Monday 21st January 2008 - I Did It 24 Hours Charity Spinathon

Well it is now two days after the event and I feel pretty good.
I will give you an overview of what happened.

I left Sydney on Thursday morning arrived 22 hours later on Thursday evening into JFK Airport to much colder climate of New York at 7pm (it was snowing). Then I got a cab into the city to my hotel and checked in. I had arranged with the event organizer to take a walk through the venue (Grand Central Station in New York) to get an idea of how it would be.

Rob Lunde from HealthCorps who had been my contact for this event (and was great) took me on the tour and explained the general outline for the day and evening event. He had arranged for me to have the bike which was just off the main stage (which held a new instructor each hour) and gave me a lot more freedom to do what I needed. This also placed me right near the steps up to the stage and meant that I would be close for media interviews. It was only 12 hours to go and the excitement was building.

Some friends (Steve and Lindy) had arranged to be in town from San Francisco and they were also staying at the same hotel as I was, so we had decided to go out for some food. As the hotel was very close to Times Square I knew a nice restaurant at the W Hotel called BlueFin (great food) and we enjoyed a superb meal and then it was getting late.

My plan was to attempt to reduce the onset of "jetlag" by adopting the local time zone habits and so I got about 5 hours sleep when I was finally tired and got up at 4.30am. Previous experience at long distance events (Hawaii Ironman in 2000) had educated me that it would the potential problem of "chaffing" could be reduced by shaving my legs on the morning and then applying special cycling cream which all played a part, I'm sure in why I feel pretty good now.

Getting to the event an hour before it was quite busy in one of the busiest transport Terminals in any city and the crowd of both the first 100 riders and spectators with event personnel and sponsors was starting to build.

When registering and getting my number (0012) I found out that I was the only rider attempting to complete the entire 24 hours. There was one other rider that had planned to do the ride but he had withdrawn after completing a long day on the bike and found it quite hard. There is no doubt that going into this event physically prepared and mentally focussed was a major plus for me. I had mixed up my training as I knew that it was going to be hard so I wanted other elements in the forms of training I had prepared with to sustain me during those hours of discomfort. Those were tough hours I won't lie.

As part of the Charity Fundraising Event there was an attempt on the Guinness Book of Records for the most distance traveled in 24 hours. Here is their result.

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FROM THE FORBES.COM WEBSITE TODAY.
The New York Sports Clubs today announced that the New York Sports Clubs/Cadence Cycling Team established a new Guinness World Record(TM) for most miles traveled on a single stationary bike in 24 hours. The team cycled a total of 829.84 miles, at an average pace of 34.58 miles per hour.

"Our members set personal records every day, but today's achievement is truly historic," says Merrill Richmond, Vice President of Marketing for New York Sports Clubs. The previous record was held by a UK team of riders who rode for 595.17 miles at approximately 25 miles per hour in 2006. Holden Comeau, one of the New York Sports Clubs/Cadence Cycling Team riders also established a new world record for greatest distance traveled by an individual rider in one hour - 40.668 miles. "Many teams were eyeing this challenge and we are really thrilled we were able to set a new record," says Comeau.

The record was broken during New York Sports Clubs' Saints and Spinners event, a 24-hour Spin(R)-a-Thon benefit in New York's iconic Grand Central Terminal. The event, which took place from 7 a.m. Friday, January 18, through 7 a.m. Saturday, January 19, raised over $250,000 for HealthCorps, a non-profit organization founded by "Oprah Winfrey Show" Health Expert Dr. Mehmet Oz devoted to fighting teen obesity.

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It was incredible to see how well these guys went and when not riding their sessions the guys would come down and encourage me to keep going. Due to the fact that I had about 5-10 minutes each hour to recover, hydrate, refuel, toilet breaks and stretch. Now in planning it seemed to be plenty of time but in actuality there were conversations with other riders who had just completed their hour who had questions or the media asking me a few questions on why I was here and why I would do this event which was totally cool and expected.

After the first four hours I had set myself a regime of eating my chosen food, (it is called PHI and has different flavors all are fantastic which had been generously supplied by the WholeFood Farmacy team. I am not sure that I could have survived the total time without a quality nutrient source and this is what I knew I would be getting from this product. Check them out at www.wholefoodfarmacy.com

Again from past experience with IRONMAN, I knew that there were only so many sweet banana's, water or sugary drinks, cookies, and foods that I could eat before you get nautious and want something else. This came to play a key role later in the evening.

