Monday, September 10, 2018

Barefoot Backpacking

#garmin #beatyesterday

I loaded up the backpack with all the STUFF I think I need for the Rheinsteig hike and went out for a test hike on the Indian Creek Trail.... barefoot.  Only one older lady stared at me and muttered "wierd"; she was out walking her 4 dogs.   I intend to hike some of the Rheinsteig barefoot or at worst in some xero hiking sandals... minimalist sandals built for trail hiking.  

Of course I had intended some barefoot walking and sandaling on the 550 miles of Camino hiking last March only to run into the coldest, wettest winter in Spain in the past 60 years. I've run marathons barefoot in 30 degree temps and I've run parts of ultra runs barefoot in wet but I will not mix the two. A local named Barefoot Rick and I used to run together in the snow barefoot on a sunny day but Rick got bad frostbite on two toes one year and I think quit doing that.

A Facebook friend of mine, Sue Regan Kenney  has walked almost all of the Camino routes in Spain barefoot over the years, some of them multiple times.  From the Camino I sent her pix of tea shops with signs on the walls forbidding bare feet.  I always blame her for the ban. Sue owns a company called BareBottom Shoes (go ahead Google it) that sells foot falsies for those times when the Health Club says you need to wear shoes on the treadmill; her shoes have no bottoms.  Barefoot Rick used to run the track at the local Jewish Center wearing shoes that had the bottoms sliced out; now he shops at Sue's.

I have a long history of naked feet beyond  the nine months in the womb.  In 1998 I was doing a staged 200 miles a day bike race from San Diego to Savannah, GA. It happened to be the hottest summer in 60 years and we didnt race in temps below 100 until we reached Georgia.  The first day it was 120 from San Diego to Yuma, AZ and after 100 miles racers were cutting up their $300 Carnac shoes because their feet were swelling in the heat.  So were mine but  I noticed a German racer friend, Mannfred B was wearing cycling sandals.  I asked him if he had another pair and he let me use them and then buy them.  I never wore regular cycling shoes again and raced coast to coast across the US 4 more times with barefoot sandals. 

Barefoot Sandals in Race Across America 2001 near Dinosaur, CO


When we won  the two man relay division of Race Across America in 2003 racing from San Diego to Atlantic City in 7 days 14 hours and 56 minutes the second place team who were both 25 years my junior came to me at the awards ceremony and said "I cant believe a little old man wearing barefoot sandals kicked our ass".  

Mojave Desert Furnace Creek 508 2000 sandals


When I developed Plantar Fasciitis after about 20 marathons I threw away my shoes in pain at mile 22 in the Marine Marathon in DC in 2005 and accelerated to the finish line.  I went on to run 17 marathons barefoot.  I did the Redman Ironman once and at the pre race Q and A I asked the race director if I could run the 26.2 mile running portion barefoot he said no. His words were "I had to have something for my feet".  So I ran the 26.2 carrying flip flops and when I saw him at the finish line I yelled "I have my shoes".

I ran the NY Marathon  the year Lance Armstrong ran it; I was drug and shoe free.  The race started at 10 am... they bussed you to Staten Island at 6 am to sit outside in the 30 degree temps for 4 hours on the grass. My feet really got cold but I got hot when I saw Lance pull up in a limo 5 minutes before 10.  I stayed with him for 2 miles then got dropped; he had a Kenyan pacer, I still had cold toes.  That night local fox news featured a 5 minute segment on Lance running the race and then showing a stunning video of my naked feet... just my feet.. the announcer said "and one guy ran the marathon barefoot".   My bride proudly lay claim to my toes.

For several years I communicated and ran marathons with Barefoot Bob Sexton of LA, Barefoot Ted of Seattle, Barefoot Rick of KC and my favorite Barefoot Todd of LA, a longtime  LA Regional head of Team in Training.  We would pick a marathon every year and Barefoot Bob would get us all free entry and accomodations in exchange for staging an expo on Barefoot running during the marathon Expo.  There is a 10k race called the BareBuns Run through a nudist colony near Seattle.  All of us threatened to enter it one year and be the only true nudists.

Running with Barefoot Todd in the LA Marathon


It was fun until Chis Macdougall came out with his book "Born to Run" in 2015.  It popularized barefoot running and lead to a lot of people sustaining injuries by jumping into the technique too quickly.  When I had tossed my shoes in DC I had spent months on the treadmill running barefoot to repair my PF.  Now folks were tossing their shoes and wanting to run a marathon immediately.  Bad idea.... I quit promoting barefoot running.

