Way the heck OT: RAAM (Race Across America)

[t-bone]

Considered by many to be one of the world's toughest bicycle races, RAAM (Race Across America)(http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/r ... ebcat_id=1) pits people against themselves, three thousand miles of this country's wildly varied terrain, a fair variety of weather circumstances and lack of sleep. Tour de France? Pish! The Tour de France is small-time tough. It's only 2100 miles or so, over the course of three weeks. Those guys only go a hundred or hundred and twenty miles, then they get to rest, eat, get their legs massaged, and so on until they get back on their bikes the next day. They even get a couple of rest days.

RAAM racers, by comparison, are faced with a three-thousand mile time trial--one stage, and the clock runs until you get to the finish line. You race day and night, good weather and bad, hot or cold. Time spent sleeping is time spent NOT moving forward (although they have to sleep some, just to be able to move forward at all). That's the solo RAAM competitors' lot.

RAAM is also open to teams of two, four, or eight persons. They have a slightly easier time of it, in that each individual team member gets to rest while his or her teammate(s) moves forward along the course. Teams often compete in RAAM as a way to raise awareness of a pet cause--there was a team based in Louisville Kentucky several years ago that called themselves Team BIAK (Brain Injury Association of Kentucky), for example, part of their goal being to alert folks that brain injuries can happen and that there are things we can do to reduce their likelihood.

A few years ago, a team was formed by some folks who had Type 1 Diabetes. Called Team Type 1 (http://www.teamtype2.com/), it grew to have several professional-level racers along with a range of very good amateurs in several bicycle-racing disciplines. They eventually decided to tackle RAAM, and did very well--they set some records, including a course record for eight-man team completion of RAAM in 2009. Part of the mission of Team Type 1 is to show that folks with Type 1 CAN do things like race bicycles.

To further show that Diabetes can be managed, Team Type 2 was formed a bit over a year ago, with the explicit goal of competing in RAAM to raise awareness of Type 2 Diabetes and raise awareness among those affected by it (directly or indirectly) that as a condition it CAN be managed. A friend of mine made the team, and sent out emails to just about everyone he knew, celebrating his success thus far and soliciting for support crew for the adventure.

You see, that eight-man team requires a LOT of help getting across the country. To do it right, there has to be a crew of about twenty folks supporting their efforts. There is a "follow car" (a mini-van, typically), that goes right behind the racer (four people--two drivers and two navigators, operating in shifts); the "team car" (another mini-van), that carries the rest of the "on duty" team members (an eight-person team often works in two squads of four, with the on-duty squad doing a four-person relay for several hours while the off-duty squad rests--so another four people, two drivers and two navigators); a utility car (yet another mini-van), that goes off-route to do errands like laundry and grocery shopping (two people); and TWO RV-type things (another eight operators) so that all those racers and crew have a place to sleep as the whole mess works its way from west coast to east coast.

Anyway, as I read my friend's email message that evening, I thought it neat that he was getting to race (although I enjoy some fairly long-distance bike riding, I've not ever had the urge to try such a thing as RAAM). I read the email aloud, and my girlfriend at the time heard me and said, "I'll go! I wonder what they'd have me doing?"

A few phone calls later, Jenn was on the crew.

And a few months later, she flew out to Oceanside California to begin an amazing odyssey across the country, with little sleep, lots of camaraderie, and a truck load of memories. I drove up to Bloomington, Indiana, to see the team and crew at a transition point--where the one squad comes off duty, gets clean, gets fed and starts winding down for their short rest while the other squad launches on their next leg of the race. Jenn wasn't expecting me--it was something like three or four in the morning. It meant a lot to the team and crew that Jenn's by-now-fiance` and her parents would come up to encourage them.

A bit less than a month later, Jenn and I married.

Over the last couple months, Jenn and I talked over her intent to return to the crew for this season's event. Knowing what a great experience it had been for her, I've encouraged it. As it turned out, they had some open slots in the crew, and during a phone conversation on the topic, Jenn mentioned to the Team Manager that I had considered volunteering. Dave, the Team Manager, remembered me from last year, when I jumped in to help get things done in Annapolis, never mind that I wasn't officially on the crew. Jenn mentioned to him that I work as a service manager in a bike shop, and have a fair bit of skill making bikes work. I am on the crew.

