Over the Mountains...

Friday, 6/15 – 9:29 pm (RAAM Time)

It seems like days since my last blog, but it was just last night in South Fork. While I slept for about 4-1/2 hours, the guys made great time up Wolf Creek Pass. We woke up at 1:00 AM when Kristen called to tell us they were 11 miles past South Fork, so we got up quickly and jumped in the car. We all met up for our next 12-hour transition around 3:00 AM, and there was a little conflict going on through the radios… nothing major… all part of RAAM.

As soon as we started the next shift (8 hours for me), we raced Team 402 for a few hours. Finally we passed them for good up the mountain pass. It was 42 degrees… very cold, windy, and dark. This was one descent that no one really wanted to take! We climbed the last mountain pass – about 3,000’ climb in 12 miles with Chris, Lorenzo, and me all transitioning about every 2 miles.

Danny’s “transition memo” is working great. We have cleaned up our transitions to very minimal time, but the “tired factor” is also creeping up. I will say that everyone is much more rested than previous years, but we are still sleep-derived!

It was great to come down the final descents out of the Rockies… such a milestone. Lorenzo took the first big descent at about 57 mph! Then I took the 2nd half for about 10 miles of downhill. We have passed 2 teams, and I think we are making ground on the other teams. I think our rest protocol / team transitions is really going to pay off. They say the race really starts after the Mississippi. I will try to keep blogging throughout the trip, but no promises!

We had a couple of mishaps today… after stopping for ice in Trinidad, Virginia ran across the street to get McDonald’s for breakfast. I took off my shoes because I didn’t want to walk on the cleats, then ran across to remind her to get food for the other car. Well, you can guess what happened next. We got to the Time Station, and my shoes were on the sidewalk a block away with Lorenzo only about 2 minutes away for transition. Colette became a race car driver, and we made it back in time for transition with 5 seconds to spare!

Our big mistake today was making a wrong turn at the start of Kansas. We had turned off both GPS units because it was so easy to follow, then we made a turn at the Time Station where we should have gone straight. Thank God for the farmer that actually flagged us down to tell us that he was tracking the race and we were going north instead of east! We lost about 10 minutes, only because we got on the radio and had Chris jump on his bike from the transition point. He was already sleeping, so he threw on a T-shirt and his shoes (he already had his bibs)… looked hilarious!

This must be one of the hardest areas of RAAM… through the high desert of Colorado and into the flattest land of Kansas that I have ever seen. As I am riding, the road goes on forever… hours and hours on end. And there is a headwind… I think we are averaging just under 20 mph. I’ll be very glad when we hit Missouri some time tomorrow.

I can’t find our cable for the camera to download! I have searched in all my bags… and I am frustrated. We’ll have to send pics from our phone camera now and post the rest later.

Ok, I need to sleep for a couple of hours here in the follow vehicle until my next 4-hour shift at 12:30 AM. I am exhausted. One more 4-hour shift, then one more 4-hour rest, then my 8-hr shift before my 12-hr rest! That will start tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 pm. Talk to you then. Everyone is doing awesome!