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Race Across America - NE
USA, June 10-22, 2007
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Day 10 - June 19
Team Donate Life Race 4 Life Diary
By Jason Weckworth
Today was my hardest day, because it was about survival. It's amazing how your focus can change depending on your circumstances. We finished last night strong, but the crew really started struggling with sleep deprivation. Even with our sleep rotation, the effects of a week-long race for 24 hrs / day are staggering. We are making mistakes in judgment and decision-making... nothing major, but many small things that cost us time. I am sure that all teams face the same challenge. How we deal with them is what makes good teams work well together. I'm proud of our team and crew... everyone.
Mid-morning today, Vernon called on the radio to say the brakes on the transition SUV were failing. This is so critical to our strategy! We jumped into action and considered all the alternatives. At one point, we almost flew some crewmembers ahead to Atlantic City. Bottom Line: we lost the use of a vehicle and sent four crewmembers with this vehicle up to Columbus, Ohio. We didn't lose the brakes, but we lost the power braking ability. We can't use the car again.
In spite of this, we have to keep moving with no lost time. Forget the other teams. Forget our sleep rotation. We have to finish the race. Our crew and a new vehicle will be back by 22:00... We hope.
We spent most of the day and into the evening with a single transition vehicle to do both follow and drop-off. We had to use stop transitions in order to meet the RAAM rules. We went to a three-man rotation until Chris could come back from his hotel rest. I will forego my hotel rest tonight.
Four crewmembers short, one crew still on rest, Danny and Lee carried us through. It was so hot. Time Station 46 was almost unbearable. We blew up. I think that Lorenzo, Dave, and I all experienced some level of heat exhaustion. I just bonked. I couldn't generate any power. My head screamed. My legs screamed. I thought I was going to fall asleep on the bike. As soon as we got in the SUV, we nearly passed out until Danny or Lee had the bike out again and told us to go.
However, we crawled through... 16.54 mph. Our slowest Time Station, but not as bad as I expected. It actually gave us some hope that we can recover and still finish strong. We hydrated as much as we could. As the temperature finally dropped, we increased our strength and our speed. By 17:00, we felt almost fully recovered. We started to attack the climbs because we have a lot of them in the next 12 hours... still 32,000 feet (9700m) of climbing before the finish line.
We're changing our strategy for the finish. Rather than 12 hours, I will take a six-hour rest in the follow vehicle. As soon as I am able, we will split into two transition teams... Dave and I in one, with Lorenzo and Chris in the other. Four hours on, and four hours rest. Back and forth. We'll finish the last 150 miles (241km) or so all together. We'll re-group by 5:00 and head strong for the finish.
I think we still have a couple of teams to catch. We still need to out-run Bob.
See you in Atlantic City. We hope to be there before dark tomorrow night.
PS. It's 1:28. Chris is on a nine percent grade descent headed for TS 49 – 38 mph in the dark when Danny calls ahead to tell us a "Semi" is headed our way. This will be a tough night.
Results
