46 days to go! ... Yup, you read it right - 46 DAYS!!!
It’s been a while since we posted a little update on how we have been tracking, especially now as we only have 46 DAYS TO GO!
The team have been training HARD! We’re talking 4 am bike rides, heat training, strength training and everything in between to make sure they are in optimal health for race day!
To recap – one of the main challenges in RAAM is the distance. To put that distance into perspective, it's roughly equivalent to cycling from London to Istanbul or running the length of the Great Wall of China twice!! YIKES!
An incredible bi-product of this, however, is how the team are looking and feeling! Aaron has managed to shift some ‘pre-RAAM’ kgs and now fits into a smaller suit! ‘weigh’ to go Aaron!
With this said, not every training session has to be an endurance test!
Sometimes, it’s the simple things like riding with your son to school that really cements our why behind doing Race across America and raising money for our wonderful New Zealand charities! How good is this pic from rider Ben?
It's not all fun and games though. We have had accidents and a few falls but it's not stopping the team in the slightest! Especially when the tree 'jumped out in front of you' and it was clearly not your fault...
One of our biggest challenges will be the time that the riders have to get to the finish line by. The clock starts ticking the moment the riders set off from Oceanside, California, and doesn't stop until they cross the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland. To complete RAAM within the time limit, riders must average around 500-700kms per day, which means they have to ride for up to 22 hours a day.
The team will be prepping for this by undertaking practice runs, as well as various crew meetings to make sure we are all up to date with transitions, and what will overall cost us time-wise during the race if we are not at the top of our game.
Now for some more exciting news!!
If you missed it, we have our very exciting Charity event this Saturday night.
This Saturday, May 6th we will be holding an event to raise funds to support our charities Mitey, Belgravia, Ronald McDonald House, Inspire and Raise Up.
Hosted by Ben, Aaron, Mark and Phil, this is an evening not to be missed with food & drink provided as well as lots of entertainment from our crown karaoke and charity auction. With your help, we can help to raise our goal of $100k for children and youth charities in New Zealand!
It’s going to be an amazing event and we can't wait to see you there!
We also now have our full crew confirmed and if you are interested in taking a sneak peek of the incredible individuals aka ‘the chosen ones’ who are nuts enough to come on this race, you can check them out here: https://nzblue.org/pages/meet-the-crew
Overall, we are so excited, but nervous. This race is no joke and is one of the toughest endurance races in the world and for good reason.
The combination of distance, time, terrain, weather, and mental challenges make it a monumental task for even the most elite athletes.
For TEAM NZBLUE we are willing to put in the work and dedication required to succeed, so not only can we change the lives of many Kiwis but also join the elite group of RAAM finishers (we have no doubt we will finish), and from there make sure we tell every single person we ever meet until the day we die.
However, we need as much help as we can get!
If you are in the position to help then we would be forever grateful for any donation you can make to help change children’s lives! You can sponsor our charities here: https://nzblue.org/collections/charity-sponsorship
Thanks,
Team NZBLUE!