Unlike triathlon where there is a finish line, races like Calvin’s 12 Hour
Challenge have no finish line, which is a little weird as no matter how
hard you push, you won’t finish any sooner. My goal for the race was 1) to
defend my age group record by doing better than I had done the year before
(207.5) and 2) to ride 215 miles.

The winds were slightly more favorable this year, but on such a flat course
at this time of year, it’s always going to be an issue. The last couple of
years, the wind had been at least 15mph out of the south, and this year,
they seemed to be about 10-15 out of the north.

The highlight of the first 50 mile loop was definitely catching Cassie’s
wheel. I was somewhat hoping she was going to do her no drafting thing,
which basically meant grabbing her wheel was a free ride. I tried to help
when she asked, but she is just so much stronger, I could only provide
minimal recovery. I probably have drafted off of Cassie for thousands of
miles, so it just seemed natural to go with her when she decided to jump.

The 2nd lap is pretty much a blur and probably the area of the race where
there is room for improvement, I was out there by myself suffering for most
of it. I know I still did this loop in under 3 hours as I finished it
about 5:20 minutes into the race.

The 3rd loop was torture, my stomach was upset, and I spent about 20 miles
unable to bridge the 1/10th of a mile gap to my friend. I literally stayed
that far behind him for 20 miles until a guy passed me, and I managed to
suffer long enough to catch his wheel and pull up to my friend. At this
point, we were about 6.5 hours into the ride, and I had about 4 minutes off
the bike. I rode with that friend for the rest of the loop. We finished
this loop around 8:10 into the race.

I was ready to throw in the towel, but my friend really encouraged me to
take a little more time off the bike and that I would start to feel better.
He allotted himself about 7 minutes off the bike, and when that buzzer went
off, I was ready to go with him. We had already discussed strategy and
opted for the 7 mile loop rather than a 4th 50. We felt that breaking up
the headwind sections would make it easier, and it seemed to be the case.
For the first 4 7 mile loops, we averaged about 18 mph. I basically gave
up eating on the bike at about mile 125 so I stopped one more time to fuel
up for the final 2 hours on the bike.

One of the problems with the 7 mile loop is that it requires some mental
toughness. At that stage of a race, it’s super easy to give yourself an
excuse to stop…I need some advil, I need more water, my behind hurts, I
need to stretch, but if you stop every lap, time is just going to get
wasted. I was pretty impressed that I only stopped once while on the 7
mile loop, after 28 miles, and that was because I just couldn’t eat on the
bike anymore. I figured if I stopped then, I would have 2 hours to go and
can ride without food for 2 hours.

As I went through for my 7th 7 mile loop, my boyfriend heard me and hustled
back on his bike to catch up to me. He had crashed on the first loop and
while he was still riding, he was disappointed with how the day went. He
ended up pulling me for a loop, which was awesome because it was definitely
faster, but I begged him to go on without me as I was already in a state of
suffering and trying to maintain 20mph for another hour and a half seemed
an unreasonable request to my legs.

The wind picked up for the last 2 7 mile loops, but as I finished my 9th
loop, the guy told me I was done as there was only about a minute left.

I ended the day with 215.5 miles, accomplishing both of my goals.