Running the Las Vegas Marathon as Barefoot Elvis accompanied by two of the 200 Running Elvi

Over the years I've run 42 marathons 17 of them barefoot.  I ran a 44 mile ultra trail run from KC to Lawrence  barefoot once only to discover 5 miles of gravel at mile 31. I ran into the grass and woods and followed  up my success with a bad case of poison ivy the next day.  I ran the same race the next year as a relay with my brother and gave him the gravel roads.  

I've run marathons with sandals, flip flops, soled shoes, flats and vibram 5 fingers. I have bought ballet shoes, dance leathers and even cut out my own leather but there is nothing like running in God's Shoes. I ran the Padua Italy marathon in 2005 and finished the race running over 5 miles of deep cobblestone roads that date back to the time Galileo taught at the university there. Shod runners were falling down from landing in the deep crevices of the cobblestones or experiencing pain from landing the sole on uneven surface.  But I was landing in the center of stone on the balls of my feet, a more natural way to run.

Barefoot Todd, the last I heard,  had run over 200 marathons barefoot.  Barefoot Ken Bob I am sure has run even more.  None of these guys nor myself EVER had an injury which is pretty amazing if you believe the statistics in Chris's book Born To Run.  Chris makes the claim that the next time you run the Gobbler Grind 5k at Thanksgiving look at the guy on the left and the girl on the right. One of those will not be seen at the Christmas Day 5k; he or she will be injured.

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Posting Again on the advice of Daniel Beaumont

Today My bride sailed down the Rhein River from Amsterdam and went past my father’s hometown of Sankt Goarhausen.  The town from the picture my bride messaged me looks the same as it did the last time I saw it as as 16 yeard old in 1965.

In that year  my parents took myself and my two brothers to Europe for three months touring the continent. It was three months of 5 adults crammed into a Beetle driving  from church to museum to relative then repeat. I preferred to be home listening to the Beatles.  The experience made me a non tourist for life.

My idea of seeing Europe is to backpack all day  and then converse extensively with the locals in pubs, coffee houses and wine tastings.  And so I backpack alone192 miles from Frankfort to Bonn next week, climbing 35,000 feet in the process, walking past 24 castles and innumerable pubs and wine houses. 72 % of the Rheinsteig trail I will be hiking looks down on the Rhein River from a height of 1000-1500 feet.  At the end of the day I come down to the village below, find my pension and converse with locals in tongue.  September is wine festival season along the Rhein.  All of my lodging has been carefully picked to avoid English speakers: mostly pensions and AirBNBs.

To this end I have spent three to four hours a day since April relearning German, a language I have not spoken since my father passed in 1978.  I found a podcast called News in Slow German that I hear and repeat during long practice hikes.  In the morning I hang out on the Easy German youtube site learning German from street interviews conducted in the language. At night I increase my vocab using Babbel.  Finaaly I have used a site called language exchange that pairs users who want to practice each others language either by texting or chatting online.  It is so much easier to learn a language now.

The Easy German site has numerous interviews with non native soeakers who speak German fluently despite having never been to Germany.  One interview that stands out is with a Singapore resident who speaks like a native German.  The German interviewer asked him how he learned to speak so well. The student replied that he has longed walked around speaking  German to himself as he describes what he is doing and experiencing.  Discipline is remembering what you want and I have taken up his approach.


Sankt Goarhausen 2018 as seen from a glass of wine on ship

A friend I met on the Facebook page for the El Camino Northen Route wrote an excellant blog today regarding the need to write on a daily basis to, among other things, organize ones thoughts and fine tune the ability to express oneself. I thought this an excellant piece of advice, rarely seen amongst the tribal postings of social media.  My 27 year old friend moves me to post daily of which this is the first.  Daniel is correct; I do feel more energized having written this.




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

38th on the 38th Parallel: Return to ChunCheon

In 1971, on the day I was to receive my undergraduate diploma, I was on a plane headed for the Peace Corps which assigned me to small, incredibly poor rice farming community called Chochiwon in South Korea. For 2 years I lived with a Korean-Only speaking family and taught in a boys Middle School 6 days a week. Everyday I walked the 2 miles to/from school past the rice paddies, snow in the winter, oxen in the summer and accompanied by soon-to-be lifetime best friend Kim Haeng Chong and whatever students we could get to tag along to practice their English. We were living in an extremely impoverished country with the only signs of modernity being electricity that was out more than on and rickety busses filled with chickens, pigs and vomiting adults afflicted with motion sickness. Drinking water came from a well, the bathroom was 2 boards over a hole in the ground and shaving was outside after chipping ice from the pail holding cold water. It was the best 2 years of my life.

