Things that make me happy...

Thank you MJ for making me smile after a very rough start to the week. This is one of the many reasons you are an awesome friend and will make a kick@ss crew member (and are officially in charge of morale and motivational phrases for the team ;-)

Are We There Yet? (RAAM Crewing Seminar)

On Saturday we attended the RAAM Crewing seminar held in our very own backyard of Austin, Texas. It was a great session and answered many questions we had (How to timing stations work? What to do to prevent saddle sores? What makes up a good team?). It also raised many more (Who will be our beneficiary? How many crew members do we really need? Will snapping rubberbands around our wrists really help keep us awake?) We followed the Saturday session with a Sunday team meeting to discuss these and many more topics. It seems official - we have a logo, we attended a crewing seminar, we had a team meeting. I think this means we're actually going to do RAAM. Oh, and Leary is on line right this minute looking at mini vans. He just asked me if I would prefer driving a panel van or a mini van. Um...how about neither?

In photo left to right:
Leary Walker*, Fred Huang*, George Thomas**, Vicki Ford*, Susan Farago*, Rick Boethling**, Fred Boethling**.
*Members of Team Galaxy
**Members of RAAM organization

I Don't Want a Mini-Van!

I grew up watching my Dad and brother rebuild cars for fun (and sometimes out of necessity). I became familar with words such as "4 barrel carburetor", "big block", and "454"(ours was a Chevy household). And it was not uncommon for my brother to take me for a ride to test out some new or rebuilt engine component with the hood of the car completey removed. When I was in college, I met my to-be husband. He was an auto mechanic in highschool and college. After we were married we would spend our weekends in the "bone yard" looking for this or that. Or we would scour the papers trying to find a "numbers matching" fixer-upper. We came up with the down payment to our first house by buying, refurbishing, and reselling a 1978 corvette - Indy Pace Car edition. And the first car I bought with my own money was a 1994 Chevy Camaro (manual transmission of course).

You get the idea - I know and appreciate cars, especially those classic American muscle cars that you can feel and hear long before you can see. You know that scene at the end of the movie "Fast and Furious" when Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are drag racing - Paul is in some digitized rice burner and Vin is in the Charger? And then Vin pops a wheelie IN THE CHARGER when they take off from the line? That scene still gives me goosebumps. Nothing beats raw, mechanical, horse power.

So you can imagine my dismay when we got back from scouting the Hill Country 600 bike race and Leary suggested we get a mini van, gut it, and set it up as a support vehicle for RAAM. I was actually OK with that part. What I wasn't OK with was his follow up comment, "And then after RAAM you can drive it around and that can be your vehicle."

Huh?

Yeah, I don't think so. I don't "do" mini-vans. The closest I ever came to that was driving a Chevy Celebrity station wagon for one of my winter beaters when we lived in Minnesota. The definition of a winter beater is: it's a cheap car, front wheel drive, and if you end up sliding on ice and wrapping it around a telephone pole or flipping it into the ditch, no big deal. But what I quickly came to discover is that people TREATED me differently when I drove that station wagon. People would honk at me, cut me off, and pull out in front of me. I never had that problem when I drove my Camaro.

So I can only imagine what I would experience driving a mini-van. And quite frankly, I don't want to find out.

But something tells me that my goal of completing RAAM is bigger than my vehicular vanity. So don't be surprised if you read a future blog entitled "I am a Mini-Van Owner". Of course, I may change my tune if I ever see Vin Diesel pop a wheelie while driving a big block mini-van ;-)

Drum Roll...Announcing Team Galaxy's New Logo

HUGE thanks to Michelle Ryan of iDesign - Austin, Texas.
Some thoughts and concepts from Michelle that went into the overall design:

"My proposal for your team logo was inspired by the roads and signs you will see as your team journeys across the country. Think yield signs and cross roads.

The direction of the rider - why facing left? 1) The chainring looks like it's on the right. 2) Since you always ride on the right and pass on the left, your view of the rider should always be from the left side. 3) The only time you should see a rider from the right is if you are the one being passed. I can't imagine that's the impression you want to make.

