Race Across America cycling through lake area

By Michael Gillespie
Imagine a coast-to-coast bicycle race lasting twelve days, with a 600-mile spread between the first and last racer. The race would proceed 24 hours a day, in all weather, and sleep time would count against a rider. There would be no cash prize; most of the money raised would go to charities. Riders would range in age from 17 to 65+. If a rider violated more than six traffic laws along the 3,000-mile journey, then that rider would be disqualified. Think it sounds impossible? Well, there are about 250 racers, male and female, who are willing to give it a try. It’s called the Race Across America, RAAM, and its coming right up Highway 54 in June.
RAAM started back in the late 70s, when John Marino, who played baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers, suffered a career ending injury. A consummate athlete and competitor, Marino was looking for something else to do and came across the story of a man who pedaled across America in the 1880s. Intrigued by the idea, he reasoned that with today’s level of nutrition, training, and bicycle technology — not to mention paved roads — an organized transcontinental bike race was definitely doable. The first race, called the Great American Bike Race, was held in 1982 and attracted four riders. This year’s 28th annual event starts in Oceanside, California, and ends in Annapolis, Maryland. It draws scores of riders from around the world.
Most of the local activity will be centered around a “time station,” in Camdenton, manned by volunteers. Located at the Signal convenience store in Camdenton, time station 31 will be manned by a handful of dedicated volunteers headed by Eric Johnston, who first became familiar with RAAM when he lived in southern California. A few years later, when he moved to the Lake area, Johnston found that although the race went through Camdenton, there was no time station here. So in 2005, he volunteered to host one.
“Time stations are set up along the way so that the crew members can call in the times,” Johnston says. “We are here to be a friendly face — it’s a long race. Each team or racer will have at least three vehicles with them. We set up a board to show the times, and if the crews need help finding a store or business, we point them in the right direction.
“I’ve got one lady and her son who help me — this will be their fifth year — and then our webmaster — this will be his fourth year — and we have a couple of other local people who have told me they want to volunteer this year. And all the people who work at Signal have been real helpful.”
Don’t expect bleachers of cheering fans and police escorts. For all its Herculean requirements, the race is a relatively low-key event that will mix right in with the local traffic. Individual cyclists and their support crews will pass through at intervals every hour or two.
“If it’s a solo rider, they won’t be going all that fast,” says Johnston.. “And they’ll be followed by a van with a bunch of stickers on it, and lights at night, and probably music. If it’s a team, they’ll be going a lot faster, because the team riders take turns. Again, they’ll have a van behind them. A lot of people will follow a favorite rider, maybe from their area.”
Johnston says that the riders may be going through the time station, and through the Lake area, at any time of the day or night. He recalls that last year the time station was busiest at 2 o’clock on a Sunday morning.
So what compels Johnston to survive on cat naps and give up a week of his time to help out? “I do it because I love this race. Having ridden long distances in California, when I lived out there, I kind of understand the psychology behind what motivates people to do this. This is a very expensive thing to do — between raising funds and training, finding sponsors, finding crews willing to take two weeks out of their life to follow you across the country. And this is almost exclusively an amateur race.”
Johnston says it’s hard to quantify the economic impact that this year’s RAAM will have on the local economy. A solo rider has between six and sixteen people on his or her crew; team riders have as many as twenty-seven. Multiply those numbers by over 200 entrants and there would appear to be a lot of demand for everything from food to personal items — and maybe even a few souvenirs.
The first riders are expected here on Monday, June 22 — about six days into the race — with the remainder following over the next four to five days. By the time the cyclists reach Camdenton, they will have traveled 1853 miles, with a mere 1160 miles to go.
Johnston will be posting details of the event on his website, www.ts31raam.com.