alan@mtxinu.UUCP (Alan Tobey) (07/24/85)
Once again official information on the Race Across America (RAAM) is sketchy. Here's a best estimation from our reporter on the route: As of Wednesday morning, July 24th, the leaders were reaching the 1000 mile point, which places them between Tucumcari, New Mexico and Amarillo, Texas. The weather continues temperate, with highs only in the 90-degree range and some significant scattered thunderstorm activity. Jonathan Boyer has taken the lead from Michael Secrest by an amount guessed to be "an hour or so." As happened in the 1984 race, Secrest's initial pace seems to be dropping off after the first third of the race. Mike Shermer is "fairly closely behind" Secrest. After that there's a "big gap" before 4th-place rider Rob Templin (first-place finisher in the JMO West qualifier) and a scattered pack behind. We've learned that Lon Haldeman has the flu -- apparently had it even before the race. In any case, he's beginning to slip off the pace a bit but still riding a strong fifth. The three women have maintained close positions and have narrowed the distances between them. Sue Notorangelo-Haldeman is now leading, and in fact is riding about even with Lon in about 6th place overall. Shelby Hayden-Clifton is just an hour or so back of Sue, and Elaine Mariolle has picked up ground to come within another hour or so of Shelby. One example of the pace: 72 hours into the ride, Elaine had rested only twice: an hour and fifty minutes after 36 hours and more than 500 miles on the bike, and two hours and 5 minutes (1:40 of sleep and a hot shower) at about the 875 mile point this morning. The route now is Amarillo, Oklahoma City, the Ozarks to Little Rock, then to the Mississippi at Memphis.