My first in country Christmas was spent retraining in a town called Chuncheon far to North near the dreaded DMZ separating North from South Korea. Being North in the mountains the large lake next to the town froze over and ice skaters were everywhere. I bought a pair of cheap figure skates and spent the remaining hours of daylight after class speed skating the one mile course around the lake racing all comers. Everyone wanted to race the American; so for a week I hit my bed completely exhausted from racing nonstop for 2-3 hours. This was a time before Korean speed skaters started winning gold medals in the Olympics . I like to think I helped train some of the fathers of the Olympians.

Flash forward to 2011 October and I have returned to Korea again for a revisit and to run my 38th marathon near the 38th parallel in that same town of Chuncheon. The Korea Foundation, Friends of Korea and the Korean Foreign Ministry had invited 2,000 Korean Peace Corps volunteers from 1968 till 1981 to a week of lavish parties, emotional speeches, reunions with our old schools and even tea with the US Ambassador Kathleen Stevens, herself a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1975. 42 volunteers accepted and returned to an unforgettable week. We were humbled by speaker after speaker from the Foreign Ministry describing how a Peace Corps Volunteer from 40 years ago impacted his/her life and helped Korea become the prosperous country it now is. The final day of the revisit was the day of highest flattery; we were given a chance to mentor Korean's own Peace Corps modeled in 1991 after Kennedy's vision. We spent the day with KOICA volunteers getting ready to go abroad to Kenya, Nepal, Thailand and South America; it was like spending a day talking with our youthful selves. Very emotional.

During the event packed revisit week I was getting up at 3-4 am every morning to run . I quickly discovered the ChongGaeChon as the ideal place to run. ChongGaeChon is an 8 mile long stream cutting through the heart of Seoul. In 1971 this stream was a toxic wasteland fed by the industrial/chemical pollutants dotting the center of the city. Much of the stream was buried as a result and just walking near the remnants of the "stream" and breathing the vapors was a health hazard. 10 years ago Korea decided to bring it back and now it is a gorgeous Central Park-like place that epitomizes the progress Korea has made. The stream was only 1/2 mile from our hotel so I ran it every morning. I expected to be alone but was surprised to see hundreds of Korean out running with me at 4 am.

After the revisit my Korean born wife, Oki, and I headed up to ChunCheon by electric train to scout logistics and to pick up my packet. In 1971 Chuncheon was a days journey from Seoul and a quite miserable experience at that. Now it was only an hour spent watching local tv on a giant flat screen inside light rail.

Korea had become an exercise mecca since hosting the summer Olympics in 1988 . On any given weekend there are a multitude of marathons, bike races, triathlons and even magnificently run ultraMarathon events to choose from on both Saturday and Sundays, all within a 1-1.5 hour light rail ride from Seoul. A partial list of available marathons can be found here. In an attempt to attract the potential 11 million Seoulites most events start at 9-10 am so that the travellers can catch the 6 am train with plenty of time to freshen up and socialize before the race. This was our plan.

Normally I run marathons barefoot, having run the last 18 26 milers wearing God's Shoes. I contemplated up till the last minute chucking the shoes but opted for cultural sensitivities and the cushioning needs of aching calf that had been the victim of inadequate training. I was going to run a marathon shod for the first time since 2006.

Though the marathon had been held for 30 years I first encountered the ChunCheon Marathon in a 2005 award winning Korean film (Marathon) depicting a true story about a 20 year old autistic youth who is fixated on running. He wants to run the Chuncheon Marathon so the film chronicles his life upto and including his running the marathon. The film has numerous gorgeous scenes of the course following the perimeter of the very same lake I had ice raced some 40 years earlier. Having seen the beauty of the course in the film I knew I needed to run the race. I made the right decision.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Running with the Elvi: Barefoot Elvis runs Vegas



In December of 2005 I ran my first barefoot marathon in Las Vegas. At mile 18 someone just behind me yelled :

"So here's the deal.... you can have the shoes but you got to take the suit with them."

I turned around to see a tall fellow splendidly attired in a white sequined Elvis-Style jumpsuit, big gaudy sunglasses and a greaser wig that stood a good 8 inches above his head. Behind him were 30-40 similarly attired runners led by a guy pushing a baby-carriage holding a boombox playing nuttin-but-Elvis. Staring at my feet he claimed I was weird.

