Long time no blog. Hmmm. A busy summer perhaps? I would say so. In the last 6 weeks, we have solidified our crew chief position, formalized our training goals, and conducted weekly bike rides. Not to mention one of us sent a daughter to college, one of us competed in the World Rowing Championship in Poland, one of us competed in the World Triathlon Championship in Beijing, and one of us was living life at high-speed dealing with getting kids ready for school and the general end of summer madness. This has been on top of continuing our fundraising efforts and paying attention to our families.

So crew chief(s). We are very excited to announce that the always handy, Joe Knopinski, and the forever young, Bill Putnam, have agreed to serve as co-chiefs for our ride.

Let’s talk Joe:

Joe Knopinski is an adventurer and athlete in his own right. His experience began with crewing for RAW in 2010 and found he just was stretching his wings by Durango. Not a big enough challenge for Joe. So now he has taken the reins and is going for broke ushering us across the entire country. He told us he is hiring a fleet of helicopters to be certain we don’t get lost out there, so if you see a bunch of choppers circling, you will know where we are. Joe loves triathlon, back country ski huts, hang gilding, and wilderness. His favorite weekend activity is to venture to his and Cheri’s cabin in Park County and clean the forest. Yes, an odd obsession. And the hang gliding is on hold pending stabilization of two questionable rotator cuffs. In real life, Joe is a consultant to land owners and special districts through his own firm, Land and Districts, LLC. He has developed residential communities and has served as a city manager and as the manager of special districts. We think he is analytical enough to get us there.

 

Now for Bill:

Bill Putnam also was an integral part of the crew for The Denver Spokes team when they completed the Race Across The West in 2010, and had such a great time he was anxious for the opportunity to crew the Love, Sweat & Gears team for Race Across America in 2012. According to Bill, the pleasure of participating in RAW came from being a member of a team that worked together to overcome the challenges of a multi-day, 24 hour-a-day bike race, and kept smiling. Although RAW represents just a taste of RAAM, he is hopeful the longer event will bring even greater pleasure. You can see that Bill is an eternal optimist and that is exactly what we need to shine the light in the dark, both literally and figuratively. When not crewing bike races, Bill is an avid bike rider himself and also swims, enjoys rock climbing, and snowboards. Not only does he snowboard, he competes and is the current World Champion in his age group, a title he will be working to defend this winter. He has been married for over 40 years to his high school sweetheart and has two grown sons. So he is organized, passionate, and an optimist. Who could ask for more?

And our training, featuring Bob Seebohar:

We have one of the best coaches and sports dietician in the country on our team. All rolled into one fast talking, ball of energy who doesn’t consider “I’m tired” or “you want me to do what?” to be part of our vocabularies. Bob Seebohar, partner in Elite Mutisport Coaching (www.teamemc.com) and owner of Fuel4mance (www.fuel4mance.com) has gotten our plan developed and is whipping up our dietary goals. No more dark chocolate M&M’s for me. Well maybe a couple. Shhhhhhh – don’t tell my coach. Bob is not only an experienced endurance athlete, completing a multitude of triathlons at all distances including 6 Ironman races, competing in several Leadville 100 Trail Run events and earning the coveted “Leadman” belt buckle, he has coached numerous Olympic and elite athletes as well as managed their nutrition. This was a stretch for us but we think Bob can handle four determined women. Or else.

So this is just the basics. We will add to our postings with race details from Amy and Julie and experiences from Ann and Rainey.

The ball is rolling and so must we. Roll on!