Before the Race

Race Across America (RAAM) (www.raceacrossamerica.org) is the most grueling bicycle race in the world. It goes from CA to NJ, more than 3,000 miles. A friend of mine, Tim Woudenberg, was getting ready for the race & was looking for crew members so I signed up. He's a local (Moss Beach, CA) & was teamed up with Glenn Druery from Sydney Australia for a 2-person team riding Velokraft recumbent bicycles. We ended up with a crew of 10, using 2 vans and an RV to support our 2 riders. The crew lived all over the US so we would have regular teleconferences to organize the trip. Believe me, there is a ton of stuff to do to get organized: van & RV rentals, plane tickets, bicycle & equipment, communication equipment, food, etc.

We all met in Moss Beach, CA to do last minute prep work: build a bunk in the van for the resting rider, build a table for each vehicle to hold the computer, install the PA speaker on the roof, computers, radios, CD players, flashing light rack, hitch for the bike rack, etc. Then we drove to LA to pick up a few bikes that had just been built (talk about doing something at the last second; hope there aren't any glitches). I drove the 30 foot RV for a few hours. It has a lot more side to side movement than a car so you have to constantly keep it in its lane.

Finally we arrived in Oceanside, CA (near San Diego), where the race starts. The solo riders started on Sun., 10 Jun, so we went to the start to watch. These riders will race almost non-stop all the way across, sleeping only 2 - 4 hours a night. My friend, John Jurczynski, from NH, was riding solo, so it was wonderful to see him & give him a send off. With all the riders, crew & spectators, there was quite a crowd, with everyone excited about finally starting RAAM.

After the solos started, we went back to our hotel & did more prep work on the vans & bikes. We are required to put tons of signage on the vans & bikes. Since the team has never been together before, we did a trial run to practice the exchange of riders & to use the 2-way radios. During the race, one rider is actively riding for 1 hour while the other has the hour off (to rest, sleep, eat, etc.). Then the riders swap. That way, they can keep their speed up so much as possible. At night, they each take a 4 hour pull, so the other rider can try to get a bit more sleep.

Race Day One

The teams are faster than the solo riders so they don't start until Tue., 12 Jun. That's a hard day because we're all ready to go but we don't start until 2 pm. Argh, the wait! Our bikes are very long & low recumbents. They don't fit in a normal rack so one of our crew members hand made a rack that fits into a trailer hitch. The bikes are mounted vertically so it looks like a rocket launcher. The bikes & rack sure turn heads.

It's finally time, & as each team is announced, the riders pull up to the start line. The virtual gun goes off & Team RAAM has started. After all the planning, training, organizing, & teamwork, it's exhilarating to actually be racing.

We have 3 main positions to be filled at all times. The RV is used to get & prepare food & for sleeping. The Frogger van has the resting rider & leap frogs ahead of the active rider to get the resting rider ready for the next pull. The Pacer van drives behind the active rider & protects him from traffic, gives directions & hands out food & drink (it doesn't actually pace the rider, that's just the name that is used). Each crew member works two 8-hour shifts & then sleeps for an 8 hour shift.

My first shift was in the RV. We went shopping for food, water & ice, so were away from the race for awhile. When we got back to the race route, it was a delight to be close to the action again. While this is not the most interesting job, you are more likely to get a shower, since your time is more flexible.

After my RV shift, I had a sleep shift. This was at night, which I really appreciated, as some had to sleep during the day. Turns out it's very hard to sleep in a moving RV. Ugh. It has the noise of the RV along with people talking & the radio going. I was trying to filter out this white noise, when I heard, quite clearly over the radio, "Both riders injured." I jumped right up, fearful of what happened.

We are now on I-10, which has tons of debris on the road & it's at night & both riders have gone down. Thankfully, the worst of it is large patches of road rash. We come upon Tim & 2 of us in the RV get him cleaned up & on his way (1 elbow with road rash). For Glenn, he was screaming along at 40 mph, when his front tire blew & he went down on 1 side. Then his wheel caught an edge which flipped him over onto the other side. He had both elbows & both, ahem, cheeks covered in road rash. This would take awhile to clean up so we brought him into the RV & spent hours cleaning & bandaging. He was ok but banged up & bruised so it was painful to bike.

Race Day Two

At 6 am, when my Pacer shift started, the riders were back in their hourly rotation. I had slept very little, but had to start my 16 hour day. During all of this, we had lost 2.5 hours to our main competitor, another recumbent team, Team Bacchetta. They are a very strong team & this was a huge lead, but our team was dedicated to catching up to them.

