 First Endurance Race |
Ride a bike for 24 Hours Straight!!! Are you CRAZY?
We all can remember when the decision was made to do our first UMCA (Ultra Marathon Cycling Association) race. It was to be the Saratoga 12/24 in upstate New York. The race is put on by John Cerci one of those special people that devote enormous amounts of their time and money for the benefit of a handful of somewhat insane cycling extremist.
The race has two formats a 12-hour event and 24-hour event. Both of these races are unsupported and the clock is non-stop! So if you get off the bike to grab water or take a leak the clock still ticks by. You must stay on the bike and pedal as hard as you can for the entire time. Lets put this into perspective. I mean how bad could it be to be on a bike 12 hours anyway? Well let’s set up a scenario a non-cyclist can relate too.
Find yourself a nice comfy recliner in and air conditioned room. Along side of this comfortable chair let’s get a nice pitcher of cool water and plenty snacks for you to nibble on. Ok settle into the chair and lets start the clock. Now for the next 12 continuous hours all you have to do is raise you arm over you head and lower it…. how long do you think you are going to last? An hour? Two hours? How do you think the arm will feel like after five hours?
Sadly on the bike the seat is not quite as comfy as that recliner. And the only air conditioning you will get is going down hill. Cool water …forget it the water is luke warm at best. And as far as snacks go, whatever you can jam in your back pocket and eat on the fly is all you are going to get. Now start pedaling as hard as you can for the next 12 hours.
We set a reasonable goal for our first 12-hour cycling race. A plaque would be awarded to any rider that could complete 160 miles in 12 hours on that course. We all wanted that coveted plaque. With determination we all did achieve our goal riding as far as 191 miles in that 12-hour period.
By the end of the 12-hour event we were all nearly crushed with exhaustion but truly satisfied with our accomplishment. Barley able to walk back to the truck we loaded the bikes happy and hungry. Next up, a nice big dinner then a relaxing soak Hilton Garden’s hot tub where we were staying. Maybe even a nice bottle of wine to celebrate.
After the hot tub and a swim in the pool our bodies were numb from the extreme exertion we had endured. The clouds had moved in and it had started to rain. Hey, Joe said… those nuts doing the 24 are getting soaked right now. We retired to our rooms for a well-earned nights sleep.
The morning came quickly and we noticed the rain had just stopped. The roads were still wet as we ate a nice breakfast with hot coffee. After eating we returned to the race start/finish line.
The winning rider John Jurczynski had just finished. He placed his bike against a tree and lay onto the grass exhausted narrowly beating his rival John Guth.
While we were licking our wounds heading to the hotel yesterday afternoon he was still riding… when we were loading our bikes onto the truck….he was riding. During our dinner celebration at the Italian restaurant sipping wine… he was still pedaling hard. As we soaked our sore bodies in the hot tub and refreshed ourselves in the pool….he was still on the bike. Even while we slept in the nice comfortable Hilton beds he was pushing himself to the limit in the pouring rain.
How could anyone do it? Ken walked up to the winner lying on his back and said to a person he has never met before…You got to be some kind of FRUITCAKE! John agreed by saying, “yea I am a fruitcake”. He had rode 414 miles in 24 hours!
How could anyone ride that far and for that long? We were flabbergasted. It seemed impossible. We later met another 24 hour endurance racer named Russ Loomis. Another nut case we figured. We asked him how do you do it? It seems impossible to stay on a bike for 24 hours pushing as hard as you can. He replied you guys can do it, no problem. Now I know for sure this guy is crazy. Russ would later be our mentor and help us pull off our first 24hour race and beyond.
So what do you do after you have completed your first 24 hour race? Easy… do another and when 24’s seem easy you go longer. We now ride in events as long as 750 miles and have been on the bike for 35 hours at a clip. But that is nothing compared to some of the other UMCA riders They can ride for 40+ hours climbing mountains and desserts. They are the ultimate cyclist RAAM racers We’ll get there….