By Michelle Marison
It is Day 5 and the RV is beginning to smell "ripe". As a crew member, you are lucky to get an hour of sleep during an 8 hour break and by now have eaten so many pb and j's you are kicking yourself for not hitting up Skippy for sponsorship. We are over caffeinated and carbed out. Simple math is double checked on your fingers and triple checked on your calculator. Half the crew has had an RV side solar shower while the the other half paraded through a local car wash. Yup - as one crew member put it "day 5 shit starts to get real".
Emotions run high as people start to fade. You see the best and worst of your team members and our humanity is exposed. I am sure at this point even our child psychiatrist team member could use a professional session. All you can do is remind yourself to take it all in. This is a once in a lifetime experience - these moments begin to fade as we enter back into our daily lives.
Things can get tense when you are in a follow vehicle. You are the eyes are ears for the team. As the navigator - you are responsible for turn by turn directions for the driver and the racer. A radio is the only thing that connects you with your racer and if the batteries go out, she is riding blind and a horn morse code is enforced as she turns left with one honk, right with two, straight with three and stops with a long loud blast. As the driver, it is your duty to keep the racer protected at all times, find safe off-road exchange points and manage road rage. I am not going to lie, both are equally challenging crew positions.
Some of us have found unique ways to attempt to maintain our physical condition by doing roadside athletics. Burpees, jumping jacks, pushups, squats, lunges and bike lifts are the drill. One crew on another team is doing 3000 burpees, one for every mile they trek. Other than that, lifting the bike on and off the rack or jogging to an exchange happening on the fly are your only movements.
Brushing your teeth and layering deodorant become the only thing you can do to maintain any sort of personal hygiene and your toilet is the great outdoors - (this becomes tricky in Kansas). We have had crew members master the "Walmart shower" while others bathe in bottled water. You do what you can with what you have.
Our diet, while consisting mainly of breakfast burritos and sandwiches, is also supplemented by the occasional gas station find or Burger King milkshake. We are up to our eyeballs in trail mix, nutrition bars and these re-appearing muffins we can't seem to source their origin. We eat when we are hungry having no sense of time - sunrises and sunsets start to occur as the same, they don't indicate any type of routine anymore.
At the height of crew member fatigue, one of the best sources of energy is cheering on your riders. We have found some of the best tactics to be telling funny jokes (where does a one legged man work? The IHOP), playing the recorder as they go by (yes, the recorder) busting out our ridiculous dance moves on the side of the road to crack a smile and acknowledging them for their accomplishments. This is by far the best way to stay energized and alert.
So after all this, you may wondering if I think being a crew member is worth it. My answer is found in this quote "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.
See you at the finish line.
