The common belief that the number 13 is unlucky certainly did not apply to my experience at the 21st edition of the National 24 Hour Challenge held on June 14 ~ 15. For me this would be my 13th appearance in the event. Even travelling to the event on Friday June 13 showed no signs of bad luck

The weather forecast was very promising - upper 70’s, sunny, and light winds. We also had an added bonus of enjoying a full moon during the night riding segment of the event, something I cannot remember happening in any of the previous 12 challenges I have ridden in.

Breaking from tradition, I decided to stay at motel in a rural area away from Grand Rapids and I would be closer to the starting location in Middleville MI. One tradition I did keep was my lack of sleep the night before. I went to bed around 10:30 PM but probably only got 1.5 hrs of sleep before the alarm went off at 5:00 AM. For this year’s event, Thomas Berube would crew for me, and although he has done this event in the past, he elected not to do it this year because he rode 600 K brevet for P-B-P the weekend before.

We arrived at the start area just before 6:00 AM and had two hours to prepare for the 8:00 AM start. I was expecting to meet with another friend, Jim Ryan, who flew in from Denver the night before to ride this event for his second year in a row. I was surprised to see him in street clothes and not getting ready for the event. It turned out that his bike and bag did not make the connecting flight from Chicago to Grand Rapids, I guess Friday the 13th wasn’t so lucky for him and I felt really bad about the situation. He told me that he was going to help Thomas crew for me. I was grateful of the sacrifice he made since he had planned to ride the event. I’ve crewed for him before so he thought of this as payback.

The event started promptly at 8:00 AM with a mass start. I’ve always tried to stay in the front of the line up to avoid any possible mishaps given that there were hundreds of riders all starting at the same time.

I agreed with my crew to skip meeting at the first checkpoint at mile 33 since I was still fresh. I told them that I’d better have a good ride just to burn off the calories I loaded into my body before the event. The first sign that this event would be different than previous years is that I was still riding with the front group after the first checkpoint. It was more of a road race of sorts but I didn’t feel maxed out despite some of the surging that went on in the group.

At times the pace got rather insane for a 24 hour event. On some sections of flat road we were holding speeds around 30 MPH. Most of the riders in the group were smooth riders and had good bike handling skills. I am most nervous in this event when the big packs are around me. A careless mistake from another rider could possible put an end to the challenge for me. I made it to the second checkpoint at mile 71 and met my crew, unfortunately, I lost the group while I was getting serviced by my crew so I rode by myself for the rest of the 125 mile grand loop. I still kept a good riding speed despite loosing the peloton. I was surprised not to get reeled in by any of the packs that formed behind the lead group. I guess we had really opened up a gap in the front group and that made it difficult to catch me despite riding slower than the lead pack. I was expecting to see some riders that splintered off from the group that got ahead of me, but it wasn’t until I was ten miles from finishing the grand loop when I met up with some riders that fell off the lead pack. My first century time was just slightly over 4.5 hours and I arrived back in Middleville to start my day loops at 1:53 PM. The lead group came in about twenty minutes ahead of me.

Compared to last year’s finish of the grand loop, I was ahead of schedule and now I had my sights on trying to complete at least five of the 22.2 mile day loops that passed through the Gun Lake Recreation Area. Last year I missed my fifth day loop because of a storm that blew up over the South end of the course. This part of the event has always proven to be the most difficult for me as I was riding by myself for the most part and the winds picked up strength in the afternoon but not as strong as last year.

I had feelings of nausea on the first few day loops that I tried to combat with antacids and ginger ale. After getting my stomach to settle down, I decided to drink only water for a while and try and get by on bananas that were being passed out to the riders on checkpoint five. Although I didn’t feel like eating, I still tried to keep my calorie intake up to match my energy requirements. I didn’t want to "bonk" early in the event.

Doing this loop many times while riding alone required some entertainment to keep me going. I got a chance to do some bird watching at some of the houses along the route and I saw two hummingbirds at a feeder on the South end of the course. One form of entertainment that wasn’t so well received was a guy driving a white pickup truck that had a dog in the back. As the truck passed me, the dog started to bark and it freaked me out thinking that I was going to be chased! As this truck continued North on Patterson Road, the dog barked at each rider that the truck passed. I am sure the other riders had similar reactions that I did. About a half hour later I got passed by this truck on the opposite side of the course and the dog still continued to bark at each rider.

On the fourth day loop I would complete the first 200 miles in just under 10 hours which meant I was still holding onto a 20 mile average. Based on the past few years of riding this course I was expecting the lead group of riders to pass me by but that never happened. Perhaps I was riding faster than in past years or they were slowing down. I’d like to believe in the former! I started my fifth day loop with just over half an hour before the day loop was closed off to the riders. There was certainly no chance of doing a sixth loop given the time requirements. To my knowledge, no rider in this year’s event had completed six day loops.

