I recognize that many people that we have hired to work in hazardous places have felt a rush in the work they do...and with that they find themselves lost when they leave said dangerous places of the world - craving to go back over and over again. In a way - our experience in RAAM this year was similar to the brain as how one gets used to the chaos and when its over...adjustment cant take place without concentrated effort.
How do you make that jump? Where do you go for inspiration when the open road is outside of the glass windows I sit behind all day? How can I draw from the recent past to make light and focused work in my career? Well, I am getting there but it sure isn't easy. RAAM is a drug that allows you to clear all aspects of life for a week - all aspects. When its you, your bike, that hill, that team, the finish line, another 1000 miles, another 100 feet, another loop of songs on the ipod, the rain, the friends, no bills, no worries, the views...you get the idea...Hewey Lewis had his song about a new drug...if I could bottle up RAAM and sell it on the street then one could find this ease of life. Seeing that I cannot - then others looking in will have to experience RAAM on their own to really know what you go through. The aftermath has been easy and has presented new challenges thus allowing me to think of things I have never had to before.
When I look at what has to be done in life - I am basically seeing these issues through RAAM colored glasses - and it seems clear then. I have to associate my efforts still running in my brain to the here and now (easier said than done). Nothing could have prepared me more for the next years of my life than to be part of RAAM "a self induced coma of biking and focus".
So if you see me gazing into a wall - don't worry...I am just somewhere between Cali and Flagstaff, lost in Missouri, getting wet in Ohio, scared for my life in West VA or sitting on the dock in MD...Ill be fine but that is where I am from time to time.
It was a blessing to be with those that now mean so much to me - as Brett said, " we came together as strangers and left as brothers." I cant say it better than that. That is how RAAM has affected me - I now have family in places that were once occupied by strangers - thank you.
