Author: peter

We gathered Kjell, Axel and Peter in Oslo and Jürgen joined us via Skype from Karlsruhe for the kick-off meeting of our RAAM2020 project.

We identified the goals for our project:

• having fun and positive memories after this unique experience
• riding and driving safe
• finishing (within 8 days – if possible)

Next steps will be:

• to find a forth rider and a deputy rider/crew member
• to find the 10-15 crew members necessary
• to make a proper project plan for the entire project ending with RAAM2020 post party – including milestones.

Here we go …

A couple of weeks ago, Peter received a reminder from Axel saying: “If you mean serious with your participation in RAAM 2020, I’d recommend to start planning this summer. You will need the two years to get the best possible experience”. OK, enough talking … let’s move into action!

Step 1: register the domain RAAM2020.de and establish this blog.
Step 2: call for a kick-off …

The idea to participate in RAAM really gained momentum July 1st 2016. On Peter´s 50th birthday, he received not one but two RAAM related gifts: from his wife Kristin the allowance and support to participate in 2020 including the time-consuming preparation phase; and from his friend and RAAM record holder Axel the commitment to support the project with his invaluable knowledge.

Through his wife’s gift, the participation received its deadline: 2020

During the next couple of years, the plan slowly but surely matured in his head and the topic was addressed on several occasions with different people.

Peter’s good friend Axel Fehlau and his mate Anders Åsberg had the goal to finish RAAM in 2014 and take the record for Team 2, male, below 50. Peter followed the  preparation and conduction of this project, which planted the loose idea in his head to participate in RAAM himself. Not in a team of 2, but as part of the 4 riders team should it be possible. He started to communicate this idea to a couple of other people.

Take a look at RAAM 2014 with Axel and Anders

Many (about 20?) years ago, Peter watched a documentary about RAAM. He was overwhelmed by how much a human can perform if he or she decide to. For the years to come, one impression kept staying in his mind: a following car playing high volume songs through its roof-mounted loud speakers to prevent a rider from falling asleep while riding downhill (it must have been towards the end of the race while descending the Appalachians).

He tried to find the documentary on youtube, so far without success. It was about two solo riders, one sleeping 3 hours and the other one 4 hours. The three hour rest rider had an advantage in the first part of the race but was beaten by his competitor because rest is just too important to skip during such an endeavour. If you know the documentary, please drop us a note! Btw: there are a couple of films about various RAAM projects on youtube worth watching!