Through all the miles - 177 of them - and all the hours - 18 and a half - it never occurred to Abigail Grube to stop.

Grube, 13, had her mind made up. Sure, she got tired after 130 miles, but she wasn't going to quit.

Grube last month became the youngest rider to complete the Nightmare Tour, the ride around the perimeter of Lancaster County. The ride is billed as the hardest single-day bicycle ride in the region.

"It was a challenge to see if I could do it," the Warwick Township girl said.

Her mother, Sonja Grube, said Abigail is like that.

"When she has in her head that she is going to do something, she's pretty determined that she'll do it."

Abigail first got the Nightmare into her head three years ago. She learned about it from ride organizer Mike Ridgeway, whose shorter Dream Ride Projects rides have names such as the Catnap and Daydream tours.

Ridgeway praised her persistence and determination.

"She would have ridden all night if she had to," he said of her ride, which began soon after dawn and ended after midnight.

Duane Grube, who accompanied his daughter, knew enough about it to be skeptical when Abigail first told her father she wanted to do the Nightmare.

"I thought 'You don't even know what the Nightmare is,' " said Duane Grube, a regular cyclist who rides his 18-mile commute to his job at Star Dental Products in Greenfield Corporate Center.

As his interest in riding grew, Duane became interested in long-distance treks.

"I picked the Nightmare to do some year. I didn't know what year I'd get it done," he said.

It came sooner than expected.

Last year, Abigail made her first attempt at training for the Nightmare. She and her father rode to Safe Harbor. Abigail got stung by a bee while riding. She struggled on the hills on the way home. The Nightmare was only a month away. They decided to wait until 2010.

Instead, she turned her attention to the Tour de Lancaster, a six-race series for youth held by the CycleSmart program. Abigail, a Team CycleSmart rider, won the overall series.

When spring came, Abigail was ready. She had gotten a used Trek 1200 road bike in the fall and was ready to put it to use. In the afternoons, the home-schooler would finish her studies and take out her bike.

She started in April with a three-mile loop on the roads near her Owl Hill Road home. She would ride the loop three times. That ride grew to a 10-mile loop that included hills. She would ride that three or four times a week.

On Saturdays, she and her father would go on rides. The rides grew longer and more intense as the days grew warmer.

By summer, they were doing sections of the Nightmare course. The full ride begins in Marietta and goes south before turning eastward and circling the county in a counter-clockwise manner. It ends in Marietta, 177 miles later.

The longest of their training rides was about 120 miles, Duane recalled.

On the day of the ride, Aug. 14, Duane said he got up at 3 a.m. to make preparations. They arrived in Marietta at dawn - 5:15 a.m. An hour later they started riding toward Columbia. They crossed the finish line together at 12:44 a.m.

Abigail said she never once thought that she wouldn't make it.

"I felt good the whole time," she said.

Sonja Grube spent the day driving ahead of her husband and daughter, meeting them at rest stops and points between rest stops. After darkness fell, she drove behind them, shining the headlights of their pickup truck onto the road ahead.

At one point, she found herself crying as she saw them weaving as they struggled up a steep hill late into the night.

"I worried about them the whole way through," she said.

Abigail credited her mother for helping her finish.

"My mom, along the way, kept saying: 'You can do it. You can do it,' " she recalled.

Of the 78 riders who started that morning, the Grubes were the last to finish.

"We weren't last, but everybody behind us dropped out," said Duane, referring to the six riders who did not finish.

In addition to the youngest-ever finisher, this year's ride also included the oldest-ever finisher and a new Nightmare record time.

Jay Thome, 69, of Elizabethtown, completed the ride in 16 hours and two minutes.

Shawn Beeler, of Elizabethtown, set the new course record with a time of nine hours and 35 minutes.

Previously, three 14-year-olds - two boys and a girl - had held the title of youngest finisher. They all completed the ride in different years.

The title does not come with any plaque, trophy or medal. "Just knowing that you did it," Abigail said of her accomplishment.

While neighborhood kids in the Warwick School District are just starting school today, Abigail said she began her home-school studies four weeks ago. She wants to be done with eighth grade earlier in the spring. That will allow her more time to ride.

Her goal for next year? She hasn't decided. She may choose to be the youngest person to do the extra, optional 23 miles to reach the Nightmare 200-mile mark.

Bernie Harris is a Lancaster Newspapers reporter. Contact him at bharris@lnpnews.com.