Sebring Bicycle Race

By Brian Fitzgerald

I had the opportunity recently of going to Sebring, Florida to race in the 24 hour Sebring Bicycle Race which on the surface seems stupid.  Why ruin a perfectly good trip to Florida by staying up all night riding a bicycle?  I mean if you're going to stay up and at least drink until dawn, right?

I knew about this race and always wanted to go down and do the 12 hour ride but having completed the 2006 run of Rudy's Double Century, I decided that if I was going down there then I needed to do the 24 hour non-RAAM qualifier portion of the race.  The thing about this was that I had quit riding after the 2008 RAINSTORM to focus on running and I was continuing to run in November when Wayne Gallapoo of Seymour wondered if I'd be interested in going.  My initial answer was no but I thought it'd be a good excuse to hit the Southern climes in February but initially he was going to do the 12 hour event.  I said that if I'm going then it was the 24 hour race that I'd do and he was ultimately convinced to join me.  So it was the two of us plus Elizabeth Eaken of North Vernon who would race in this event along with Wayne's wife Sarah Gallapoo who would be our SAG, cheerleader, mom, caretaker, etc.  The decision was made in the middle of November so I had to get after the training in earnest.  I didn't know how to get ready for it but I knew that all of the training would be done indoors on the trainer since I'm too much of a wimp to ride outside when it's less than 50 degrees.

We made the trip down to Sebring starting on February 11^th and arrived in Sebring on the 12^th.  Given the day to stretch the legs, lay out by the pool, etc.  we were able to pick up packets on February 13^th.  Given that we've done RAIN and have helped out RAIN registration, we've had it spoiled with the efficiency of getting packets, etc. pretty quickly.  Of course in my case, I pre-registered for this event and they didn't seem to have anything on me, no paperwork, etc.  All though my check did clear, my paperwork apparently didn't.  Once I got everything straightened out I was hoping this would be the only thing that would go wrong for this race.  The race staff was helpful and apologetic that this did happen though.

5 am February 14^th came early.  After a hot shower and a final pre-race check, the three of us headed outside with over 200 other riders for the 6:30 am mass start at the entrance to the Sebring International Raceway.  This race track hosts the world famous 12 Hours of Sebring race.  It's a 3.7 mile road course that has hosted races since the 1950s.  We were given are last minute directions by the race director and at 6:30 am, we set out for a 3 lap circuit of the track before being turned loose onto the 89 mile out and back section of the course.  You head out on the section and not quite half way, you need to drop off a poker chip that has your ride number on there.  It ensures that the riders actually have ridden out to the checkpoint.  The nice thing about this loop and riding around this part of the state are the numerous orange groves that you encounter.  During the harvesting as you ride by, the citric acid and aroma is thick.  It smells good and you almost feel the citric acid in your eyes but one thing that we commented on was how cool it would be to live down here and have some orange trees in your back yard to pick every morning.

Anyway, back to the race, once we made the turnaround we headed back to the track, the wind wasn't too bad but the three of us worked well together so we all had turns dealing with a little headwind heading back plus we were protected a little bit by some trees.  We got back to the track in 6 hours and 8 minutes.  I was hoping we'd get back in 6 hours or better for our goals so we were close.  After a crossing of the timing mat, we headed back out on an 11 mile loop.  Heading out for a couple of miles into a block 10 mph headwind and going uphill for that matter was a little tough but then that last 8 or so miles was with the wind, plus by some more orange groves, and we were able to take it easy at about 14 miles an hour going into the wind and around 18-20 miles per hour with the wind.  We used that strategy a lot for a couple of hours as it seemed that we couldn't get people to work with us heading into the wind and they'd fly off and leave us once we had the wind but I guess people have their own goals but after 3 laps or so of that it got a little thankless for the 3 of us.

Sometime around 5 pm we were thinking that and were told that around 5:30 pm that they were going to open up the track, they actually opened it not too long after we got done with our 5^th lap so then we began what would be a rather long evening and morning on the track.  Safe from the traffic and close if we encountered a problem.  Some people know that at some point everyone tends to ride for themselves.  You want to stick together but sometimes it just doesn't happen depending on how people feel, etc.  Once the three of us hit the track, the only time I saw Wayne and Liz were in the pits or when they passed me on the track.  

It is a funny feeling riding past sundown.  You need good bright lights and having an iPod seemed to help out too.  I was concerned about the headlight that I had so the day before at Wal-Mart, I purchased a small LED miners lights and wore it.  I was hoping that it would work out and be comfortable for the overnight ride.  It worked better than I could've hoped.  Very light weight and very bright.  I eventually turned off my headlight and just went with the miners light.  The iPod was nice to have since I knew that at 1:30 am, I would get tired of telling myself to keep pushing and that I would need some music to keep me motivated.  Sadly I didn't adjust my playlist accordingly and on some parts of the ride, instead of some hard rock and roll, I'd have some easy listening.  Not a good situation to go through.

Riding at night on the track was actually pretty cool.  They had used blinking taillights to show you the route of the racetrack, provided that no one ran over them, and it proved to be a great asset to follow the direction of the track since they don't have any lights on the race track that we could've used.  That might also be true to since the track is near the airport as well.  But one thing that I noticed that although you were out there with other riders, their was a loneliness to the ride.  I could have drafted but the opportunity never really presented itself.  It is to some extent every person for themselves or maybe it's like you are condemned to suffer your race by yourself.

My goal was to ride 300 miles but it's always a priority for me to have a good time.  I was going to have fun regardless of the distance limit that I imposed on myself.  But when I finally got off the back for the final time slightly before 5:30 am on Sunday morning and having accomplished my distance goal, I was very ecstatic and very tired.  I finished with 307 miles for the day and my actual ride time was 19 hours and 12 minutes.

I'll definitely do this event again and we're already penciling it in for 2010.