I ran with this troupe for about 6 miles and had a blast chatting with Japanese Elvis, Big-Butt Elvis, Pregnant Elvis and assorted other carictures of the Elvis legend. So when I convinced my wife, Oki, to go with me to Elvis to do Vegas again this year I contacted the Elvis Troupe at www.lvm21.com and talked myself into running as Barefoot Elvis. It helped that my employer, Garmin, was a sponsor of the marathon and I thought that I could do them proud dressed in drag as the King of Rock.

Brenda, the Elvis Wrangler, told me how to get an Elvis suit and within days I was training on my treadmill wearing the Elvis Suit and wig. Wearing the suit made me think of Jim Carrey wearing the Mask: Somebody Stop me!!. I wanted to take a practice run throughout the neighborhood but never did: I thought I might get picked up as a potential Sexual Predator.

By marathon day the Elvis website indicated we were up to 178 Elvi. I was looking forward to meeting my colleagues in comedy. An hour before the start we were to mass at the Food Court of the Mandalay Bay. Oki and I were staying down the street at the Excalibur and I was not looking forward to walking through the casino at 4 in the morning dressed as the king. My fears ere justified when on the way to the Tram a drunk in front of the Santa Claus throne at the Excalibur caught eye of me while holding a pitcher of Bud yelled out "Here comes the King" and insisted I take up my rightful spot on the Santa Claus throne. Oki and I sped off to catch the Tram instead.

It was not hard to find 178 Elvis in the food court. No two of them looked alike. BareButt Elvis remains a personal favorite as is SuperElvis: Elvis running a marathon would be nothing without some showgirls running alongside and the 2008 LV Marathon was no exception:















I introduced myself to the sinister ConeHead Elvi . It was never really clear which planet they were from nor why they dressed as if they were impersonating Roy Orbison. We would later pause at mile 5 to have our photo taken together. I am the funny looking one in the middle.














After mingling for photos and introductions the 178 Elvi, showgirls and Elvis Accessories were led out the Mandalay Bay to our own special Elvi Starting Corral, just next to the Elite runners. I could see the designated Ethiopian winner looking over at us; I'm sure he will run with us next year.

Our group was led by the very fellow who had yelled at me back in 2005. He had upgraded the baby carriage to a true running cart on which he had a new, louder boombox, a wedding cake and a giant photo of his favorite about-to-be-married couple at mile 5: more on this shortly.
When the organizers first toured the proposed course in 2005 the director noticed a small wedding chapel at mile 5, just where the course turns to the right. Jokingly he proposed having a Run-Through wedding chapel where couples could volunteer beforehand to either get legally married or renew their vows. When the Running-of-the-Elvi came about the 2 events came together and the Elvi became the official witnesses to the Mile 5 wedding.

Since Elvi run at different pace(s) and some hardly run at all it took 30-40 minutes of downtime waiting for Elvi and couples to show up for the ceremony. Elvi entertained themselves greeting the other strangely attired runners running by the Chapel.















Finally after greeting 5-6000 other runners the couples were all in and the ceremony began. More than one Elvis shed a tear or two at the moving ceremony on the side of the road as marathoners streamed past yelling "THE KING".

It was difficult but I managed to keep my Elvis glasses from fogging up.

After 40 minutes the wedding was over, family and friends left in taxis, the Elvi and freshly-bonded couples left in mass. One couple had put "Just Married" signs on their rears and had tied empty water bottles on strings and were now dragging the bottles as they ran. Barefoot Elvis had one couple pause and take a memory photo with BE. They look so cute and happy together. I had heard that in past LV marathons couples were seen as separated by mile 15 with each cursing the other for being so slow or so fast and unthoughtful. I think they should have a divorce court at mile 18 to undo the damage done at mile 5.

By the cutoff point for the half marathon I could no longer hear Viva Las Vegas booming from the lead Elvi's musical carriage. I slowed down to have the troupe catch up but they never did. By mile 15 I had not seen another Elvi for some 5 miles and was starting to get lonely. Then I ran into BurgerKing Elvis and he told me that 95% of the Elvi were only doing the 1/2 and that they were long gone.
I had wondered how most of them were going to do a full.
The lead Elvis had intoduced the Troupe to the official Elvis energy drink at the Starting Corral; breaking open a 24 pack of Bud Light. It was gone by the Wedding Chapel.

