Interview day

So it's day two here in Oceanside and the RAAM documentary team is all about the pre-race interviews. The idea here is to learn as much as we can about these riders before we head out on the road and things get a little more, uh, chaotic. We hit the ground running with our first two cameramen, Andre and Ernie, and picked up some great stuff.

I guess the big thing we learned today is that RAAM brings in people of all ages. On one end of the spectrum is Steven Perezluha, who's barely 20 years old. Steven's crammed a lot of miles into those 20 years, and he has a secret weapon in the form of his uncle, former RAAM champion Danny Chew, who's leading his crew. Danny knows this race better than just about anyone, so Steven's hoping that this combination of youth and experience gets him to the finish line at the front of the pack.

On the other end of the spectrum is Dex Tooke, the 61 year-old Texan who came agonizingly close to finishing last year before he had to drop out. Dex is a local hero in his hometown of Del Rio, and he's got a close-knit team of family and friends in the support team. When I asked Dex how he decided to do RAAM again after failing to finish last year, he gave me a great answer: "I'd rather fail again than to never know if I could do it."

I think that notion sums up the feelings of a lot of the riders out here. They're all embarking on an incredible challenge, and no one can really predict how it's going to turn out. But they've all come to Oceanside anyway, because in spite of all the pain, exhaustion, and fear they know they're going to experience on the road, they've realized that if you never get on the bike in the first place you'll never know what you could have accomplished.

See you next time.
-Andy