Indonesian Digital News Archive

If you're looking to get your adventure racing fix this weekend, look no further than the Checkpoint Tracker AR Championship, which takes place in Oak Hill, West Virginia starting Saturday. The event, which caps a full season of racing in North America, will pit some of the best teams from across the U.S. against one another on a 100+ mile (160+ km) course that is expected to take up to 30 hours to complete.

In addition to the usual trail running, mountain biking and kayaking sections, the race will also feature whitewater rafting, river boarding and an orienteering course. Participants will be competing as solo racers or on teams of two or four depending on the make-up of their squad, with all-male, all-female and coed teams scheduled to race. They'll all take to the starting line tomorrow at 10:30 AM local time and race through until the official cut-off at 2:30 PM Saturday afternoon.

The entire event will take place inside the beautiful Gauley River National Recreation Area, which is well known for its Class V+ paddling, deep gorges and remote wilderness. It should be a spectacular time to be there as the autumn leaves begin to change and the cooler air of the season moves in. Hopefully the teams will be able to take a little time to enjoy the scenery as the fly past it during the race.

Good luck to everyone this weekend. Race hard and be safe!

The more things change in the world of adventure racing, the more they stay the same. A decade ago a team called Seagate, led by Kiwi captain Nathan Fa'avae, dominated the sport, earning multiple world championships. With a premature retirement behind Fa'avae and a new Team Seagate are back at the top of the rankings, winning the 2012 AR World Championship at the Raid in France last week.

Fa'avae was joined by teammates Chris Forne, Sophie Hart and Trevor Voyce in claiming victory on a course that featured some of the most rugged and beautiful backcountry in all of Europe. The course featured high altitude treks, plenty of climbing, challenging mountain biking and good paddling sections. It all made for a fantastic experience for the new champs and the other teams involved.

Seagate managed to complete the course in a total time of 125 hours, 40 minutes. For those new to the sport of adventure racing, that means the competed for more than five days straight, taking only brief rests here and their. They managed to outlast defending champs Thule Adventure Team, who claimed second place with a time of 129 hours, 17 minutes. Team Silva claimed third place with a total time of 130 hours, 8 minutes. Many of the other teams were still coming across the finish line over the weekend, several days behind the winners.

That'll wrap up another great season for the AR World Series. There are still a few good races to come this year, but already teams are starting to look forward to competing in 2013, when the world championship will be held in Costa Rica.

Congratulations to the new champs and to everyone who competed in this great event.

A new ultra-length stage race is set to get underway this weekend in the western United States, where some of the top endurance runners in the world have gathered to take on a unique course that will undoubtedly challenge them both mentally and physically. The seven-day, six-stage event will cover more than 160 miles (257 km) and feature over 21,700 ft (6614 meters) of vertical gain.

The race is called the Grand to Grand Ultra, deriving its name from the fact that it begins at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and ends at the summit of the Grand Staircase in Utah. Over the course of next week, competitors in the event will be running an average of 28 miles per day, mostly through remote desert regions as they pass through two national forests and Zion National Park on their way to the finish line.

As is typical with these kinds of events, the G2G Ultra requires that all of the competitors be self supporting while out on the course. That means they won't just be running more than a marathon per day, but they'll also have to carry all of their gear with them while out on the course. Mandatory gear includes first aid and emergency supplies, a windproof jacket, lightweight sleeping bag and more. They'll also need to haul their food and water with them as well although they will receive fresh water at each of the checkpoints they pass through along the way.

One of the things that I find most interesting about this race is that the organizers are giving away some of the proceeds to charity. This year they selected one of my favorite organizations, impossible2Possible, to be the beneficiary of those charitable contributions. I've written numerous times about the efforts of i2P, which encourages education and physical activity through the use of adventure. The non-profit organizes a couple of expeditions to remote places on the planet each year and then interacts with students and faculty in a variety of classrooms to help raise awareness of global issues. It's a great program and one I'm always happy to see get some attention.

The G2G Ultra actually begins Sunday morning at the North Rim. While it is underway you should be able to get updates from the official website. And if you want to take part in the 2013 version of the race, they are already accepting early bird applications.

The Adventure Racing World Championships are set to get underway tomorrow in France, where 65 of the top teams, representing 30 countries, will take to the starting line for this expedition length race. Over the next eight days, those teams will battle it out on a tough 520km (323 mile) course designed to test their endurance and skill and push these endurance athletes to their absolute limits.

