me riding about 14 mph, some faster riders slowed down and invited me to draft behind them. I knew I couldn’t keep up and declined.
At mile 117 I had a flat. I pulled off the road and began the process of changing to a spare tube. I carried 2 spare tubes and a spare tire with me. I was tired and slower than usual at changing a flat. I couldn’t find the hole in the tube. The old tube held air but wouldn’t fill past 20 lbs. I decided it must be the valve but checked the tire and rim carefully for problems and put in a spare tube. I had it pumped up to close to 110 lbs when the valve stem broke off. That meant I had to use my second tube and be more careful when pumping up the tire. I decided to pump up to 80 lbs. I lost about 40 minutes with that flat. I pulled into the 4th checkpoint at 126.7 miles at 7PM and was done for the day.
Lessons learned, it gets hard to eat later in a ride. Your body needs to eat but doesn’t want to accept anything.
Lessons learned, it is harder to change a flat when you are tired (no pun intended). Carry the instant fill cartridges to save time. If I had cartridges I would have only lost less time and been able to continue on.
Joe and Peggy had come in around 5:45 and by 6:15 were starting the second loop. I took a shower – felt great – and met up with them as they finished their loop. We had some pizza together and they took off for the third loop. I hung around to wait for them and took photos of them finishing their first loop of the 7.5-mile nighttime loop.
You can see the photos at http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=19xjcjr3.91nb84hz&x=0&y=-lqusix
I went to bed around 9:30PM and slept until 7:30AM.
Joe and Peggy went on to complete 6 more loops and finished around 1:30AM with 202.9 miles. They did an amazing job. I wish I had been able to keep up with them.
In the morning we had the free McDonalds breakfast. There were door prizes. Peggy won a sports watch.
Results are posted at http://www.n24hc.org/2004/index.html
I came in tied for 43rd place in my age group. Joe was 35th. Peggy won third place in her age group. She was a bit embarrassed but also a bit excited being called to the front of the room to receive her medal.
The most miles were ridden by Ladislav Optis (Male 24-29) at 470.2 miles. There were several national records that were tied or new records were set.
Am I disappointed? Yes but I still managed to ride 126.7 miles. I averaged 13.3; rode for 9 hours 33 minutes and 10 seconds; and my odometer read 126.84. Not too shabby.
Would I do this again? Ask me in a few weeks. I know I can do better, Is it worth trying again – maybe yes or maybe not. I would train differently – perhaps try some of the liquid cycling diets; and learn to eat more while riding.
The people who had support crews were ready for any issues. The support crews were NOT allowed on the route however and were only allowed at checkpoints.
I met one woman, in her 60s who had ridden 9 times solo without any support. I met a guy riding a hybrid – and saw him finish about 7:45AM.
Epilogue:
After writing the above, I received Joe’s summary. I’ve included it here to add his perspective.
The stated objective: Ride as much as you can in exactly 24 hours. Our motto and battle cry: "are we f---ing nuts???"
Peggy and I and Gary Gilbert rode this thing over the weekend in Middleville, Michigan, located near Grand Rapids (pretty country). It began for us with a mass start to bagpipes music at 8 AM at which time we embarked on Loop 1 of 3, 127 miles in length with a lot of roll and no less than 50 solid miles of headwinds/crosswinds at the end. You had to finish by 6:15 PM to get credit for the miles and be officially allowed to proceed to the 2 subsequent loops (23 and 7.5 miles). Peggy and I generally rode ahead of Gary most of the day and finished around 5:35. Gary was on track to just make the 6:15 cutoff but was the victim of a flat plus a flatted repair very late in the loop that killed his chances. Besides being a cruel blow to Gary, the whole flat tire situation was a weird twist of fate for me. Dating back to the Horsey Hundred over Memorial Day weekend I have had a rash of flats, some readily explainable and some not. I did 2 flat repairs on Friday, the day before the N24HC. Suffice to say that I was left with no confidence that I would ever again take an entire ride of any length without a flat. I had something like 7 spare tubes with us on the trip. Amazingly, my last repair on Friday evening would survive the entire weekend event.
But I digress. After ending the 127 miles with virtually everything in our bodies aching, Peggy and I decided to proceed in short order to Loop 2, the 23 miler, a slightly rolling route through some pretty forest and lake country. You were allowed to ride this loop as many times as you could until a certain cutoff start time (7:15 I think). Starting out at about 6:15 PM, we had time for just one lap. So now we were up to 150 miles and change.
Still aching and probably in a state of some mental degeneration, we had a quick pizza dinner with Gary and then went on to Loop 3. This is where the real insanity begins. You are supposed to ride this 7.5 mile almost totally flat rectangular loop over and over, as many times as you can, into the night, to round out the 24 hour period. After every lap including the earlier 2 loops you go though a checkpoint where they punch an area on your rider number to denote completion of the lap. We rode Loop 3 once in daylight and were informed at the checkpoint that it was now time to put on our lights. Gary, having ended his cycling day after Loop 1, embarked on 10 hours of sleep.
Going into the weekend, I had set the goal of finishing all 3 of the loops and being happy with the resulting 157.5 miles. But NO -- the brain degeneration continued and we mutually agreed that we should ride just another 6 laps around Loop 3 to get us over 200 miles. After all, 200+ miles would be well worth the effort because we would get ….. A PIN !!!!! …. So we clipped on our headlights, turned on our rear strobes and ventured out into the quickly descending darkness for 6 more laps. . It got colder with every lap. But we did it; finished around 1:30 AM, turned in our numbers and quickly crashed in our tent. 202.5 was our total. Peggy justified our decision to go for 200 as follows: WE WOULD NEVER HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN.
Peggy's achievement earned her third place and a bronze medal in her age group. She also won a nice Casio sports watch in the door prize drawing at the Sunday morning awards ceremony. I pilfered a bunch of bananas out of their leftover fruit pile. By the way with our 202.5 miles we both gained the satisfaction of tying the one and only woman entrant in the 70 plus age group. To really put things into perspective, the top male and female overall had totals of 476 and 440 respectively. Do the math - 24 hours at a 20 mile average (breaks included) equals 480. How in the world do they do it? Here is a link concerning the woman with the 440 miles, describing how she did 428 miles back in 2003:
http://www.freewheel.com/mvw/03-24hr.htm
If Peggy or I ever talk about doing this again, someone, anyone, needs to hunt us down and f---ing shoot the both of us.
p.s. We have a few photos, but we all left our cameras in camp in favor of packing lots of food (only fruit and water provided at the route checkpoints unless you had your own support crew). We'll get the photos out when we can.
