A fireplug of a man, McCool is ready for his Utah S-N record attempt.

Standing on the Arizona border south of Kanab, UT I contemplated what was ahead of me. The answer was — Utah! I was preparing to ride my bike from where I was standing, to the Wyoming border. "Five minutes to go," the UMCA official, Don Williams said as I was running a mental checklist to make sure nothing had been overlooked. It seemed like it has taken months to get to this moment and all I wanted to do was start riding.

10:00 a.m., finally the command came, go! Riding through the red rocks of Kanab the temps were in the high 90's and I was at my ride's lowest elevation. I felt a huge release of pent-up energy just to be under way; I began to climb up highway 89. The scenery was beautiful and with all sensory receptors on high I relished the experience. Climbing from the desert floor, passing Gooseberry Mesa, one of my favorite mountain biking spots, toward central Utah. Soon I noticed a red rock wall bathed in sunshine with dark angry clouds curling over the top. I felt the first cold headwind coming my way. Soon the rain pounded as my crew offered up a jacket. With the rain, the wind shifted to my back and began to blow me toward me destination, I'm OK with this I thought!

After reaching a town called Richfield, the scenario of wind and rain began to repeat itself a few more times. Hunker down in the aerobars against a headwind, put on jacket and get dumped on, fly in big ring with tailwind. After getting caught without it, there was no way I was going to relinquish that jacket to my crew, I'll just keep it thank you.

I wanted to do this record because it had not been done before. This made the record attainable for me since I'm not as fast as other riders being a short guy who is built like a fireplug. I have ridden some 24-hour events but want to move to the next level and this seamed like a logical stepping-stone. I feel that the journey to get to the starting line is worth it alone. I have ridden lots of wonderful miles this year, with lots of great people from my club, The Bonneville Bicycle Touring Club. For bikes I used a LeMond steel/carbon spine bike during the day, and a Softride beam bike at night. I ate mostly Advat-edge liquid food and E-3. I used Elite electrolyte replacement. Peanut Butter and crackers, a Payday bar and one egg McMuffin.

As night fell, I began to feel great even though I thought I might hurl after large doses of carbo-fuel. The temps dropped and the wind came around to my back. The next 150 miles were big ring, adrenaline, and aero bars. As the moon came up, my support vehicle with its flashing yellow lights moved in behind me to protect me from a steady stream of 18-wheelers. Almost no car traffic passed, which is why we planned this attempt the day after Labor Day. The best part about trucks is that you know they are not drinking!

After rolling into familiar roads around Nephi, UT, my brother joined the crew for the over night stretch. Thinking about a record time, pounding through the night we arrived at the mouth of Provo Canyon at 4:30 a.m. This put me an hour and a half ahead of projected schedule! My crew changed my shoes, put on a winter jersey, jacket, and winter gloves. I started up, as a strong cold wind was blowing out of the canyon. At first I was too warm and I thought about taking some things off but soon found equilibrium. I think the cozy clothes brought on the first struggle to stay awake but soon we reached the tunnel. The top part was so scary and it woke me wide-awake instantly! Seems that I made the wrong call. I thought that all the morning traffic would be heading to work in the Salt Lake valley but no, it was all construction workers in big monster trucks trying to get to the Heber valley! I pounded with all my strength to get to Heber and a safer road, not realizing I was digging deeply into what reserves I had left.

I'll just keep the raincoat, thank you!

Around 7:00 a.m. we reached Heber City, UT and I spent my first appreciable time off the bike. I sat in the car and dozed off for a couple minutes while the crew got some Egg McMuffins. Yum, my first solid food! Soon my wife, saying the mantra "stay on the bike" had me pointed down the road again. Here I switched from my night bike back to my day bike to find gum that my wife had given me on a climb out of Kanab still stuck on the aero bar where I left it the day before! No, I was in no mood for gum now!

To my disbelief, there was a giant climb to get from Heber to Kamas. I knew that it was going to get really difficult. Climb, climb, and more climb. I was beginning to struggle. When we got to Kamas and started up the Mirror Lake highway, I was at mile 306 and saw the first sign of the end "Wyoming Border 55". Grinding up the road I started to do the math. I knew this part was going to tear my legs off, but after all, this is why it's called ultramarathon cycling. The biggest percentage of mileage was behind me but that didn't make it hurt any less. I knew I could finish; I just worried about how slowly I was going because I didn't want to disappoint my crew.

After about 15 miles, we came up to a road construction flagman who stopped us. He said it would take 17 minutes until we could go on, so I un-clipped and promptly laid down on the road right there and went to sleep, only for a couple minutes. I remember laughing to my self when I heard my people tell the guy that I had ridden my bike from Kanab and left about this time yesterday. He muttered something unprintable about me being nuts that I had to agree to some degree, but then I thought, "When was the last time this guy went on such a grand adventure?"

The next few miles were just plain painfully slow. 4500 feet of climbing after 300 miles for a little fireplug shaped guy, I couldn't escape the math in my head as my average speed just fell away from me. On and on, at 10 mph, then six mph, then five mph steeper and steeper. As if on cue, it started to rain, then sleet. Remember it was 95 degrees when I started! My crew kept running up and saying things like, "you look terrible" and "Are you going to die?" But I knew it was only about time. Then saw spray paint on the road from the "High Uintas Classic" that said "KOM points 200 meters" and I knew I was there. Doing the math one last time I thought I could come in under 29 hours if I hammered through the rainy decent. Struggling with a few of those sneaker climbs, and facing hypothermia I faced reality and stopped to put on my cold weather clothes one more time.

29 hours and 31 minutes border to border, 361 miles. Finally the finish, the Wyoming border on Hwy 150 (Mirror Lake highway) north of the Uintah Mountains. A new UMCA record! I had ridden the fastest 275 miles of my life, thanks to training, determination, excitement, and obviously a great tail wind. We really began to think we were going to come in under 24 hours but then reality of climbing set in. I lost a lot of time climbing. The best part of the ride was the whole experience. The sun, the rain, the sore butt, and the pizza after the finish! The hardest part was climbing the Mirror Lake highway, after 300 miles. I knew I could and would do it, just not fast. I'm also glad it sleeted on me just to add injury to insult.

I have to thank UMCA officials and friends Don and Mary Margaret Williams. Don is a great ambassador of this sport whose friendship means a lot to me. My wife Erinn and brother Dan McCool were my crew; no one loves you like family! Thanks go to Contender Bicycles for their support, and Bonneville Bicycle Touring Club for such great rides, and folks to ride with that allowed me to log the mileage needed for this quest.

Official Record: 361 miles in 29:31, average speed of 12.23 mph
Start: US 89A on AZ/UT state line
Finish: UT Hwy 150 on UT/WY state line