I ended up running most of the remaining marathon with BK Elvis. BK had a good sense of humor so we worked the crowd and volunteers with Elvis Schtick. Whenever we saw an owner with a dog on a corner, for example, we would break into a chorus of "You aint nothing but a HoundDog". Once the owner yelled back to us that the dog was deaf.

At mile 21 BK had to take a potty and due to the complexity of the outfit it was going to take some time to do this. He suggested I go on and I did.
At mile 23 I ran into Pearl Harbor Elvis. Race Day just happened to fall onPearl Harbor Day and my little Latino friend had decided to embrace the day with an Elvis Flavor. I ran with PH for a mile or so than let him sprint alone to the finish with his customary salute to the crowd. Later I would hook up with him at the hotel and insisted having my picture taken with this truely patriotic Elvis.














After 5 hours and 1 minute of running I crossed the finish line with the PA system announcing the arrival of Barefoot Elvis. It appeared that less than 10 of the 178 Elvi had done the full. This had been, by far, the marathon with the most fun of the 24 marathons I have run. With temps in the 40s the outfit nor the wig was not a problem; in fact it was comfortable. BE is already planning to run the Marine Marathon again as the Barefoot Flash, one of the many super heroes that will be running that pre-Halloween event.

To the Elvi organizer, Brenda Elvis Wrangler, I liked to say one final "Thank you, Thank you very much!"

Link to nice video of the race containing Barefoot ELvis crossing the finish line

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Furnace Creek 508 2008: 509 miles 35,000 feet of climbing in 37 hours 43 minutes and 12 seconds



As Seen by the Racer-Raven


Furnace Creek is a 508 mile non-stop ultramarathon bicycle race from Santa Clarita, CA to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA by way of Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. The race is put on by AdventureCorps, the same people who put on the infamous Badwater 135, a 135 mile running race over the same course during the 3rd week of July. The 508 has been held for 34 years, the last 25 on the current course that features 35,000 feet of climbing, sandstorms, high winds, blistering heat in the daytime and bone-chilling cold descents between 1 and 4 am.

Racers are not given numbers in the 508. They are given unique lifetime animal totems, usually descriptive of their appearance or their name. Since my last name is Rieper I was given the Raven totem the first year I raced Furnace Creek in 1999. We have raced under the moniker Grim Rieper and the Raven since that time because my sometimes grim brother Jerry has often joined me as my crew chief.

Left to Right Crew Chief Jerry Rieper, Raven(s) and Dr Tom Dougherty

When the racer arrives at one of the 8 time stations on the course he/she is required to yell out their totem name; if you give your regular name no one responds to acknowledge you. As a result, pace vans are decorated in accordance with one's totem and mascots symbolic of the totem are everywhere.

In passing a racer one always says something like "Raven passing Horned Toad". It's a courtesy thing. This year we introduced a new 16 inch stuffed Raven hand puppet to our crew. His saga is depicted in yesterday's journal below.

This year was the 25th anniversary on the current course so entry was pretty much by invitation only. This resulted in a super fast group of racers; probably the best in course history.

The course starts with a climb out of the San Francisquito Canyon. This year the last 8 miles of the climb and into the descent featured a thick fog that made seeing the road sometimes impossible. Normally I use an aeroshield to protect my contact lenses and to keep bugs off my face. I had to remove this in the Canyon after it got fogged up in the fog. Racers rode unsupported for the first 24 miles with their crews waiting for them in the fog at the exit from the canyon.

Once out of the canyon the road flattened out and a strong tailwind with gusts well over 30 mph pushed the riders towards the first time station 85 miles from the start in California City. Occasionally the road would turn and the riders would lean into strong crosswinds that pushed some of the time trial bikes with disk wheels to the edge of staying vertical.

About 55 miles into the first leg racers climb up to what is known as windmill climb. It's a long 10 mile climb up to a windmill farm. They put the windmills at the top of this climb for a reason; it's always windy. On this day it was pretty much a consistent head to head-crosswind force of about 20-25 mph. But at least it was scenic.

Shortly after chasing windmills we hit about 10 miles of really bad sand storms going into the first time station at California City. The landscape looked like a swirling cloud of sand with the road hard to pick out at times. The sand was flying from winds in excess of 50 mph as a crosswind. It felt like someone taking sandpaper against the skin. I was glad I had decided to wear only 1 contact lense and that eye was shut most of the time through the storms. I had brought a pair of swim googles and a mask for just such conditions but did not want to stop to put them on. This was probably a mistake. I spent the next 2 hours spitting sand out of my mouth.