This year's ARWC is being hosted by the Raid In France and features a course that runs through the L'Argentiére-la-Bessé region of the Alps. The route includes more than 20,000 meters (65,616 ft) of total climbing, with more than half of the race taking place above 2000 meters (6561 ft). The coed teams of four will be put to the test as they trek, mountain bike, paddle and navigate their way across one of the more spectacular landscapes in all of Europe.

Today the teams will have a final briefing and run a short prologue ahead of the official start of the race tomorrow at 6AM local time. They'll then have up to eight days to complete the entire course, although the faster teams such as the defending champs Team Thule and the Kiwi squad of Seagate, are expected to finish in around five days.

Once the event gets underway the race will have a live leaderboard and GPS tracking of the teams. As of this writing neither of those are active just yet. When they do go online you'll be able to follow the action at www.live.raidinfrance.com.

Good luck to all of the teams and especially so to my friends who are competing this week. Race hard, be safe and have fun!

This past weekend the North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc took place in the Alps. Over the past decade, the race has earned itself a reputation for being one of the toughest competitions on the planet as runners attempt to circumnavigate around Mont Blanc, passing through France, Italy and Switzerland in the process. The route, which features more than 9600 m (31,496 ft) of climbing, is typically 168km (104 miles) in length, but this year, bad weather caused last minute changes which dropped those distances dramatically. That didn't necessarily make it a much easier race to run however.

On Friday, when the race was scheduled to get underway, UTMB organizers announced that due to wet conditions and cold temperatures they had elected to alter the course. The new route would stay completely within France and was cut down to just 103km (64 miles) and 5790 meters (19,000 ft) of climbing. That didn't seem to dampen the spirits of many of the runners however as thousands of them hit the trail to test their skills. A little more than ten and a half hours later, the first competitor was crossing the finish line.

French runner Francois D'Haene claimed first place in the men's division finishing more than a half-hour in front of second place runner Jonas Buud. American Michael Foote claimed third, finishing at 11 hours, 19 minutes even. On the women's side of the bracket, Brit ultra-legend Lizzy Hawker took first place once again, earning her a record fifth UTMB title. She was an hour and five minutes ahead of second place finisher Francesca Canepa, with third place going to Emma Roca with a time of 13 hours, 23 minutes, 37 seconds. Hawker also managed to finish 16th overall, marking the first time ever that a woman finished in the top 20.

Congratulations to the winners and all the runners of the race. It's a shame the weather reared its guly head once again, but the event still went off well and the top finishers remain tremendous athletes.

Speaking of the North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, I received this inforgraphic that helps to put the event into perspective. The race kicks off later today and will run through the weekend, although the fastest runners will hit the finish line tomorrow. Follow the race live at Ultratrail.tv and on the UTMB Facebook page.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, today marks the start of the 2012 North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc in France. Some of the best endurance runners in the world have gathered in Chamonix, where they'll soon set out on a 168km (104 mile) run around Mont Blanc, the tallest peak in western Europe. Now in its tenth year, the race has become one of the biggest and most well know ultra-marathons on the planet.

All told there will be more than 6000 runners, from 73 countries, who will be attempting the UTMB this year. Amongst them will be American Mike Foote, who finished in 11th place in 2011. Mike recently sat down with National Geographic to share his gear list for the race, which was posted on the NG Adventure Blog yesterday. If you ever wondered what an ultra-runner carries with him when he hits the trail, you'll definitely want to give this story a look.

As you can probably tell from the image, Mke actually won't be taking a lot of stuff with him. In addition to his trail running shoes, shorts and a couple of t-shirts, he'll also have a  North Face Featherlite Rain Jacket, a Black Diamond Icon headlamp, hydration bladder, a variety of nutritional options, gloves and a sun visor. All of which he'll carry in a lightweight backpack designed specifically for this race.

The UTMB is known for being a grueling event for the milage alone but the weather tends to be unpredictable and fickle as well. It is not uncommon for the runners to experience scorching heat, howling winds, rain and blizzards all on the same day. Considering the trail wanders up and down the mountain, giving the runners a total of 9600 meters (31,496 ft) of vertical gain, its little wonder that they need to carry extra clothing for the event.

For the first time ever, this year's UTMB is being broadcast live onto the web. To follow the race simply click here.

