Wee Winter Woolies

Skelton breaks race spirit

Keventa, Arizona, to South Fork, Colorado

It feels like Team iRONman - or more specifically cyclist Ron Skelton - has really broken the spirit of the Race Across America course on Saturday.

After his determined ride through Friday night, he arrives in Durango more than three hours under the cutoff time for disqualification, takes a wee 90-minute nap to regroup and then simply knocks off the highest point of the 3000-mile RAAM journey.

His progress through Saturday is painful to watch at times as Ron begins his climb into the Colorado Rockies. The sand and desert of Arizona is quickly a memory, and Utah’s orange rock formations are gone in the blink of an eye as we pass into the fourth state of our trip.

Colorado immediately switches the colour pastel to shades of green and then takes an upward path. It’s not pretty to watch at times as the iRONman takes on the climb.

Ron rode 800 miles (1280km) around Lake Taupo last year to qualify for this event and that was the furthest he had ever traveled on a bike. He passes that milestone somewhere on the road between Montezuma Creek and Cortez, and is now setting personal records.

The course is not just rolling over for him, though. Only a couple of days ago, we were below sea level and battling temperatures - now we're in the clouds, fighting for air and, at times, piling on the winter woolies.

Given the pressure exerted on the RAAM riders to make Durango by midnight Saturday, our arrival is an anticlimax. We're marshaled into a park with a few other stragglers, where we quietly acknowledge our achievement and allow Ron a brief respite before departing on the next leg.

The real party is probably taking place across town where the Race Across the West, run in tandem with RAAM, is finishing.

While Ron seems to be going from strength to strength, others are starting to crack. A problem often faced by RAAM cyclists is the complete loss of strength in their neck muscles from trying to hold their heads up for so long. In the past, every manner of weird contraption has been employed to overcome this affliction and Team iRONman has a strategy in place should it happen to Ron.

American Randy Mouri needs a surgical neck brace to get him through the day and although his condition improves, chances are he’ll need it again before the finish in Annapolis, still a week away.

After climbing most of the day, the Massey truck driver is ecstatic to reach Wolf Creek Pass - higher than Mt Ruapehu - in the early hours of the morning. This was one of the milestones he most looked forward to when he lined up for this race and not even freezing temperatures can dampen his sense of accomplishment.

10/21/10 Outfit of the week! « The Wild Side

The Deal – take 25 % off your purchase of Wee Winter Woolies (by Flap Happy) for girls, or 25% off of all Charlie Rockets shirts and Wes & Willy pants for the boys.

For the girlies:

Just in, we have cute, cute, cute clothing from Flap Happy’s fall/winter line, Wee Winter Woolies.  This collection of girls clothing start at 12 months and goes up to 4T.  It’s adorable!  We have dresses, a jumper, shirts and leggings!

Drama: technique and philosophy

Speak for your self, an integrated method of voice and speech training

The Rotarian

The Knitter, A Fictionalised Memoir

District nursing, providing care in a supportive context