She was very nervous as we arrived at the site of the race on Friday afternoon, almost to the point of not doing it.  She was in awe of some of her competitors in the race, including the current female course record holder at 300 miles, Nancy Guth.

All Gina did was go, and go, and go and go. I helped her with her stops, after each lap she would take a 5 minute break, sometimes 8 to 10 minutes, and she only took 2 long breaks the entire ride that were about 45 minutes each. No sleep, not for Gina! She was up a total of 40 hours straight before she finally could rest and go to sleep.

The race started at 5:00 PM.  The first lap run in daylight, started with some gusty winds, but they died down as night set in and they finished the second lap with lights.  Her first lap time with a group start, fresh legs, and daylight, was 1:02...the course was 20.01 miles. Her second lap as darkness set in was 1:04, her third was 1:09.

I think...we had a minor breakdown on the 80 mile pit stop, I gave myself an "F" on that one, she was nervous, cold, tired, and had been up about 18 hours by that time. After that lap, at 100 miles, about 11:30 PM, she stopped, tried to take a short nap, but found that being off the bike caused her to get cold and start shivering, so she rode the rest of the night.

Her night times, as her legs began to tire and fighting the cold, went down, as every lap she said she was going to take it easier, go slower.  She reeled off about 10 straight laps with times in the 1:10 to 1:12 range, so much for slowing down as you tire!  (See Gina's time splits here) Finally as she completed 200 miles she took a break about 30 minutes before the sun came up.

The pavilion had a roaring fire in the outdoors fireplace so I led her over to that to warm up, as she knew she would not sleep anyway. The church staff was preparing breakfast so I got a pancake for her to eat. She was back on the bike shortly after daylight and was shedding clothes after 2 laps in the daylight, back to her Texas Tech jersey and shorts.  I stayed  bundled in my jeans and sweatshirt and fleece jacket until late morning.

Her main competitor was the course record holder.  They were running almost lap for lap as best as we could tell from the 2 hr delayed posting of laps and times. As Gina approached her "goal" of the average for the previous year, it was like 9AM... We knew then she would be going for the course record. However, the course record holder was still riding strong also.

Gina never wavered, she never considered sitting, she was A MACHINE! As the day heated up and sun bore down, she kept going. She was starting to look tired, but her crew member Kristen was giving her neck and shoulder massages after each lap to try to keep those muscles loose.

She kept her stops short and kept the pressure on her competitor, a battle of wills to see which one would break first. As she came in at lap 15 to complete 300 miles and tie the course record, it was only about 2PM...she was going to break the record. The only question was where was her competitor? I kept checking for updates, and while she was on that lap, I determined that Nancy could not catch her if she did 320 miles.

So when Gina got there, with the course record in her pocket and victory assured, she was so happy she went out and drove the nail in the coffin of the former women's champion and finished with 340 miles and still had 30 minutes to go! 

Gina's mother, Tina,  had driven over from Abilene that morning to help crew and cheer on the new champion and was very happy to be there to celebrate the wonderful moment at the awards ceremony with Gina. I was so proud of her and her unwavering spirit in the pursuit of her goal. She put in so many hours of work and training and preparation, and while we all think she is a little crazy, she is also a champion in every meaning of the word.

Gina Vandiver, Female Course Record Holder in the Texas Time Trials 24 Hour event.