I am finding out that the more I push beyond what I think my comfort zone might be, or what I perceive my limits to be, or to tip-toe outside of my box -whichever catch phrase floats the boat – the more activities and experiences begin to become part of my life that have never been considered to be in the repertoire, so to speak.  Who would have thought I would ever ride my bike across the country?  Who would have thought I would voluntarily agree to have my picture taken (horrors!)?  Who would have thought I would even have stayed home to raise my children?  Not me, I can tell you that.

Committing to racing RAAM is a big leap for all of us.  We four who are ordinary mortal women with, perhaps, a big lust for life.  Coming with that commitment is many new and thrilling experiences that I didn’t anticipate. Case in point, our video, or soon to be released, multiple videos.

Jim Harper, of Jim Harper Photography, has agreed to become a sponsor for our team, by providing us with video footage and still photos that we can use to promote our ride and our cause, LiveWell Colorado. Jim is a soft spoken, tall, lanky guy who is meticulous in his creativity and vision for promoting our message.  He is pushing us to think about our reasons for doing RAAM and to think about many other aspects of our lives that will be affected by RAAM.  Not that we haven’t thought about it. Sure, I have thought about it, I mean I think about it on occasion – like 23 hours of the day – but to put it all into words is scary.

Honestly, I would rather go careening down a mountain pass on my bike at 50 mph than have my picture taken much less be on video with actual words coming out of my mouth that are supposed to be semi-articulate, semi-entertaining, and somehow interesting all at the same time.  Uh . . .no. A teensy bit past my comfort zone, my limits, my box, as it were.  But there is Jim.  Gently prodding, asking questions that he would like to know the answer to and imagines most would as well.  Trying to find the correct lighting to illuminate my “best side” (this would be the side that doesn’t have a nose on it) while quietly suggesting that it will be of benefit to actually think about what I am planning on doing before I race out the door to Oceanside with one shoe on and one shoe off.  That is not in my box either.  Generally speaking, I am not a planner.  I do.

Jim doesn’t accept that excuse.  He considers every shot, spends countless hours editing, arranging, voice – overing, all that fancy photography stuff, trying to make sure our message is conveyed to all who might be interested in our challenge and commitment to LiveWell Colorado.  He is serious about his work and serious about Rocky Mountain RAAM.  Suddenly, I realized that this is important not only to Amy, Ann, Rainey, and me, but potentially important to many, many others who will be touched either by our spirit or actually touched by the good that will come to their neighborhoods and communities through LiveWell.

So take a peak at our first short video.  There is more to come in the very near future.  In the meantime know that making something like this was, for me, almost as big of a leap as riding my bike across the country will be.

My box  is looking pretty good from the outside.

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.
Been down, isn’t it a pity,
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city.

Ok, now that you have The Lovin’ Spoonful stuck in your head, it is a reminder that summer has, at long last, arrived.  Along with summers arrival is the 30^th anniversary of RAAM.  The 2011 race starts today.  Solo Women on June 14^th, Solo Men on June 15^th, and Teams on June 18^th.  In exactly 12 months, we will be toeing the start line in Oceanside.  We will be trained, we will be prepped, and we will be shaking with anticipation of what could be one of the greatest adventures of our lives.  I, for one, cannot wait.

I am being careful, however, not to wish away an entire year.  I am enjoying all that summer has to offer.  The long-awaited warmth, the longer days, swimming and watching the sunrise as I alternate between watching the black line on the bottom of the pool and the dawn creeping across the sky and illuminating the mountains, and – you guessed it – getting on my bike.  I do my best thinking while riding, which probably says a lot about the level and depth of my thought process. Thoughts can only be deep enough so as not to take my mind totally off the road and can only last long enough to blot out the sound of my labored breathing and pain of straining muscles.  So, short and shallow.  Huh.  I am pretty short . . . .YIKES!

Today I was thinking about RAAM.  I had just received a call from Marie, one of our stupendous crew members from The Denver Spokes 2010 edition and soon to be just as stupendous in 2012, even though she doesn’t know it yet, who was at the start line in Oceanside.  I could feel the excitement mounting in the background from her call and I began remembering and fantasizing about what 2012 will be like for all of us on RMR.  My first thought is that we definitely need better speakers for our van.  Oh yeah.  Some big, thumping, gigantic speakers, so we can actually hear the directions being shouted at us from the crew watching our derrieres.  We are all over 50 – ok, average age is over 50 – ok I’M over 50 and I need to hear directions.  Sorry about that.  But I also really want to pump some tunes through those big, thumping, gigantic speakers so I can feel cool.  There it is.  Short and shallow.

Last year, as I was feeling a teensy tired, our crew chief (Lark) called my youngest daughter and put her on the loud-speaker to shout words of encouragement (minus any obscenities) to me while I was riding.  It threw me into such a tizzy that tears sprung to my eyes and I couldn’t see the road. Let it be known that my youngest daughter isn’t exactly a baby; she is nearly 23 years old.  It didn’t seem to matter.  I heard her tiny voice through those stupid, miniscule speakers and suddenly, I became aware of the enormity of the challenge and of the people I love best in my life.  Sometimes loving people the best is the biggest challenge out there.  So zooming down the highway in somewheres-ville (Mexican Hat, perhaps?) with my daughters’ voice encouraging me from behind was something I could have never, ever anticipated experiencing in my lifetime.  Ever.  Nope. And even though it was for a very short time (but not shallow), it will make a longstanding memory.  Let it be known,  Lark didn’t do that one twice.

