Sebring 12/24 – On the Road to RAAM

(Look kids... Big Ben, Parliament)

This past weekend I decided to head down to Florida to race in the Sebring 12/24. I entered the 24 hour non drafting division, a RAAM qualifying race.

For those of you not familiar with this type of race, the objective is to cover as many miles in 24 hours, the racer that covers the most miles wins (only complete laps count).

I won the 24 hour non drafting division, covering 467.5 miles in 23 hrs 54 min, besting the nearest competitor by 30 miles. I also achieved a personal best time for a century, covering the first 101 miles in 4 hrs 40 min, an average speed of 21.64 mph without the benefit of drafting.

The Sebring 12/24 is raced on three circuits. The first, a 100 mile loop that all competitors complete once. You then move to a 12 mile loop and continue until just before dark, at which time the race moves to the final circuit, the 3.7 mile Sebring International Speedway. You lap this 3.7 mile race course for a mind numbing 12+ hours. I managed to complete this lap 60 times.


It was kind of a last minute decision to go to Sebring, and I didn’t really have any specific goals for this race. I mostly wanted to test my training to be sure I was on course for RAAM. I am happy to say that my training is right on track.

I got to measure myself against a few future RAAM competitors, including John Jurczynski of Holderness who won the 12 hour drafting division. I was ahead of him at the 12 hour mark by 7 miles (252.5 vs. 245.5), I hadn’t been drafting all day and I had another 12 hours to go.

Had I done a bit more planning, I would have know that the age group record was 470.3, and with just a bit more effort, I could have completed one more lap and set a new record.

Night time pic, courtesy if JB at http://love2ridezzzzz.blogspot.com/

Another reason I went to Florida was that I was hoping to get in some warm riding. With this goal I failed miserably. It was cold and windy.

When the race started, it was below freezing and we had a steady 10-15 mile an hour wind most of the day. This was one of the coldest times I have had on my bike. Not that the 30s are all that cold, as you know I ride in single digit weather. But I was not prepared; I didn’t have long finger gloves, a warm hat or tights. I really suffered for the first hour or so. To top it off, it started to pour with an hour and 45 minutes of racing left. (The rain really cost me the record.)

I would like to say thanks to my folks, Anne and Ed for crewing for me. Sitting around in the pit area, I think they were colder than I was, not to mention their thinning Florida blood.

Return to: http://teamwalker07.com/

12 + 12 + 12 = 36

This was a big weekend for me. I did my first big triple ride, 12 hours each day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They only get bigger from here.

I was scheduled to only do 12, 10 and 10, but I have decided to go to Florida in couple of weeks to do a 24 hour road race. That is the weekend I would have done 12, 12 and 12. So instead of missing that ride, I bumped up my schedule by one cycle.


It was definitely a wintry weekend. It snowed Friday night and was very COLD on Sunday morning. Because of the snow, I had to do one day on my mountain bike; the other two days were on the cycle cross.

Overall it was a successful weekend, I felt pretty good all three days. Actually I felt better on days 2 and 3. The first day, I didn’t keep up on my nutrition and my attitude and motivation were low. Keeping up on my nutrition is a lesson I have to learn and re learn all the time. I guess riding a bike isn’t like riding a bike.


Here are a couple of my favorite moments from the weekend:

- Watching the big orange moon rise on the far side of the valley as I climbed Raccoon Hill (last climb of night #2).

- A big helping of shepherd’s pie, at the end of day 1.

- The order from Hammer that showed up on Saturday morning. I had just used the last of my Sustained Energy, and wasn’t sure what I was going to use for Sunday.

- The look on drivers faces when they saw me.

- Knowing that many of my future RAAM competitors were on a spin bike somewhere.



Here are a few of my least favorite moments from the weekend:

- Two flat tires.

- Eight degrees on Sunday Morning.

- Finding out that the leftover shepherd’s pie I had been fantasizing about was gone.

- Dogs in the dark. They are a lot scarier when you can’t see them.

- Slush