"Seekers of the new realm..."

I became semi-obsessed with the concept of endurance racing after racing in my first Ironman triathlon in 2004. After completing a few more Ironman's, I felt the need to start looking for something 'different'. In a sense, I missed the sensation of going into an event not knowing if I would, or could, succeed.

That lead me to ultra-marathon cycling in 2008. I registered for the Heart of the South 500... a 517-mile non-stop cycling race in the mountains of Georgia and Alabama. Initially this blog was created to track my journey in that race... and you can still find the old updates in the blog archive. In synopsis, it was an amazingly hard race full of rain, exhaustion, pain, but eventually success! I ended up finishing 2nd overall in that race.

During the HOS 500, I questioned many things about my life and my decisions to test my body in these crazy endeavors. In the end, I still cannot explain the actual underlying motivations, but I can say that they are real, and that I do take myself mentally, physically, and spiritually to a new place each and every time.

Well. There is one more event out there that has weighed on my mind more than any other. It has become remenicent of that monster that I always knew was under my bed as a kid, but never could get the guts to look for. It is RAAM.

The Race Across America (RAAM) has been repeatedly and irrefutably titled, 'The toughest sporting event in the world."

I watched a great documentary about RAAM the other night called 'Bicycle Dreams'. (You all are welcome to borrow it anytime.)

Now, this is not a formal announcement of my decision to enter RAAM (which I qualified for in 2008). Instead, it is simply a declaration that I WILL RACE RAAM at some point in the future.

Here is a trailer for 'Bicycle Dreams' for those interested.