Joe Eddlemon, support vehicle driver (and father of cyclist); Mikki Eddlemon, Official Follow Vehicle driver; Gerry Eddlemon, cyclist.

After about three hours sleep, I awoke at about 3:40 on the morning of the attempt (this three hour sleep has happened on each of the last two nights before nearly every big ride I have ever attempted, including the Sebring 24-hour race — I can't seem to break this very bad habit). Weather at the start was similar to conditions prevailing in my training leading up to the attempt: 46 degrees and mostly clear skies, but temperatures would rise to an uncomfortable 82-83 degrees by afternoon. Normally 83-degree temperatures would not be too oppressive, but when one has been training for months in 30s, 40s, and low 50s, it does seem oppressively warm.

As always, 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.

On the road in rural South Carolina.

I've learned that I cannot live on liquid fluids alone during a long ride. More than 4 or 5 liquid energy drinks of 250-350 cal each quickly becomes tiresome if not outright difficult to get down. After a rather small breakfast of an Ensure Plus or equivalent, a bagel with cream cheese, and a few oatmeal cookies, I consumed about 4 or 5 8-oz bottles of chocolate Ensure Plus energy drinks or equivalent during the ride. Each provides 350 calories and plenty of sodium, magnesium and potassium. Also, I ate a few different types of energy bars, a couple Nature Valley fruit and nut bars, a couple bananas, jelly beans, M&Ms, Maple-nut Goodies, salty chips and pretzels, one chocolate-glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut, and a few PB&J sandwiches. Hydration needs were met by alternating bottles of Gatorade and plain water with a pinch of salt, plus a couple of Cokes. I did not get sick or faint until the finish.

The best part of the ride was all the remarkably courteous and helpful 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. On certain other rides, I've seen and heard a lot more of the less friendly kind of yells and gestures. I would like to sincerely salute all the genuinely friendly and downright helpful South Carolina folks who passed along the way. Even when stopped momentarily for food or drink or a change of clothes, friendly drivers would stop behind us to see if we were all right and to offer assistance and a "God bless you." Needless to say, my entire team and I were most impressed with the friendly and generous spirit of the South Carolinians we met along the way.

Pit stop along the way.

At night the song of the whippoorwill and thrumming of multitudes of frogs under a starry sky and Carolina crescent moon were quite lovely.

Still recovering from puncture wounds to my leg from an earlier collision and two weeks of asthma and respiratory, sinus, and eye infections brought on by exposure to the extreme pollen counts of a few weeks ago, I rode the first 40 miles or so wearing a surgical mask in an attempt to forestall debilitating asthma symptoms. Difficulty breathing through the mask during hard riding, however, forced me to remove it. During the last 80 miles or so, my speed suffered as I found that only very shallow breathing would mitigate more serious asthma symptoms.

The ride was remarkably free of dangerous incidents, but one high speed night time descent into one of the smaller towns along the way gave me a brief and acute awareness of my own mortality when the bright head lights of my follow car behind me momentarily disappeared just as the road went very black and very rough with bumps and potholes all at the same time. At the last moment I saw in the dim moonlight and relatively weak bike light that I was headed straight for a bridge abutment at almost 30 mph and was most fortunate to narrowly avoid disaster.

Left to right: Cyclist Gerry Eddlemon, support car driver Joe Eddlemon, UMCA Official Dr. Mark Cristy.

As I entered Columbia from the south, a very authentic looking US Hwy 321 sign clearly indicated that I should turn to the left at an especially busy and rather dangerous five-way intersection. Rider, support car driver, follow car driver, and UMCA judge all independently determined that a left turn was in order. The sign was disastrously incorrect and I consequently rode a net of 7.43 miles out of my way during the hottest part of the day before finding my way back to the true US 321. The error cost more than 31 minutes, and the total distance was 238 miles rather than the approximately 230 miles expected on the basis of the distance reported for the north-to-south record ride.

My heartfelt thanks to my crew captain and bride, Mikki Eddlemon, UMCA official, and most professional Judge, Dr. Mark Cristy of Oak Ridge, TN, and outstanding crewmen (and my father) Col. Joe Eddlemon. Their generosity in time, encouragement, and support was absolutely essential to the success of this record attempt.

I dedicate this effort to the faithful, hardworking, and dedicated crew-chief for all of my record attempts and races (including an informal record for Moscow to Paris, TN — 115.5 miles in 6 hours, 5 min), my beloved wife, Mikki Eddlemon. In between all these record attempts and road races, she has managed to win, at the ages of 69, and then 70, a total of four golds, six silvers, and one bronze medal in the last two Huntsman World Senior Games in the 400-m, 800-m, 1500-m, 3000-m, 10,000-m, and half-marathon (two course records), and dozens of district and state senior championships in Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky in her age class. Needless to say, I'm so proud of her I could pop!

Official Record: South Carolina S-N, 238.3 miles, 16:47, 14.20 mph
Start: SC/GA state line on US 17 bridge over Savannah River
Finish: US 321 at SC/NC state line north of Bowling Green
Official: Mark Cristy