RAAM Race Report – A personal perspective (its long) – with a few extra bits
For those of you who are interested I have written a race report for RAAM. I wrote it mainly for my own benefit so I would not forget one of the most incredible experiences of my life. However, some of you may find it interesting so I thought I would share it – you will hear about rolling around naked in the back of a car for most of the race and crying my eyes out like a baby when I found myself abandoned in the middle of some horrendous interstate junction interchange.
As you may know I was part of a 4 person riding team supported by 13 crew and so this is my own personal experience of the race and everyone will have their own story to tell of this great adventure – but this is mine.
We all started the race together at Oceanside on the West Coast of the US but after about 15 minutes of peddling my cycling partner Lizzie and I peeled off and were collected by one of the two support cars and we immediately closed our eyes and tried to get some sleep! A bizarre way to start a race!
Our team of four was split into two pairs and Lizzie and I made up one pair – we chose to ride together mainly because we shared English as a common language whilst the other pair Zizzi and Philippe shared French. At any one time one pair would be either cycling or in one of the two support cars getting ready to swap with the rider on the road. The idea was that each member of the pair would ride for 20 minutes before swapping with the other rider who would ride for 20 minutes and so on. The goal was always to have someone riding 24 hours a day at race pace throughout the race – the clock was ticking from the moment we left Oceanside until we arrived at the finish on the East coast. Meanwhile the other pair would be resting in the RV (recreational vehicle).
Whilst the plan was to ride for 20 minutes before swapping, sometimes this did not always pan out. For reasons that I don’t understand the follow car that was supposed to be picking Philippe up missed the rendezvous at the end of his very first leg and so he had to continue to ride on into the Californian desert and temperatures of 49 degrees for over 2.5 hours. Not surprisingly he was to pay a price for the next 24 hours as it is a battle to recover from heat like that. In fact you never knew how long you would have to ride for. On the steep climbs it was often not possible to find a suitable spot for a rider exchange so you would set off at you 5 minute pace but then would hear through the radio that there was nowhere suitable to exchange and that you would have to take it all the way to the top of the hill – still of course trying to maintain race pace. If you were the resting rider in the car you would feel intensely guilty and be wishing you could be out there helping your partner.
The race divides the US up into 54 sections and at the end of each section is a “time station” where you have to call in your arrival time so the organisers can update the leader board. The race distance is 3,000 miles or 4,800km so the average distance between each time station is 56 miles or 89km. On average it took us 3 hours to reach each new time station. As 3 hours does not afford the resting pair much time to eat, get massaged and try and sleep we decided initially to swap pairs every two time stations so each pair would ride for roughly 6 hours and within those 6 hours each individual would ride for 3 hours broken down into segments which varied from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. So every two time stations Lizzie and I would hand over to Philippe and Zizzi. This handover was in fact the only time that we would see them and their four man support team. I did not see support crew Alicia or Kat until the end of the race. One of my regrets about RAAM is that we never really raced together as a four which can be beneficial on some of the big climbs. But it is probably my only regret.
The way our shifts worked it meant that Lizzie and I ended up riding much of the time at night. So despite riding across the entire US I hardly saw anything. I cycled through monument valley in pitch black and there was not even a moon to share the landscape with me. During the day of course I was trying to sleep in the back of an RV which was a little bit like trying to sleep in a sauna which had been strapped to a roller coaster. Even during the day I spent most of my time staring at my garmin because it was so easy to work too hard on this race and I had to really concentrate to keep my power under control. So I said I only had one regret actually its two – I saw nothing of the US.
Talking of Garmin’s for those who like the geeky bits here are some stats – in consultation with our sports scientist I decided to ride at the top of my zone 2 / bottom of zone 3 – which is Ironman bike pace. This translates into an average heart rate of 137 bpm for the first part of the race but it then fell to 126 bpm as we became more fatigued. In terms of power I put in a negative split for the US but averaged around 210 to 220 watts for an average speed of 31.6km/hr or 19.8 mph. My top speed was 55mph or 88km/hr which occurred when I was chased by a wild dog as we came through the Indian reservations.