I started the night loops around 8:00 PM, nearly one hour later than last year when I was forced off the day loop due to the weather. With the sun starting to set and the temps starting to cool, it was the time of the event where I typically started to "shine" and pick up the pace a bit. Around 9:20 PM, local sunset time, I could still read the trip distance on my computer and it read 260 miles. I know felt that I could possibly break the 300 mile mark before midnight which would put me in a good position for improving over last year’s ride of 415 miles. The emerging full moon was a sight to watch and it would be reassuring to know that I would remain with us for the entire night under clear skies.

Around 11:00 PM, I left the checkpoint for another loop, and as I made my way West on the South leg of the course I could see a lot of flashing lights in the direction of travel, not a good sign. About a mile later, one of the corner marshals had us stopped while an ambulance tended to a rider that crashed because of hitting a missing section of pavement in the roadway. This hazard was well marked so perhaps the rider wasn’t paying attention. We were held up for 10 ~ 15 minutes. I was really getting nervous about not being able to break 300 miles before midnight. After we were allowed to continue North on the night loop, I really decided to put the hammer down and try and avoid the rush of the riders as they returned to the checkpoint. This situation is more akin to the first few hours of the event and not at hour 15! As I rounded the corner on the North end of the loop I could see a sea of bicycle headlights to my left. In addition to loosing some time on this lap, my right knee developed some pain that was probably the result of getting stiff while we were stopped. Fortunately it worked its way out. I rode a lap with Dean Vogler after this incident and he was riding like a mad man! I was content to just hang on and enjoy some quick miles for one of the laps. At 11:53 PM I would complete lap # 11 which would put me just over 300 miles. The competition of lap # 12 would put me over 5000 miles of riding in my 13 years of doing the National 24 Hour Challenge. I had told the officials at the checkpoint about this milestone, a little later, Diane Obermeyer congratulated me on this event milestone.

For most of the night, I was riding solo with no one to draft off of. There was only one group that was going faster than me but I didn’t encounter them until the last few hours of the event. Those who drafted me only stayed on for one or two laps at the most. I did some random checks of my speed at night and it was around 19 ~ 20 MPH on the flats and my crew told me that I was riding at a very predictable pace.

Around 5:30 AM I had broken the 400 mile mark and it had become clear to me that I could possibly set a new personal record (PR) ride. So just after 6 AM I would have over 409 miles and I was figuring on trying to do 6 more laps which means I would have to cover each loop at a 20 minute pace. This would put me in right at 8:00 AM, the close of the event, however I wanted a little more time buffer to protect my sanity while riding the last loop. My plan was to ride the next three loops at an 18 ~ 19 minute pace (20 MPH) and build up a little time buffer for the last hour. From 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM I was able to pull off this strategy and I was doing loops very close to 20 MPH per lap.

The last hour of the event was a golden experience for me, each mile ridden in that final hour would merely add to the mileage of a new PR! For several years in this event, I was at mileage plateau of sorts and was determined to squeeze out any extra mile that I could. The pressure of doing three laps in the last hour was further diminished when I met up with a group of riders that included Mark Skarpohl, who would go onto winning the event overall. It was easier to ride over 20 MPH in the pack and we picked up Tom Buckley along the way. The final lap was started just after 7:30 AM, so unless I had a mechanical problem, it would be a pressure free lap. We all backed off a bit and shared stories of our experiences, and yes, I spoke with other riders who also got intimidated by the barking dog in the back of the pickup truck! With a few minutes left in the event, we rolled into the checkpoint for the final time. This would be my 35th night loop and I had used up all of the spaces on the mileage card! I had completed 446 miles that eclipsed my PR ride of 429 miles in 1999 . Had it not been for the accident during the night. I strongly believed that I could have gotten in an extra lap for 452 miles. Like I’ve said many times after the event, I’ll have to wait until next year!

The improved performance from last year’s ride was most likely due to the favorable weather conditions. The winds were much more calm than last year. Staying with the lead group longer also helped but I don’t think it was the biggest factor. My training was very similar to last year, however I was slightly faster in my speed workouts. My "downtime" during this event was about right for what has been typical for me. My computer registered a rolling time of 23:34 so when you consider that I had to stop 49 times for mileage validation, that isn’t much actual downtime at all. The rolling average for the ride was 18.9 MPH and 18.6 MPH when dividing the total mileage by 24 hours. My bike computer must have been calibrated correctly as I had 446.2 miles displayed when I finished. I never seen that kind of accuracy before.

Even though the temperatures weren’t that warm, I probably got more calories from liquid nutrition than solid foods. On two occasions, I had my crew serve me hot food while I briefly straddled the bike. This tasted good and I think I got a little riding performance to boot.