sevralprojex

I had never been to Texas Before. I arrived in DFW 3 days before the race with about 50 lbs. of gear. The first thing I found out about Texas is that it has a horrible public transit system. I had to ride to the start line, which turned out to be 100 miles, give or take a couple. I began my ride at midnight right after assembling my bike in the baggage claim area.

P.S. When flying disassemble your bike as far as you can, stuff it in a duffel bag, hide your helmet and cycling gear at the check-in counter, and say you are bringing a frame home for your parents, “mark it fragile please”. That way they won’t charge you for a bike! $170 round trip w/ U.S. Airways.

The time was perfect. The only way to leave the airport was by freeway and at midnight they were almost empty. I rode for about two hours in the general direction and slept in the bushes of a church. Got up early and rode another 60 or so. It was too much weight so when I saw the GoodWill I stopped to create a makeshift trailer.

 I found a pretty reliable golf caddy and attached that to my seat rails via bungee cords. It held up all the way (20 miles) minus the hard, solid rubber tires, which were missing by the time I arrived. I camped out for a day in a McDonalds play pen that had been donated to a Baptist church, but I was camping at the wrong church. There were two Baptist churches on the same road! The other one had facilities and everything. After drinking water from a hose that tasted like gasoline for a day and a half the other church seemed like a four-star. 

I raced the next day at 6pm after spending a day getting my gear ready and helping my new friend Rob fill in pot holes on the course. There was a crowd of good people out there in Cleburne, TX. Rob, Kathleen, and Dan ,the event organizer, were all very helpful and a good source of information.  The race was interesting. 25 laps of a 20 mile loop. There was lots of hallucinating on that second night. Then I finished in 34.10.

I have never met so many people that are into RAAM, both racing and crewing in it. Those randonneurs are a pretty welcoming bunch. 

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 11:32 pm and is filed under sevralprojex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.