Start: Cold enough at six something a.m. for long sleeves and tights.

The weather was cool and clear at start time, cool enough to start out with long tights and long-sleeved jersey. Later in the morning, record high temperatures and Memorial Day weekend traffic became troublesome. My legs were a little stiff and leaden for the first few miles due to my E-W-E double crossing of Rhode Island the day before. At least I managed to get about 3 hours sleep for this ride.

Why do a record attempt? Breaking or setting nine state crossing records in one week (even if only in the smallest states in the Union) seemed like a worthy adventure, but I've been asking myself this question more and more every time I get 80 to 100 miles into a ride. I'm learning that I am not an especially gifted ultramarathoner, and by 80-100 miles, most of the fun has evaporated and been replaced by serious discomfort and often real pain. From there on it's a slugfest between the pain nagging at me to give up, and pride, fear of failure, and something else I cannot quite as yet identify, perhaps simply my sense of adventure, urging me on.

From Massachusetts to the Atlantic in three hours flat — note sand road.

As for most of my record attempts, I rode my Tennessee-designed and -built Litespeed Teramo titanium bike (purchased from West Bike of Knoxville) with mostly 10 speed Ultegra components, Speedplay X2 pedals, Ritchey WCS compact crank assembly, SpeedCific wheels and hubs built by Mike Garcia of Odds and Endos, and, because long reaches of the road consist of fairly rough pavement, 26-mm Michelin Pro Race tires for the entire ride.

As the ride was fairly short, I didn't consume too much: two or three Ensure Plus's or Equate energy drinks, Gatorade, water with a pinch of salt, banana, a Marathon bar or two, a Cliff Bar, and some M&Ms.

The best part of the ride was seeing the beauty of the Rhode Island countryside. The generally courteous motorists and their passengers who not only drove carefully and gave me a wide berth, but also cheered, applauded, and gave thumbs-up and other morale boosting gestures.

Finished (in more ways than one)!

However, the hot sun on a cloudless day (record heat for Rhode Island), especially for the return ride from the Atlantic Ocean north to the high hills of northern Rhode Island made the ride more difficult. Traffic lights, stop signs, heavy but fast traffic, and a touch of asthma also made the ride more difficult than it otherwise would have been. In such a short ride (a little over 50 miles each way), traffic lights and traffic especially take a toll on average speed, but it wasn't as bad as the E-W-E double crossing the day before with one exception. With only a couple of miles to go to the beach at the Atlantic Ocean, and just enough time to easily beat 3 hrs for the N-S record, I was stopped cold at US Highway 1 by very heavy but fast Memorial Day weekend traffic. I believe I lost about 5 minutes before getting a chance to cross US 1 (for once I could have used a traffic light!). As a result, instead of perhaps a record time of 2:56, I ended up with exactly 3 hours and a few seconds.

The roads were fairly hilly, especially in the northern part of the state, and often quite rough. Unknown to me at the time of establishing the start and end points for this record attempt, the last 60 or 70 yards of the road to the turning around point at the beach was sand of varying degrees of compacting and quite tricky to ride on — I had to walk the last few feet. For these reasons, the fatter 26-mm tires were probably a good idea.

Rider Eddlemon with crew chief and wife Mikki.

At one point in a rural area, several motorcyclists passed at fairly high speed. A short while later as I zoomed down a big hill, I saw an ambulance with flashing lights and siren screaming toward me. Forgoing my well-earned high-speed rollout, I stopped at an intersection near the bottom of the hill in case the ambulance should turn across my path, and sure enough it did. A couple miles later I came upon a very sad scene with policemen directing traffic around a truck and at least one wrecked motorcycle whose rider was probably in that ambulance. I said a short prayer that he would live and recover from his injuries.

My heartfelt thanks to my crew captain and bride, Mikki Eddlemon; and UMCA official, and most professional Judge, Dr. Mark Cristy of Oak Ridge, TN. Mikki's generosity in time, encouragement, and support, and Dr. Cristy's professionalism and attention to the details of officiating is, of course, absolutely essential to the success of these record attempts.

I dedicate this effort to my outstanding crew captain and wife, Mikki Eddlemon.

Official Record: Rhode Island N-S, 50.3 miles, 3:00, 16.77 mph
Start: RI/MA state line on Hwy 98
Finish: Intersection of Charlestown Beach Rd and Brownhill Rd at the beach of the Atlantic Ocean south of the town of Charlestown, RI
Official: Mark Cristy

Official Record: Rhode Island S-N, 50.4 miles, 3:48, 13.26 mph
Start: Intersection of Charlestown Beach Rd and Brownhill Rd at the beach of the Atlantic Ocean south of the town of Charlestown
Finish: RI / MA state line on Hwy 98
Official: Mark Cristy

Official Record: Rhode Island N-S-N, 100.7 miles, 6:50, 14.74 mph
Start: RI/MA state line on Hwy 98
Turning Point: Intersection of Charlestown Beach Rd and Brownhill Rd at the beach of the Atlantic Ocean south of the town of Charlestown, RI
Finish: RI/MA state line on Hwy 98
Official: Mark Cristy