Riders in the Storm of Sand outside of TS #1

The Racer-Raven riding a Time-Trial bike into 30 mph crosswinds

Race rules dictate that your support pacer van can not follow behind the racer for the first 11 hours of the race. Crew tries to stay behind the racer so that if the racer flats out during this time the crew can quickly change the wheel and minimize downtime. I flatted , for example, at mile 70 and had the crew change wheels in under 3 minutes. I had gotten lucky; they were not far behind me. Our original plan was to use 2 Garmin Rhino 120s with voice activated headsets. It proved way to windy to make this practical. So the crew continually drove in front of me a mile or so, waited for me to pass then tacked on the time it took for me to go 3-4 miles and finally leapfrogged ahead of me.

Race rules also dictate that the pace van can not hand off feedings to the racer from the van the first 11 hours of the race. Instead crewbies run along the road holding a bottle up so that the racer can grab it at 18-25 mph as the racer goes by. Usually the crew does this on an incline where the Raven slows down from natural causes.

Crew Chief Jerry handing off a zip lock bag of grapes

After the first 4 hours the mass start of 81 solo riders got pretty spread out. It was not uncommon for the Raven to not see another racer or support van for 15-20 minutes at a time. In the middle of the desert the mind starts to become paranoid and suspicions arise that perhaps one had made a wrong turn, even though there were no other roads to miss for hundreds of miles. Remembering this paranoia from past FC 508s I had brought a Garmin 705 with me. On it I had downloaded a recorded history from last years race off of www.motionbased.com and converted that racers performance into a course for the race. Thus, I had directly in front of me a digital map with the course in a pink line on my handlebars. The device would tell me when I was off course; even if I just went 50 feet off route to a restroom at a gas station. Pretty cool! And oh so reassuring.


The 705 on my handlebars before the race showing I'm 96 feet from the start line

Note: that it says I was actually going to race 511 miles and would have to do it in 32:58 if I was to beat the performance I downloaded from MotionBased

As someone who has a long history of missing turns, I once went 16 miles off course in Burley, ID during the Race Across America, I have nothing but kudos to Garmin for inventing the 705. Not only did it keep me on course and reduce stress but it gave me incredible feedback on my performance and what lie ahead. During the 12 mile climb up Towne's Pass, for example, I was able to count off each 1,000 feet of the 5,000 foot ascent by looking at the ascent recording on the 705 as well as the %grade readout. This feedback helped me immensely up the climb. When I passed Buzzard halfway up the climb my Italian friend who I was passing asked me how much was left. I boldly cawed out 2,500 feet of ascent and 6 miles. Luigi was impressed when I told him to "Get a Garmin".

My original goal was to get to the base of Towne's Pass by dark so I would not have to do the descent in the dark. The 17 mile descent is normally carried out at speeds up to 55 mph but can reach 70 in daylight. I did it in total blackness at around 50 mph according to the 705. And it was cold. I found myself shaking from the cold so bad it was hard to control the bike. I pinned my knees against the top tube the entire way down to stabilize the bike and control the shaking. One of the guys in the recumbent division had an extremely low riding bent that surely passed me at speeds approaching 70 mph in the dark of the Towne's Pass descent. I dont understand how he could see through his feet well enough to navigate his way down the slope but he did.


Once down Towne's Pass we were in Death Valley with nice temps and good flatland for recovery from the horrific 12 mile climb and chilly descent. Amazingly it was raining; in Death Valley. Didnt think that ever happened.

Recovering in the dark of Death Valley: notice the wet pavement

At the 14:58 minute mark of the race we got to the halfway point at the time station in Furnace Creek. My 705 showed I had averaged 17.5 with 19,000 feet of climbing under my belt. I was feeling pretty good and my crew expressed awe that I had gone that fast. I was not so confident; I knew what lie ahead.

The road to Badwater from Furnace Creek is a long, dark, lonely somewhat bumpy ride. You are descending slowly to about 300 feet below sea level somewhere near Badwater. It smells like sulfur and has the appearance of nowhere you want to be alone; especially at night. I dont recall see any other rider or vehicle during that entire 40 mile stretch; it was like a black hole with a bumpy road on the top.

