Interviewee: Chris Ragsdale

Occupation: Production manager for Revolution Marketing

Riding style: Ultra distance racing

His ride: A Litespeed converted to a single speed commuter (and a few more, very expensive racing machines.)

On Thursday, March 17, the weather gave us a little taste of spring. It was mostly dry, the sun was out and birds were chirping. It was a beautiful day for a little bike ride. Joining me was world record-holding ultracyclist, Chris Ragsdale. I met up with the Ballardite at the Olympic Sculpture Park, which is along his commute home from work. Given the beautiful weather, we added a loop around Magnolia.

I invited Chris because of his incredible record of achievements. The 33 year-old bought his first road bike at REI less than nine years ago but has already claimed multiple national titles and even a world record.

He not only competes in ultra distance cycling competitions, he wins them. He won the Furnace Creek 508 in 2009, he has won the National 24 Hour Challenge five years in a row now, and last year he set a new official 1000 km world record by biking 1000 km (621.37 miles) in 31 hours, 40 minutes, and 10 seconds.

When he finishes first at a competition he also has the tendency to set new records. He has done so in the Race Across Oregon, the National 24 Hour Challenge, the 12 hour Ultra Midwest Dusk till Dawn, and the Sebring 24 Hour.

So how does one go from buying a road bike to breaking world records?

Ragsdale said it's a mix of good genetics and the capability to withstand pain and fatigue.

He started biking in 2002 when he went on a solo and unsupported transcontenental bicycle crossing from Laguna Beach, CA. to St. Augustine, FL.

"A friend's brother had done a coast-to-coast tour and was telling about all the people he met and the crazy experiences he had and it just burned this thing in my frame," Ragsdale said. "Post 9-11, I started thinking what I want to do in life and thought maybe I should start checking things of my list. So I bought a bike from REI, learned how to ride, quit my job and did a coast-to-coast tour."

He fell in love with biking and started seeking long rides like the one-day STP. He spend the following year seeking new challenges in mountaineering instead of biking yet during that time he learned about the Furnace Creek 508 -- a 508-mile bike race that's regarded as one of the toughest endurance events around -- and set his eyes on the prize.

He started training in January 2004 with the Seattle Randonneurs. In June of that year, Ragsdale was hit by a car and suffered severe injuries.

"Two weeks before the accident, I had completed my longest ride yet of 600k with the Radonneurs and that following weekend I went to the Oregon Coast to propose to my wife. That very next Monday, I'm doing maintenance on my bike in the basement and I take it around the block to make sure everything was shifting good and I wake up in the ambulance."

Ragsdale suffered a broken neck, severe blood clots, and needed skin grafts to cover the wounds. He was in a halo for four month and a neck brace for several more months. After nearly six months recovery, he got back on the bike, still wearing a neck brace, to begin training for 2005 Furnace Creek 508.

"I was nervous and thought about if I really wanted to get back on the bike but I just knew I was going to do it," he said.

He indeed raced the Furnace Creek that year and placed ninth with a time of 31 hours and 12 minutes.

He has raced the Furnace Creek 508 four times since and won in 2009 with a time of 29 hours and 10 minutes, the same exact time that got him second place the year before.

Having won the race that he set out to win and earned a world record on top of that, I asked him what his ultimate goal is.

"I'd like to finish a race where I feel like, that truely was the best that I, Chris Ragsdale, am capable of," Ragsdale said. "Usually after I race I'm always like what if? What if I had done more in the early season or what if stuck it out longer. Winning Furnace Creek in 2009 was probably the closest I have come to saying, "that was my best". I raced out of my mind to beat Michael Emde who I saw as unbeatable."

In ultracycling men don't peak until their late 30s, which gives Ragsdale seven more years to achieve great things.

"I am still young," he said. "I have won a fair amount of events at this point but I'm still learning."

Ragsdale is working with Dr. Emily Cooper at Seattle Performance Medicine to see what his body can do and to reach his full-potential.

A surprising fact about Ragsdale is that he doesn't even train that much. He's does an hour spinning class twice a week and long rides on Saturdays. He maintains his fitness through racing. He's always been naturally good at sports, he said.

Mental strength is perhaps even more important than "the engine", Ragsdale said.

"It's a very mental sport. You're telling your body to defy sleep and fatigue and to just keep going."

Over the weekend he raced the Texas Hill Country 600k against Slovenian cycling veteran, Marko Baloh and he couldn't beat him.

"It sucked," Ragsdale said. "This is the man I have looked up to since I got into this sport but I hadn't raced him yet. I haven't beat him in my head yet so during the race I'm constantly throwing psychological daggers at yourself."

I wondered what exactly goes on in his mind for 20 to 30 hours alone on a bike and he laughed. "It's really boring. It's a constant "just a little bit more. A little bit more. Just until the next hill. Just a little bit more"," he said.

During his attempt to simultaneously break the 24 hour and the 1000km world records last summer, Ragsdale said he wanted to quit. When it became apparent that he wasn't going to break the 24 hour record he struggled to keep going. Knowing the 1000km record was still up for grabs, he just kept pedaling.

With ultracycling being a low spectator sport, there's no money to be made and many atheletes, like Ragsdale, work normal jobs.

'It's just for the challenge," Ragsdale said, admitting that it is a little crazy.

But since becoming a father of two boys, Ragsdale said the challenge has changed for him. While the risks worry him more, being a father also pushes him to keep going.

"It's about legacy and teaching my boys to follow your passions and do what challenges you," he said. "I don't want to tell them to follow their passions and not do it myself."

The Riding Reporter is a new series in which BNT's bike-riding reporter, Anne-Marije Rook takes interviewees on a short bike ride around town to talk bicycles, transit, and any other issues that may arise when seeing the city from a two-wheeled point of view.