What brings this back to on-topic for this forum is that both Jenn and I use CPAP machines. Last year, she took my portable power supply (rechargeable battery made for/by Respironics to work with our machines--which by coincidence are both made by, you guessed it, Respironics). Reading her Smart Card after our return home, it became clear that she didn't use the machine much--sleeping for an hour or so at a time in a moving car is hard enough without the additional struggle to "hose up." She reported to me later that her experience taking the battery through the TSA check-point to get on the airplane to California was much like mine in Maryland--had it not been that bombs on airplanes are VERY serious business, the expressions on the agents' faces when they first eyed that lump of gel-acid battery via their x-ray machine would have been pretty funny. As it was, I was busy telling them that it was a CPAP power supply, and watching that the agent who examined my machine used fresh gloves (I had to remind him four times, with more volume each time, before he got it...).

I'm sending some things ahead of me before I fly to California--a box of tools, a bike repair stand, and a few other odds and ends. I may add my battery to that box, and plan on shipping it home separate from our airline experience.

[dsm]

T-Bone

A very enjoyable story

I am picturing someone in a recumbent cycle with a mask on heir face & hose attached & a cycle generator running off the wheel powering the blower
But that would not make sense, those darned wheel generators suck off far to much energy. That would spoil the journey. Hmmm maybe some solar cells on the helmet ?

Anyway sure sounds like a ton of fun cpap or no cpap

Cheers

DSM

[kteague]

Hi t-bone. Good to see you here again. Sounds great to be involved in something you enjoy with someone you love. Surely some who are feeling that using cpap means the end to adventure (as if they had much energy for adventure anyhow) will be encouraged by your post. Done any of the shorter rides yourself recently? How much impact has using CPAP made on your energy and activity levels?

[Babette]

Team NF is involved in RAAM. I met some of them last year at the Seattle Rock N Roll marathon. The guy I met was so committed to Team NF that he went out all day at the RnR Marathon just to work the booth and support the runners, even though he's only a biker and not a runner. Whatta guy!

My BF is a Team NF marathoner. Just to jump on the Way OT bandwagon:
http://www.active.com/donate/nfseattle2010/Wally

Cheers,
Barbara

[t-bone]

Hi t-bone. Good to see you here again. Sounds great to be involved in something you enjoy with someone you love. Surely some who are feeling that using cpap means the end to adventure (as if they had much energy for adventure anyhow) will be encouraged by your post. Done any of the shorter rides yourself recently? How much impact has using CPAP made on your energy and activity levels?

Wow. I'd forgotten this thread.

kteague, my friend, the CPAP has helped my own cycling quite a bit. I no longer feel like I'm struggling to process enough Oxygen when I'm on the bike (well, most of the time, anyway...I feel worse when I'm chasing Carbonman up a long grade, but I outweigh him by a stone or two). As for shorter rides, I ride to work most of the time (twelve miles each way) rather than drive and I ride to do errands rather than drive (most of my errands are within a four-mile radius of home). I'm "behind" on my usual club miles, with less than six hundred for the year, despite almost two thousand bicycling miles logged "year to date."

In any event, the reality of RAAM, the reason I started this thread, is less than a week away for me. I fly to California this coming Wednesday, and our race starts next Saturday (12 June). We plan to be in Annapolis on Jenn's birthday, the 19th.

Oh, and never one to add any stress to life, Jenn decided early in April, a good month after we had signed on for RAAM duties, that it was time to buy a house. We had three weeks to get in on the $8000 tax credit by signing a contract. Once that bit was done, we had six weeks to close with the locked-in interest rate--a time which ends shortly after we leave for California. We are scheduled to close this Tuesday, meaning I'm off work for a good two weeks starting Saturday evening.

Not that there is any anxiety in my life right now...

I'm VERY glad I have conditioned myself to go to sleep within minutes of hosing up!