Planning for Solo RAAM

Planning to race across the United States is no small undertaking. There are thousands of details to be worked through and an amazing amount of planning to bring a team to the finish line. All this must be completed while we all work our day jobs. Unlike our professional counterparts that you see in races like the Giro d'Itialia and Tour de France, most RAAM teams (rider and crew) are amateur athletes and ultra cyclists who take their hobbies just a little further than most people. Most RAAM entrants are all gainfully employed and married, but have managed to talk our employers (and of course the real boss/spouse) into letting us take two weeks off for this amazing adventure. Team Osprey is no exception.

The Osprey crew is mostly comprised of Southern Californians, with a few Northern Californians and one from Oregon. Once on the road, we will be a cargo van, mini van, sedan and crew of 6. You may be wondering why so many vehicles for just a single cyclist... Well when you consider that this is a non-stop race we must have a vehicle with the rider, a vehicle to perform chores such as shopping and laundry along the route and the third for the crew that jumps ahead to get a few hours of sleep in a hotel. And coordinating this procession across this great country of ours is where all the pre-planning pays off.

In addition to coordinating vehicle movements, we have to plan to have the right crew at the right place with the right skills for any need that our rider may have. To make it successfully, a wide range of skills are required - web master, physical therapists, EMT, mechanics, crew chief, logistics experts, nutritionists and a good sense of humor. In addition to specialty skill sets, every crew member must handle the details of cooking, mixing powdered drinks, preparing food for crew, act as gofers (shop and do laundry for everyone). Each crew member will wear many hats, often times more than one hat at a time. All of this comes together with good planning!

Once we get to the start line, the planning does not stop. The crew chief and a couple dedicated logistics experts kick into full gear staying busy planning how to coordinate three vehicles in terms of following the rider, getting crew to motels for sleep time, and getting errands and laundry done every day. Each plan has a formulated has to have a plan b, c, d, etc... because things are in constant flux out on the road: weather changes, traffic backups, road construction, road surface changes, detours, and 100's of other factors come into play.

During the planning processes, the overall cost must also be considered. The cost of an event as big as RAAM are astronomical even without the current high price of gas for the vehicles. But anyone who can get hooked on the idea of riding a bicycle solo across the United States, and train hard enough to have the ability to make it, generally has the focus to budget the ten's of thousands of dollars it takes to make a dream come true. Even if it means sacrificing.

The payoff of this endeavor cannot really be predicted. It can be the worst or best experience in one's life, or anywhere in between. One thing is for certain, nothing else can compare to the adventure of RAAM. I am always amazed at what I come away with every time I've done something like RAAM. People I've met, things I learn about myself, things I learn about the logistics of RAAM including equipment, nutrition, sleep deprivation, physical therapy, etc... that I would never have learned had I limited myself to more sensible activities.