I was made aware multiple times in the past weeks that I have gotten my few readers to Kansas with my RAAM 2012 blogging.  I want you to know that I have a pretty good memory when it comes to races and I love to tell racing and training stories. Most would have wrapped up their blogging about RAAM in one entry. I am looking at about nine.  That being said, I am off to race RAAM 2013 with Allied Forces a team composed of 4 Team4Mil cyclists and 4 Strategic Lions cyclists. We have a goal for 2013 and it is not much of a secret- BREAK 5days5hours5minutes

Back to RAAM 2012:

We had a tentative plan at the outset for how we would attack RAAM and unfortunately, the winds of Kansas had us shifting some of our team transition points. We were falling behind the eventual winner ViaSat and staying steadily in front of Strategic Lions. For the first time in RAAM, I was very pleased to be moving up the road in the bus. I was high on life, but mentally and physically getting smoked. I even ate some McDonalds- egg mcmuffin never tasted so good. I did get a pretty good bit of sleep after this shift and was pretty much ready to ride my bike when we found ourselves in a small town in Missouri.

If you look at the RAAM profile, Colorado looks pretty intimidating because of the elevations, but the two other areas of concern are the rollers of Missouri and the very steep hills of West Virginia. Thankfully, we were going to attack this part of the course during the day and into the night. It is always nice to be riding your bike at the right time of day- during the daylight!

I will admit this shift was relatively un-noteworthy. There was some really beautiful scenery and we did a lot of hills that seemed to roll on forever. I don’t remember it being particularly difficult, but I was rotating to the road bike sometimes. As indicated by the speed on Shift 5, you can see I was keeping speed no matter the terrain.

One part that stuck out was doing a pass of about three solo riders who were riding close and I ended up passing them in my pull. As we passed them I was thinking, I could maybe do that?! Then my subconscious became words as Amanda was on the mike and spoke into my ear:

– “Billy, that is you in a couple years.”

-me, “Only if you are in my ear the whole way.”

-“Sure, I’ll be there.”

-me (oh shit, I hope I did not just commit to RAAM solo- time will tell?)

We finished up our shift going through the capital of Missouri…Jefferson City, yeah you knew that? It was unique how the RAAM route got us going through and around the state capital building as the sun was going down. Eventually we finished in the outskirts and there was a dive bar where I got myself a pretty gritty bacon cheeseburger- it was gross, but tasted great.

Shift 5 Information (Missouri)

Shift 6 was so good it can be broken down into several completely different areas.

AMAZING RIDING- I was on fire and was just finding the most amazing rhythm. Again we were riding in a good part of the day, early morning. Before I even took a pull, I knew it was going to be a good day. I ran loops around the gas station where the bus was parked prepping my bowels and my legs at the same time. Thankfully, the bowels responded and so did my legs. By the middle of this shift I even ripped off a near 30mph pull for over 8 miles on dead flats with NO wind.

FOSTER THE PEOPLE- Ady, our amazing assistant crew chief was driving and under her guidance decided we would listen to the entire Foster the People album on repeat. I did not even realize that it was the same set of songs until about three hours in. At that point, I was hooked. Even as I type this blog, I am jamming to FTP and thinking about the good times we had in Illinois and Indiana. I was crushing my FTP and jamming to FTP. (yup, bike dork here, MVA will like it)

SCREWING OVER KYLE- On two occasions, we screwed up the route or were fuckin’ around on the side of the road with a bike and then forgot about the racer on the road. Both times it was Kyle. One such incident began with a flat my Jimmy Neutron, continued with myself and ABConFire doing a poor job of changing the tube, and then Ady missing a turn. Kyle was totally fried by the time we finally could catch him on the very tricky twisty roads. Thankfully, I was the one that took to the road after Kyle and did not have to explain to the guy how we had our heads up our asses and left him out there to fry- WOOPS?

ABConFIRE!!!!!- To make a really long story, way too short. I was on the road into Bloomington, Indiana and there was a ton of road construction. My navigator and I made a bad call on the directions. Thankfully, the transition vehicle threw ABConFire on the road to navigate the city. At one point, he rode up to the transition vehicle and told us with the widest eyes  that he“shit his pants” Being good teammates, we told him we did not care and told him to get back on the road and make sure he went around the Time Station! Our concern for his poor butt ranked below the race, duh. Finally, ABConFire navigated the city properly for the sake of the team and then we picked him up. He was not doing well in the nether regions. To keep the story clean and not too detailed, he put chamois cream with witch hazel on his butt and proceeded to explain “my Actual Butt Cheeks are on FIRE!” I am sure it was not funny to him, because he was nearly going to vomit from pain. Note to self: witch hazel on tender skin is not a good idea.  

Our shift ended somewhere in Indiana and we proceeded to raid Walmarts for subway sandwiches and cola.  ABConFire went to the baby section and got things to treat his tail. He was even given some very ineffective medicine for this butt. Please enjoy the application of this ointment.

BUTT OINTMENT VIDEO

Please understand that this was a race, but when we were not racing we were learning to relax and recover. We were consuming tons of food, and walking around in board shorts and 2XU leggings in Walmarts- yup, we were cool!

Shift 6