Anyone who exercises regularly knows that nutrition before, during and after your workout is extremely important. There is nothing worse than getting halfway through an tough run or ride only to hit the wall because you lack calories to see you through to the end.

Recently I've had the opportunity to try out a number of new energy bars, gels and other nutritional items and I have to say I've come away impressed. Not only have these options improved dramatically in taste and variety, they've also become far more sophisticated and effective as well. As a result, outdoor athletes now have a large variety of goodies to help power them through their workout routines. Here are a few suggestions for items that I've been using of late.

Honey Stinger
Back at Outdoor Retailer earlier this month I dropped by the Honey Stinger booth to check out the different nutritional items they had on display. The generous staff manning the booth sent me along my way with an excellent sampling of their various energy gels, chews and bars. For a few days I carried that bag around with me, almost forgetting that I had it with me. But when I got home I was delighted to re-discover it amongst all the other stuff I was lugging home from the show. A few days later I started sampling the goodies and it wasn't long before I was hooked.

As you can probably tell from the name, honey is a key component in all of the company's products. As a natural sweetener it brings a nice, but not over powering, taste to the Honey Stinger product line. I found that their energy chews in particular were tasty without being overly sweet which I appreciated before setting off on a long run. It doesn't hurt that they are also organic and don't include any GMO ingredients either. They also happened to be smaller and a bit easier to chew from some of the other chews on the market. It wasn't long before I found myself grabbing a bag here and there for a snack even when I wasn't working out.

After nearly the entire line of Honey Stinger products I found that I really liked everything in their line-up. Their organic energy shots were tasty without being too thick and their protein bars were tasty as well. Especially the Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond. But hands down my favorite treat is their Honey Stinger Waffles. These thin and tasty wafers simply must be tried by anyone looking for a new nutrition option to add to their repertoire. They're so good, they're actually addictive and they come in classic flavors like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. You won't believe that they are actually all natural and completely organic. Definitely a must try!



Clif Bars
When it comes to energy bars, Cliff Bars have been my go-to choice for years. The company has done a good job of continuing to refine its line-up and make tastier bars in a variety of flavors. They've even created bars for specific athletes, including their famous Luna bars that are designed for women and the Z-bar for kids.

Recently the company has introduced a item to its line-up called the Builder 's bar. These bars contain 20g of protein that not only provides plenty of post-workout fuel but also helps to build muscle as well. That's all well and good of course, as there are plenty of similar bars on the market. What sets this one apart however, is that it just might be the best tasting energy bar I've ever eaten.

Some of the great flavors available include Chocolate, Crunch Peanut Butter and Cookies n' Cream. All of those are good but my favorites are S'Mores and Chocolate Mint. They taste so good you actually can't wait to have one after a workout as opposed to some bars I've had in the past which were almost a chore to eat. These were definitely a pleasant surprise the first time I tried them.

Gu Energy
Gu Energy is another company that has been making nutritional products for some time and have continued to refine their options over the years. I've used a number of their products for some time and I find that I like most of their line-up as well. For instance, I'm a fan of the Roctane energy drink mixes and their Electrolyte Brew tablets are a convenient option that I carry with me regularly as well. Of course, the Gu Energy Gel is pretty much the industry standards in terms of energy shots and they remain an excellent option.

Recently I've been enjoying the Gu Recovery Brew drink which I mix with a little milk and ice to make a fantastic smoothy. The chocolate flavored one in particular tastes more like a shake from your favore fast food joint rather than a nutritional drink designed to help facilitate recovery and build muscle after an intense workout. Each Recovery Brew includes plenty of protein, amino acids, antioxidants and carbs to help the body get stronger, but when drinking one it is hard to imagine that it actually good for you.

These are just a few of the tasty items I've been enjoying lately. If you're tired of your energy bars and gels, then you may want to consider adding one of these options to your pantry. Each of them are packed with tasty and healthy ingredients and they are also proof that just because its good for you doesn't mean that it can't taste amazing too.

One of the toughest endurance races on the planet will take place this weekend with the start of the North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, which officially gets underway on Friday. The course begins and ends in Chamonix, France and crosses into Switzerland, as it covers 168km (104 miles), of tough mountain terrain, completely circumnavigating around Mont Blanc in the process. Oh, and it also happens to feature 9600 meters (31,496 ft) of ascent too.

