Where there is a wheel, there is a way RAAM2024

Our logo, our team with the ultimate arrow to victory

Racing and completing the Race Across America (RAAM)in the summer of 2024 is undoubtedly the toughest challenge I have ever undertaken. Consolidating the mamoth life experience and writing this concise blog is the second hardest ask.

Introducing RAAM (no, not a typo for RAM)

The world’s toughest endurance utracycling to date. 3090miles from the west to the east coast of USA. 175000feet of climbing. 3 mountain ranges. 13 states covered. 4 time zones crossed. 54 Time stations. Pedal by the day and by the night. Pedal one stage ie NONSTOP!

Now, for the real introductions. The 9 days of racing can make and certainly break you. Your best and worst are likely to be discovered. The power of the dreaded “RAAM Route Book” and the possible penalties to the team had riders and crew surrender in toto. After the initial couple days, the riders lost ability to think and could only process orders. And as for the crew, it was perhaps the worst part paid vacation ever. Every single one of the team of 20 had a bad hair day. Including bald Manoj! The Crew Chief held himself together with his ability to soak everyone’s distress, “dynamic flexibility” and endless supply of red bull! The team crossed the start and finish lines officially. Off the record, we crossed the line of patience, privacy, outrage and ultimately, the line of limitlessness! For every member of Team 402 of RAAM 2024, it was hands down the most incredible experience that we would never trade for any price!

RAAM is historically less known than Tour De France. Arguably, it is more gruelling. RAAM is 700miles longer than TDF, 15 days shorter. When the clock starts at flag off in California, there is no stopping. But there are 8 stages in TDF. And finally, there is no sleep deprivation and extremes of heat in TDF.

We were 4 Racers-in our 50s and 16 crew members form 3 continents. The racers – Arasu, Bhuvan, Mahesh and Kalpa. I have now concluded men have worser mid life crisis than us women (and no HRT to the rescue)! Between us, we shared the distance over 219hrs. Individually, we pedalled our best. Together, we gratefully carried the sweet burden of the sheer selflessness of the 16 supporting crew members and pushed to our “pulls”. And altogether, we DUG DEEP to cross the vast country mile by mile and arrive at the finish line ahead of the cut off time 8 days and 22hrs later in Atlantic city on the east coast. Truly amazing. Actually, humbling.

Feb2023. When Bhuvan popped the question to be a racer in a 4 member team, it felt like an outrageous aspiration.

Dec 2023. The true dimensions of the challenge dawned on me. Our first weekend of continuous day and night ride commenced and was introduced to sleep deprivation.

April2024. Courage and character replaced the confusion. Crew chief cemented the team and introduced coach RK. Training ramped to peak.

June 2024.Team BhRAAMasteroes triumphs. Together, they cross the finish line and gain an irreplacable life experience.

August 2024. RAAM demistyfied and motivating fellow cyclist embarked.

Flagged of at the parade in Oceanside, the four racers DUG DEEP with our Kickass formidable crew chief Ram and 15 other selfless crew members.

Our route covered the Forrest grump area, the Montezuma creek, the Oljato-Monument valley, Navajo trail, Ozark land, the colorado rockies, Sierra Nevada, Kansas flats, Missisipi crossing, Jefferson monument, Appalachian trail, Amish country, Gettysburg war country, NJ turnpike into the Broadwalk of Atlantic city.

WOW

To me, it was all one single big blurr. Sharing a pictorial glimpse

We prepared

Mind, body and soul for at least 7 months. As individuals and as a team. I prepared indoor and outdoor. Day and night. Joined metcon classes and online inner engineering. Went global with practice rides to the UAE, Spain and France. Rode the route to Durango virtually in stages, picked routes like Wolf creek pass, the Backbone mountain near Maryland and some Appalachian “rollers”. All on the indoor trainer. My outdoor romance with my new Pinerello was slow in winter.

And in springtime came in RK, our coach. RK put his foot on the pedal or rather made us put our foot hard on the pedal. Shook the racers from our slow slumber. The prep plan for April and May was intense. He trained our hearts to work better, legs to get the faster. He made us reruit slow twitch fibres, increase our FTP, VO2max, focus on power and cadence. In short, he simply converted us to more professional cycling. He didnt stop just there. He got the mind set focussed on setting the mind for the ultra cycling. Yoga, weight training and mindful medidation was added twice a week over and above the intense 4 days a week training schedule. The shift from cycling to ultra cycling was slowly achieved. It was like replacing sight for vision.

