RAAM Pictures

Here are some links to pictures I've found of me on the web. A couple of them are of me from behind standing beside Tinker at the Pre-Race Banquet.

Pre-Race Picture

Pre-Race Banquet

Pre-Race Banquet 2

Pre-Race Banquet 3

Morning of Start

Race Start Line

Waiting for Staggered Start after Parade Start

Waiting for Staggered Start after Parade Start 2

Rolling Out at the Staggered Start

First Day

Climbing on Day 1

Riding Behind Shanna near Pagosa

Riding in the Rain in Kansas

Entering El Dorado Springs, MO

Leaving El Dorado Springs, MO

Follow Van Near El Dorado Springs, MO

Leaving Collins, MO

Emergency Room Visit

We're slowly making our way back to Colorado and visiting relatives along the way. At Julie's grandparent's cottage we didn't have internet access although I did go into town to an internet cafe. Now we're at my brother's place in Ohio and he has internet access but we also have a lot going on.

This is old news but something I haven't written about yet. The night after I dropped out of RAAM, I woke up totally drenched in sweat and the sheets were pretty soaked too. All I wanted to do was sleep but Julie was pretty freaked out about it. I felt fine other than muscle soreness. Julie insisted I go to the Emergency Room.

Once we got to the ER they were concerned about my electrolyte levels because of what I had just done. I was confident that amount of Endurolytes I was using would have been more than enough but figured getting tested would be a good way to find out for sure. They drew a bunch of blood and tested for several things.

The results showed my electrolytes were indeed fine. The only things the tests showed were I had significant muscle damage which didn't surprise them and that I'm low on my thyroid medication. I thought the one result they talked about was Muscle Damage Index and mine was 900 but I lost the sheet and can't find any information on it. They also said my free T4 was low. I'm on a high dose of thyroid medication which has seemed to be working well but the problem is I don't know what happens I do really long rides. Dr. Carter plans to do more tests when I get back home. A big thanks to Dr. Carter for his help during the race. He was on the phone with my crew at 11:30 at night the first night in Kansas trying to help walk them through popping my pelvis. He also was helping track down doctors for me along the way.

The conclusion on the sweats was that my body was just trying to flush out all the toxins from my effort. They continued for a couple nights and now I seem to be over them.

A Few Days to Recover

It has now been most of a week since I dropped out of RAAM. The official reason was I wasn't going to be able to make the time cut offs. The real reason was the cross winds of eastern Colorado and western Kansas. Of course I'll never know if something else would have gone wrong with my body. It's hard to make much progress when you have to get off the bike every 15 minutes to get stretched out because the pelvis is out of alignment. Even when I could push through the pain, I couldn't get any power out of my left leg.

I plan to write more details but I'll be traveling over the next week visiting relatives so I doubt I'll have much time before I get home. I will say doing RAAM was more incredible than I had ever imagined. My wife says she's totally behind me attempting it again next year in spite of how tough it was having me gone so much training. I'd say really the only reason I wouldn't be back is because of money. I drained my bank account doing the race this year and there will be no way for me to afford to do it next year without major sponsorship.

I haven't been on the bike since I dropped out but I'm really starting to want to ride. Most of the gigantic scabs have come off my butt from where my saddle sores were. Maybe I'll get a chance for a little spin tomorrow to see how everything is working.

Boardwalk

RAAM Finish Line


Girls with Grandparents


Girls on the beach

Pictures from before RAAM Start

Here are a few of the pictures I took before the start of RAAM. I don't have pictures during the race because I was too busy riding my bike.

Boardwalk at Oceanside


Vehicle Inspection


Lon Haldeman and Jim Pitre on stage at Start Banquet


Tinker at Start Banquet


Solo Enduro Riders


Robic

Video of RAAM through Kansas

Tom Stormcrowe who was crewing for me has created a video mainly from still pictures he took during the race. You can check them out along with a little grainy video on YouTube.

Out of RAAM

The time station shown where I dropped to 5th from 4th was because I had been off the bike a lot because of my IT band and quads had knotted up on the left knee. In fact I finally got to the point of not being able to ride. At that time I got shuttled back to the last control point, Ulysses, KS, and slept until business hours and my crew was able to find a chiropractor with help from my family doctor.