At the start of the race 200 watts felt ludicrously easy – it was a real struggle to keep the power low and it hardly felt like I was racing – more like a very gentle recovery ride. By day 6 it was an entirely different experience. By this stage Lizzie and I were down to 6 to 8 minute pulls before exchanging riders. Those 6 to 8 minutes went something like this… the first 20 seconds you felt nothing in your legs and then suddenly there would be a searing pain as the legs realised they were going to have to some work yet again and protested strongly. The pain lasts for about 40 seconds and at the minute mark you begin to feel strong again and your power and speed begin to rise. There is a period of 2 to 3 minutes when you feel great and strong and then slowly you can feel the fatigue of 6 days of riding drain the power from your legs. From minute 4 onwards you begin to feel like you are slowly dying and by minute 6 we are making chopping motions with our hand to the back of our helmets which is our agreed signal to the follow car to “get me the hell of this bike as soon as possible – I am dying here.” This routine is repeated 30 times by each of us during a 6 hour shift. You can see RAAM as an endurance race but I prefer to see it as 7 days of interval training.
So a little bit about rolling around naked in the back of a car. I was terrified about getting saddle sores during the race and one way to avoid saddle sores is to maintain a high degree of personal hygiene! My routine after each “pull” (session on the bike) was to eat something and then pull down my shorts, freshen everything up with a baby wet wipe and then lie in the back of the car with my arse in the air until my next pull. When my next pull would arrive I would apply zinc oxide cream and chamois cream before pulling up my shorts and getting ready to ride. As laundry was not really an option I took 14 pairs of shorts with me and during 6 hours I would change my entire kit at least once. Initially I was very coy about all this and would hide under a blanket but by the end of day 2 both Lizzie (apparently) and I were quite happy to be completely naked in the back of the car as bemused lorry drivers would stare down from their cabs as they passed us by.
As is my way prior to the rice I had planned out a thorough dietary plan which would give me the 4,500 calories / 24 hours which I believed I would need. I went for a 70/20/10 split of carbs/fat/protein. The plan was never realised – my RAAM was fuelled by porridge or shreddies with nuts and raisins and honey for breakfast, during the ride it was power bar sports drink and processed white bread and turkey ham sandwiches and post session either brown rice with nuts and raisins or pot noodle. Only when I was bonking (only twice) did I need to take on some gels. I had put on weight prior to the race as I expected to lose weight but we were so well looked after by Brenna and Matt who largely took care of food that I actually gained weight. In contrast, the crew were working so hard on our behalf that they were the people actually losing weight.
The race itself was quite exciting to begin with. For various reasons it just so happened that Lizzie and I were the faster pair. When we went out for our session we would often ride through other teams – there were the Brazilians (who were crazy), the 8-man English and Scottish rugby teams (who we called the “rugger buggers” but did not attempt to explain to the Americans what and why they were called that). There were also our two main rivals “The Intrepid Fallen Heroes” a US team and “The Aussies”. I had cyber stalked them before the race and they looked strong – the remaining teams we had questions about. What was a little frustrating for Lizzie and I is that we would finish the session having overtaken a lot of teams only to wake up at the end of our rest to discover that they were now ahead of us and we would have to ride through them again.
Out on the road we had radios and earphones taped into our ear and we felt like pro riders in the tour de France. A friend of mine, Darren, was the mechanic and also one of the main drivers and Lizzie’s friend Tim was our navigator and sports scientist (Tim being a doctor back in the real world). All credit to the two of them, in 4,500km we only made one wrong turn and never lost a second to a mechanical. In our other car were Stephanie and Jenny – it has to be said that American’s just sound so much better on the radio than the English. Stephanie and Jenny kept Lizzie and I motivated throughout the race with shouts of “looking good…,” “you’re doing awesome (sic)”, “you got this” and each encouraging phrase was rounded off with a “ough, ouuuuughhhhh!” There are two things that are incredible about Jenny and Stephanie – not once did their energy and motivation ever falter and not once did I get tired of their support in my ear. The radio was like an umbilical cord keeping me feeling safe and I will tell you later how I felt when that cord was cut. These girls were not only navigating, shouting encouragement but they also drove 2 to 3 metres off my back wheel to protect me from other cars across the whole of the US.
