Early on as a team we decided on three goals for our race:

· Be Safe

· Keep it Simple

· Ride with Intent

I think we accomplished all three and more.

At no time do I think that safety was an issue. Although we all know that riding the white line is dangerous no matter where we are, I think we were courteous with the public and didn’t offend. We were fortunate that the weather cooperated and didn’t require us to make any safety decisions. All actions were performed under control, so there were no decisions that put anyone in warm.

As we all saw some teams were huge, with multiple RV’s and support vehicles, which required many people to make things happen. We kept our team small and focused on moving forward versus complicating things trying to go faster. We kept it simple and used teamwork with everyone working together, intelligently. RAAM is an enormous task with lots of logistics, tactical decisions and moving parts. I commend Sara for coordinating our team and also applaud each team member for fulfilling their role to the best of their ability, whether pedaling the bike, driving, or performing minor tasks, we all worked together focusing on our goals. And we did it while building bonds and making friends versus adversaries who won’t talk to each other after.

We heard the RAAM motto “this is not a tour”, and we took that to heart. I am really amazed at how all of the riders were able to continue to push through the heat, cold, wet and wind, from start to finish without any debilitating injuries, ailments or illnesses (maybe a sore butt). We all managed our nutrition, hydration, electrolytes and intensity to be able to reach the finish in strong and in good spirits. My personal thought was that the route was not hard, but it took mental toughness, fortitude, and trust in our legs. We each had prepared ourselves for the challenge and rode into unknown territory and faced it without fear of failing. We surpassed our goal of averaging 15mph by averaging 16.17 mph and gave the Brazilian team a run for their money. Even though they had a 2nd follow vehicle and over a dozen RAAM races under their belt.

I have to commend everyone for doing their part and pulling together to be a united team. All of you have heard about or were on RAAM teams that had “issues” which made for great story telling after the race. They had to do with poor planning, uninformed crew, un-prepared crew, poor personalities. I could go on and on. One can say that this team was “boring”, we didn’t have all these stories of what went wrong, who fought with who or how anyone of the team failed. This is admirable and I’m very thankful that you were all able to be part of these memories that will be cherished for a long, long time.

I really wish I could blog on the road…most of this, I should have said days ago, but it is really difficult to put more than two coherent thoughts together when crewing RAAM.  All you can think about is where are the next 4 time stations?  What is the estimated time of arrival for the riders at each of them?  Where is the RV going to meet the follow van to make a crew/rider switch?  If it is not a Wal Mart parking lot, is there enough room for the RV to get in and out safely?  Do we have a hot meal planned for the next full exchange of crew/riders?  What are the shopping needs for this and the next 24 hours?  What is the weather like now, in 4 hours, in 24 hours?  Are any alerts, detours, cautions given out by RAAM HQ still in effect?  Does Doug have enough Gatorade, PB&J’s and wafer cookies?  Does Lonni have enough blueberries, mini wheats and a can of coke?  Where are Mike and Tina’s Ensure, Mountain Dew and turkey sandwiches?  How much laundry is piling up, and where and when do we have enough time to find a laundromat?  Answering questions on the rules? Making sure that the great suggestion that was just made is doable and will not go against any RAAM rule…and so on…and so on…

This is RAAM crew experience #4 for me, and I am sincere in saying that each crew experience (RAAM or other ultra-endurance/personal challenge event) changes my life.  Each time, I get to meet and work with exceptional people who each have unique abilities, personalities and talents which come together for a common goal.  This year was no exception.

Dan and Jordan…what an amazing team of big rig drivers/navigators/maintenance/fix it guys/and more.  These gentlemen landed the mother-ship (aka the RV) each time in a new location to swap out riders/crew, obtain supplies, and helped to make this RAAM experience one of the safest, calmest and most comfortable ever!  Getting sleep and a shower before Day 3 is almost nearly unheard of in my experiences….Thank you, Dan and Jordan!  I’d love to think hat I might see you both again one day to crew another adventure.  I know though that the best and smartest crew members get the experience, give their all to the end goal, and then back away slowly until it’s safe to turn and run.  🙂  You are definitely smart, so you both may decide to cheer from a distance next time.  These guys survived on bagels, coffee, Starbucks fraps and nighttime driving cookies….

Guy and Raoul:  These boys worked hard and long shifts…some day shifts in the heat, wind, storms and some at night in the dark, with creepy wildlife running across the road.  They reminded their riders to eat even when they didn’t want to or were too tired.  Based on the depletion of rations in the RV, these boys survived their follow van shifts on Diet Coke, ibuprofen, pretzels and Fritos. When I told them I could not find any pretzels while shopping in Pratt, Kansas, I received the message that they were turning around for Oceanside.

Brandon and David:  These gentlemen also worked incredibly long shifts; sometimes longer than expected due to weather conditions, mechanicals, and other unexpected hold ups.  They calmly took everything in stride and handled all issues smoothly and seamlessly.  Both were able to do this because they were totally able to turn off and shut down when they stepped back into the RV for rest breaks.  I’ve never seen anyone better able to wind down quickly and rest like David and Brandon.  Other than Brandon’s Nutella sandwiches and a random turkey sandwich, I’m not really sure what else these guys used to fuel themselves in the follow van.

I consider myself very lucky to have had such and experienced, motivated and dedicated crew.  Rest well, gentlemen…you never know what Doug, Lonni, Mike and Tina may come up with in the future…

~Sara~

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Sent from my android device.

Done!!!

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Sent from my android device.

The most common questions you hear are “Where are we?”, and When will they be here? (meaning when will we be riding again).

Although, we have been given this great opportunity to ride our bikes across this great country, the majority of the time, we have no clue where we are. 50% of the time we are riding at night, the time that we are in the RV we are usually sleeping and when we are actually riding, a lot of the time is spent looking at the white line, reviewing the route trying to prevent from getting lost, which leaves very little time to actually SEE the country.

I can only tell you what hurts on me, but I feel very fortune now.

Of course my butt is sore, but not that bad and I don’t have any neck, arm, wrist, or back pain.

The messages have kept the my legs loose, but what hurts is starting to ride.

The first few pedal strokes causes significant pain in the muscles, tendons and joints which lasts about a minute. With Lonni and I exchanging riding every 20min, the pain is quite frequent.

D
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Sent from my android device.