The 24 Hour Challenge
June 14th-15th, 2003
 

The day before:

Team WizWheelz met at the shop at 9:00 am the day before the big event. We toured the fabrication shop, tuned up the trikes, drove the course, and went out to lunch. We had three top guns come to town to attempt to break David Lawson's mark of 253 miles in 24 hours on a TerraTrike. It wasn't an easy task but we knew each team member had a shot at it. The 2003 team consisted of three current customers: Sue Neurath, a triathlete from Tucker, GA; Richard Myers, a racewalk record holder from Xenia, OH and a veteran of many endurance events on a streamliner; and Rick Bainter from Elkhart, IN, a three time participant of this event on an upright road bike.

Team WizWheelz - Rick, Sue, & Richard (the before picture)

Team WizWheelz with Randall (the after picture)

The big event:

Once again this was a great event for us. Our team members all posted very impressive results and the machines held up superbly without any mechnical problems whatsoever. In 24 hours time, the team pedalled 853 miles without so much as a flat tire or a derailleur in need of adjustment. The TerraTrikes held up so well that the support crew spent most of the day grilling burgers, and lounging in the sun. The weather was perfect and the only thing that delayed our riders was when the course was shut down for about 30 minutes during the night while emergency vehicles cleared an accident.

Below is a breakdown of each person's incredible accomplishment. Randall put it best when he said that each of them must have been "possessed by the spirit of Lawson"!

Rick (Willis Reed) Bainter age 50 of Elkhart, IN on a stock TerraTrike 3.3 - This guy is incredible. He showed up sick, hadn't slept at all the night before due in part to the hotel losing his reservation, and he still took on the event like a champ. After severe dehydration early in the event, and terrible stomach problems throughout the day and night, he still kept riding until 5:00 am. We can't figure out where he gets his drive. We all would have quit hours before, or not even started in the first place. Rick's persistance in the face of pain made the whole team stronger and led Wayne to nickname him 'Willis'. The amazing thing is that despite all of the setbacks, he still ended up with 225 miles. That's roughly the distance from New York City to Washington DC! Incredible.

Sue (Energizer Bunny) Neurath age 42 of Tucker, GA on a stock TerraTrike 3.3 - This women has such a soft spoken, easy going demeanor that you'd never expect her to be such a competitor. Jack called her the Energizer Bunny. She just wouldn't stop. In fact, during the night loop her split times kept getting faster and she took fewer and fewer breaks. During the entire 24 hour event she was off her TerraTrike a total of 18 minutes. We think she might even ride it home to Georgia. She smashed last year's men's TerraTrike record, and set a new "Women's TerraTrike" world record of 297 miles! That's St. Louis to Chicago! Without that accident delay, Sue would have easily cleared 300 miles.

Richard (Colonel Steve Austin) Myers age 66 of Xenia, OH on a stock TerraTrike 3.4 with a few of his own racing mods - You had to see this guy to believe it. We're not completely convinced that he is human. Ike thinks he might be the result of some sort of genetic muscle experiment. Each time he flew past the pit crew we heard that metallic daderdaderdader sound effect from the Six-Million Dollar Man show. Has the bionic man resurfaced after all these years? Richard is just simply an animal. He rode the entire event with only a total of 6 minutes off his machine. He didn't need us at all. He came in with a surgical game plan, and executed it perfectly. He could write a book on tips and techniques for physical and mental endurance. Some of his tricks just astounded us. He finished with a total of 331 miles! While the rest of us watched in amazement, Richard rode his customized TerraTrike the distance from Chicago to Des Moines in 24 hours and set a new "TerraTrike" world record in the process.

Above everything else, our team (like David last year) was a joy to work with. Each of them was pleasant and friendly throughout the event which is not easy to do for 24 hours. Here's a funny example of what a lack of sleep can do to an otherwise normal person: late at night we witnessed one upright (or uptight rather) road biker yell at his well-meaning wife and daughter for not taking some sort of Hostess cake out of it's individual wrapper - he couldn't spend the 4.5 seconds to do it himself so he threw it back at them and told them to get it right the next time around. As he passed our tent Ike said "Good move, twinkie". It's easy to be cranky when you're sleep deprived but our riders were in control and always appreciative of the pit crew. Rick, Sue, and Richard represented us very well and we are all extremely proud of their accomplishments!

Thanks team!

Randall's results:

Our sales manager Randall Bertrand competed in this event on his upright road bike and was on a mission to break 350 miles. Despite the previously mentioned accident delay, some lighting problems including breaking a headlight and having to backtrack over a mile to the homebase to attach a backup lamp, and a myriad of minor rythem-breaking issues too numerous to list, he threw down 365.6 miles in 24 hours! Jack, Wayne, and Ike stared in amazement when he said he was going to ride his bike home from the event just to get to 400. Ike told him he should just "round up". So after riding from Cleveland to Washington DC, Randall showed up to work on Monday morning. We sent him home and told him to turn off the computer and phone and get some sleep.

The mass start.		Richard at the start.
Here's Rick at the first checkpoint.		Rick, Kate Oom, and Sue at the first checkpoint.
Sue and Rick enjoy the lush Michigan countryside.		Sue and Rick approach the 71 mile checkpoint.
Kate, Sue, Ike, and Rick at checkpoint 2.		An important planning session at the Team WizWheelz Headquarters and Strategic War Room! Alright.....actually it was just a party tent. Our home base grew to 18 members later in the evening but here from the left, you see Sue, Shelly Bainter, Rick, Rick's niece India, Pam Matthews with Husband and TT customer Graham who's talking to Ike in the Red cap who's partially obscurred by David Byrne working the grill and joking with Lori Wiswell and Kate.
Sue finishes with 297.2 miles!		Richard finishes with 331 miles!
Team WW with Steve McGuire who was the young stud who logged an impressive 383 miles on a Greenspeed racing trike. Steve's a great guy and we were pumped to see a trike win the recumbent category. Not pictured are the two other trike entrants. Murray and Jason Cleland rode 280 and 81 miles respectively on Swift trikes. Great job - you guys are incredible! Read Murray's account of the event here.		Randall finishes with 365.6 miles!

Also, special thanks to David Lawson, Kate Oom, Lori Wiswell, David Byrne, Tom Wiswell, and the whole Bertrand family for their help with this event. You folks RULE!