So, I have decided to live in the moment, make sure we find some enormous speakers, and get my girls to work making enough mixes to get us across the country.  Sometimes short and shallow isn’t so bad.

We rode together for the first time yesterday.  Our first $5 Friday Ride. And though it wasn’t the first, first time together… it was, for me, the first of many rides toward RAAM 2012.

I am excited about our Friday afternoon rides, and I can’t wait for the next one on June 17th. A chance to celebrate friends, fitness and team building.  $5 Fridays are, for me, a step away from my “normal”… and that is what I love about RAAM.  As an endurance athlete, I spend all, seriously all, of my training time alone.  I put my gear on and I go.  I focus on the task at hand, do my work and then I move onto the next part of my day.  Little time for chit chat and little time, quite frankly, for distraction and “taking in the moment”.

When we finished RAW 2009, I told Julie that I wanted to prepare for RAAM, but that I wanted to do it differently.  Not that I would change my personal preparations for the event, but that the next time, I wanted to “bring along” others in the training process.  $5 Fridays are a part of that process.  We ride together as a TEAM… not just 4 women and 10 crew… but everyone who has even the smallest interest in what we are doing, is invited to come along for the ride… and to be part of our team.

In preparing for RAAM 2012, I’ve made a promise to myself that even when I am training alone, that I will never really BE alone.  THIS time, our training, our cause, our journey are bigger than each of us individually… and that is also what I love about RAAM.

One year from now Rocky Mountain RAAM will be leaving Denver and heading to San Diego.  The preparation, the training, the fundraising… will be done… and the RAAM 2012 Start Line will wait for us on the pier at Oceanside.  Maybe the “start” will be on a Friday… or maybe not… but it will for me, be another “$5 Friday Ride” shared with friends and teammates… a “first” ride toward the Finish Line in Annapolis.

It started with a Text.

I was sitting in my kitchen looking at the grey, sunless, cold, and wet day attempting to get myself motivated to go out for a run.  I could think of a million reasons NOT to go out there, most of them are already listed above.  I texted Ann about my lack of enthusiasm and her text came back “Go.  You will be glad once you do.” So, a million reasons NOT to go, and only one reason TO go.  I did what I usually do, I pulled on my shoes and I went.

Of course, Ann was right.  I was not only glad that I had done the run, I was also very glad DURING the run.  The air was more than crisp – freezing in fact, but as I huffed and puffed I noticed that the world looked grey but it smelled brand new.  I had my bestest running buddy with me, Stella, the wonder dog, and together we plugged away at something we really weren’t wild about doing at the beginning of the day.  I should say, I wasn’t wild about it.  Somehow, Stella is always wild about running.  Crazy beast.

Life is like that.  Full of opportunities that we can either use to our advantage or let them slip past for a myriad of reasons.  Often times the reasons not to take a certain path outnumbers the reasons to take that same path.  How do you choose which way to go?  Make a list?  Ruminate until the opportunity has expired?  Blindly throw caution to the wind and take the leap of faith?  I do not have an answer for that. Wish I did, I’d make a million bucks.

During my run, I thought about the ladies I have been coaching through Team CWW.  The previous day, they participated in their first attempt at a triathlon as a practice race.  It took place in Washington Park with a swim in the recreation center pool, bike ride around the park and a run around the lake.  Most of the ladies in CWW are somewhat older – like over 40 (GASP!), most do not have an athletic background, most are a bit overweight, and all are trying to learn something new.  To say they are intimidated by riding a bike in their swimming suits is an understatement.  Terror is more accurate.  But they do it.  They take the leap, they don’t weigh pro’s and con’s, they push beyond their comfort zone and they do it.  And they are glad once they do.

Preparing for RAAM will be like that.  There will be many moments during training and during the race that we will consider all of the reasons NOT to be on our bikes.  The one that will make the difference is keeping the idea that we are helping spread the message about keeping active and using your body for a lifetime.  Partnering with LiveWell Colorado has given us a sense of direction and determination.  And when we have those low moments, perhaps we should all get Ann on her cell to text.

Go.  You will be glad once you do.

Yep. We are up and running. Not only running but cycling and, for some of us, swimming, time trialing, walking, spinning, hiking, cooking, working, teaching, coaching, organizing, and basically jumping off the big cliff that leads to RAAM. Is committing to RAAM in 2012 a bit of forward planning? You betcha. It is going to take a lot of planning, a lot of commitment, and a whole lot of time. Something that we, like everyone else on this planet, have very little of to spare.

This time around we are riding on behalf of LiveWell Colorado, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to fighting obesity across our state. We thought long and hard about which non-profit we would ride for on this trip. All of us wanted to contribute to something positive in our community and our state. Something that helps the families of Colorado stay healthy, stay out of the doctor’s offices and living a lifestyle that is active and happy. LiveWell Colorado is that organization. We are ecstatic to be providing support to our communities and emphasizing the importance of staying active at any age, not for the short-term but for a lifetime.

So, Amy, Rainey, Ann, and Julie. Or Ann, Julie, Rainey and Amy. Doesn’t matter much. We are a team. We are Rocky Mountain RAAM 2012. We are working as a team to ride across our country while helping to provide for the people of our state. You betcha there is a lot of work to be done. And we are ready to do it. We will be using this blog to chronicle our training, our ups and downs, our lives, and just about anything else that rolls off the computer screen. Stay tuned for the ride of a lifetime!

And on we roll.