From Sea to Shining Sea...#Water for People #Race Across America #tEAm

Guest Post by Jeff Boltz

Well, at long last I am writing the final RAAM update email with some final observations and thoughts from the race. For those that don’t know we finished well within the 9 day cutoff time with a final time of 8 days 5 hrs and 57 minutes. This is slower than at least I had hoped, but, now knowing the magnitude of the event, finishing is something special. We were 1.5 hrs behind a “soft” cutoff in Durango Colorado and ahead by 9 hrs at a hard cutoff time at the Mississippi River. So we made up time the second half of the race as we figured out some of the details required to be successful. Our final average speed based on elapsed time (not riding time) was about 15.5 mph and riding time just about 16 mph. 

We crossed through all or parts of 12 states in many areas you would not otherwise go as we went through only a few tourist type areas. Traversing the country at 16 mph gives you time to look around, observe and take mental notes of this great country we live in. Each of the states had very interesting geology and geographical features that made the ride a challenge. For example, Colorado had the highest elevations and longest mountain climbs, Arizona was plain hot and also had a lot of climbing as we traveled northeast through a big part of the state, Kansas was flattest but there was a 30 mph cross wind that caused issues with bike handling, Missouri and Indiana are not flat and there was a constant up and down, Ohio we arrived shortly after flash floods so a lot of debris on the road, West Virginia at 2 Am on a Saturday night is scary in many ways not counting the hard mountain climbs, Maryland and Pennsylvania on the way to the finish line were also brutally hilly and hard thinking you are close to home in Cumberland and realizing hours later you are nowhere near Annapolis. 

The people along the way were wonderful as the course stays the same year after year. There were many people along the side of the road cheering you on at all hours of the day and night as they could track our arrival time to their houses by the GPS tracking you all followed. Many more supportive folks than I would have suspected. Always helped us pedal a little faster. Other cars and trucks were really curtious for the most part with only a small percentage of idiots.  This all brings me to the point that we live in a beautiful country and I encourage all to get off the normal path of travel and see our country from the back roads. 

The biggest surprise of the entire race for me was the lack of sleep. I think the longest anyone got to sleep at a time was about 2 maybe 3 hrs if you were lucky. We were always moving whether on the bike or chasing the other riders on our team down the road in an RV. Even with the limited sleep we were able to maintain a pretty consistent pace and our bodies responded well when asked to pedal. This brings me to the point that our bodies are amazing machines that can do way more than we think…..treat yours well.

Finally I want to thank Lou Barinka for being a great riding/racing partner and he did not complain, whine, or stop pedaling the entire time, even, when we rode extra miles to let the other two riders recover from dehydration issues. Cynthia, Kevin and Frank were awesome as they supported us on each leg often getting less sleep than us. They did not take a wrong turn, run over us, or yell to go faster….thank you for your help, we could not have finished without you.

Lastly, see I keep going, I want to thank everyone at EA who sent us encouragement along the way, the huge crowd at the finish line who waited longer than I predicted to see us arrive, and all of those who followed our progress. What a great group of people we have at this company!! It reminds me of why I have stayed for 25 years…you all are amazing.  

I think we fulfilled our commitment to WFP by raising awareness and flying their “flag” in every speaking opportunity we were provided including the facebook live feed of our finish viewed by close to 2K people. Thanks to Fritz, Ian, Pete, and Mike for letting us ride for EA and being supportive of our efforts.

So if you want more details, stories etc email one of us. We will do a brown bag webinar in the future with all the photos Frank Aquino took along the way…..  I have attached two photos from the finish line… one when we pulled up and one on the stage before our interview. If Lou and I look tired….we are we rode the last 100 miles to Annapolis.

EA/WFP RAAM Team out…………………………… Did you hear the mic drop??????

jeff