I do not really remember too much of the race but here are the things I remember very vividly… a mountain climb at night with the girls shouting at deer by the side of the road through megaphones to try and dissuade them from running into my path…climbing Wolf Creek Pass with Lizzie and beasting ourselves with changes every 3 to 4 minutes to maximise speed…. riding through Missouri with 95 degrees and 95% humidity and drinking 3l of fluid an hour… riding through Gettysburg (which apparently has some significance in American history!) actually there are many moments but what was surprising for me was how spiritual I found the whole experience.
I am not a very spiritual person and I have often thought people who talk almost religiously about cycling are a bit nuts… well I am clearly a bit nuts. I love cycling but during this race riding my bike became an almost spiritual experience, especially at night. At night you were cocooned in the pool of light cast by the headlights of the follow-car, there was the rhythm of the pedal strokes and the whirr of the gears and chain – it was almost hypnotic, almost like a form of meditation – I did not want to get off my bike and break the spell. When I was in the car I was impatient to get back on the bike – for the entire race there was only one time when I was bored and wanted the session to be over – the rest of the time I never wanted it to end.
The thing that made the experience so incredible was the crew – Tracie who put it all together but it was those who were closely involved with looking after me that made it so special. Tim and Darren, Brenna and Matt and of course Catie, Michael our Directeur Sportif and Stephanie and Jenny. I have never been part of such a high performing team. Not once on the race did I ever feel sleep deprived because the crew took the sleep hit on our behalf. I find it incredible that this group of strangers would give up their time and put their own needs aside so Lizzie and I could ride as well as we possibly could. It was incredibly humbling.
So back to the race – we had come within some 13 minutes of the eventual winners at one point but as the race moved on it became clear that we were not going to catch 1st or 2nd and 4th was a long way behind. So from about day 3 or 4 we knew we would be on the podium provided there were no disasters. Lizzie and I therefore needed to find new ways to keep ourselves motivated.
As you come through the Appalachian mountains there is some serious climbing to be done. Over the whole race there are 50,000m of vertical ascent to be completed and as Lizzie and I were the stronger climbers the overall team decided we should do as much of the hill work as possible. Lizzie and I therefore decided to see how high we could rank within each time station compared to the other crews. We chose two of the hilliest sections (and Phillipe and Zizzi kindly pulled a double session to give us more rest – we were down to swapping time station to time station by this point) to put in some efforts. On both occasions we ranked 4th of all the teams – only being beaten by the professional four man teams and the eventual winners of our category. It is at this point that respect has to be paid to Lizzie because together we were not far off the pro, all men teams. I have never met such a phenomenal athlete as Lizzie and I know she inspired so many of our crew – it was an honour!
As we approached the end of the race it all began to get rather emotional. Until the final stages I never really had to search too deeply inside of myself and the relatively short pulls made it psychologically relatively easy to manage – “I only have to ride for 20 minutes then I can have rest and eat some cake – nice!” In fact I was disappointed that it had not been more emotionally challenging but that was to change.
The weather turned nasty and the last session was through rain and winds on major US interstate roads with 6 or 7 lanes and interchanges here, there and everywhere. For 3,000 miles I had Stephanie and Jenny behind me all the way in their little red car protecting me at every turn. For some reason they had to pull off and I was left in the middle of massive roads, horrendous traffic and hideous weather and my umbilical cord, my lifeline was severed. I could hear Tim in the other car who had gone ahead calling into the radio “red car, red car, do you read me over” but there was never an answer as they were out of range and on their way back to the RV. I only had a vague notion of where I was going and cars were cutting me up and passing too close – this was my darkest point and I cried like a baby as I pedalled on hoping I was not about to be hit from behind and that at some point I would see Tim and Darren and silver car. Eventually I found them and sobbed with relief as they hugged me and bundled me into the safety of the car. So be careful what you wish for during a big adventure.
So that is pretty much my RAAM experience – I consider myself to be incredibly blessed to have been part of such an incredible team who made the whole experience possible and I discovered a deeper love of cycling than I ever thought possible. Lizzie Currie Philippe May Zizi Devenes Darren Hedges Tim Nuthall Jenny Mckee Stephanie Doyle Arehart Michael J Hunter Tracie May Alicia Anne Brenna Preston Catie Friend
Expeditions 