• I’ve decided to do RAAM
• RAAM is a bike race, a 3000 mile bike race (RAAM = Race Across AMerica)
• RAAM is 3000 miles in 12 days (or less) (250-350 miles/day)
• Riders average about 3 hours of sleep per night (and I like to sleep)
• RAAM costs $15-20,000 (see my budget)
• Money saved so far: ~$500.00
• I have no idea how I’ll pay for it.
• Miles I’ve ridden my bike in the past 3 years: ~1000 (with about 1/2 of those being in the end of 2006)
• I don’t really like riding my indoor trainer
• Leadville gets 200+ inches of snow in the winter (and the snow is on the ground for 7+ months)
• I have no idea how I’ll train for it.
• According to someone who has done the race and climbed Mt Everest: “Everest is more dangerous, but RAAM is much harder.”
• In the 27 year history of the race, Solo finishers have ridden more than one million miles – that’s two round trips to the moon.
• Lowest elevation is 170 feet below sea level. Highest elevation is more than 10,000 feet high above sea level. This elevation range exceeds two vertical miles.
• Each racer will climb more than 100,000 feet. This is roughly the distance from the ground to the edge of space, more than three times the altitude flown by commercial jetliners and almost four times the altitude of Mt. Everest.
• About 400 solo and tandem racers have attempted RAAM
• Less than 200 solo and tandem racers have officially finished RAAM
• Any help (money, bikes, bike parts, bike clothing, rv’s, minivans, corporate sponsorship, fund raising ideas, food, prayers, positive vibes, free lodging in a warm climate, work in a warm climate, etc. (but mostly your prayers)), would be appreciated.

What have I done???? (I told you not to confuse me with the facts)

Right now I’m not sure that this is even possible for me, but I’ll give it my best shot.

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
– Beverly Sills

“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

““There is no use trying, said Alice; one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ”
– Lewis Carroll

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
– Jesus

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T. S. Eliot

don’t confuse me with the facts.

“The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”
— Confucius

Based on the preceding quote, I probably shouldn’t tell you what my mind is made up about since I haven’t done anything yet, but I figure putting it up on the blog will make it harder to weasel out of (which is good, because I’m a very talented weasel). Here are some more quotes to get me in the proper mindset…

“The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.”
— Blaise Pascal

“You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own.
And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
— Dr. Seuss

“My mind tells me to give up, but my heart won’t let me.”
— anonymous

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
— Henry David Thoreau

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
— Mark Twain

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt

“If God be your partner, make your plans large.”
— D.L. Moody

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way…. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
— William Hutchinson Murray (1913-1996), from his 1951 book entitled The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? …… Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? ……. Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.”
— excerpt from Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech

“I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.”
— Confucius

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
— Confucius

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart…pursue those.”
— Michael Nolan

“To do anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
– Steve Prefontaine

“If you are going through hell, keep going. ”
— Winston Churchill

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”
– Pope John XXIII

What have I decided to do? Since this post is already my longest post ever, you’ll have to wait a few days to find out. (my weasel skills are kicking in…. ) (although there are a couple of clues in the rest of the blog…)