This year, for the first time ever, the event will be broadcast live on the web. Considering the coverage kicks off tomorrow and runs for 84 hours straight, that's an impressive feat of endurance as well. The live broadcasts start Thursday, August 30 at 06:00 local time and will continue with 15-minute news briefs through Sunday, September 2.

At the start of the event, more than 6000 runners from 73 countries will take the line. How many of them actually finish remains to be seen. This is one of the largest and most difficult tests of endurance on the planet and isn't for the faint of heart. We'll probably get to witness some of the suffering first hand on these live broadcasts over the next few days.

Good luck to all the runners!



The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® by UltraTrailMontBlanc

Athletes looking for a unique new event to compete in next year may be interested to hear that NASA will play host to a triathlon on the grounds of Kennedy Space Center. The event, appropriately named the Rocketman Triathlon, will take place on May 5, 2013, with the biking leg running through the Cape and past some very important historical sites for the American space program.

The Rocketman Tri will feature three lengths, giving everyone who would like to compete an opportunity to enter. Those lengths include the following:

• Classic +
Swim 1/2 mile, Bike 34 miles (approx.), Run 4 miles 

• International +
Swim .93 miles, Bike 34 miles (approx.), Run 6.2 miles

• Half Iron
Swim 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, Run 13.1 miles

Registration is set to open on September 1st, which gives you eight months to train for the race.

On a personal note, I visited Kennedy Space Center a number of years back and found it to be quite an interesting place. In addition to all of the space related exhibits and sites to explore, the area also happens to be the site of Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. As a result, KSC isn't just fascinating for all the history there, but for it's close proximity to some spectacular natural beauty as well. It seems like it should be a fun place to hold a triathlon.

The 2012 Gold Rush Mother Lode Adventure Race is under way in the Sierra Mountains of California.  The five day evet pits 14 coed teams against one another in a non-stop race on foot, mountain bike and kayak and serves as a North American qualifier for the AR World Championship to be held in France later this year.

The Gold Rush actually got underway yesterday and teams are now well into the early part of the course. You can follow their progress on the Mother Lode website, which features web tracking and regular updates on the Race Coverage page, which is being fed via Twitter. At the moment there appears to be some issues with the leaderboard however, as all the teams are ranked as #1.

The race should continue through the weekend with the first teams possibly hitting the finish line on Saturday with the rest trickling in throughout Sunday. There are some excellent athletes in this event so it should be a hotly contested race. If you're a fan of AR the Gold Rush should provide your fix over the next few days.

The Checkpoint Tracker series of adventure races consists of dozens of great AR events spread out across the U.S. each year. Top teams can compete for points in those races then go head-to-head against one another in the annual championship race which will be held in West Virginia in September. Earlier today I received the following note from race management that will certainly be of interest to adventure racing teams looking for a great challenge this fall.

With 200 points on the line, and because it serves as the final tie-breaker, the 2012 Checkpoint Tracker Championship will play a critical role in determining the overall standings for the 2012 season...but the field is not limited to teams competing for points and rankings!! 

With no qualifying requirements the race is open to every adventure racing team and anyone with an adventurous spirit, no matter your motivation. 

Maybe you want to toe the line with the best racers in North America to see how you stack up. Perhaps just finishing the nearly 100 mile course is your goal. 

No matter what moves you, we invite you to experience the exciting culmination of the 2012 adventure racing season at the Checkpoint Tracker Adventure Racing Championship presented by Swiftwick.

Join us the weekend of September 28th at the Ace Resort in West Virginia for 30 hours of non-stop racing followed by the Swiftwick Afterparty featuring live music, great food and drinks, door prizes and awards ceremony. 

With a professionally designed course managed by Odyssey Adventure Racing you are guaranteed a once in a lifetime racing experience set amongst the roaring rivers and brilliant fall foliage of beautiful Oak Hill, WV. 

We look forward to seeing you next month!! 

Register your team by August 31st and save $50 per racer.

 There you have it. Everything you need to know to compete in the Checkpoint Tracker Championship and if register before the end of the month, you'll even get a discount. Seems like a great deal for a great event to me.

Over the past couple of years I've written on more than one occasion about Jesper Olsen and his World Run II, the epic follow-up to the World Run, which Jesper completed in October 2005. On that test of endurance Olsen ran around the world, east to west, covering 26,232km (16,300 miles) in the process. For World Run II, the Danish endurance athlete wanted to set the bar even higher, aiming to cover nearly 40,000km (24,854 miles) as he ran from the northernmost point in Europe to the tip of South Africa before hopping across the ocean to South America and running north to New Foundland in Canada. A few days ago he reached his finish line at last, bringing an end to the longest fully documented run ever.

