Are you sitting down? An auto-repair company claims it has found the person with the nation's longest commute. That would be one Dave Givens, who drives 186 miles door to door from his ranch-style home in rural Mariposa near Yosemite National Park to his electrical engineering job at Cisco Systems in San Jose.

And you thought your commute was bad.

On any given Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, Givens reportedly spends seven hours on the road getting back and forth. He puts in a nine- to 10-hour workday, so that leaves seven or eight hours to kiss his wife, eat dinner, relax, go to bed, get up and get ready to do it all over again.

That's on a good day.

On a bad one, like last Wednesday when rain drenched the San Francisco Bay Area, Givens, who is 46, said he had to detour around accidents and drive a total of 225 miles --- one way -- to get home.

Most days Givens burns 12 gallons of gasoline, which comes to 60 gallons a week. With prices at the pump hovering around $3 a gallon, he's spending $180 a week -- $10,000 a year -- on gas. Perhaps it is a good thing the prize for being named winner of the "America's Longest Commute" contest is $10,000.

"He's the ultimate road warrior," said Rick Dow, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Midas Inc.

Jennifer Christopher, a public relations consultant who represents Midas, said the contest is not an annual event for the brake and exhaust giant. Rather, it is something Midas chose to do to mark its 50th anniversary.

When asked how he kills time, Givens said, "I listen to the radio and keep my eyes on the road. I also drink a lot of coffee. Starbucks keeps me going."

I'll bet. He could probably use a year's supply of caffeine, too.

Givens said he puts up with the headache because he loves the little bit of rural life that's left when he finally reaches his 7.5-acre horse ranch in the scenic foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

"It's beautiful," he said.

Plus, he's been driving long distances for so long -- since 1989 -- that he has adapted to perpetually sitting in traffic. As for this particular commute, he's done that for two years.

"It actually doesn't bother me," he said. "I like driving."

Givens drives a 2005 Honda Accord which, as of Friday, had 74,500 miles on it. "I bought it brand new in June," he said. Before that, he piled up more than 300,000 miles on a Civic.

Although no one from the San Diego region matched Givens in Midas' contest, which involved 3,000 road warriors nationwide, our area has plenty of marathon commuters.

Anne Steinberger, spokeswoman for the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional transportation agency, said the agency sponsors eight vanpools that daily transport 83 workers about 125 miles from Calexico in Imperial County to the NAASCO shipbuilding plant on the San Diego Harbor.

There have to be other local horror stories out there that would give the declared commute champ a run for his gas money. We invite you to tell us yours.

The North County Times commuter column is published every Monday morning. Readers are encouraged to ask questions and submit ideas for

future columns. Staff writer Dave Downey may be reached at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com. For the latest traffic conditions, go to

nctimes.com/traffic.