Well, I'll just go for an even 400 miles.  
 
 Go Greg.

Just talked to Greg -- He said there were over 200 riders participating.  Apparently the winds were pretty brutal, and he discovered that, while a flat course is nice in that you don't have a lot of climbing, there are also no DOWNHILLS to coast on -- so you're basically pedaling 100% of the time!   Greg wound up with 304 miles, Sharon 362, and Vicki around 340...  John S had around 408, and Jim Kern was up around 460, but those guys were in a "drafting" category -- Greg was RAAM qualifying, which is non-drafting.    
 
However, apparently Greg was 1st in his age group!!!   WTG, pal....    

http://www.altavistasports.com/
 
Good job by all of our recumbent(and not) friends!

Congratulations to Greg & all riders who participated at Sebring. Job well done Greg!

Congrats, Sebring riders!

RECUMBENT MALE RAAM AGE GROUP:  35 - 39
Place No.   Name                    Age Laps Time     Miles  
===== ===== ======================= === ==== ======== =====  
    1    52 Greg Gross               37   43 22:29:25 303.6  
 
 
 
Oh lord, I’m so sore…What a whirlwind trip.  We finally got everyone loaded and on the road about 6pm Thurs.  There are a billion stories to tell, but I’ll have to save most of em.
 
Highlights:
FINISHING
Meeting my minimum goal I set for myself.
Coming in first and setting the record for my age group
Seeing Sharon get back on the bike after nearly DNFing and medaling
Seeing Vickie ride one of her best rides and also medaling and setting the record.
Seeing old friends like Bill Hannon and Doug Jacobs, John Schlitter and Rich Pinto, Doug “Eetmochicken”, and others.
Getting to meet the rest of Team Bacchetta including David Bradley, Larry Graham, Troy Timmons, and others.  I spent a lot of time in the B tent after my ride.  Macking on Sarah Kay
Finally getting to meet Tim Woudenburg face to face and having dinner and sharing.  It really stunk when his wheel gave up the ghost because he was way ahead.
NO GRATES ON THE FRICKING TRACK.  It was a great surface though on all three laps.
Having nutrition and drugs SPOT ON.  
New battery system lasted the entire night, was very light, and bright as well.
Garmin lasted almost 18 hours I think.
John Schlitter at about 9pm:  “Greg!  I didn’t know you were signed on for the 24 hours – nice job!”
Learned I can go a hundred miles or more without setting foot to ground.
Triple century baby!
 
Negatives:
Went out faster than I should have.  I knew I wasn’t going to hit the RAAM qual goal, but for some reason I stayed in that mindset for the 102 mile loop and it cost me big time.  We had 15mph wind IN BOTH DIRECTIONS (it switched just before I made it to the turnaround.  I didn’t recognize this though and instead of slowing down I ground out to stay as close to 20mph as possible, and blew my knees, ankles, and feet,
 
Had reattached my seat foam without covering the entire bottom of the seat accidentally.  It felt halfway through the tide that I was getting recumbutt and I had no idea why.  By mile 90 I was in terrible shape and just turned the pedals on the way in.  The pain eventually went away when I redid the foam but the muscle power was lost from then on.
 
My feet also of course got worse.  That was a bit more manageable, but add the knee soreness form puishing too hard, and the sudden onset of Achilles tendon pain – which I have no idea why – and it made me need to stop and rest about every 20 miles.  The two screw heads in my big toe swelled up and looked like little acorns glued to my toe.  Thankfully Sharon brought that stuff that numbs sore gums so I stole some and used it there to eak out more miles.
 
I used a texas catheter and did something wrong.  I won’t go into details, but let’s say I got rid of it as soon as the 102 miles was over.  I thought I’d given myself a UTI, but I guess I just irritated the plumbing.  Had to pee every 12 miles after that.  Schlitter gave me IBS jokes all through the awards ceremony.  I retaliated by taking his seat next to Sarah Kay
 
The WIND.  I was waiting for it to let up at dark like it does here.  On Friday there was ZERO breeze.  By liftoff Saturday it was steady and only lessened briefly at 2am.
 
Lessons learned:
250 miles is a magic number – a negative one.  This is where all three of us got tired and stopped eating and drinking like we should.  It affected our performance and let my stomach finally stop me from riding.
 
This last part really hurts me to say.  I think I have found my wall.  I’d like to blame it all on the first hundred miles of stupidity, but I’m not so sure.  I may have seen where my own personal ceiling lies, and I’m not happy about it.  It may be that my arthritis is going to get the best of me.  I don’t much like that thought.  I’m not ready to see the end of my potential.  
 
My final thought – we all need to caravan there next year.  I believe I can say without any reservations, that Paul and Steve and Peggy could RAAM qualify, and that Bud could hit 400 miles or more and qualify as well.  I think I could work my way to 375 maybe.  Pickl could probably even squeeze out a century!  If we brought the whole LSR bunch we’d set records to stand many a year!
 
 

 

Quote from aikigreg on Feb 16^th, 2009, 10:11pm:

 
 
Your posture will improve as you raise that ceiling....  
 
(Anybody else see "Being John Malkovich"?)