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RAAM Team Brigham Health 4-Woman 60+ Team Record
I have volunteered June 17-24 to help support Team Brigham Health (http://teambrighamhealth.com/) in their pursuit to establish a 4-Woman 60+ Team Record and beat the woman's 50-59 record in Race Across America (RAAM). Here is a great video on the riders that was produced by Brigham's advertising agency: https://youtu.be/-f6rBEwsyy8
For those that are not aware of this race it is a 3,063 mile race from Oceanside CA crossing 12 states, climbing 175,000 feet finishing in Annapolis MD. The RAAM website is located at: http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/
In addition the GCN show does a great job of explaining the race in a nutshell in the attached clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJBQrF8sWfk
I will post a summary after the event.
For those that are not aware of this race it is a 3,063 mile race from Oceanside CA crossing 12 states, climbing 175,000 feet finishing in Annapolis MD. The RAAM website is located at: http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/
In addition the GCN show does a great job of explaining the race in a nutshell in the attached clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJBQrF8sWfk
These woman riders are fund raising to benefit Brigham and Women's Hospital to "Support the improvement of women's health by raising money for the Women's Health Fund at Brigham and Women's Hospital" Their website is as follows:
https://www.crowdrise.com/team-brigham-health or To learn more about the Women's Health Fund visit: give.brighamandwomens.org/connors-center
https://www.crowdrise.com/team-brigham-health or To learn more about the Women's Health Fund visit: give.brighamandwomens.org/connors-center
I will post a summary after the event.
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sure I can pull one together I can have it by tomorrow
I really don’t know where to start there is a lot to tell. There is so much I believe that they are writing a book on it. So I will just do a brief summary of logistics.
I received an email in late March from a local triathlon coach stating that Team Brigham Health (http://teambrighamhealth.com/) was racing RAAM and they needed volunteers. They would be establishing a 60-69 record but being the competitors that they are they challenged themselves to beat the over 50-59 record of 19.1 mph for over 3,000 miles. All the while they were fundraising to benefit Brigham and Women's Hospital to "Support the improvement of women's health by raising money for the Women's Health Fund at Brigham and Women's Hospital" Their website is as follows: https://www.crowdrise.com/team-brigham-health or To learn more about the Women's Health Fund visit: give.brighamandwomens.org/connors-center .
My interest was sparked. Over the course of the next few months there were several conference calls discussing rolls and responsibilities, along with a small test on course rules. In addition, as required I studied the route for the team I was supporting.
The crew including racers was 19 strong.
There were four very talented riders split into two teams (Shake & Bake) of two that worked in 12 hour shifts. The racing team had a racer vehicle and a follow vehicle each with a navigator and driver. As for the resting team and support crew there were two additional vans with each having a driver and navigator that transported them and the remaining crew to the next exchange point, i.e. hotel. Then to round out the crew there was a massage therapist, a nutritionist, a PR director, a mechanic, and lastly the logistics mastermind the Crew Chief. The Crew Chief traveled in his own vehicle bouncing back and forth between the resting team and the racing team and in the case that once vehicle broke down his would them come into service.
Logistics and transitions are key!
The course was broken down into specific segments that averaged 190 miles per shift with each team having a bonus day of 260 or 290 miles. The riders were paired together based on ability and skill and then assigned a crew. There was color coordinating bags that represented each of the teams and roles on the crew. For an example was on the Bake team our racer and follow vehicle bags were blue and the Shake team was green, while the remaining crew was light blue. This made the transitions at the hotels smooth. For an example our average transition time from resting team to racing team was 1 minute 15 seconds with our longest being 3 minutes and 40 seconds. However the bike never stopped moving.
Once on the Road
The rider would ride four miles or 15 minutes and then an exchange would occur. The average number of exchanges is 500 to 600 over the course of the race. To create a smooth racing exchange the racer crew member pulls the waiting rider’s bike off the rack and taps on the window of the vehicle once the racing rider gets close.
The other racing crew member than assists the rider around the vehicle (providing light at night, making the rider aware of any obstacles that they may trip on getting around the vehicle, etc.), then the resting rider gets on the bike and clips in (a track stand position with the racer crew member holding them up) while the other racer crew member “catches” the racing rider and taking their bike which than is handed off to the other racing crew member to place on the rack. While the crew member that “caught” the rider than assists the retired racer back to the car.
Racer Vehicle
The Racer vehicle is specially arranged for ease of use and reach of coolers and racer gear. Each racer has a spot for their gear and it does not change throughout the race. There is a cold cooler for items that need to be kept cold and a dry cool. In addition there is a cold towel bucket and in the back of the vehicle is a toolbox with anything to fix a bike.
Follow Vehicle
The follow vehicle is everything and our teams follow vehicle was nothing short of amazing. They make sure the racer stayed on course, logged in at all of the time stations, and provided light at night for the rider to see. They knew all of the rules, even the fine print ones. Plus they knew the course better than anyone, including the RAAM officials. In addition they knew all of the route changes and passed the info onto the racer vehicle. They were our backbone.
Transitioning from Racing to Resting
Once the racers went from racing to resting we had one hour at the hotel to eat, shower and sleep and we were on the road for 4 to 5 hours to the next exchange point. Once we were at that point we slept 3.5 hours and we were up again. We then had one hour to pack and eat in order to be racing again. We found out that anything longer than 4 hours was too long and we had trouble waking up once on the road. So the one day we had the chance to sleep 6 hours we opted not to because of the grogginess on the road.
After RAAM
I was alert the entire time while volunteering for RAAM. The exhaustion after was unbelievable. It took 3 days to kind of turn around the lost feeling of waking up not knowing where I was or thinking I needed to get up to do RAAM. But I wasn’t alone in this transition feeling; our follow vehicle navigator kept accidently dialing me throughout the next couple of nights. I kept calling out her name but all I could hear was snoring. When I did get ahold of her to my relief she stated she was having the same issues. It wasn’t until about 7 days later I had felt more like myself.