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Ultra Cycling Records "I heard at the RAAM pre-race banquet of Derek Slife's record setting ride. Hearing that a 24-year-old had set the record I thought that perhaps I could set the Masters record, being 53 years old." by Marvin Atwood, photographs by Jaime Gale |
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After racing on a mixed four-person team in RAAM '05 Marvin and Pamela Atwood weren't ready to hang up their bikes. Pam was the first woman finisher in the 252-mile Cochise County Cycling Classic on October 8, 2005. The following Friday the Atwoods drove to Gallup, NM so Marvin could challenge Slife's record. Pamela and Larry Burns, another RAAM teammate, came as crew, Marie Handrahan was the official, and Jaime Gale acted as photographer.
Here is Atwood's story:
As we drove to Gallup, NM I attempted to get a little catnap in the afternoon and then went to bed at 7:00 p.m. We got up at 11:00 and prepared the vehicles out at the state line. I rolled off at 12:19 in fairly moderate weather in tights, polypro liner, long-sleeve jersey, cycling jacket, polypro head cover, winter gloves. The temperature dropped slightly later, but I kept all the above on until mile 195
I started off at a good pace and had my first of seven flats at mile 20. All but about the last 26 miles are on the freeway, and there's always a ton of debris on the shoulder, plus riding the first 115 miles in the dark. I took a couple short breaks on the way into Flagstaff and arrived in Flagstaff around 9:00 a.m. I continued on past Flagstaff over the Arizona divide toward Williams
Past Williams at around mile 210 the wind really began blowing in earnest directly out of the west. The wind kept picking up and was blowing about the same way it did at Cochise the one horrible "hurricane" year. This was the hardest by far. I was riding along in an incredible headwind, looked up and saw a sign that said "Kingman - 100 miles" and knew I had to ride another 30 miles past Kingman.
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At mile 230 it began to rain, pelting me with big really cold drops. This was only a short cell and once I pushed through it I didn 't have any more rain, but the wind continued all the way into Kingman
Getting off the freeway in Kingman was a real challenge as it is at the bottom of a slight downhill and the semis really haul down that section with many making the same exit I did. Jamie was at the bottom to help us merge over. We continued through Kingman and out toward Laughlin, again dodging quite a bit of traffic on the way to the casinos
The last 12 miles to Davis Dam is a 6% grade, and at this point both my hands were cramping and I was really trying to exercise caution on the downhill as I was riding on the shoulder due to traffic. I had to stop a couple times to shake them out, but I was determined not to crash this close to the end.
Jamie was at the turnoff for Davis Dam to direct me, and we arrived at the dam at 9:29 p.m. Getting off the saddle at Davis Dam was definitely the best part of the ride!
As I was going down the last portion to Davis Dam a car had pulled on to the shoulder in front of me. I went out into the traffic lane and continued down until I pulled over to shake out my hands. The same car pulled in behind my follow vehicle, and a very cute 20-something girl came up to me and asked for my autograph! Of course being slightly goofy at this point and having han cramps didn't really facilitate the best of autographs, but I complied. Great ego boosting for a 53-year-old grandfather.
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I've been doing long distance cycling since the very early '80 's and never thought about any of the cross-state records until I heard at the RAAM pre-race banquet of Derek Slife's record-setting ride. Hearing that a 24-year-old had set the record I thought that perhaps I could set the Masters record, being 53 years old. It was a thrill being able to not only set the Masters record but to also get the overall record taking 1 hour 56 minutes off Derek's time. With favorable conditions I think I could have taken off more time, but I think this is just one of those rides when they are never really favorable conditions.
I primarily rode my Merlin but when I flatted I would switch off to my Trek Madone. I've spent thousands of hours on the Merlin and it just feels like home.
I had 13 bottles of Ensure during the ride, drank primarily water with a few bottles of PowerBar Replacement, had probably eight GUs and a few snacks of cookies, etc. on the ride. I did start to feel a little bonked at about mile 50 and got re-energized with some regular Coke and cookies.
Official Record: 345.9 miles, 21 hours, 10 minutes, average speed of 16.33 mph
Start: I -40 at AZ/NM state line
Finish: AZ/CA state line on SH 68 over Davis Dam on Colorado River