My experience as a RAAM 2012 Official

Not too many years ago I was the clinical director of a psychiatric hospital.  As this was a `new' psychiatric hospital, founded by a religious order, it was undergirded by the assumption of good intentions and hard work until we got it properly up and running.  We had patients whose problems resulted in aggressive and violent behavior.  I found some, though scant, succor thinking that my peers and the religious hierarchy wanted to get at the root of the problem.

I was wrong.

Rather, senior management and the religious hierarchy were willfully blind to the chaos that permitted the violent spirals.  It was a long, painful and shameful chapter in my professional life.  But I have learned a lesson that I will never forget and is now like a very fine tuned `problem detector.' 

The closer we are to a problem the more likely we are to lose perspective.

For the past five days I was a RAAM Official between Time Station 6 and Time Station 10.  The dedication and good will of all the participants (racers, crew, race organizers, volunteers) is genuine and serious.  I would venture to say that several hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised by these good folks for charities and the needy. 

But there were / are problems.  The spirit of `the race' is so intense that it fogs our ability to see the danger right before our eyes. 

The first entrants to the Race were solo men over age 60 and women (they started on Tuesday).  The second entrants to the Race were solo men under age 60 (they started on Wednesday).

The solo racers were very, very well served by their crews.  They were able to support their racer and maintain very safe practices.  Small errors were quickly discovered and corrected.  In very short order the racer and crew became focused both on the `race' and the logistics of the race.  The crew surrounded and supported their racer's needs, learning to anticipate stressful and difficult times.  My work as a RAAM Official brought me to a profound admiration of these heroes, both on the bike and in the support vehicles. 

-------------

On Saturday the 4- and 8-person teams of racers were started.  The team crews included as many as 20 persons and 4 and 5 support vehicles (SUVs, RV and motorhomes)

For the first 395 miles (to TS6 - Congress) of relatively level desert terrain allowed a slow but effective melding of complex logistics.  Racer exchanges were smooth.  Direct follow from vans at night took place with care and in full compliance with RAAM Rules. 

Not so when the teams began the long 135 mile series of steep and twisty climbs from TS6 to TS9 (Flagstaff).  The worry about keeping `race pace' saw some teams making racer exchanges every five minutes as they `burned' up 4 - 11% inclines for miles after mile. 

Several crew support vehicles became clearly confused, not knowing when to make racer exchanges, where the support vehicles need to be to make the exchange of racers. 

Some support vehicles were in clear violation of `no direct follow' rules.  Instead, they simply either forgot this rule or were trying to circumvent it.  In a few cases I saw support vehicles driving within 20 - 30 feet ahead of the racer, effectively forming a wind-free zone for the racer.

Crew vehicles were following racers at 8 - 12mph up narrow, mountain grade, twisting two lane roads with little, if any shoulder.  This caused commercial and private vehicles to `pile up' behind crew vehicles.  Private drivers were angry and frustrated because they knew that passing crew vehicles on numerous blind corners risked dangerous headon crashes.  Yet, amidst this danger private vehicles crossed the double yellow lines on blind corners risking head on collisions and the possibility of forcing RAAM crew vehicles and RAAM racers off steep cliff drop-offs.

As the RAAM race official for these dangerous roads (which, by the way, are strewn with `shrines' along side the roads for motorcyclists who have crashed, skidded and.or gone flying off the steep ravine drop-offs.)

Many RAAM crew were not competent in English and refused to stop and engaged in argumentation with the RAAM Race Official.

There were just too many racers and crew vehicles breaking the rules (leapfrog, don't shadow your racer, blocking crosswinds for their racer) for me to be effective.

Further there were very few RAAM Officials along this stretch of road (TS6 - TS10).   I found myself rolling up and back the route to demonstrate to the crew that I was `watching' them.  In some instances I believe the crew purposely played the `foreign-language game' and nodded while they continued to break the rules.

1. I think that the RAAM rules are adequate to maintaining safety. 
2. I think that there should have been more race officials in conspicuously marked vehicles. 
3. I think that the race official should have the independent authority to issue `official warnings' and `official penalties' in the mountainous terrain.  
4. I think that the race official would be aided by having `Yellow' and `Red' tickets that they could issue to crew vehicles as an immediate and tangible signal of danger.   

 Candidly, I think that there were many close (potentially fatal) calls on this route.  They were lucky.