RAAM Fall Festival

So I headed out to Terry Zrmal's house yesterday for the second annual RAAM Fall Festival. Terry is the Race Director for RAAM and the day was billed as a meet and greet for RAAM particpants and staff, past, present and future.

After fighting some crazy Boulder fall winds coming out of the west (think downhill riding at 10 mph), I made it to Terry's for the morning ride. It was a mixed group but everyone rode very strong as we hit a classic Boulder ride, the Fruit Loops... I was struggling from an interval workout the previous day but uncorked another hard ride, knowing that I'd get to "recover" today at work...

After the ride we ate BBQ (best part of the ride), caught up on things and traded stories about RAAM. David Jones, three time RAAM solo rider and great guy flew out to Colorado for the event and a few business meetings. It was interesting to hear his experiences and that of one of his crew people who was also in attendance for the party. I guess my crazy solo RAAM wasn't that unique after all...

Following the food we watched a rough cut of the RAAM DVD which will be out within a month, or so. The footage was spectacular, the commentary of the media crew was pretty funny and the whole movie was an engaging and moving recap of the 2008 Race Across America. That is my unbiased opinion...

It was encouraging to meet a couple of women from the Boulder based, Title 9 Cycling Team who are likely going to field a four woman team for 2009. I love sharing my experiences and limited understanding of the race with newbies and it was definitely cool to hear their questions and the blank look of disbelief as we told them about the race. The RAAM is definitely something to experience first hand. Seeing and feeling RAAM IS believing.

A couple of quirky things came out of the Fall Festival. I got an AMAZING workout/ride from a RAAM racer, Drew Clark who created what has to be one of the most insane rides I've ever heard about. I'll be posting the ride details in a few days, but the bottom line is that the ride covers about 100 miles, 14,000 feet of climbing and takes about 9 hours to complete. I'm looking to do the ride within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for that. Also, I heard a fairly credible rumor that Lance Armstrong is going to be racing his cyclocross bike in Boulder next weekend, during the big time UCI cyclocross event.

So...all-in-all the RAAM Fall Festival was a success and a solid day of riding and reflection.

Keep the rubber side down...

TC