Race Across America Pictures...

[Veronica]

The dirt road was to avoid a nasty road construction area. It also had a loose dog on it and was a pretty small road, maybe a lane and a half wide, but with lots of traffic. The guys at the time station said it was the quick way out of town.

Veronica

[Veronica]

I've been reading JulieB's comments over at BJ. It sounds like they had a much different experience than us. We had 5 vans, four of them with 4 riders and two crew people each. We also had a follow vehicle with two crew people each, for a total of ten crew members and 16 riders. I was wondering how Julie had gotten time to do any posting during the race. Now I know. When I wasn't navigating, I was sleeping, not posting info.

Our plan was that one team from each van would go out for a 30 minute pull, so the riders were going out every two and a half hours, but the crew was on the entire time. We only had one 3 hour section, Monday night I think, when our van was not moving forward on the course. The only time Thom and I got to sleep for more than twenty minutes was when we put racers into the driver's and navigator's chairs.

I've slept 26 of the last 48 hours.

Veronica

[Veronica]

And then there was the cat in the road...

Just after Roehl and Scott's crash in Gettysburg, so my nerves were already frayed, I saw a cat in the road. I said, "Cat!" Thom slowed down, the cat moved out of the way, but the stupid thing changed it's mind and went back into the street. Thom slammed on the brakes and I heard this swooshing noise. I screamed a bad word sure that we had gotten a cat. But no, the swooshing was the ice moving in the cooler as Thom hit the brakes hard.

We did manage to take out two birds in Kansas.

Veronica

[Biciclista]

It really sounds like you had the adventure of a lifetime. And i'm glad you didn't hit the cat.

[Blueberry]

Thanks for sharing!! RAAM is one of those things I hope I have a chance to take part in, in some way, one day!

Hope Ann Wooldridge is still moving forward. I know she won't officially finish - but wow! To keep riding after that crash. The women this year were really amazing - Janet the Osprey is amazing!!

[Blueberry]

And Ann Wooldridge did finish! And set the record for an over 50 woman (though she wasn't fast enough to be an "official" finisher). Go Ann!!

[aka_kim]

OK, time for more questions .

So you've covered sleeping and showering, how about eating? A video of another team showed the crew setting up a meal, and they apparently had a dedicated "chef". If you guys were always scattered around in 5 vans and always in rotation, what did you do for meals, and how did the riders get fed?

How old are the two Skipper kids? They look really young in pictures on the web site.

Is Jerry really 110?

The logic of the rotation. I know other teams employ the same or similar, with one bike on the road for a short period and then rotating through the whole team. But... but, isn't this a sure way to have the whole team, most especially crew, exhausted very quickly? The strategy of TT2 (and maybe others) with 8 bikes and 2 separate "shifts" would seem to offer both riders and crew some sort of extended rest each day. Since Team JDRF had so many experienced RAAM veterans I'd guess they chose the system which they knew worked, but I still don't understand it.

Did you get a JDRF jersey?

OK, OK, I'll wait for the write up.

[Veronica]

Eating? We made sure the riders ate what they needed, but both Thom and I lost weight over the week. While the riders were eating, we were often running other errands. We got probably one fast food meal a day. Thom was living on chocolate milk and I was downing Red Bulls and red licorice at night. The sugar high kept me awake through the dark, but when I crashed, I crashed HARD.


Matt and Scott are both 15. They also have a sister who is 15. Triplets! They are the youngest riders to have done RAAM.

I'm not sure how old Jerry is, but he is definitely one of the pluses of RAAM. He was one of the racers in our van and at first I thought he was going to drive me crazy, lots of corny jokes and endless chatter. But he grew on me like a weird old uncle.

I'm not sure why we did the rotation the way we did. We did do 3 rotations early on with just two vans. Communication between the vans was really poor and we got bad intell on where the other two vans had gotten to while we slept. Based on what they told us, we went about thirty miles further up the road than they had actually gotten. In retrospect at the time I should have questioned the report harder. It was early enough in the race that I was still doing math accurately and it didn't seem likely that they could have gotten so far, so fast. But I was assured that they had reported their position correctly.

We did not get jerseys yet. If they do a reorder we may.

Veronica

[Tuckervill]

Hey, I think that Asian couple in your pictures were standing outside the Today Show this morning! They were interviewed at the fence...and the man had broken his arm.

Karen

[Veronica]

Hey that explains the early morning text we got that someone was on the Today Show.

Veronica

[TxDoc]

Cool photos!

[Veronica]

We have now posted our official report on our website.


Veronica

[jobob]

Ouch, what a demanding week you had.

Look at the bright side, it could have been even worse (you know what I'm talking about here ... )

[aka_kim]

"Ouch" is right. Well, an unforgettable experience at least. Thanks for the report.