I knew I had to learn to love two new items- indoor cycling and eggs! I am head over heels successful with the former and reluctantly tolerating the latter. That nicely brings me to the hardest challenge I personally faced. My nutrition. This was often brought up by the team and so, I sat with a patient Suma to work on it one whole Saturday. The list for the vegetarian picky eater was made but it was hard for the support to source this enroute. I tried all the new liquid feeds and recovery drinks before the main ride and became an eggetarian. Hydration, supplements, meal times, complex carbs, smoothies with calorie dense nuts etc etc (we even had a portable smoothie maker in the support car), were discussed and tried. I watched Arasu consume ravenously and tought to myself “how does he do it?!” We had at least a dozen labelled bottles placed in a box between our back seats in the support vehicle for hydration and more beta fuels were ordered enroute. The cool box in the back had high portein yogurts, ice cold tender coconut, coke, red bull and ice to cool the sizziling heat in Arizona. The RV had poha, puliyogere and the gentle all time pleaser yogurt rice. During the 9 day ride, I consumed over my month’s quota of calories. Personally, I think I handled my food crisis successfully.

For over 9 months the Crew chief and team (Ramesh, Vijay, Manoj and Ram) were up at odd hours working routes and planning the process. The others worked relentlessly in their allocated roles. Sometimes the planswere thrown out as useless. But planning was indispendable. For me and Ram- as racer and crew chief under one roof- we breathed RAAM for 9 months.

I studied the route over and over again most bed times and revisited it next morning when I brushed my teeth! Even memorised the first 25 time stations. I took micro naps and practised sleep deprivation seriously. I woke up at odd hours at night to train on my indoor trainer and learnt to sleep in odd chairs and cramped spaces. I set alarms at 2am to wake up and head to the indoor trainer for a 40min pull. I embraced yoga nidra, positive thinking yo get my mind trained. I read about Nazi concentration camps in this context, spoke to RAAM finishers and visualised a completion. I slept till the brink of deep sleep and forced myself awake. Great. Till I discovered that one early morning in the actual ride, I was found sleeping briefly on the tarmac in a moment of mutiny when the crew chief ordered me to cycle during my allocated sleep time !

The crew chief invested in the team members meanwhile. They were scattered over 5 countries with busy day jobs. It was a mamoth task to bond as a team. We used multiple WA groups, Discord, biweekly zoom meets, cardo trial, training rides abroad..phew! All for the sake of achieving one job, “to keep the riders on the bike for 3000 miles”. The entire team assembled in a sunset villa atop a hill in Sandiego, in the week prior to the actual ride. Team bonding happened seamlesslessly as the ladies took on nutrition (eggs by the hundreds, even had freshly grounded coffee and lemon from the garden pickled), Dan assembled and prepped bikes, our physio form Edmonton multitasked, Kaushik worked on purchases, Vijay/RK/Anand ran the 24hr back office, the US based support Dinesh/Manju worked on cars and driving, Bomma/Prasad drove one support vehicle with stocks for 18hrs to join us and so the list went on. 1 RV, 1follow vehicle (yes, they followed the rider at the slow pace all the 3000 miles!!!), two support vehicles for 4 riders, and one errand vehicle were created overnight. Anand had a pre ride meeting slot with “The rule book trivia” in the evenings alongside crew chief’s desi TED talks to round up every drop of positivity and logistics by Ramesh. It was here that I witnessed a fundamental bonding of the team.

Something clicked as I gazed around the hive of activity in the villa. I knew I was stretching beyond boundaries. But I was in my element-body and mind. Felt a new layer of psycological toughness. I sensed we would just do it.

Work on site redefined our support team to becoming an Ultra support!

And on the Saturday, we set off after our customary coconut break to the start line at Oceanside. Team 402, in official jerseys, with a well concoeled anxious energy. Pictures clicked as all 4 of us assembled at THE start line.

I glanced at Prasad(my brother who was baptised to support by fire) and smiled at Crew chief Ram. He beamed with positivity as our team was announced on the speaker and we rookies took centre stage. I glanced ahead and together we took the first thrust at the pedal.

Team BhRAAMasteroes had crossed hurdle one- the journey to the start line which I believe is the toughest. We were as prepared as we could ever be!

We performed

The pomp at the parade start was short lived. We turned right into Surf riders way. Arasu picked the pace. I followed him at a short distance as he climbed the first hill. The unsupported 26miles ended in Old station road. Mahesh took over at the pull and led us into the arid Californian desserts. The boys battled the scorching sun with ice vests past Lake Henshaw and took pulls on Yaqui pass. Bhuvan had his Glass elevator descent dream turn true and I took over at Christmas circle in Borrego springs. In the background, I heard the crew discuss an early penalty, an errand vehicle (the white Suburban) stuck in the soft treacherous sands of Anza Borrego. And, guess what, I promptly took the wrong exit off the christmas circle and powered through on the wrong route. I was soon pulled into track. Much later,as I researched for this blog, I discovered that Star wars was filmed on this very stretch. The heat continued to exhaust the crew and the racers. I hammered throught the kinder evening heat of Blythe and Brawley. The pulls came up quickly. The zone of optimal performance was elusive. I was in autopilot- watching my pedal and speed. Arasu kept sweeping several climbs. Mahesh peaked the momentum to max and Bhuvan ramped up at all downhills. We barely spoke to each other in passing. We whizzed past (sorry for choice of the verb,Vijay in FV!) the wide American vistas without a second glance. I overheard the odd conversation in the FV between Vijay and Manju about various bits and bobs, imagined a stunning burnt sienna sanded cliffs in the build up to monument valley area in the darkness of my long full night shift. I listened to the same set of spotify songs over and over again. Around dawn, Bhuvan crossed wheels to relieve me and braced himself for the next long hours of heat and climbs. The boys covered the rest of Arizona and small segment into Utah before arriving into Colorado. We made it to dreaded Durango with hours to spare! Relief flooded through us. The decision to pause the ride for riders and crew to rest and charge up was bold, measured and sound. I was reluctant but out voted in.