As I write this, Jesper is already back home and no doubt enjoying some much needed rest. But on July 27 he ran the final 200km (124 miles), mostly in rain and fog to reach the tip of Cape Spear along the Atlantic coast. His final GPS reading for the run? A staggering 36,896.8km (22,926.6 miles). That number is likely to be well off the mark however as his tracking device wasn't capable of handling more 99km at a time. That means the final tally is likely to exceed 37,000km (22,990 miles).

In his dispatch announcing the completion of the run, Jesper said that he is looking forward to getting back to his "normal" long distance running routine, namely 10k's and marathons. He also announced his retirement from these kinds of long distance endurance runs. His resume includes the first east-west run around the world and the first north-south run as well. He's also the first person to complete two runs around the world, racking up a mind boggling 63,000+km (39,146 miles) in the process. Whew! My legs are tired just thinking about that.

Huge congratulations to Jesper on this amazing achievement. I do hope he arrived home safely and is enjoying some time in an easy chair in front of the telly. He's definitely earned it.

As always, major thanks to Darrell Raubenheimer for keeping posted on Jesper's progress. Much appreciated mate!

A month back we were treated to a fantastic video called Wild Love which featured Jake Norton and wife Wende Valentine. That video showed how the couple balanced a life filled with travel and adventure while still remaining close and connected. Now we have a new video in the Wild Love series, this time with ultra-runner Krissy Moehl as the subject.

Krissy is one of the top runners in the world but having success on the trail doesn't always mean things are so well balanced in the rest of her life. She talks about the importance of personal connections with friends and family and what it means to share the experiences of her life.


Wild Love: Krissy Moehl from Andy Maser on Vimeo.

Endurance athletes looking for a new challenge have an interesting new event to add to their calendar. On September 8th the team behind the Untamed New England adventure race will produce the North Country Endurance Challenge, a multi-sport race through the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont.

The race, which features two different courses to choose from, is essentially an adventure triathlon mixing paddling, mountain biking and trail running into a single day event for relay teams or solo competitors. Racers will kayak the Connecticut River, run narrow back woods trails and take on challenging and technical singletrack as they climb up mountain passes and bomb down the other side.

The Premiere Course is 65 miles in length, and is estimated to take about 10-12 hours to complete. But if you're interesting in something a bit less daunting there is also an option to run the "Sprint" course, which is a mere 31 miles in length with a finish time of approximately 5-6 hours.

As mentioned, the race is open to solo racers who want to tackle the entire course themselves or relay teams consisting of anywhere from 2 to 10 racers. Relay teams are allowed to select which of their athletes do each individual leg of the race which means they can put their best paddlers on the water, runners on the trail sections and mountain bikers on the bike. It also helps to divvy up the work load on what could be a very long day.

Registration for the North Country Endurance Challenge is now open. Solo racers can sign up for the Premiere or Sprint courses for $175 and $100 respectively. Relay teams pay $100/racer for the Premiere course and $60/racer for the Sprint. Looks like it should be a fun day of racing in September. Find out more about the race at the official website.

A lot of runners and cyclists toy with the idea of trying a triathlon but are often daunted not only be the training regimen but also the expense in putting together all the gear that they need. After all, buying a bike, wetsuit, running shoes and all of the other equipment can get a little costly. But tech website Gizmodo (of all places!) had launched a new feature called The Outfit in which they'll show us how to put together complete packages of gear without killing our wallets. Their first installment takes a look at the tri package.

Gizmodo recommends some very good, yet affordable, gear in their article. For example, they suggest the Pearl Izumi Tri Suit as your "base layer" for the race. The suit costs just $100, which is indeed reasonable for a high quality athletic garment like this one. If you go cut-rate with your clothes, you can live to regret it as no one wants to be uncomfortable in the middle of a race. They also go on to suggest a wetsuit, googles, bike helmet water bottles and more.

The area that they recommend saving the most cash on is the bike, but in order to do that Gizmodo suggests going the Craig's List route. They budgeted $400, which is the only way this list comes in under $1000 total. I'm not sure how much luck you'll have finding a quality bike on CL and this is one area where your mileage will certainly vary.

