UlratMidwest 24 Hour Ride

August 30th UltraMidwest 24 Hour ride in Port Bryon, IL

Port Byron 24 hour ride. Ride started out great. I've never felt better. Cruised at 21 mph for big loop. Then we had to ride mid loop because some one had messed with the arrows on the course. The mid loop is harder than the big loop and you have to stop more. I still went thru the 12 hour at 237 miles and was feeling good still hoping for 460 miles. With 10 hour to go I had 273 miles and would need to ave 18.7 mph to make the 460, so I lowered my goal to 450 and this would require a 17.7 mph ave. shortly after dark my eyes decided to shut and I couldn't keep them open. I had to stop many times to rest, Once even on course on a slab in front of a shed, not in the ditch as many people thought. I felt great, no pain of any kind, but the eyes wouldn't stay open. I know I slept on the bike several times, not good. Congrats to Joe Mann for riding 431+ and finishing second. The winner rode 442 and was from Ohio. Saw Daryl there and rode 3 miles with him Friday. Paul was there and he had the same trouble I did. David Thompson was there hitting on my girl friend(Nancy Guth). Just kidding Melinda. Jay Yost had a good ride 411+. Congrats to Dick Johnston for riding the most miles in a day he had ever done, BTW, dick the room was 200 a night. Congrats again Joe for your RAAM qualifying ride and thank Connie for trying to keep me awake. It just wasn't meant to be. One good thing about being sleeply during the ride. I wasn't tired for the drive home and don't feel as sore from the ride and hope that I will have a speedier recovery since I didn't ride the full 24 hours. Last Chance 1200 KM brevet on the 10th of Sept. Life is good. I think. It would have been better if my eyes would have stayed open. Plan is to cut the Caffiene out until LC and then use it to keep me up as long as possible. Goal is to finish the 753 miles in less than 24 hours. I have a drafting partner is John Schittler. He will be on a Bacchetta recumbent though and is just a partial draft. We'll also have a crew to meet us at checkpoints with supplies. Should be a riot.

This was 3rd major ride in a 7 week period. No record this week. But I did get 3rd overall and first in my age group. Plus it was a RAAM qualifier and I did ride more than the 400 miles a 50 year old needs to ride to qualify. I trying to convince myself I had an alright ride. Bottomline is that I'm pissed that I didn't stay awake and ride 50 more miles. I hope to do something this week to make me forget about this ride.