Hani’s wedding
Michele’s birthday
Mary and Matt’s anniversary
Sally and Joel’s anniversary  AND
Tom’s anniversary

Matt & Mary share an anniversary hug during one of the quick transitions -  once Karen and Grant joined the group on Monday night, Matt and Mary were on opposite shifts…

The time station in Effingham was at the High School where the locker rooms were open 24 hours for teams to shower — The RV had jumped ahead and was in the parking lot along with lots of other support vehicles.   So Grant, Mary, Anne, John, Sally & Joel took advantage of the facilities.  Unfortunately Karen, Michele, and Matt were on shift (Raf was on the bike and riding to meet us here) so no showers for us.  We did stop to get our picture, see our name on the very bottom of their sign-in sheet, go to the bathroom, and pick up some tootsie pops.  Then we were back on the road to catch up to Raf.

TEAM H4:  Sally, Michele, John, Joel, Raf, Karen, & Anne

Dinner of smothered chicken, mashed red potatoes and gravy, salad, and buns with sweet tea and lemonade sure tasted good after a full day of disassembling bikes and packing all our gear. We visited with the team from the UK seated at the table next to us.

They finally called us up and gave us our plaques.  Big smiles for a great finish!

Looking to my left  -  Matt driving, with the all-important coffee!

In the navigator seat  -  with a bed tray on my lap holding:
the computer with the navigation maps (we just left Marthasville, MO)
the route book - (the RAAM Bible which detailed every turn and crossroad)
the walkie-talkie - to be able to communicate the turns to the cyclist
multiple cell phones - to be able to talk with the RV group
an iPod - to cue up just the right song for the occasion
(the navigator also was in charge of resetting the TrackMe360 device known as SPOT [orange device on the dashboard] AND had the bull horn at their feet, just in case the walkies stopped working - of course the one time that happened, the bullhorn wouldn’t work either.  That was the time that came up with the horn method -  1 honk for left turn, 2 honks for right turn, no honk for continuing straight,  long horn for STOP RIGHT NOW!  -  it was easier than hollering out the window.)

Looking to the back –  the smiling face of Michele or Raf, surrounded by all of the cyclists’ bins, gear, spare wheels, first aid kit, and most importantly the area for sleeping between shifts.

Many of you asked if we saw the floods in the midwest…  There were several  night shifts where we (Raf, Michele, Matt & Karen) could see the moon reflecting off the water on the sides of the roads, and here is a similar area that we passed through during the day.  Just a ways down the road, on the left, there was a car parked in a driveway.  Beyond the front of the car was flood water and a bit beyond that was the house on a small rise, untouched by the waters.

Thank goodness we finished when we did. Only our sense of humor has seen us through the mammoth packing and logistical tasks of:

RV - move out, clean up, return.

Moby (the minivan) - multiple shift bins, light bars, bike racks, sound system all had to be dismantled and packed or returned to RAAM

Bikes - disassembling all 8 bikes and packing into bike boxes including the ‘missing’ box that temporarily went home with another team (that had us getting creative about how to get the eighth bike home)

We spent all day in the parking lot of the Quality Inn, Annapolis trying to solve the packing puzzle.

We’re trying not to think about unpacking when we get home to California late Saturday night. See you in church Sunday morning!

Sorry about the dirth of posts. Guess we were all too focused on flying to the finish line…

Actually once you are on the road, the 24/7 shift rotation, sleep-deprivation, and intermittent internet access made it really hard to keep you in the loop. Next time (ha, ha!) we know that we need a dedicated photographer and blogger on board with us. SPOT saved our bacon by keeping you posted on our progress eastward.

After our frustrating interruption to our rhythm in El Dorado, KS (you should hear how Sally pronounces that) due to severe thunderstorms, golf-ball size hail, close range tornadoes, the team was at serious risk for losing momentum, focus, and cohesion. But with ominous weather still plaguing us, we turned our ‘re-start’ on Monday morning (6/16) into a new beginning for the entire team. It helped to be pedaling towards fresh crew members waiting for us in Missouri later that day. But we were most sad to say good bye to Tom, Doug, and Cathy.

In some ways, the rest is just a blur of shift exchanges, organizing gear and nutrition, managing the RV, determining rendezvous points and adjusting them on the fly because the riders getting further than expected in their 6-hour shifts, and generally making sure that the entire team got just enough sleep to survive.

Humor has played a huge role in allowing the team to endure all that make this such a tough race. As the riders stayed healthy and strong, we all enjoyed passing up many other teams from Kansas onward. Don’t get us wrong… there is a strong level of camaraderie between the teams, but you know you are doing well when you are consistently out-pacing other team around you.

People think of the Rockies as being the toughest part of the RAAM course since you climb to 9,000-10,000 feet several times, but the Appalachians of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, with 360 miles to the finish, actually present more overall feet of climbing per mile with relentless sets of steep climbs, descents, repeat, repeat, repeat…. you get the picture! You would never have known that the riders were on ‘day 7 legs’ as they pushed on through. Must be all that wonderful hilly training country at home. Every hill was likened to the length and/or grade of a local familiar route at home. “Well that’s just a couple of back-to-back Old La Honda’s’ or ‘That’s not as bad as ‘Nasty Grade’… ”

The crew did an amazing job of managing and supporting the riders through these hills. We switched from our tried and tested 6-hour shift rotations to 4-hour ones so that the riders would climb only an hour at a time. The result - even less sleep for the crew, but it was worth it to realize that Team H4 would finish this race on Thursday, even though they had lost 15 hours of riding time in Kansas.

Crew Chief Mary kept the riders on the straight and narrow as she mapped out the last 150 miles to the finish line. With 2,900 miles under our belts, the last 100 felt more like an adrenalin-fueled sprint to the finish — where’s the sense in that??? The crew stayed true to the last in reminding the riders not to overcook themselves - they didn’t listen too well.

The ride into Annapolis was a very powerful experience. On the tough side, we rode through the Washington, DC/Baltimore/Annapolis corridor at rush hour! It had more scary moments for riders and crew alike than the whole rest of the race. With Matt driving and Mary navigating, they masterfully protected the backs of their riders from overly aggressive commuters. In the last few miles, we had to honor of riding along side two separate solo RAAM riders - very humbling for all of us. The actual finish of the timed portion of the race happened in a non-descript mall parking lot, followed by a 4 mile parade into the real finish line on the dock in downtown Annapolis. Eduardo, our roving photographer, negotiated his way into the escort vehicle and was able to capture the moment. Pics to follow!

Once across the finish line, the team got to take the stage and were interviewed for their moment of glory. The riders biggest regret was that the crew did not receive any ‘official’ accolades for their tireless efforts. They worked the hardest to make Team H4’s RAAM bid a success. At least they all know that they are truly appreciated by their riders.

Our official finish time of 8 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes matched our best-case goal finish time, and we achieved that even with that pesky 15-hour weather delay El Do-RAY-do, KS. You do the math!!!