I awoke around midday having had a good 4 hours sleep and feeling much better than I did at the end of the previous stage. We were heading towards TS51 in Mount Airy (MD) where all crews were required to stop and check if they’d received any time penalties during the race. If they had, they had to wait there and serve the penalty before continuing to the finish. We’d had reports that Jon and Coz were making good progress, particularly given the lumpy terrain and the two large peaks that they had to negotiate. We estimated their arrival time at TS51 as 2:00 pm, which, with 50 miles to go, left Tom and I with 3 hours for us to complete the race in under 7 days. Before we started the race I was just hoping to finish within the 9 day time limit, so the prospect of finishing in less than 7 days was well beyond even Jon and Tom’s wildest speculations, and served to add an extra spice and more than a little tension to the stage. First however, we had to hope that we hadn’t received any time penalties. Mike came back with the news that we were in the clear so it was all systems go to ready ourselves for our challenge. Tom and I discussed tactics and came to the conclusion that it would be best to break the stage down into four 20 km legs. I then set about digging out my aero helmet and tightest fitting jersey to give myself as much aerodynamic advantage as possible. However, the main thing we had to do was to avoid any wrong turns. The first two miles of the stage had four turns in it so, as we had some time to spare, I asked Mike to drive us along the start of the route so that wouldn’t have any surprises. As we were heading towards the coast, the general trend of the stage was downhill. However, there were a few lumps to negotiate en route.

We returned to TS51 for a quick toilet break in the adjacent bike shop followed by a quick spruce up of the bikes including oiling the chain and inflating the tyres to optimal pressures. I took a couple of ‘pro-plus’ caffeine tablets to keep me alert (Tom’s nervous tension getting to me a little by now) and headed out to the roadside as the incoming crew arrived. At around 2:00 pm Jon appeared and I readied myself for the changeover. Unfortunately, everyone else was looking through the fence at the rear of the car park trying to spot Jon’s arrival ahead of time, and somehow missed his arrival. No matter, as Jon arrived I headed about 100 yards down the road before making the sharp right hand turn to set me on my way. The climb around the corner was a little steeper than I thought and my desire to maintain a good speed left me gasping for some air (Mike’s wise words of ‘don’t set off too quickly’ ringing in my ears). Nevertheless, I crested the rise and dropped into my aero position for the next few miles. The crew, (Mike, Tom, Jon, and Coz) caught up with me in the SUV after about 5 miles just as I reached the first proper climb of the leg. Despite my efforts, I remember wishing that they’d caught up with me a few minutes earlier when I was making much better progress. I was sure they were cursing my slow progress at that point (in hindsight, I’m sure they weren’t), such was the pressure to finish ahead of schedule. The next 7 miles or so were much better and I finally got into the SUV at the end of that first leg feeling like I’d done a good job. I could do with that kind of motivation for triathlons.

Tom continued to make good progress in the next leg, though his ability to control his enthusiasm was evidently worse than mine. Indeed, after a particularly sharp rise just after 20 miles of the stage, he gesticulated that he’d nothing left to give. We managed to persuade him to continue on for another couple of hundred yards so that we could make an effective change and I took over once again. Whilst Tom proceeded to lose his lunch by the roadside, I proceeded to enjoy a lovely section of the route on nice roads and with a gradual downward profile. The efforts of my first leg seemed to have both warmed me up and calmed me down, and I was able to enjoy the speed afforded by this section of the route. As we approached the outskirts of Annapolis, the surroundings changed from a rural to a more urban setting and the roads got much more congested. I kept glancing at the GPS to make sure I was on course as it was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the honks of the SUV from those of other vehicles. At one point, panic apparently set in with the crew as they felt I should have taken a right turn. Oblivious to this, I pressed on, relying on the GPS to guide me as the crew had got caught up in traffic. A few minutes later they caught up with me at a red light and Mike informed me that because they thought I’d gone wrong, they’d sent Jon out on what they felt was the correct route. Having now realised their error, they were going back for him. ‘Just keep following your GPS’ Mike called out as I continued on my way.

Apart from the annoyance of having to stop for red lights, I was making really good progress and even paused my bike computer at 20 km so that I had a record of my speed over that section of the stage. As the crew still hadn’t returned I continued to press on, feeling really elated with my progress and thanking ‘the Giant’ for getting me this far. I know it’s crazy, but I’ve had so many adventures on it that I’ve grown attached to it. Anyway, I’d have happily continued on to the end, but the crew (Jon now back on board) finally caught up with me with after I’d made a small faux pas at yet another freeway exit ramp, and we were able to make the changeover. Jon and Tom shared the final 12 miles of the stage and we arrived at the ‘Shell’ gas station in Annapolis at 4:10 pm. With three hours lost through passing through the various time zones across America, this gave us an overall time for the 3017.3 mile journey of 6 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes: BRILLIANT!!!

We hugged one another and enjoyed smoothies from the gas station while we waited for our official escort to the finish line in Annapolis. We also, put on our official team racing jerseys so we’d look smart for the photo’s. The parade into Annapolis was brilliant as we rode behind an official car complete with flashing roof lights to the seafront. Mike followed behind in the SUV, honking his horn in celebration of our achievement. As we arrived at the finish, the rest of the crew were there to greet us along with our friend ‘Peary’ from work and my friends Gavin and Julie. We got up on stage and were interviewed about our adventure, though at the time, I struggled for anything particularly poignant to say. We were also given our medals which were extremely nice, and we posed for countless photographs, including one of us lifting our bikes over our heads which prompted the usual strongman comments from the team regarding my trusty steed. Afterwards we had to hurry to the post-race banquet which, though lovely, was over far too quickly. Mike and I decided that we’d treat ourselves to a bit of luxury and booked a hotel for the night. Before then though, we all headed out of town to a large ‘Walmart’ (on reflection, I’m not sure why?) to begin packing so that those who were heading back a couple of days later could get an early start and make the most of the time left to visit New York.

Please note, if you ever take part in RAAM I recommend the following on completion of the race: First, book a nice restaurant and hotel for the evening. Next, when in the said restaurant, make sure you wear your medals (you won’t do again otherwise), order several bottles of champagne and BLOODY WELL CELEBRATE!!

After Mike had acted as a taxi driver to ferry me and my luggage to our hotel before heading back for the rest of the crew, I wandered around the finish area in Annapolis eating a lovely big ice cream and reflecting on our adventure. It was a great trip and one I’ll never forget. What’s more I’d been able to share it with a group of friends and despite all the stress associated with fatigue and the lack of food and sleep, we’d managed it all with great comradeship. Maybe we should do it again in 10 years time…