From: INT:MUFFYR@SUNVALLEY.NET  (The writer has "crewed" twice before in 
RAAMS)
  To: ROBERT BUMP (Forwarded to BIKENET)
Subj: Memories of Arkansas, Tennessee, etc
It looks as though there is a tremendous race going on with Kish, Fasching, 
and
Chew. As of update # 26 (1 PM EST on Wed. Aug 7th) they are all within an 
our
of each other. Don't count out Tatrai though. He's amazing in his ability to
forego sleep. My thought is that he went without sleep for a night to try and
get close to the lead group. He did but paid a pretty big price. I am 
uessing
that he is now trying to pace himself off what the others in front are doing 
so
that he can make one more no sleep, all out attempt as the race progresses
through the hills of Tennessee. I recently found out that Paul Solon has 
dropped
out due to unspecified medical problems. This guy has more tough luck than
anyone I know. Still, even though he has dropped out of all his RAAM attempts
except one, he did win that one over Michael Secrest in one of the fastest
crossings ever. He is still a RAAM champion, no one can take that away from 
him.
It may be easy for some to suggest that his win was a fluke but having seen 
him
ride I can tell you that he is one of the most gifted cyclists I've ever 
een.
He's a class act and it's a shame that he has had so many problems during 
RAAM.
Once again, RAAM has shown that it is a heartless, sometimes cruel race.
Seana still rides magnificently, like the true champion she is although her 
pace
has slipped below hers and Muffy's record pace of last year. I know she must 
be
disappointed and perhaps struggling mentally with having to alter her goals.
Still, even though I have heard that she is suffering from saddle sores she 
s
still displaying power and speed very few of us can even imagine, let alone 
do.
Dave Kees is still hanging in there and I wouldn't count him out just yet,
although he seems to be in Shermerland, that lonely place behind the leaders 
but
ahead of the rest of the pack. Dave is powerful and fast and I wouldn't be
surprised if he draws even closer. The rest of the group is still riding 
strong,
maintaining a good average speed. How frustrating must it be to be on a fast
paced crossing but over 200 miles behind the leaders? I know from my own
experience that I was in awe of Rob Kish's and Bob Fourney's efforts in RAAM 
'91
while I was just trying to stay somewhat in range. They were truly racing 
while
I felt like I was surviving.
Now that the leaders are almost into Tennessee, what kind of terrain will 
hey
have to deal with?
Eastern Arkansas is actually quite pretty country. There's lots of farmland 
and
trees but it doesn't have that jungle look to it as the area outside of Ft.
Smith was. The one town I remember most was Forest City (mile 2076). My 
brother
Jeff, in RAAM '94 had a tough day since his sleep break in Ft. Smith. He was
riding strong when he was able to keep his eyes open. He had to stop for a 
short
sleep just outside of Conway but was riding well after that. He had caught
Traunmuller and he seemed to come alive from that encounter. I took the
opportunity to get out of the support vehicle and get some sleep. When I woke 
up
we were passing through Brinkley (mile 2053). There was a park there but man 
it
was the scariest park I'd ever seen. It wasn't kept up very well at all, the
vegetation was out of control, and no one was there. It looked abandoned, 
poor,
and rundown, kind of like a lot of the towns along the way looked. It's easy 
to
understand why RAAM riders can get sink into depression simply over the 
scenery.
It was quite dark as Jeff was struggling to make it to the hotel in Forest 
City.
He was very tired, perhaps this was the low point of his race. He had the 
worst
mouth sores I had ever seen (common in RAAM riders) and his saddle sores were
obviously very painful. As he slept, I worked on his bikes in the parking 
lot. I
still think about how unusual RAAM is and how it makes you do things at all
hours of the day or night. It's well after midnight and I'm screwing around 
with
a couple of bikes, hoping that the few locals that showed up (at two in the
morning??), "keeping me company", weren't going to beat the crap out of me 
nd
take off with the bikes. When one guy asked a couple of times if I was 
orried
that the bikes would get stolen I started to wonder. You know how it is...
The route into Tennessee is very flat. In fact, from Conway into Memphis is a
gradual downhill (although after 5+ days you'd think it was uphill). West
Memphis is pretty crowded but soon the riders get a break as they get driven
over the Mississippi after TS # 42. During the 40+ miles from Forest City to
West Memphis both Muffy in '93 and Jeff in '94 were going through a very low
period. Maybe this is the time that it seems as though this race will never 
end.
