Why RAAM

Why RAAM?

You are probably wondering what RAAM is?   It is a non-stop, 3000 mile transcontinental cycling race across America.   RAAM stands for Race Across America.   The race starts in California with the heat in excess of 115 degrees, passes through the treacherous climbs and cold of Colorado, blistering high head winds and tornadoes in Kansas, leg burning mountain accents in the Appellations, and to the final finish on the East Coast.  The race goes non-stop meaning that the average cyclist is on their bike for 22 hours each day until they reach the finish.   Not only is the rider up for extended periods of time but the crew that goes with them is as well.  Sleep deprivation slowly ravishes the rider and crew creating drama like something seen on the “Jerry Springer Show.”   Along with the mental challenges also comes the physical pain of saddle sores, swollen knees, bruised feet and hands, and sun charred skin.  All these elements along with weather make the Race Across America known as “the world’s toughest race.” After describing RAAM most people wonder, “Why would someone want to do RAAM?”

  I competed in the Race Across America and want to explain “Why” I did this race.  This race was not a dream as a child.  In fact, I never even heard of this race until 2004.   I was not even a cyclist as a child.    In 1998 I was 165lbs, working at Wal-Mart, smoking cigarettes and dating a toothless cable guy.   I was not doing much of anything with my life and had no real ambitious goals in my future.   I was going to school to be a massage therapist.  If you had seen me at this time you would not have thought I was the type person to do something ambitious like RAAM.

While in school as a massage therapist we had to do a community service project.   Some in my class wanted to go to the mall and massage feet.  Feet?  Yuck!  Who would want to massage nasty feet?   I thought that a good community project would be massaging athletes.   I did some research and found a triathlon in Lubbock that we could volunteer at.  This became our class community service project.  The triathlon we volunteered at was called the Buffalo Springs Lake triathlon.   There were athletes from all over the world in Lubbock, Texas.   I had a great respect for the athletes but never thought I would do one.   I was actually taking smoke breaks in between massaging the athletes.   After the race was over and as I was packing up my table I met the race director.   He wanted to show his gratitude to me by loaning me a bike and sponsoring me in a triathlon.   Wow!  I had always been around people that only wanted to take things.   This race director wanted to loan me a $3000.00 bike?   I did not really want to do the triathlon but I knew that I did want to be around someone who could be so giving.   One month later,  I did my first triathlon.

What is a triathlon?  Well it is a race with 3 sports.   You start with a swim, jump on the bike, and finish with a run.  My first triathlon was only a sprint triathlon that consisted of a 500 yd swim, 12 mile bike, and a 5k run.     The swim was a piece of cake since I was a swimmer in college but the run was hell.   I had never run in my entire life and was doing it for the first time in a race. Ok,   I might have run 10 minutes a couple times before doing my first triathlon but not much more than that.  My goal was to finish the race.   I did!   It was one of the greatest moments in my life.   Did I think I was going to do more triathlons?  Nope.   I did know, however,  that I did want to spend more time around giving people like this so that was my reason for doing more triathlons.

After my first triathlon in 1998 my friendship with my new triathlon couple began.   They took me to races all over New Mexico and invited me to a race in Florida.  The race in Florida was a ½ Ironman.  The half ironman was much longer then a sprint.   The distance was a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.2 mile run.   I showed up at this race in 1999 just 8 months after my first sprint triathlon and finished nearly last in my age group.   I never really cared about triathlons my reason for races was the people I met and the places I went.  The people and places are what make the races!  This was my motto for racing.   The races got bigger and the places got further away.   My motivation was to see the world.   The races began to get even longer and by the year 2000 I was doing my first Ironman.  The distance of this race is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 52.4 mile run.   I did very well at the longer distances and eventually was qualifying for the Ironman Hawaii World Championships.  

After discovering my new talent of long distance racing my goals got bigger.    I decided that the next stepping stone was to do something longer then an Ironman.   My goal was to finish an Ultraman.   This is a 6.2 mile swim, 261 mile bike, and a 52.4 mile run done over 3 days.   The race is done in 3 days and takes place on the big island of Hawaii. What makes this race really special is that we have a crew take care of us during the race.   This means you can select special people to help you, thus making the race special since you can surround yourself with friends and family.  I set out to do the Ultraman in 2003.  A trip to Hawaii with my best friends was my motivation.

Day one of the Ultraman is a 6.2 mile swim and a 90 mile bike with 6000ft of climbing.   I broke the 22 year old world record in the swim and kicked butt on the bike.  Day 2 was a 171 mile bike that I had one of the top 5 fastest times ever.  Day 3 ended with a 52.4 mile run.

  The run was the most challenging part of this race and perhaps the most miserable. I am going to try to describe the last part of how the Ultraman run was for me.  I woke up the morning of the run and everything hurt.   I have rheumatoid arthritis.  My arthritis was flared up from a thunderstorm that was over us.   I could hardly walk starting the run and I had 52.4 miles to get to the finish line.  I started the run in agony but still managed to put one foot in front of the other.   My crew was there to tend to me and they are what kept me going.   I hit mile 40 and had not walked a bit all day.   This seemed to be when things really got bad.   I had sun charred skin and blisters that broke out all over me.  The blisters were under my arms and between my legs.  Every time I would move my arms or legs it felt as if I was sliding down a razor blade into alcohol.   I also had blisters on my feet from running for so long.   The blisters beginning to pop. My feet were bruised from all the pounding.  Sweat was pouring into my eyes bringing tears to my eyes.   I wanted to quit so bad.   I had to focus on something else to keep me going.   I chose to focus on my grandmother that I also called “mom.”  She died just two months before the race.   She also had rheumatoid arthritis.   She was one of the worse cases ever reported in history.   She was so strong her whole life and I admired her for that.   I then decided that if she could live her whole life in pain that I could make it another 10 miles.   The pace I was running got faster and I crossed the finish line.   I became the 2003 Ultraman World Champion.  My life changed drastically after this.

                One of the things I learned from becoming the Ultraman World Champion is that I was truly blessed with the body to do amazing things.   I felt like it was a god-given talent.  I also learned that I could not finish these races for just a medal or money.   I needed to race for something greater.   I wanted to use my god-given talent to give back.   How could I do that?   After thinking about it I decided that I wanted to start raising money-per-mile for the Boys and Girls club.   After selecting my organization I decided to pick the longest race I could find.  The longest race was the Race Across America.  

                So why did I do RAAM?  It was about using my god-given talent to raise funds and awareness for the Boys & Girls Club.   Most people think of RAAM riders as masochist.  True we do inflict pain on ourselves but some of us have a great cause we are doing it for.   There is no prize money at the finish so there has to be some reward for finishing.   Knowing that I had raised lots of money for the Boys and Girls club kept me motivated when the race got tough.  

In 2006, I became the RAAM Champion in the women’s category.  Only 21 women had ever finished the race before me.  RAAM has a 65% failure rate and is consider the “world’s toughest race.”   Completing RAAM opened many doors for me.   I am now a professional athlete and continue my work with the Boys and Girls Club.  I motivate children showing that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to.  I have won the Ultraman World Championship six times now.  My life is full of travel and adventure.   I have the Boys and Girls club to thank for giving me a real reason to race.   I have god to thank for giving me the body to do races like Ultraman and RAAM.  My reason for doing RAAM was not just to ride my bike across the country.  My reason was to do something good for my community and give back.  I raised over $12,000.00 doing this race.  Now can you see why I did RAAM?