So you think riding your bike to class is tiring? Imagine if you biked across the country in seven weeks or rode for 24 straight hours, like ISU brothers Andrew and Stephen Carney.

On Saturday, 68 riders from around the Midwest made the trip to Boone for the fourth-annual 24-hour mountain bike race at Seven Oaks Recreation Area. Among these riders were two brothers, who, like many of their off-road riding counterparts, made the trip in search of stellar trails and stiff competition. Andrew, senior in agriculture engineering, and his younger brother Stephen, freshman in environmental science, were not disappointed.

Starting at noon Saturday, the two riders saddled up alongside 13 other solo riders and another 15 to 20 who were representing two-, three- and four-person teams. During the next 24 hours, all riders, solo or team, raced around a 7.2-mile trail, cutting through nearly 120 acres of the Des Moines River Valley.

Throughout the race, scorers recorded individual lap times for both soloists and team riders and at noon Sunday, the total number of laps for each soloist rider and team was compiled. First-, second- and third-place honors were awarded to those with the most laps.

After riding for almost 22 hours and taking 18 laps around the course for a total distance of 130 miles, Andrew placed second in the solo competition, only two laps ahead of younger brother Stephen, who took third. As riders with similar strengths, Andrew and Stephen spent many of their laps riding together.

“Having someone riding with you, pushing you the whole way is huge,” Stephen said. “Riding by yourself, it is easier to get lazy, but having someone else there keeps you going.”

Andrew said 24-hour racing is distinct from other types of biking.

“When it comes to 24-hour racing, it’s an entirely different type of racing,” he said. “Twenty-four hour racing is dramatically different than road racing simply because you are constantly concentrating on the trail.”

Steven echoed many of the same sentiments.

“With road riding you can zone out and cross an entire portion of a state, like eastern Wyoming,” Stephen said. “But with 24-hour racing, you’ve always got to be paying attention, especially at night.”

Although spending nearly 24 hours riding a trail together may be far more sibling bonding than some prefer, this ride was considerably shorter than the 2,975 mile, seven-week trip the pair took this summer pedaling across the country.

While on their 49-day trek from Portland, Ore. to Virginia Beach, Va., the brothers rode through many of America’s most beautiful landscapes.

“We rode through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in the west to the Appalachians in the east,” Andrew said.

Stephen said the parts of the Midwest were the most boring of the ride.

“Eastern Wyoming and most of Nebraska kind of dragged on, but western Wyoming was pretty nice riding,” Stephen said.

Among the more memorable experiences for Andrew was an encounter he and his brother had while sleeping near the bleachers at a high school football field somewhere in Indiana.

“We both woke up and were surprised to hear what sounded like people running. We looked out the tent to find an entire high school football team running laps around the track,” Andrew said. “The coach was good-humored about the whole thing and apologized for waking us up.”

Dennis Carney, the brothers’ father, claimed to worry considerably less about the boys than his wife, Diane.

“You always worry about your kids,” Dennis said, and added that they were allowed to take this trip on one condition: that they call home every day.

Hundreds of packets of instant oatmeal later, the brothers arrived in Virginia Beach, Va., where they met their parents, who had driven down from Greene to meet them at the conclusion of their cross-country journey. After throwing their bikes into the Atlantic Ocean and spending a couple hours reflecting on the weeks and miles past, the brothers loaded their gear into their parent’s Jeep Cherokee and shifted their focus toward life in central Iowa.

Breaking only 8 spokes and sustaining no major injuries, Stephen said, “Overall, it was a pretty big success.”

When asked if they would repeat a ride of this scale, the brothers both replied, “Absolutely.”