Shortly after leaving the Time Station at Furnace Creek I turned on my MP3 player for the first time and listened to some of the 10 hours of Napster rental music I had downloaded especially for this trip. Before Death Valley the 12 hours of wind blasting in my ear had made listening to anything other than the roar of the wind impossible. I settled into the ride listening to Mellancamp, Springsteen, Creed, Coldplay and assorted other eclectic bicycle tunes. Life was good again.

About 2 am we started our ascent out of the valley by way of a 12 mile climb up Jubilee Pass. This pass features a lot of 8% grade mileage with a minimum of 3% for the rest. At 2 in the morning it's not much fun. After a 1 mile descent we then started a 20 mile ascent up Salisbury Pass. This is not as steep with nothing over 5% but it is non-stop, it is late and I was tired.

At the top I dressed a bit warmer and started a long descent into the time station in Soshone. It was way too cold and I almost lost the bike from the cold-shaking. And it made me sleepy. This was the sole point in the race where I felt I was losing control. Getting to the bottom around 4:30 am I had to get into the van for the first time to warm up and get 5 minutes of power sleep before continuing. This was the only point in the race where I thought of quitting. My back was hurting from the cold and the fact that I had positioned my saddle too low. I didnt see how I would make it over all the climbing and heat I knew was up ahead.

I have this rule learned the hard way that one never drops out of an event on a climb. You drop out when conditions are good. In 2001 I dropped out of solo RAAM at the 1328 mile mark just 1 mile from Leadville, CO after climbing Tennessee Pass. Reflecting back on that decision or lack of committment I realized that I had done all 100,000 + feet of climbing on the course and in front of me lie downhills and flatland till the finish line. If I had just done the one more mile of climbing I would have gotten recovery and a change of attitude. With that reminder in my thoughts I had made it over the climbs and was now on flatland till way past Baker. But I hurt and I was cold and sleepy; I wanted to quit.

This is where a crew goes to work and makes or breaks your race. Their is an old adage in ultracycling that says that a crew can not win a race but they sure can lose it. My crews over the years have never lost a race. Dr Tom Dougherty who has crewed for me on Race Across America and my brother Jerry who has been my crew chief in just about all my races are as experienced and gifted crewbies as you would find on the race. Jerry knew just how to handle me to get me back on the bike in minimal downtime. Having been a crew-chief myself numerous times on RAAM and at Furnace Creek I know it is not an easy task to coach an irrational, sleep-deprived, exhausted back on the bike to do another 200 miles and 18,000 feet of climbing. I always think of friend Mark Patten quitting the Race Across America only 120 miles from the finish line in Georgia while in 5th place and nothing but flatland and a tailwind between him and the finish. Yet 6 hours and calls to all of his friends and families could not get him back on the bike nor to anywhere but returning to his home in California. I am always grateful 5 minutes after returning to the bike for the crew that I have selected to teamwork with me.

Jerry coaching me back onto the bike at the bottom of SalisburyPass

The road from the time station in Soshone to the time station in Baker is pretty uneventful and a good source of recovery from the climbs and the cold. Daybreak happened and this is about the time the racer thinks he is going to make it. I suspect that the finish rate for those who make it this far is pretty high

Raven-Racer riding the Road to Baker just after daybreak


Raven-Racer just before the time station in Baker

The morning of the 2nd day, just before Baker, is when I have always started to be concerned about being calorically-challenged. A racer in this event will burn a solid 600 calories an hour for however long it takes to complete the race. In the past I have lost as much as 12 pounds at the FC 508, much of it water depletion but a good deal of pure calorie loss. With the level of exertion being put out it has always been impossible for me to eat solid foods. Thus, I rely on a liquid powder called Perpeteum, lots of fruit, Pedialyte for sodium and lots and lots of fruits and avocados. I also take an occasional can of Slimfast which seems like a contradiction till you see the calorie count on the can. It's always easy to spot the rookies in this race as they are the ones on the side of the highway losing their solid foods ingested earlier.

Another crew chief told Jerry that his rider had consumed 75 bottles of Starbucks coffee with heavy cream by mile 300. He had depleted the supply and wanted the crew to find more. Right... Starbucks in the middle of the Mojave Desert. This racer would later crash, on which I will report later.

After Baker my crew decided it was time to start having some fun to bring the other racers back to alertness. The road out of Baker at to the time Station in Kelso features two long climbs of 20 and 24 miles. Nothing spectacular, just long, unrelenting climbs of 2-5% grades. This was the hottest leg of the race with temps at 85 degrees, relatively calm by past standards. Tom and Jerry would position themselves near the top of the long climbs and dressed in Grim Rieper costumes they would greet the racers with "Welcome... we've been waiting for you".


