Kathryn "Kitty" Goursolle:  

Hi Friends, last year I did something pretty wild. Read aboput it here. Paris-Brest-Paris, 2007 Paris-Brest-Paris is 1225 km long, or about 760 miles. 90 hours are allowed to complete it. There¿s about 35,000 ft of climbing, all in smaller hills and rollers. It¿s death (to your legs) by 1000 cuts! But the huge number (5200) of participants and the enthusiastic support of the French people give PBP a special spirit found nowhere else. The long periods of rain this year made it the most difficult PBP since 1957. The usual finishing percent is about 88%, but for 2007, only about 70% of the starters were able to finish. It¿s understood that a rider attempting PBP will do lots of miles and will be able to survive tough conditions. The mind is just as important as the body in an event this long. Thankfully, I was able to remain confident, optimistic and in good humor throughout. Before I started, I had planned how far I¿d ride before sleeping. I had a time goal of 86 hours and a general idea of how to pace each segment of the ride. I didn¿t try so much to ride fast, but instead made an effort to ride as efficiently as possible, and above all, not to waste time in the controls. It went pretty much as planned, but I had to skimp on sleep the last night out to finish with a comfortable margin of about 3 hours. What actually happened was that I rode 280 miles in the first segment, then slept for 3 hours, followed by 200 miles and another 3 hour sleep, then 140 miles and 1.5 hours of sleep, followed by the last 140 miles to the finish. The wet roads and poor visibility slowed everybody down. I finished in 86:40, very close to my goal time of 86 hours. But I gave up about 2 hours of sleep on my last night to do it. I slept just enough to stay safe on the bike and avoid hallucinations! There were some frightening and painful moments. I saw a pair of riders ahead of me skid and crash on some wet, oily pavement. I was sure I¿d be next...Expand for more