Congratulations to Larry Oslund – for setting a new 100 Km, and 100 Mile Outdoor Track Record in the Men’s, Solo, Recumbent Bike categories on July 14, 2022
| Distance Event Kilometers | Time | Avg Sp (Km) | Avg Sp (Miles) |
| 100 Km Road | 02:22:52.37 | 42.00 | 26.09 |
| Distance Event Miles | Time | Avg Sp (Miles) | Avg Sp (Km) |
| 100 Mile Road | 03:56:08.87 | 25.41 | 40.89 |
Larry also set the “oldest Male to ride an unfaired bike 100 Miles in under 4-hours” category.
For this attempt I was going for the 60-69 100 Mile and 100Km Outdoor Track recumbent records and also the “oldest 100 Miles on a unfaired bike under 4 hours” record. I rode Magic which is a Cruzbike prototype built by John Morciglio
I did this attempt at Roebling Racetrack in Bloomingdale, Ga. It is listed as a 2.02-mile track. It is not perfectly flat either. Going down the straight from left to right the 2nd concave turn (which would be the 4th turn) starts a downhill of about 30’. Then you climb about ½ of it on that next small straight, then swooping right onto the long straightaway which gently climbs uphill until turn #1. The professional survey of the track yielded 1.9603 miles per lap, so I needed 51 laps plus 130’5” for 100 Miles exactly.
We arrived at the Roebling Racetrack at 5:30am and it was still dark. Someone was supposed to meet us there as they did not officially open until 9am. But no one showed up. Luckily the track manager called me to check on me and told me where the hidden key was and we let ourselves in. My wife Gayle and my daughter Elena were with me. Elena was going to be one of my officials and my wife was my crew chief and was going to drive the follow vehicle around the track. This was required the track was 2 miles long and it was not possible to see me the entire way around.
Soon after we arrived and opened the gate my 2nd official: Wesley Wilson showed up too. She had answered my plea for another official and lived close by. We had to drive an hour to get there and luckily, she was only 10 minutes away.
We spent the nest 20 minutes working like crazy un-packing the van, getting my bike ready, getting final docs signed for WUCA and giving Wesley and Elena the log sheets they would use. Wesley sat at the start and finish line and recorded lap times and to make sure no cars were crossing the track when I was coming through.
A little after 6am I took off for a warmup lap around the track. Then I stopped at the start finish line getting ready for the start. We all went over what everyone’s task was and at 6:17am I started.
The conditions were nearly perfect at the start – almost no wind and not hot yet but still plenty warm at 80 F!
I rode the first 10 miles at a pretty incredible speed of 27.5mph and was already 2 minutes ahead of my 4-hour pace for 100 miles. Gotta love that adrenaline when you first set off!
I slowed down some on the second 10 miles to about 26.6mph and after that split I was about 3 minutes ahead of my pace as I knew I could not maintain 27.5 much longer! haha
Each of the next 3 sets of 10-mile splits I slowed down to 26.4, 26.2 and 26.2 mph respectively. This was mostly due to the wind slowly picking up as my power remained about the same at about 3 W/Kg.
So, after 50 miles, my average was 26.5 and I was 6 minutes ahead of my 25mph pace.
For the next 30 miles I could feel the wind slowly continue to pick up ever so slightly and of course it is summer in South Georgia, so yeah it is hot and humid even at 9am! Because of this and my general fatigue my speed continued to decline slowly and my average speed for those 30 miles was about 25.4. At the end of 80 miles, I was about 6 ½ minutes ahead of my minimum pace.
I was talking a 20 oz bottle of fuel about once every hour handed to my from my follow vehicle.
Quick note if you are doing the math and the numbers don’t add up. I am providing the average speeds recorded and saved on my Garmin while I am riding. The minimum speed for the record is going to be calculated based on the exact survey of the track which is calculated as the shortest possible distance around the track. It is virtually impossible to ride that line as you would be so close to the grass (or edge) it would dangerous. However, for some reason when I ride these attempts the distance and speed recorded by my Garmin GPS are always about 1% off of the surveyed distance. This means that when my Garmin is saying I am doing 25.25 mph I am really doing 25.0 mph. To make sure I don’t get a false sense of security I calculate the exact time for each lap I need based on the survey and then I keep track of it while I ride. For this track I needed to each lap in 4m:32.2s . Therefore 5 laps in 23:31. I would keep track of groups of 5 laps on my Garmin and mentally in my head I would know how many seconds above or below my minimum goal of 23:31.
After 80 miles the wind had really started picking up and it was a tough go to climb back up the hill and up that long straight away with the wind against me. I was also getting pretty hot and I was tired now. My 9th set of 10 miles I was only able to average about 24.5 so I had been losing time now but still had a pretty good buffer of about 5 ½ minutes.
I was starting to feel my legs wanting to cramp so I tried to take on some extra electrolytes too. I knew now that I would be able to break 4 hours if I could just keep riding as my average speed up thru 90 miles was 25.9 so I had a lot of leeway.
The last 10 miles was pretty gruesome but I just had to gut it out. The hottest and windiest yet. I just tried to hold it together and concentrated on being consistent and prayed for the cramps not to come. I finished the last set of 10 miles in about 24.1 mph. Not too bad considering the wind which you can’t control.
I had to ride another full lap because the exact 100-mile location is prorated based on the track survey and the laps times before and after where the 100 miles occur. I could have measured a line on the track for the extra 130’5” and timed to it (after 51 laps) but we choose not to do that, so I had to ride almost an extra 2 miles to complete the 52 lap. My Garmin registered 103.3 miles in 4:01:12 (25.6 mph). Per the survey I traveled 101.935 miles in 4:01:12. Therefore my 100-mile time is: (3:56:08 24.41 mph)
Thanks to Rick at Roebling Racetrack for making it possible for me to ride my attempt here. It is a wonderful venue. All the support from him and his staff was awesome. I would also like to thank my wife for being my Crew Chief (and of course for putting up with all my training for this event), my daughter Elena for being one of my officials and new friend Wesley Wilson for being my other official. A shout out also to my good friend Drew Waters from my church who came to cheer me on. Final and most thanks as always to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who ransomed my life. He made all this possible – all glory and honor go to Him, forever.
Left to right: Wesley, Gayle, Larry, Elena, and Drew
