By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

Terri Sullivan has done this sort of thing before, but not quite on this level.

Two years ago, in September of 2014, Sullivan, then 52 years old, set the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association women’s biking record for the fastest recorded west-east Alabama solo state ride. That ride started at the AL/MS state line on U.S. 80 west of Cuba, Al., and ended at the AL/GA state line over the Chattahoochee River outside of Central Phenix City. Sullivan competed that 218-mile trek in 12 hours and 16 minutes, averaging roughly 17.75 miles per hour for more than 12 hours. Her time broke the standing woman’s record by two hours and 54 minutes.

Now, Sullivan is set to attempt the race again, except instead of traversing across the state from west to east, this time she’s going to bike across Alabama from north to south, tacking on an additional 149 miles to her previous ride. This race has never been completed in Alabama before on a solo bike, and while Sullivan is excited about the challenge, she is also nervous.

“It’s very intimidating,” said Sullivan, now 54, with a chuckle. “I’m quite anxious. I wake up frequently thinking I’ve lost my mind.”

Sullivan has been biking consistently for the last 10 years. She started biking as a result of knee injuries suffered from extensive running, and while she has gotten back into running recently, has fallen in love with biking and rides often. She lives on Lay Lake and works out of Pelham, where she is a general manager for BearCom Group, Inc. She was the President and CEO of Sullivan Industries, a communications company that specialized in two-way radio distribution in the industrial and commercial sectors, before her business was acquired by BearCom in January of 2016. A successful businesswoman, she has also been into fitness for the majority of her adult life.

“I’ve always been active and healthy,” she said. “Whether it’s just been general exercise, aerobics, running or biking. The last three years I’ve done more long distances than I have ever previously.”

Throughout the process of increasing her biking distances, Sullivan has sought out longer rides to test her endurance. This summer she was seeking something especially challenging, which is what lead her to this decision.

“I’ve been biking a lot this summer,” Sullivan said. “I knew I wanted to do something more challenging than (what) I was doing every weekend. I was looking for something that was longer and more challenging before the end of October. I looked at some opportunities out West, but the logistics of trying to get me and the bicycle out to Utah or Colorado wasn’t going to happen. This is what I settled on.”

She is set to start this ride from the AL/TN line north of Florence at roughly 10:30 p.m. Friday night, Sept. 30 and will finish sometime Saturday evening in Dauphin Island. While no one has completed this trek on a solo bike before, Sullivan does have a route to base her journey off of.

A man named Jeffrey Linder, from Huntsville, completed the north-south ride in February of 1998 on a hand-powered vehicle, which is in an entirely different classification than what Sullivan will be riding in, but Linder’s previous ride does give Sullivan and her team a path to follow, which they recently drove to get the lay of the land.

“On Monday (Sept. 19) we drove the route,” Sullivan said. “We started north of Florence on the Tennessee line. We went from Florence, through Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Saraland and down through Mobile to Dauphin Island just to make sure we didn’t have things like construction or detours. The roads were great until we got to Saraland, then it fell apart.”

South of Saraland and into Mobile, the intended route became challenging and unsafe due to a number of factors, which forced Sullivan and her crew to change the route, adding an extra seven miles to her overall trip, which is now 374 miles long.

“There were so many unknowns about that route and concerns for safety,” Sullivan said. “We feel better with this route.”

The ‘we’ Sullivan refers to is her crew that will accompany her on the ride. Sullivan’s coach and crew chief is Tracy McKay, while the crewmembers are Fred Keith, Taylor Kitchens and Michael Staley. The one confirmed official accompanying the group as of Sept. 22 was Katelyn Englert. The group will be split into a lead car and a follow car, each responsible for different elements of the trip.

The lead car will be responsible for keeping an eye out for road hazards and anything that could potentially slow Sullivan down, and will also direct Sullivan where to go. The follow car will be responsible for her nutrition and anything else Sullivan might need, from a change of clothes to a spare tire. The follow car will also sit the race official to make sure the ride goes according to Ultra Marathon Cycling Association standards.

The Ultra Marathon Cycling Association is the governing body that keeps tabs on and authenticates all cross-state rides, as well as a number of other long distance events. All records are posted on the UMCA website, Ultracylcing.com.

While Sullivan has never attempted a ride of this length, she is hoping to complete the ride in less than 24 hours, ideally 22, which would be an average pace of 17 miles per hour, roughly the same pace with which she completed the west-east ride.

“I don’t know if that will be possible,” she said. “But I’m hoping (it will take) no more than 24 hours.”

Whether or not the seasoned cycler hits that goal or not is up in the air, however one thing that is certain is that history will be made regardless of her finishing time.