In eastern Colorado we had 30-40 mph cross winds for hours. Talking to officials today, I found out riders a few hours behind us enjoyed a tailwind. Through fighting the wind, my pelvis managed to rotate which was causing the muscle problems. Over the next 2 days I had a couple chiropractic treatments and a couple massages. It was really frustrating because I felt good overall but had too much pain and even worse I couldn't get any power out of my left leg. If it had only been pain, I probably could have pushed through it. Even though I was off the bike a lot I wasn't sleeping much because of going to chiropractors, massages, and my crew was massaging and stretching me up to every 15 minutes when I was trying to ride. I had a decent day of riding yesterday but got really sleep deprived in an effort to get my speed back up. Even so I had to be stretched out several times.

This morning as I rode about 20 miles basically asleep on the bike, I realized I could not safely get my speed back up before the cut off tomorrow morning in Indy. Rather than draw it out, I rode to the time station at the Mississippi River and dropped out.

As to my thoughts on the Enduro category, I had issues with it before the race but because the time cut-off was longer plus known at the start I decided to do it. I didn't like being forced to sleep at certain locations but never realized how bad the mandatory stops would be. With the regular control points you can shift your sleep a couple hours one way or the other but the mandatory stops can end up totally throwing off your sleep schedule.

Article in Colorado Springs Paper

Here's my last post before I call it a long day and go get some sleep. We start at 9 in the morning. Keep checking back for updates from the crew.

Yesterday the local Colorado Springs paper did a nice article.

How you can help me

First I want to thank my sponsors and the individuals that have donated money to help me achieve my dream of racing in the Race Across America. I have put a lot of effort into training and spent a lot of money just to get to the start line. It will take the dedication of my crew, lots more money and a lot of determination to get to the finish line in Atlantic City.

You can help motivate me by sending e-mails. Julie will be leaving Wednesday morning to meet us in Trinidad, CO so she can bring anything sent before then. Hopefully my crew can also check e-mail from the laptop at some of the hotels along the way.

If you live along the course you can always come out and cheer me on although there's no guarantee what time of day or night I'll be rolling through. The RAAM web site has detailed maps and elevation profiles for the sections between each timestation. The tracking page to watch my progress isn't live yet although you can look at last year's animated map to see what it should look like.

Buying from the advertisers on this blog and my web site helps me with my expenses for RAAM. You can also donate money through PayPal by clicking the button to the right. I'm not set up to take credit cards though. If you donated a penny per mile, it would be $30.43. Below I've put what I think my expenses are going to be. I think it is fairly accurate because I've spent quite a bit of it already. I was estimating spending between $10,000 and $15,000 and it looks like I'm at the upper end of that. These costs don't even include my new bike and all of the new cycling shorts I bought so my crew doesn't have do laundry too often.

Expense	Amount
Entry fee	$1500
Tubes and other spare bike parts	$600
Airfare for crew	$2000
Start hotel	$800
Finish hotel	$1300
Hotels during race	$1500
Gas for crew vehicles	$2000
My energy drinks, food and supplements	$1100
Food for crew	$1800
Miscellaneous	$2000
Car rental	$350
Total	$14,950

Oceanside Pier

It's hard to believe that in just a couple days I'll be starting from here in the Race Across America. This is something I've dreamed of doing for nearly 20 years. There is lots I could write about but I have so many things to do. I still need to get reflective tape on my spare wheels, signs on the vehicles, pick up my crew from the airport and on and on.

Great Article on doing RAAM

Chris Kostman, organizer of the Furnace Creek 508, has written a new article about doing RAAM. It has some things to help stay motivated and other tips.

Heat

We've been having record or near record heat for over a week and so has most of the west. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to change before RAAM starts this weekend. Last weekend it was 113 degrees in Blythe, CA. It is forecast to be slightly cooler on Sunday with a high of 107 degrees. I got to Green River, UT around midnight last night and it felt like it was still 90 degrees and its elevation is 4,000 feet.

I've continued my heat training in the basement bathroom. I found if I put a towel along the bottom of the door when I was pre-heating the room, I could get it to 107 degrees. Since I wanted to make sure I didn't also simulate higher altitude than my normal 6100 feet, I would move the towel part way before riding. Over the first 15-20 minutes the temperature would drop to 102 degrees and stay there. I've definitely improved my tolerance to heat by doing it but I still hope it doesn't seem as hot outside. The only air movement I've had is the little fans in the heater and all they're doing is blowing even hotter air on me.

Cool Picture

I plan to leave for California tomorrow afternoon. It's hard to believe it's only a few days until the start of RAAM. I think I have pretty much everything piled around the basement but it's not organized or packed. I'll be very busy tomorrow morning.

Last week a photographer from the Gazette, the local paper, did a photo shoot of me in Garden of the Gods. They posted a cool picture on the out there blog today. There will be an article in the paper this coming Friday.