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They’ll dip their bicycle wheels into the Pacific Ocean today and, six days from now – God willing – they’ll do the same in the Atlantic.
They are the nearly 30 cyclists riding in the 2007 Race Across America for Team Donate Life, a group founded by health-care providers, organ donors and organ recipients to educate the public about the life-saving benefits of organ donation and to raise funds toward continued transplant research.
Team Donate Life is only one of many teams participating in RAAM 2007, billed as the world’s toughest bicycle race.
Begun in 1982, RAAM is now the world’s longest-running ultra-distance bicycle endurance competition. Unlike the Tour de France, where riders cover a set distance each day, RAAM participants are racing against the clock from the time the starting gun fires in Oceanside, Calif., today at 2:00 pm until they cross the finish line in Atlantic City, N.J.
Based on past races, the winning 8-person team should complete the race on Sunday.
In addition to the 8-person teams, RAAM has 2-person, 4-person and solo categories. Because teams travel faster than solo riders, the solo racers left the starting line two days ago.
Along the 3,043-mile route, teams are required to report into race headquarters on the East Coast from 56 time stations spaced approximately 50 miles apart. That information is used to track the position of the teams and solo riders and will be posted in real time online at the RAAM website.
Team Donate Life has fielded six teams this year – two in the 2-person, one in the 4-person and three in the 8-person categories. TDL teams will collectively ride a total of 18,000 miles, use up 2,500 vacation hours, and climb 700,000 feet in elevation to encourage people to register as organ donors and raise funds for educational programs and transplant research.
“Why? We believe the rigors of our cyclists pale in comparison to the the journey of close to 100,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. More than one-third of them will die before a suitable donor can be found. Another name is added to the waiting list every 15 minutes. Each of our cyclists will ride in honor of an individual waiting for an organ transplant,” the TDL website reads.
 Joan Roby, organ donor, and Simeon Trotter, organ recipient |
One of those individuals who won’t be waiting for a transplant is Simeon Trotter. Until last year, Trotter was dying from kidney failure and on the waiting list for a cadaver kidney to become available. That’s when fellow church member, Joan Roby stepped forward and offered one of hers. After all, didn’t Luke’s Gospel say, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none”? Roby had two working kidneys and Trotter’s were soon to shut down completely.
This year, Roby is a member of the 10-person crew supporting one of TDL’s 8-person teams – Grace Valley from Davis, Calif. It’s suitable Davis – “the bicycle capital of the U.S.” and home of the University of California’s Davis School of Medicine – should field a team. What’s a bit unusual is that its eight riders and 10-person support crew are all members of the same church, Grace Valley Christian Center.
 Grace Valley crew chief Ken Jackura |
While the focus is on the grueling physical challenge the competitors face, riding in round-the-clock relays across the continent, the logistical challenge of having a moving rider on the road at all times is daunting. Crew chief Ken Jackura has everyone’s schedule – riders and support crew – meticulously laid out on a spreadsheet that stretches several feet. No detail, including sleep time, is left out.
Jackura is also counting on mapping software and global positioning devices to keep the team on the right track. RAAM rules require riders who stray from the prescribed course to return to the point where they departed before continuing. While most of the course is over long stretches of open road, missing time stations or turns in cities is a concern. He’s counting on the GPS-equipped laptops to alert him with voice warnings: “Turn right in one-fourth mile.”
Riders, of course, don’t have laptops on their bicycles. But the 2-person crew in the follow vehicle does. Their job is to keep the rider on course and alert him to upcoming turns by horn signals.
The support team will travel with two recreational vehicles where meals will be prepared and everyone will sleep at their scheduled times. The caravan – which will be stretched out over 150 miles at times – is completed by a shuttle vehicle that transports riders and a rover vehicle to ferry people among all the vehicles and to do necessary tasks like buy groceries, wash clothes and, maybe, send e-mail. Above all, the riders need to be fed, hydrated and rested.
For the Grace Valley team, the effort is also about their faith and their church community. Crew-member Roby’s organ donation to save the life of another member of their church family has been a powerful motivation for all of them. But the goal, for the next six days and 3,000 miles, is to increase the number of organ donors.
Dr. Richard Perez, chief of transplant surgery and the medical director of the transplant center at UC Davis Medical Center agrees.
A single donor “can make a difference in 10-15 people’s lives,” he said. “I don’t think people realize the magnitude of that impact, if they did I think many more people would say yes.
“Most people will say – it’s about 90 percent will say – yes, we’d love to have our organs donated, but when it comes down to the time that a family is actually asked, the acceptance rate is less than half.”
Perez was a rider for Grace Valley’s 2006 team and one of the transplant surgeons who helped saved Simeon Trotter’s life.
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