The Grim Riepers Greeting the Racers in the Heat of the Climb

The time station in Kelso was nothing more than an old train station manned by a couple of volunteers who liked the desert. By this point in the race I was pretty ripe so I changed attire and prepped for the final 125 miles.

Proud of the company I work for and the products we produce I wanted to finish in Corporateness

Shortly after changing I started a 23 mile descent at 40 mph into the time station at Amboy. As I rounded a curve I saw crew Chief Jerry in the road motioning me to stop. A rider was down just in front of Jerry and Doc Dougherty, a good old Kansas country doctor who has spent time as a sports doctor at Emory University, was attending to him. Apparently the racer had squeezed the brakes too hard at 41 mph and had flown off the front of the bike according to his crew chief who witnessed the whole thing. We were in the middle of nowhere desert and the crew chief was having a hard time telling 911 how to find us.

Seeing that there was nothing for me to add to the situation I told Dr Tom to take as long as he needed and that I would make it to the finish line somehow on my own. Jerry needed to stay and redirect traffic away from the downed racer whom they were afraid to move because of probable spinal injury. Tom and Jerry stayed for 2.5 hours waiting for a helicopter to evacuate the racer to Las Vegas where he was later determined to have a neck broken in 3 places, a fractured clavicle and a severe concussion. I like to think Dr Tom saved him from having it be worse.

In the meantime I rode to Amboy and then halfway to the remaining finish line distance unsupported in the 85 degree temps. I stopped once and got water from another crew stopped along the road. About 5:30 I started to get worried since race rules state that you can not ride alone after 6 pm. I negotiated with another crew on the side of the road to double up on the afterhours support should my crew not make it back to me. The rules dont preclude this but they also do not include it. RAAM, however, allows this and my crew in past RAAMs has supported another rider while supporting me. I had a good case.

Fortuanately at 5:45 my crew reappeared behind me and we slugged it into Twenty-Nine Palms. As indicated the race has been ending here for 25 years. The residents appear to appreciate the race; during the final four miles in Twenty-Nine Palms cars were honking, stopping for people to get out and cheer and pedestrians were going nuts on the sidewalks everytime a racer appeared. This was fantastic and meant an easy extra 5 mph on the racers speed.

Just before the turn in at the finish line the crew passed me our mascot, Ralph the Raven, and we rode in with Ralphie suspended on my aerobars. Our finishing time was 37 hours 43 minutes and 12 seconds, good enough for 33 rd place amoung 81 solo entrants.

This was my best time of the 3 times I have raced the 508 and at 59 will probably remain my best time. I would later learn that 85% of the soloists would finish the race. This is way up from the normal 55-60% finish rate. The explanation is that the roster had been handpicked for finishability. It worked and you could tell the race director was very happy with the results.

To my crew I say Thank You! You were your customary stupendous selves. I know the other racers appreciated your antics and attempts to bring reality back to a difficult race. I've done Race Across America multiple times, I've done 22 marathons and I've done Ironman. Mile for Mile this is the toughest event available and it is not doable without a crew that works together as a cohesive unit anticipating every crisis and offering a solution to every problem under the worst conditions. You are the best and you do it with a laugh and good cheer that is just not replaceable. My lifelong appreciation is extended to the both of you.


At the Finish Line with Ralphie

Links to more photos: 1 2 3

Link to race website: the 508

Link to Garmin Connect 705 performance 1st 259 miles

Link to Garmin Connect 705 performance last 169 miles


Furnace Creek 508
As seen by Ralph the Raven

Ralph with the other Raven-imposter and crew
Ralph with crew chief testing out the aerodynamics of the time trial helmet
Ralph trying to line up some corporate sponsorship for next year
Ralph with crew chief asking for a chance to ride
Ralph on the Hood catching some rays and waiting for the Raven-Racer to pass
Ralph checking out the trees in the Mojave Desert
Ralph handing off a feeding to the Raven-Racer
Ralph pacing the desert floor waiting for the Raven-Racer
Ralph going undercover to intercept race strategy from passing crews
Ralph on stilts disguised as a Stork to go undercover
Ralph undercover as Road Kill to spy on other crews
Ralph playing with a cloth snake
An exhausted Ralph taking a nap in the Mojave Desert

Ralph spooking some of the other racers with a friend he met in Death Valley

Ralph and the Grim Rieper welcoming racers out of Death Valley

Ralph on the front of the bike leading the charge across the finish line