Race Across America Pictures...

[Veronica]

Our pictures are now up. Follow the link in my sig line.

Veronica

[Tri Girl]

AMAZING!!!! Wow- 6 days. How long did each person ride daily? I'm in awe of the teams' accomplishments. Truly awe inspiring. Pictures are great, too!

[Veronica]

With 8 tandems, if each team rode the same amount it works out to 60 miles per day. At one point, Thom was asleep and one of the racers was driving our van. I asked him what he had done to train for this and his reply was nothing; it was just 60 miles a day in 10 - 15 mile increments - most of the time the racers were doing 30 minute pulls, except in the Rockies and the Appalachians. To be fair the person I asked was Joe Peterson who holds the current RAAM record for both 2 man and 4 man teams.

The real accomplishment was getting 26 people across the country, without too many navigation errors and without killing each other due to personality conflicts as we got more and more tired. As crew we were getting about two hours of sleep in the van each day while the racers drove. That means the van was moving and our second set of racers would be getting in and out as we slept. Earplugs are a must for this sort of thing. At least that's what Thom and I were getting, I can't speak to the other crews. We'd also catnap for 10 - 20 minutes when we were stopped.

Veronica

[jobob]

Hey there - welcome back!! Great, great photos. Can't wait to hear all about it.

[Veronica]

Thom lost 5 pounds during the race and I lost 2 pounds. Poor Thom had to go back to work today.

We're working on the write up. The best day was the day we went up to Manga Pass, the highest point. We had two vans working together (4 tandems rotating) and it was a blast. That's the day with the steam train and the hula pictures.

Veronica

[Biciclista]

you said it was 60 miles a day in 10 - 15 mile increments. That would actually be 150 miles.
Sounds like quite the ride. did you get a feel for what was the hardest state to ride in, and which was the easiest?
congrats!

[Veronica]

The riders went out 4 times a day in 10 - 15 mile increments. That's 40 - 60 miles a day, depending on the terrain. I'm not sure how you got 150 miles.

Hard - urban areas were nasty to navigate through both for the riders and the navigators in the vans. Kansas was terrible - hot and humid. It was over 100 degrees the day we were there. Going into Effingham, IL the riders had to slog over a DIRT road in the dark on tires with 170 PSI. Fortunately, they did not get a flat.

Veronica

[Pedal Wench]

COol!!!

A friend of mine finished yesterday - Kevin Kaiser. He was in a battle for 4th and 5th.

What was the word on the route about Robic? It was interesting following the men's race, knowing the penalities would play a major role.

EDIT: I just saw it was a team for JDRF! A very good friend raced for Team Type 1 a few years ago. She was the only woman on the team. Very cool!

[Veronica]

From what we've been able to find out - Robic felt that he was being unfairly targeted with the penalties. He has pictures on his website of things other riders were doing that should have incurred penalties, but the other riders didn't get penalized.

Veronica

[Veronica]

I just want to know when I will be able to wake up and not worry about where are all the vans and who's transitioning next... RAAM nightmares!

Thom woke up in the middle of the night last night, asking where we were. In our own bed honey!

Veronica

[aka_kim]

Great pictures! It was fun following Team JDRF on Twitter and the RAAM site and checking where you guys were a few times a day. Great job! I can't wait to hear/read more.

OK, one question now. I think Howard from BJ said he got 1 shower all week while crewing for Team Type 2 - how many showers did you guys manage?

[Veronica]

We got one shower on Monday. I think it was Wed. that a woman at a gas station had a hose set up with soap and shampoo and I washed my hair. We had to take off, so Thom did not get to take advantage of that.

We got home yesterday afternoon and the laundry is almost all done. I still have to wash one of the sleeping bags. Let's just say, the van did not have a pleasant odor.

Veronica

[indysteel]

The riders went out 4 times a day in 10 - 15 mile increments. That's 40 - 60 miles a day, depending on the terrain. I'm not sure how you got 150 miles.

Hard - urban areas were nasty to navigate through both for the riders and the navigators in the vans. Kansas was terrible - hot and humid. It was over 100 degrees the day we were there. Going into Effingham, IN the riders had to slog over a DIRT road in the dark on tires with 170 PSI. Fortunately, they did not get a flat.

Veronica

Effingham is actually in Illinois, not Indiana, Not that it matters. Indiana's roads are often equally horrible. We actually saw some of the riders on Friday driving along Highway 46 from Columbus, IN to Nashville, Indiana and then from Nashville to Bloomington. That's not a particularly safe road (two lanes, no shoulder), so I'm curious as to whether many of the roads are like that.

In any event, I look forward to reading more from you about it. Sounds like quite a journey.

[Veronica]

Thanks! I corrected it.

As you can imagine, much of the week is a blurred jumble in my brain. We did have some nasty words for Effingham. The folks manning the time station were great though.

There's the epic thunder storm that Joe and Brenda rode through, complete with hail.

Roehl and Scott crashing in Gettysburg when Roehl was blinded by an oncoming car's headlights and the confusing aftermath as we raced on, down 2 teams.

A team missed a turn in Kansas and our scurrying backward to get another team on the road where they had gone off course and then trying to figure out where the lost team was, so they could be picked up.


Veronica

[Biciclista]

The riders went out 4 times a day in 10 - 15 mile increments. That's 40 - 60 miles a day, depending on the terrain. I'm not sure how you got 150 miles.

Hard - urban areas were nasty to navigate through both for the riders and the navigators in the vans. Kansas was terrible - hot and humid. It was over 100 degrees the day we were there. Going into Effingham, IL the riders had to slog over a DIRT road in the dark on tires with 170 PSI. Fortunately, they did not get a flat.

Veronica

haha. sorry.
"The riders went out four times a day, doing ten fifteen mile increments"
you meant "ten to fifteen mile increments"
it was early, sorry.

wow, how come a dirt road in Effingham?!?