Final RAAM entry and Photo’s
OK here’s a RAAM Summary, and I’m not going to talk about it any more:
(pic’s at the bottom)
Day 1.
We have no clue what we’re doing, and just ride hard as possible. One of my 20 minute pulls my HR averaged 193. Another time the van’s crew change dogs, and I’m out for 47min (when I set off thinking I had 15). Later in the night I get another mega pull, and I’m out for a few rotations from dehydration.
The best is yet to come as my van runs out of gas and Kerry and I spend 8h riding in the back up car with one pair of shorts and our climbing bikes (no fast wheels).
Day 2.
Around mid afternoon Sean has some problems which will take him out. We just got passed by Team Vail. I was wondering why I could hardly stand up after my pulls and was feeling so dizzy while riding, when someone points out that we’re at 9000 feet elevation. All night we’re above 6000’, on bumpy roads in a head wind, suffering very much, and riding very slow.
Day 3.
I think this was the only night we rode with full riders and all the support vans. Understandably it was the best, and easiest. Kerry and I took turns doing double shifts and the “resting” person would go the spare van for “less-disturbed” sleep. Billy was starting to cough up blood from extreme bronchitis and missed part of today.
Day 4.
We caught and passed Vail today. They then caught & re-passed and held a slim lead all night. Billy was out again all night and most of the next day from his lung issues. This was another really rough night. Going as hard as I could go was not very fast, plus I had some over-use issues with my calf and though I would be riding one legged into the finish. This worried me, but then we taped my leg back together and it worked.
Day 5.
When I woke up to the hills in West Virginia I was happy because we were only 12 minutes down, and we would be in our terrain, our humidity, and not have to deal with riding after 2 am again.
Oh yeah, we rode it faster than it’s ever been ridden before, and won more money than’s ever been won before (bonus for world record)
I don’t think the other guys are in but this appears to be something that I’m good at, so I’m in for doing it again, the record isn’t very hard to beat… Ha Ha (the one we broke stood since 1996) and the course we rode included the Appalachians, which they didn’t have to ride back then.
I am still far from recovered, more than a week after the event every day I have a new ailment, something new that has never hurt before hurts, I’m still coughing, and sleepy…
This is classic RAAM, we stopped for nothing but the essentials. I don’t know what state I’m in, or what day this is.
This is what it’s all about… a lone rider on some highway in the middle of no-where riding as hard as he can for as far as it takes to see the strobe lights of the next vehicle and the relief rider… This was from the high elevation before I almost smoked an elk descending over 60 mph with a 3-spoke and disc. I only have 3 pictures of me riding, because we were too cracked to even listen to music once things started to get underway. All we could do was ride, and after halfway sleep.
This is two days after the race, the phone rang and I woke up thinking “I don’t want to ride my bike” This is what I looked like:
Last Wednesday, the Archbiker, Steve, and Andrew the 14 year old that asks more questions than Mcauley Culkin, drove back to Atlantic City to get our award, the largest Cash Prize ever given out by RAAM. Miss. America presented the Arch Biker and I with our awards, here’s the picture.
For $20 I can send you her phone number.