In Pacer, we had 2 people. One was the driver. The other would navigate using the route book put out by RAAM with turn by turn directions. We also had a computer hooked up to a GPS device so we could also see our position in real-time. This person also talked with the other vehicles via radio (or phone) & with the rider on a different radio. Glenn didn't use a radio so with him, we used the PA system to tell him where the turns were. When requested by the rider, the navigator also played a CD over the PA.

Also, sometimes the rider would have us pull along side him so we could talk directly. In this position the navigator could also hand food & drink to the rider. I really liked this position since I could hang way out of the window to pass things to the rider. It seemed daring, yet safe somehow. My Pacer partner & I would trade off driving & navigating to keep things interesting. Pacer almost never stops. Even during a rider exchange, we just pick up the new rider & keep driving. This of course happens day & night. If we need to get gas, we have to call in Frogger to do Pacer duty for awhile. That's the only time we stop Pacer. The disadvantage of this position is that the only pictures you get are of the back of the rider's head. Oh well.

Race Continues

Over the next few days, the crew fell into a steady rhythm, with everyone learning their assignments. The rider exchanges were going smoothly. The crew exchanges were tricky, since Pacer hardly ever stops. For a crew exchange, Pacer would stop for a very short amount of time, there would be a Chinese Fire Drill, exchanging people, food & water & then Pacer would zoom off again, to catch up with the rider, who has continued down the road.

The RV shift is pretty relaxing but you feel like you're missing part of the action. Pacer puts you right into the middle of the race, but you never get out of the van nor see the riders from the front. I asked to be switched to Frogger duty, since it seemed much more interesting. I was pleased the crew chief agreed to the change.

Frogger has the resting rider & leap frogs the active rider & then pulls off. We never get too far away. It's nice to have extra people & equipment in case something happens. It's great to get out & cheer the rider on as he passes by. At the hour switch, Frogger gets the resting rider ready & pulls the bike off of the rack. The resting rider then sits on his bike, looking in his mirror, waiting for the active rider. As the active rider gets near, he shouts, "GO", & the new rider takes off. Once the wheels overlap, the old rider stops & his hour break begins. The new resting rider can now eat, drink, talk with us & sleep in the bunk in Frogger. Frogger has most of the equipment & clothing so the rider can also change clothes as the weather dictates. It was wonderful for me to be able to talk with the riders face to face. They seemed to enjoy talking about the last pull before taking a nap.

We were all getting rather tired. There is also a lot of information to process: how are the other teams doing, where are the other vehicles, who needs what food, when to stop & switch riders & crew, etc. You get information overload. It's hard to remember if you are in Pacer or Frogger. Because of this, each van had a sign inside, telling what van it was. I referred to it often.

At night, the rider would come into the RV for a shower (crew could not shower here as there is not enough water), a meal & then a 4 hour sleep. Somehow we didn't quite have the food organized properly & the riders were not getting enough food. One time in Pacer, Tim asked for food. I said we didn't have any. He asked what we were eating. I said we didn't eat on our 8 hour shift. Tim just shook his head. Well, we fixed that problem so then we had enough food in the right places for rider & crew. What worked well were tortillas with slices of meat & cheese. This was easy for the riders to hold. Pasta worked well for eating in Frogger & the RV. I thought the riders would be watching their nutrition precisely but when they were hungry & I asked what they wanted, they said, "Give me everything you have." Glenn would often ask for Gummy Bears. Hey, isn't that bad for you? Well, it all seemed to work.

One of the most incredible times in the race was the climb up Wolf Creek Pass in CO. At more than 10,000 feet, it's the highest spot on the race course. The climb is long & steep & at altitude so an enormous amount of energy goes into it. Tim & Glenn were pushing hard all the way. Since it was so tiring, they switched to 20 minute pulls. With 1 hour pulls, 1 rider is always resting so they don't really get the feel of a team effort. But with the 20 minute pulls, they both stayed awake & cheered each other on.

I was in the RV, stopped at a scenic overlook. We could see them coming up the pass, pushing as hard as they could. I & others were able to run along beside the active rider & cheer him on. Since it was steep & at altitude, running tired me quickly, but the riders kept up an awesome pace. When Tim came around the corner, I saw he had a big smile on his face. How can he be smiling? But he was so thrilled to have everyone there & to know he & Glenn were keeping a fast pace up the pass. While Tim was on the last segment, Glenn was in the RV. His legs had really cramped, so 2 of us were giving him a massage, 1 on each leg. We had to hurry, to be ready when Tim got to the top. It was a mad dash to get his legs massaged & him all bundled up for the freezing descent. Tim made it to the top, crossed the Continental Divide, & then Glenn was down the back, descending in the dark. At night, the rider uses the headlights of Pacer, so Pacer has to keep quite close to the rider. Glenn reached 62 mph on the twisty descent, at night, with the van very close behind. Can you picture this?