Let me share another performace moment which is etched in my mind with you here.

Day3, Time – early twilight,

Location- somewhere in Kansas, near Pratt? Maize??

Racers on road- Bhuvan, Arasu, Kalpa

I was getting ready for my pull. As I waited for Bhuvan, I leaned over my Pinerello and gazed around. I watched my cycling life buddy Arasu close his exhausted eyes in the car for a power nap. Suma was busy taking a picture of Kaushik who was fooling around and posing lying on his stomach in the centre of the long endless stretch of straight road. The earth seemed ultra huge in Kansas and the endless grasslands in bleached beige swayed to the wild wind and of the corner of my eye I noted a lone red farm house. At that precise momentmy confidence surged. RK’s words resounded- “Kalpa, your patch will be Kansas, go for it. ” I grabbed the moment and give it my all. This was the moment I fell in love with ultra cycling. Cadence, speed and power to my hamerring best. I realised I was process oriented. I developed a confidence irrespective of the outcome. I loved the liberating feel.

The Mississipi river crossing happened in the background -no pressure. A beautiful dawn on the river. Once again, I had the all night shift Arasu. By now, I lost count of time stations, pulls, showered in truckers stops, and performed to order and lost my capacity to process and think. Our average speed fluctuated based on terrain but we consistenly caught up as a team. We had 48deg heat , cooler colorado, windy Kansas, wet misty mid west to name a few weather zones. The crew had no rest. Crew chief and RK had warned us that all tem will be on road for the last 24hrs. Even at this point the real fear of DNF (did not finish) never surfaced.

The priority was to keep moving.

Let me take a moment out for Vijay. On yet another long night shift, I heard a solitary applause as I went past the FV at mile 2000 something at day break for the 100th time. I nodded weakly. That was all I could do. That nod, epitomised a myriad of emotions. That nod cemented so many intangible bonds of camaradrie. His faith in us (and he certainly knew the truth statistics about our race capacity) was unwavering. This was when I discovered ultra friendships.

We had the Applachian rolling hills and four steep climbs before Maryland pending. A group huddle with all four racers was ordered by crew chief. A few moments of pause, pivot and recharging done. Emotional. Sweaty. Smelly but, we dug deep once again. Soon, the 7-8% climbs were done and we were at the New Jersey turnpike after a hectic night when none slept and we strayed a tad away from RK’s precise race strategy and lost a couple hours.

The pinnacle of the perfromace has to be Mahesh’s final push to overtake T405 the JSNT legends for a nail biting win. It took us only 3000 miles to get into this mode! when the race officials totted dead time and staggered starts, 405 scored better but nevertheless it was hair rising finish!

We certainly performed!

We pondered..

But then, one must, Post RAAM.

June 2023. I had sustained mutliple injuries and was not able to ride outdoor for months.

June 2024. I was the first Indian Brisitsh female to compelete RAAM in a team of 4!

I realise now that cycling has defined me over the past decade. Without a doubt, it is my happy space. Transitioning to “ultra cylcing” seems a natural pedal stroke forwards. Even as I did my arm chair research into the concept of “ultra” the announcement of a whooping jump into a world of focus, self disciple and consistency is loud.

Remember the pottable smoothie maker in earlier paragraphs? Well, it you add emotional resileince, goal setting, team skills, Vo2max, tempo training, shokz pro, SRAM, gear ratios, beta fuel and add a dash of dopamine and oxytocin and give it a buzz in the same smoothie maker you will arrive right at the recipie to the transition that I am in.

I realised that my need to be “minimalist and clutter free” as a nature of mine was my strength and own weakness too. My crew buddies Bomma and Manoj will smile as they read this as they decluttered the support car just for me in a sleep deprived state many a day! Believe me, I am trying to get better! A personal take away learning on post RAAM ponderings.

Pre RAAM, cycling connected me to stunning landscapes and quaint villages and local wine -a time to pause and admire life’s wonderful moments. Post RAAM, cycling scaled me to start the clock and the press the pedal to my best effort as long as I possibly could. The rest of the world is a blur around you. I guess, I have succumbed to this addiction as I pondered how I need to do it the next time!

For now, I am content blending the small and the big rides. Either way, I get to ride my bike! My only DNF(Did Not Finish in RAAM terminology) to report in this blog is my love affair with “ultra” expectations in life.

Bye for now. Ending with a total surrender to the support -the temporary demi Gods!