Certainly the excitement of getting to the halfway point is long gone and it
becomes a daily, even hourly struggle to keep motivated. Jeff's saddle sores
were so bad that it looked as though he would never find relief. Amazingly, a
rider who had been quite a ways ahead of us since Slapout, OK., Adrian 
arris,
appeared out of nowhere. He told me that he had been in the hospital for 
saddle
sores and had gotten some prescription ointment to deal with them. It helped 
him
tremendously so maybe it would help Jeff. Adrain graciously gave us enough to
get Jeff through the remaining days and it really worked. The product is 
called
Xylocaine. Fortunately I have never had to use it (Chamois Butt'r as a
preventative lube works quite well) but Jeff's race was literally saved by 
.
The crossing of the Mississippi River is great when you can load the rider in
the van and drive over as is now the rule. In RAAM '93 however the rider was 
to
ride over the river on the bridge. This made for interesting support as the
traffic can be pretty heavy while the rider obviously goes much slower than 
all
the cars. There's no room to pull over should there be a need and of course
there's no bike lane. Sure as hell, this is the one spot in all of RAAM where
Muffy gets a flat tire. Frantically she points to the back wheel but we can 
only
tell her to keep riding until we get across. Once that nightmare is over we
change the wheel.
Needless to say, Memphis is a big city with lots of traffic. For the most 
art
the drivers are quite friendly and there always seems to be enough room to
manuever. Still, it feels good to make that left on Highland (along with a 
ew
other turns shortly after) to get off the main drag. once you get out of 
Memphis
the climbing starts and seemingly never ends. From here to Brownsville (mile
2190) there's nothing over 200 feet, they're all rollers,  but they are 
without
end! It's very pretty country in Tennessee and only gets better. That is, 
after
you get out of Union and East Union. This is a pretty crowded area and the 
wo
times I've crewed it was pretty harrowing and seemed to age me significantly.
Even though you're behind the rider protecting him/her, you can't allow 
traffic
to build up behind your vehicle. Pulling over to let traffic through, 
seemingly
to have a clear shot at the defenseless rider is truly a crewmember's 
nightmare.
From here the climbs get steeper and the countryside more beautiful. The 
riders
go through part of the Natchez Trace Parkway area which is a highlight of the
Southern PAC Tour. Very scenic. Muffy had multiple hallucinations here as she
went through late at night. She was insistent that she was in Vermont, 
Christmas
shopping with her Mom. Sure Muff, whatever you say. The only time I've ever 
seen
her lose her temper during RAAM was when I told her the RV (parked for her 
much
anticipated sleep break) was closer than it actually was. We had turned right
onto US 412 East. I was told that the RV was 5 miles up the road as we headed
toward the town of Linden (mile 2285). Unfortunately it was more like 15 
iles
away. Now ten miles may not seem like a lot until you've already ridden 0ver 
300
miles for the day. She let me have it!!
The route to Lynchburg is still quite hilly and even though I've sure felt 
like
it at the time, I've never made it to where Jack Daniels is made. From there 
the
route does flatten out. The roads are scenic and it's pretty tempting to just
pull on over and take a nap in a sunny field. Muffy's brain had been on
autopilot for some time now and when we handed her a bagel she became 
overjoyed
at finally having "something to do!" After that though, it's all business. At
around mile 2440 the 1200 foot climb to Monteagle begins. It's easily the
toughest climb in the Tennessee portion of RAAM and I'm sure a major obstacle 
is
out of the way once the summit is reached. There's a nice downhill to TS # 51 
in
Tracy City (more nice people at his time station when it was manned in '94). 

always seem to remember the roads being narrow as you pass through 
Chattanooga,
another fairly crowded city. It is for the most part downhill and not too
demanding. The riders actually enter and leave a sliver of Georgia before
getting into Chattanooga, back in Tennessee. After Chattanooga, this last 
art
of Tennessee requires making no less than five turns in around a half mile
before you finally, once and for all, enter Georgia!! We got smart by
positioning a crew member at each of the turns so that our rider wouldn't 
iss
any of them. It's so easy to do when the turns are a tenth of a mile apart.
Six states down, one to go!
 * SLMR 2.1a * Veni, Vedi, Velveeta: I came, I saw, I ate cheese.
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