The original image of the rider was male. I modified the nose, chin, neck, arms, bust and hair. It may not all be apparent, but it's much better."

We can't wait to get the logo on shirts, jerseys, and other cool stuff. We'll wear it proud!!!

Results of Recon

Fred, MJ, Leary, and I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to head down to Helotes to check things out at the Hill Country 600k bike race. It was a great trip!! A few things we learned:




1. Endurance cyclists are a very laid back group of people. They are very friendly and willing to open up their vans (literally) so you can take pictures of their setup and stuff. They offer advice and help even though they have 10 minutes to race start OR they are waiting for their teammate to come in for an exchange.
2. It is amazing just how much stuff you can actually cram into a minivan.
3. Don't overthink. Sometimes it's better to not sweat the small stuff and just get out there and do it.
4. This is nothing like a triathlon event (thank heavens!)
5. Even though everyone was pretty laid back, they did not underestimate the size of the task that was ahead of them - 370 miles is a long way on a bike.
6. A picture is worth a thousand words. And between my and MJ's photos, we have captured over 290 thousand words! The photos will be great reference as we start planning for RAAM 2011 in earnest.
7. Always have fun along the way!

We compiled over 4 pages of notes from the trip (thanks to Leary's awesome note taking skills) and this was a great eye opener to see our first endurance bike race event - from setup and start, to watching the riders do an exchange and watching the support vehicles leapfrog. Watching the first timing station (at mile 42 in Medina) was very anti-climactic. As riders passed the brick phone utility building, one of their crew called in and essentially said "rider in at ZZZ time". That was it? Where's the timing mat? The official to log each person's time? I guess there is something to be said for honestly, huh.

As we drove home and I thought about all we saw, I had a little mini freak out. This was real. RAAM was real. What we were starting to plan for was real. 6-8 days cross country on a bike. That was VERY real. I took a deep breath. All things in good time. We'll get there. I don't know how. But we will get there.

Our First Official Recon

Tomorrow we are heading down to Helotes at 5am to see the start of the Hill Country 600k bike race at 7am. While I would like to say that we are going because we want to watch the cyclists in their awe-inspiring speed and strength, our main goal is to check out how the support crews have their vans and cars set up.

So I guess I would consider this our first reconnaissance trip.
I'm glad Starbucks opens at 4:30am.

Stay tuned...

Dear Ellen DeGeneres

The team is really starting to ramp up and talks of sponsors and beneficiaries are adding to the already long list of "how are we going to do this" questions. So I decided to send Ellen DeGeneres an e-mail. I then sent Carol an e-mail with the subject line "I have lost my marbles".

Who knows? Couldn't hurt. Might help. And if we do end up going on her show, I SO get to sit next to Ellen!!!

-------------------------


Dear Ellen:

My 2010 new year’s resolution is, “Just put it out there” so here goes…

I would like to ask your help in finding a beneficiary or sponsor to promote health, fitness, and well-being for girls and women.

I and three other women are going to do the Race Across America (RAAM) in June, 2011 as a four-person cycling team named Team Galaxy. The race starts on the west coast and finishes 3,000+ miles later on the east coast. Our mission for doing this race is three fold:

1. Promote health, fitness, and well-being for girls and women of all ages.

2. Find a beneficiary – an organization that we can ride for who has the same mission and goals of the team.

3. Find a sponsor or sponsors – an organization that will help us raise money for the beneficiary and to financially enable our team to race.


We are dedicated, hard working women and we are certainly not shy so any help in making an introduction or connection would be fantastic and we could certainly take it from there. We are discovering the hardest part isn’t pedaling our bikes for 3000 miles, it’s just getting a foot in the door. We haven’t had our cycling jerseys made yet but we would definitely help you promote your “World Domination” campaign on a local level by putting your flag on our jerseys.


Thanks for all that you do,
Susan Farago
www.meetteamgalaxy.com