Men's Solo 1 Jure Robic 3042.8 8.19.33 (14.38 mph) 2 Wolfgang Fasching 3042.8 8.23.20 (14.13 mph) 3 Gerhard Gulewicz 3042.8 9.01.04 (14.02 mph) 4 Daniel Wyss 3042.8 9.04.29 (13.8 mph) 5 Attila Kaldy 2824.9 9.08.55 (12.56 mph) 6 Richard Vollebregt 2776.1 9.05.43 (12.52 mph) 7 Jeff Oatley 2640.9 9.06.55 (11.85 mph) 8 Peter Oyler 2594.4 9.09.10 (11.52 mph) 9 Claudio Clarindo de (Oliviera) 2505 9.08.23 (11.16 mph) 10 Brett Walker 2449.8 9.05.47 (11.05 mph) 11 Julio Paterlini 2449.8 9.07.26 (10.96 mph) 12 Jean Marc Velez 2449.8 9.09.46 (10.85 mph) 13 Alfiero Tassinari 2449.8 9.09.53 (10.85 mph) 14 John Jurczynski 2358.8 9.05.18 (10.66 mph) 15 Larry Optis 2358.8 9.05.43 (10.64 mph) 16 David Jones 2358.8 9.06.07 (10.62 mph) 17 Patrick Autissier 2358.8 9.06.16 (10.61 mph) 18 John Spurgeon 2358.8 9.08.56 (10.49 mph) 19 Jim Rees 2358.8 9.09.37 (10.45 mph) 20 Tom Seabourne - DNF Time cut 1740.3 7.06.52 (9.95 mph) 21 Lou Lamoureux - DNF Time cut 1295.3 6.08.13 (8.51 mph) 22 Fabio Biasiolo - DNF Crew Problems 1101.9 3.05.20 (14.25 mph) 23 Philip Baker - DNF Exhaustion 1101.9 5.01.24 (9.08 mph) 24 Walter Blaettler - DNF Accident 815.3 3.04.05 (10.72 mph) Women's Solo 1 Kerry White - DNF Time cut 2142.7 8.22.05 (10.01 mph) 2 Lauren Fithian - DNF Time cut 1222.7 5.11.22 (9.31 mph) 3 Caroline van den Bulk - DNF Time cut 1222.7 5.12.22 (9.24 mph) 4 Patty Riddle - DNF Time cut 1037.1 6.10.46 (6.7 mph) 5 Hana Ebertova - DNF Exhaustion 565.1 2.11.15 (9.54 mph) Men's Solo - Enduro 1 Alessandro Colo 2413.9 9.09.51 (10.69 mph) Two Person Male 1 Team IWC Schaffhausen 3042.8 6.19.30 (18.61 mph) 2 Team R.A.C.E. / BMO Fountain of Hope 2685.8 7.04.14 (15.59 mph) 3 Virag / Stoklas Team 2640.9 7.02.08 (15.52 mph) 4 S.K.R.A.A.M 2545.7 7.02.32 (14.93 mph) 5 Team Donate Life - TexOz (50+) 2413.9 7.04.50 (13.97 mph) 6 Team Beat Cancer by www.coastalsportsmedicine.com 2237.6 6.22.00 (13.48 mph) 7 BodyXchange / Garden Pathways - DNF - Medical 1037.1 2.05.39 (19.33 mph) 8 Team Murphy - DNF Medical 389.9 1.05.38 (13.16 mph) Two Person Female 1 Team Phoenix 2545.7 7.04.30 (14.76 mph) Two Person Mixed 1 Team Kitten - www.PeteAndWendyCycling.com 2142.7 7.04.00 (12.46 mph) 2 Team Donate Life - Beauty & the Beast - DNF Accident 1740.3 5.07.52 (13.61 mph) Two Person Recumbent 1 Bacchetta B Team / Military Families Foundation 3042.8 7.00.26 (18.07 mph) 2 Team Velokraft 2932.7 7.04.36 (16.99 mph) Four Person Male 1 Beaver Creek - Catlin Team 3042.8 5.18.22 (21.99 mph) 2 Team Psycho 3042.8 5.21.48 (21.46 mph) 3 Team Strong Heart 3042.8 6.15.13 (19.11 mph) 4 Team VMG Cycling 3042.8 6.18.13 (18.76 mph) 5 Team Gs - Logistik Austria 3042.8 6.19.56 (18.56 mph) 6 Team Endeavor 3042.8 7.01.23 (17.96 mph) 7 Hoosiers 3042.8 7.02.15 (17.87 mph) 8 Team N.U.B.S. 3042.8 7.02.27 (17.85 mph) 9 Team Sixty Going Hard 3042.8 7.03.11 (17.78 mph) 10 Team Donate Life - Race 4 Life 2977.9 7.03.27 (17.37 mph) 11 Team Burns & Trauma 2932.7 7.03.40 (17.08 mph) 12 Shannon's Soldiers for CTF Research Team 2864.2 7.03.52 (16.67 mph) 13 Vencendo Desafios Team Brazil 2685.8 7.02.18 (15.77 mph) 14 Team 2 Cure Huntingtons Disease 2640.9 7.03.58 (15.36 mph) 15 Team Blazing Saddles 2640.9 7.04.34 (15.3 mph) 16 Ari's Angels Team 2594.4 7.05.00 (15 mph) Four Person Female 1 Kalyra Women's Race Team 2977.9 7.03.26 (17.37 mph) Four Person Mixed 1 Team JDRF 2932.7 7.04.35 (16.99 mph) Eight Person 1 Team Type I - monitored by: Freestyle 3042.8 5.15.43 (22.42 mph) 2 Team Donate Life - Grace Valley 3042.8 6.02.56 (20.71 mph) 3 Cheniere's Making Cancer History Team 3042.8 6.06.11 (20.26 mph) 4 Team ViaSat 3042.8 6.06.25 (20.23 mph) 5 North Coast Cycling Team 3042.8 6.09.20 (19.84 mph) 6 Team Donate Life - Primo 3042.8 6.15.10 (19.12 mph) 7 Team Santa Barbara Bank & Trust 2977.9 7.04.17 (17.28 mph) 8 Team Donate Life - Heels on Wheels 2864.2 7.04.26 (16.61 mph) 24 Hour Corporate Challenge 1 Team Clif Bar 488.9 0.23.29 (20.82 mph) 2 American Specialty Health Riders 488.9 1.01.16 (19.35 mph) 3 Swami's TeamSam.com 488.9 1.01.41 (19.04 mph) 4 Denver Paramedic Cycling Team 488.9 1.04.03 (17.43 mph)