At the 10th and 11th hour my left knee was in a lot of pain, I have had a history of patella tracking issues (kneecap alignment causing pain) which was my initial reason in getting into Spin classes as it reduced the impact and strengthened my body. From the hours already completed I was really in some major discomfort. Bill Germanakos - Winner from the fourth season of the Biggest Loser was one of the celebrity riders and he looked awesome - great job Bill !!!

He was able to lend me a knee brace which totally reduced (not removed) the pain and so I was able to push on for more hours, which was a blessing as I had been wondering whether I would be able to complete the event. So with the discomfort of the knee pain being dealt with, and a regular schedule of toilet stops each second hour, I was feeling ok as the 16th hour rolled around. The guys from Cadence stopped by and asked how I was doing. I replied that I would kill for some pizza and they smiled with encouragement as they left with the music increasing and the instructor telling us all that it was a "monster hill" - just what I needed I thought to myself.

Later as we were "recovering between hills" during the next hour spin class, I noticed one of the Cadence riders again appear off to my right, climb the stairs onto the stage and sit down in front of me. Before it even appeared I could smell the cheese topping from the Pizza and realized that he had got me a slice. The instructor again got us back up to "ride the hills", so I decided to really earn this slice and work my butt off and began to imagine that like Lance Armstrong would do to decimate his rivals in the Tour de France I would "attack the hill" as he held out the pizza in front of me.

By now the entire riding group of 100 riders takng part and many spectators could not only see what was going and smell the pizza they were voicing loudly their encouragement in support of my efforts. Some six minutes later as I finally "crested the hill" he handed me the slice of pizza to a loud round of applause from my fellow hill climbers and believe me, not many things have tasted that good in ages !!!

It was now the early hours of the morning and I was down to the last 5 hours. I had figured that once I got the hours down onto one hand that I was in the home stretch and believe me it seemed close now. The event organizers asked me did I want to do the remaining hours on stage and I was excited for this opportunity as the music was really motivating. It also meant that I could see the guys from Cadence on their effort to smash the old Guinness record at the back of the room and we gave each other signals of encouragement. They obliterated it.

The Grand Central Terminal closes from 2am to the public (a regular happening I think since 9/11) and then re-opens at 5am, so we were the first event allowed to take part all the way through the evening in Vanderbilt Hall which again was another great moment. At 5am the morning crowds started to filter and the final hours of the event were underway with again full 100 riders and those event organizers who had grabbed a few hous sleep again showing up for the final hour.

The final instructor from NYSC was Tim Keightley who is the Vice President of Fitness and Personal Training who had also started the event. Great guy who is a "transplant" from Ireland - another colonial like myself :-) who really had the crowd both excited and riding hard. My body while wanting to rest knew that it had little choice as the music pumped us up the final 60 minutes.

I would like to thank Tim for making me feel a large part of the event and also the other instructors and NYSC management team; the HEALTHCORPS event organizers with special mention to Rob Lunde and Michelle Bouchard, Dr Mehmet Oz, the celebrities who all stopped by the encourage me PLUS the many, many volunteers who were always there to assist me with whatever I needed.

Finally it was 7.05am on Saturday morning and I dismounted for the final time that day and as we concluded pictures and some interviews I started to come down off the 24 hour high that I had been on. My thoughts turned to getting back to the hotel and some much needed sleep. I packed up all my things, changes of clothes, shoes, leftover food and placed it all in my bag. I then said my goodbyes and grabbed a cab outside in the very brisk morning air of NYC and then my body started to shake.

I knew that I needed to get back to the hotel quickly. It was only three blocks and arriving in my room I quickly jumped into a warm shower for about 20 minutes trying to assist the recovery process. I then put on warm socks, light sweat suit and jumped into bed. I wanted to go to sleep and thought that it would be difficult so I turned on the TV and rolled over to adjust the pillows and woke up 10 hours later feeling surprizingly good. My knee was tender and chaffing was not too bad but otherwise my only issue was hunger.

Luckily my friends had arranged for me to get a wake up call and so we all went out to celebrate and had a great time. Gotta love this City as in my head all I kept hearing was the catch cry of :

"LIVE from New York City - Its SATURDAY NIGHT !!!!"

Would I do this event again - probably not.
BUT then again I said I wouldnt do IRONMAN again but lately I have been wondering maybe .........