Well friends and family--this turns out to be way more exciting and intense than I had thought. I'm not sure why, but I was once again surprised by how cool and challenging life is. But anyways, I'm sending you this e-mail because i think that you are definitely interested in my participation in the 2012 RAAM--Race Across America. This race is marketed as "This Aint No Tour" and "the most difficult bike race in the world". I have come to believe in the last 24 hours that there may be some truth in this. So basically, we are racing from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD--a total of 3000 miles and over 170,000 feet of climbing.
So I'm in Oceanside, CA tonight--my third time here as I did the IM California 70.3 twice and happily qualified for IM Hawaii for the first time here. It's great to be back. I've met my team--the CEO Challenges/Challenged Athletes Team--there are 17 of us--8 racers and 9 support staff. I'm impressed. We have some very serious athletes--one who did the Leadville 100s--both the bike and the run in the same week. If you don't know what those are then I'll tell you that if you do both of these races, the lowest altitude that you are at is 9,300 feet. 100 miles running above 9,300 feet gets my respect.
We had all of our pre-race stuff tonight. It was humbling. The solo racers left Wednesday and Thursday and today was all about the 2, 4 and 8 person teams. There are over 350 racers on the teams here and we all go off tomorrow at 12 PST--in a staggered time-trial fashion. Most of the teams are very charity oriented. Wounded Veterans. Organ Doners. Cancers. Most are focused on supporting folks who have suffered significant physical hardship. For example, all 1000+ people in attendance today literally stood and cheered for 5+ minutes for a team of 8 British military veterans (Team Battle Back)--who are one of our 8-team member competitors. One thing that is notable about this team is that this 8 team has 7 legs--two of the team members have none, one has both and the other's have one.
I'm on a team of 7 CEO/Senior Execs and Chris Self--who is a 4 time veteran of Iraq Army special forces duty. Chris, who I can now attest is a great guy, lost one of his legs in service to our country, but remains, a very bad-ass athlete. We, the biz types, are riding across america in support of the Challenged Athletes Foundation that helps heros like Chris do really cool things like RAAM.
OK--for those of you who want to track how we do in this challenge, please find below a number of resources:
The home site for the race is: http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/raamfp.php?N_webcat_id=109
The current standings are here: http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/rcrank.php?s_N_category_group=1&s_N_Race_ID=1
--if you go there now you'll see how all of those brave, intrepid solo riders are doing. Starting tomorrow at 3pm EST, you'll also see how all of the teams are doing. We are team T816--one of the 18 8-person teams racing across America.
There are 55 "stages" that end in TS (time stations). I have attached a word document that gives you a few sentences about the challenges that we'll face in each of these sections of our country. That document is titled RAAM Route Notes.
If you go to Apple or android apps and download "Tagg" (www.tagg.com) to your smartphone or iPad you'll have an app (you can also do this on your computer through the web address) that allows you to track us via GPS. This is a web app that was developed to track pets so don't be alarmed if I show up as a pet! Here is what you need to do to track us real time:
go to: www.tagg.com (or preferable download the mobile app)
your ID/email ID is: raam4caf@yahoo.com
the PW is 3000Miles (please note that the M has to be capitalized--hey, we are doing a lot of miles here!)
If you go there you'll be able to see where all eight of us are. If you click on "Randy", you'll see where I am (I was able to successfully lobby to have my label changed from "Pokey"). You should click locate to get my last location.
We have WiFi on our support vehicles so I'll be blogging frequently as we cross the country. If you want to see what's going on you can click to my blog at:
http://rcmioga.blogspot.com/
Please do as I will try to give you at least 2 posts a day about our 6-7 day bike ride across the country.
Lastly, we are trying to support the Challenged Athletes Foundation raise money through our efforts. The CAF is a great organization that supports people like Chrtis, overcome their disabilities and still get to do really cool things that you and I take for granted. I know that several of you have generously donated to support our efforts--thank-you so much! It would be a great karma thing if others wanted to jump in as well! Here is the link to the donation site:
http://raceforareason2012.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1002573&lis=1&kntae1002573=E5688FE2E6CA4E31B4A2B25DD0BCD2F0&supId=359578568
I would be honored if you could help with this great cause.
In any event--it looks like an awesome adventure.....bring it on!
rc
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