Iron Butt. Or; The Mettle of one’s Derrière.

Tomorrow’s Iron Butt adventure will undoubtedly test more than just the mettle of our butts, it will test our entire bodies, as well as our minds. 1,000 miles in under 24 hours is no small feat. The most miles-in-one-day that I’ve done previously was back in ’04, when I was coming back from having shredded the Blue Ridge Mountains with Michigan Paul, in North Carolina. That was 800 miles in 11 hours. Having knocked those out with relative ease, my mind tells me that it will be no problem to tack on another 200 miles. Piece of cake! But my mind glosses over the fact that those 800 miles were achieved via the body of a guy 8 years younger than the guy typing this out right now. But no matter; Bring It!

Matty and I are meeting at 4am tomorrow morning, at the Interstate gas stop on Rte 1 in Wrentham. We’ll get our forms signed, get our time-and-date-stamped gas receipts, and then we’ll be off. Our route will take us up 495, then west on 90, then south on 84 for a long, long stretch. We’ll bop over onto 81 for a short stint, and then settle back in for another long leg on 80. We’ll pull up the reins in Clarion, PA where we’ll pause briefly, prob ably grab a quick bite, and then it’ll be right back to the road. Doing the math (let’s see…~170 miles/tank, divided by (above legal limit) mph while rolling, plus ~10 mins per gas & pee stop, multiplied by just under 6 stops…carry the 13…add ~30 mins for the turnaround point…) should find us rolling back into town somewhere in the 15-16 hour range. (That’s assuming all goes well and that we have no issues, though.)

That’s all well and good, but the one thing that’s not so cool; the weather forecasts have changed for the evening hours. Whereas it was going to be smooth sailing and clear skies for the duration, now it appears there will be afternoon thunderstorms and then showers in the evening. That could suck royally, especially after a long day in the saddle. (So it will probably just serve as more motivation to pour on the coals in the earlier part of the day.)

So there you have it; the Iron Butt plan!

Ride Hard, Take Chances - Ride 1,000 miles within 24 hours!