T Minus 52 Days

Welcome to our blog. My hope is to chronicle the preparations of our team in preparation for RAAM. For those of you not familiar with RAAM, this summary from the official website (www.raceacrossamerica.org) pretty much sums up the race -

"RAAM is more than a bike race. It is about ordinary people being great. It's about realizing dreams, a journey of the heart and soul. It's about being the toughest of the tough. It's about camaraderie, teamwork, and the incredible RAAM family. It's about taking the stage for a charity or cause that matters, to raise awareness and funds. It's about the vastness, richness, beauty, and generosity of the United States of America and the people who live here. It's a lifetime experience never to be repeated."

It is a transcontinental race that departs Oceanside California on June 11 and the clock will not stop until we arrive in Annapolis Maryland, some 3000 miles away. Our team will ride around the clock and hopefully arrive some 6 1/2 days later. We will climb approximately 100,000 ft during the ride, or the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest 4 times on a bike. Another way to think of it would be climbing to the edge of space. Pretty far I would say.

I will leave the complete history of how we are here today for another post, but last year I was called out leaving church by a guy named Joe Torres who asked if I was a triathlete. The Polar heart rate monitor gave it away I guess. He invited me to join their group that was training for RAAM. I saw the rest of the guys and noticed they were 20-30 years older than me (I am 29) and I thought they would be slow. So finally after last year's race, Joe talked me in to riding with them on a Saturday ride in North County San Diego. I had no clue that two of those "guys" that looked a whole lot older than me happened to be RAAM legends, Pete and Jim Penseyres. They will never tell you that they both hold records but after chasing them you have no doubt of their accomplishments. Google their names for your own interest. Pete's solo RAAM record from 1986 still stands today. There is a great piece on the RAAM website about his performance. Check it out if you get a chance. When we arrived the first decent climb of the day (Lake Wuhlford for you SD folks), Pete took off and I jumped in after him. We quickly gapped the group and raced to the top. I managed to hang on but not by much. In between gasps, Pete invited me to join the team for this at the top of the climb. I couldn't believe how he could climb. A couple of weeks prior I had raced the Vineman 1/2 Ironman and averaged 22.25 mph. I was pretty proud of that until a 64 year old put me in my place. From that point I gained an immense respect for Pete and Jim and the rest of the team and started training with them on a regular basis.

Pete has laid out a training plan based upon his record team performance in 1996. We started "formally" training in February and will build to a 17 hour week before it is all over. Stay tuned for a whole lot more. I plan on posting the training progression, the team's logistic's and approach to the race, thoughts on crewing, and information on the charity we are raising awareness and funds for.

Thanks for reading.

We'll talk later.

NJB