What it takes

The race officially got underway today with the start of the Women's Solo and Men's Solo 60+ divisions. In fact, some of the folks we spoke to just the other day- Dex Tooke, David Jones, and Debbie Tirrito- are already out there cranking along. As I post this they're about 10 hours into the race, probably somewhere out near the Salton Sea basin. And if they're smart they're putting as many miles up as they can overnight, because once the sun comes up in the morning they'll find themselves right in the heart of the Mojave Desert- the hottest, driest, most intimidating place to ride in the entire race. We'll catch up with them in a day or two, assuming they're all still chugging along.

But back here in Oceanside we spent another day talking to riders as their starting times quickly approach, and there were a couple themes that just kept coming up among everyone we talked to. One of my stock questions in our pre-race interviews is what it would mean to them if they had to drop out and couldn't finish the race. And every last person we've talked to gave essentially the answer: failure is something they have never even considered.

That sort of confidence in the face of something so daunting really struck me the first time I heard it. But when you think about it, there's just no other way to do this race. RAAM is such huge challenge and takes such a massive commitment of time and resources that a person would never even enter this race unless he or she knew with 100% certainty that this was something they could finish. Tim Case from the 4-person Team RAAM used the word "audacity" to describe that feeling. And he's exactly right: it takes a ridiculous amount of sheer audacity to show up in Oceanside, knowing you've got thousands of miles to go and there's going to be pain, there's going to be sleep deprivation, there's going to be a million little things every day telling you to just get off the bike and go home, and yet when they call your name at the starting line, you step up and start pedaling anyway.

That's the sort of feeling you get from folks here at the starting line, and it really is an amazing thing to be a part of.

talk to you soon.
-Andy

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