Because of the heat & the amount of stress Tim was putting on his body, his stomach decided to act up & he started vomiting. This is extremely debilitating so he had to stop & Glenn took over for a few hours. Tim had some nourishing Chicken Noodle Soup & rested & eventually was able to ride again. Glenn did all he could to keep up the pace during his extended pull.

Tim's mom lives in Indiana & wanted to drive down to the time station to see Tim & the gang. It's hard to estimate arrival time & it turned out she would arrive 2 hours before Tim. I wanted to make sure she knew that, as I didn't want her to be bored. She replied, "Bored? My son is riding across America! How can I be bored?" Is that sweet or what?

Our now healing team has made great progress & is getting very close to Team Bacchetta. It is an amazing accomplishment to make up 2.5 hours with 2 injured riders. But eventually, there they were, just ahead. Tim was riding & we passed, leaving them in the dust. Quite a sense of accomplishment. Note that all 4 riders on the 2 teams are great friends, but during a race, the competition is on.

Close to the End

During the next few days, the crash from the first day was taking its toll on Glenn's knee. He eventually went to the emergency room to get a shot of "liquid Tylenol". That helped for awhile, but soon it was too sore to continue. Glenn would take long rests, with Tim doing long pulls. Glenn would then try to ride again, but it just wasn't working. If we wanted to continue the race, Tim would have to continue solo.

At this point, it was late at night & Tim had been doing very long pulls & was too tired to continue. We made the decision to have everyone stop for a 4 hour rest. We were in WV, on a country road, & found an open hillside that would hold all 3 vehicles. This was the first time since the start that all of us were together. As morning broke, we quietly got ready. It was surreally calm, with fog in the lower valley, horses grazing near by & birds singing in the trees. It was so quiet & peaceful. It was the calm before Tim's grueling solo ride to the finish. Imagine almost finishing RAAM, & then finding out you have to complete the last 500 miles on your own. A daunting task, but Tim was up for it. This was in the Appalachian Mountains. They are not as high as the Rockies, but much steeper. Of all the reports I've read, all the riders find them to be the most difficult part of the race.

We used Frogger as the follow vehicle for Tim. The other vehicles had no duties so they would stop along the way & the crew would get out & cheer as Tim went by. They made every effort they could to help him along. When you're out there alone, pounding out mile after mile, every bit of encouragement helps. Later, the others went ahead to the finish in Atlantic City. In Frogger I was the navigator, & we also had a driver & mechanic. Our intrepid crew of 3 did what we could to help Tim continue his ride to the finish.

We would try to come up with innovative ways to keep Tim motivated. On one of the steep hills we passed Tim & parked the van so we could get out. As Tim approached, I pulled out my whip & ran along beside him, cracking it over his head. That was motivating!

Tim had not trained to go solo, & 500 miles is still a very long way to go, but he wanted to finish. It turns out that he actually had strength in his legs all the way, but he just couldn't keep awake. He would stop once in awhile to sleep & eat. It was also mentally difficult to keep going. He knew he'd be passed by Team Bacchetta so we wouldn't win & it was dark & cold & raining & he was headed directly into an electrical storm. But through it all, we were able to keep his spirits up & his heart focused on the finish line.

I was getting very tired & it was hard to stay awake at night. That last night, since Tim rode all the way through, I didn't get any sleep. If there were 5 miles between turns, I would tell the driver to wake me in 5 miles & then I would take a short nap. It actually worked.

Eventually, Team Bacchetta was right behind us. And then, because of a mistake on my part (really, it was a mistake), we missed a turn. I noticed immediately, but by the time we got turned around, Team Bacchetta came by & made the correct turn. Thus we were a block away when they actually passed, depriving them the pleasure of looking us in the eye as they passed. So now we were in 2nd place, but Tim continued on, focused on the finish line.

Finish Line

At day break, we reached the finish line on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ, after 7 days, 11 hours & 56 minutes. The teams can regroup before the finish ribbon so Glenn & the rest of the crew were able to meet us for the actual finish. Tim & Glenn road through the finish ribbon together, completing their epic adventure.

And an adventure it was. We had the crashes on the first day & then had to get over the Rockies. Glenn took over when Tim had stomach problems, then Tim continued solo through the steep Appalachians when Glenn's knee gave out. And the crew always there, supporting our riders in every way they could. Everyone worked together. It was a fantastic team effort.

-- Written By Vicki Pelton