All in all though, this is a solid piece on how to get into triathlons without killing your budget. If you're just starting off in the sport, this gear will do you just fine.

This is one that doesn't usually sneak under my radar but I missed the start of the 2012 Badwater Ultramarathon and have spent part of the day catching up on the news. For those unfamiliar with the event it is an annual sufferfest during which some of the top ultra-runners in the world run 135 miles (217km) non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney in California. Along the way they rack up an incredible 13,000 feet (3962 meters) of vertical gain and battle the legendary heat that earned Death Valley its name.

The race got underway yesterday and the top finishers are already completing the course. The 2012 winner is Mike Morton who managed to complete the entire 135 miles in just 22 hours, 52 minutes, and 55 seconds. Defending champ Oswaldo Lopez claimed second place at 23:32:28" and Zach Gingerich is home in third at 25:49:40". Other ultra-running legends like Dean Karnazes and Pam Reed are still out on the course at this time.

Why on Earth would anyone enter a race like this one? If you have to ask, you'll probably never understand. But the pre-race video below gives a bit of an introduction to some of the runners, who share their inspirations for entering the Badwater.

One of the toughest and most well known adventure races in the U.S. is set to get underway tomorrow when 49 of the best teams in the world embark on the 2012 Untamed New England event. The four-day long, non-stop race will also serve as a qualifier for this year's AR World Championship to be held in France this September.

As is typical with this kind of race, the athletes will be tested in a host of disciplines that include trail running, paddling, mountain biking, climbing and more. The emphasis of the Untamed New England is on coed teams of four, although there will be teams of two and three competing as well. The prize package for the inner includes $5000 in cash and free entry into the ARWC. The second place finisher will earn a free entry as well.

Northern Maine will provide the wilderness course for this year's event and anyone who has ever visited the region knows that it is a spectacular setting. Rugged and remote, the course will no doubt provide plenty of challenges to go along with the beauty that is found there.

Good luck to all the teams competing in the race. Keep your eyes peeled for bears and stay safe out there.

Adventure racing teams looking for a great race this year will want to mark September 29th on their calendars, as that is when the 2012 Checckpoint Tracker National Championship will take place in Oak Hill, West Virginia. The race, which will feature the usual AR disciplines of trail running, mountain biking and paddling will be 100 miles in length and take roughly 30 hours to complete.

Registration for the event is already open, and filling up fast, so if you're interested in racing in this event I'd recommend you sign-up ASAP. The course design and race management are being handled by Odyssey Adventure Racing this year and if you know anything about the sport, you know that they have a sterling reputation for putting on quality events.

The Gauley River National Recreation Area will be the setting for the 2012 edition of the race and we're promised plenty of Class III and IV whitewater for the kayaking and river boarding sections. A zipline will also be part of the course this year as well, adding another adrenaline inducing thrill to the event.

For more information click here.

Update: When I originally posted this story I noted that registration was already open. Early registration actually started today, June 18. Sign up early and receive a discount on entry, but early-bird discount ends on July 1.

The annual Race Across America (RAAM) got underway yesterday in San Diego, California, where the first participants hit the road on this epic cycling challenge. The race, which is in its 30th year, will now proceed across the U.S., eventually ending in Annapolis, Maryland some 3000 miles (4828km) later.

The competition actually features a staggered start with the solo women, and men over the age of 60, setting out yesterday. Today they'll be joined by the solo men with all of the teams beginning on Saturday. It is estimated that the first riders will begin crossing the finish line around the 21st of June, which means they'll have ridden the entire distance in about eight days. Most of the cyclists will arrive between June 21-25.

RAAM is unique in its approach and scope. This isn't a stage race and riders are free to use any strategy they want to complete the course. They will have to follow a preset route and pass through several checkpoints along the way, but they can ride for as many hours in the day as they feel comfortable.

The course is definitely a challenging one. It features more than 170,000 feet of climbing and passes through 12 states on its way across the country. The cyclists begin at the Oceanside Pier in California and end at the City Dock in Maryland, in between they'll ride through 350 town and cities.

One of the riders in the race is 70-year old Michael Patterson who is part of a four-man team that will begin the ride on Saturday. Patterson its on the board of the Trust for Public Lands and he and his teammates are riding to raise funds for that organization. The TPL will use those funds to help create "parks with a purpose," setting aside lands for public use across the United States.

Good luck to all the riders and enjoy the ride.