The founder of RAAM is John Marino. A
great high school sportsman, with an opportunity to sign for the LA Dodgers
baseball club, trashed his hope of successful carrier as a professional
baseball player with a back injury he had sustained in a weight room.
It was his mistake and the self-recrimination ate away at him for several
years after. During this troubled times, he discovered a passion for bicycle
racing. After a few years he decided to break the Guinness Book of Records
bicycle transcontinental world record. This was his goal of gaining back
some self-respect that had been lost in the weight-room. His three attempts
of which two were successful led to the creation of the Great American
Bike Race in 1982, which later became Race Across America (RAAM).
Marino conceived the idea for GABR during his 1978 world record ride.
The first GABR was a four man race between him, the three time Olympian
John Howard, the current Transcontinental record holder Lon Haldeman and
John Shermer, a record holder for 1500 mile from Seattle to San Diego.
They laid down the ground rules and made a pact that no matter what happened
regarding sponsors and television, they would go on with a race. Even
if that meant they would have to use their own money to sponsor themselves
and the winner would just get a pat on the back from the other three.
However, Marino's agent had other ideas and wanted to make GABR a profitable
company. By his opinion, there should have been little difficulty in rising
a million dollars from sponsors and TV contracts. In a very short time
the agent had secured a written contract with ABC sports for 25.000$.
Other than that, he couldn't get any major sponsor, so the racers themselves
secured another 25.000$ through help of some friends. Like the ABC's 25.000$,
this money had also vanished, since the agent had a few expenses of his
own to reimburse. Only 8.000$ were left for racers to share amongst themselves,
but only when each of them wrote the agent a check for 10.000$, for renting
motor homes, support vehicles and some other equipment. The bottom line
was, they got 50.000$ from sponsors and TV and each of them still had
to pay 8.000$ to do the race. They didn't let that stop them, so they
went through with the race and the deserved winner was Lon Haldeman, a
full 14 hours ahead of Howard, 23 hours ahead of Shermer and 60 hours
ahead of Marino. Despite huge time differences, it was an emotional race
and the ABC program of the race won an Emmy award for sports documentary
drama.
When they began planning the 1983 race, they found out that the event
was incorporated under the Agent's name along with total and complete
ownership of the name GABR, the sponsorship deals and the TV contract.
They still decided to terminate their relationship with the Agent. They
changed the name to Race Across America (RAAM) and went out on their own
with founding of Ultra Marathon Cycling Association. The tremendous
media exposure the GABR received generated letters of inquiry how to
join the 1983 event from all over the USA. The demand was so high they
had to form a qualifying event. The first qualifying event ever for
an ultra marathon cycling race called John Marino Open was held May
21-24, 1983. There were 50 bicycle racers competing for 10 openings.
The qualifying race was 1216 km long and was won by Michael Secrest
in 54 hours and 49 minutes. With that victory, he became one of the
favorites of RAAM 1983, alongside his nearest rivals Pete Penseyres,
Bob Beeson and last years GABR winner Lon Haldeman. The latter proved
to be the best, winning with almost 6 hours advantage from Penseyres
and more than 14 hours ahead of Secrest. Of the 12 starters only 6 cyclists
had finished the race, the other 6 abandoning for different health reasons.
It was a pattern that was to be repeated almost every year after that.
Due to health reasons such as saddle sores, knee or foot pain, neck
that wouldn't hold up the head anymore, hallucinations caused by sleep
deprivation, etc., every year approximately half of the racers abandon
the race.
The only time that a professional bicycle racer has entered RAAM in
its 20 years history was in 1985. Jonathan Boyer, a four-time Tour de
France veteran and one of the best American cyclists at the time was
a pioneer who came to change the character of the race-forever. He
had brought new respect to RAAM that it had not previously enjoyed.
Boyer had never underestimated ultra-marathoners. During the winter
he studied each of the previous RAAM telecasts and invited some of the
racers to his home to train together and pick the information on the
crews, support vehicles, equipment, the route, etc. After his finish
in the Giro d'Italia earlier in the season, he returned to USA to train
full time for the 5000 kilometers non-stop race. He was clearly the
best cyclist in the race and predicted he would sleep more than others
and ride faster to catch up. But, halfway through the race, he realized
it was not going to be so easy. For half of the race, Michael Secrest
was fighting with him for a lead, exchanging places several times. To
fulfill the expectations of everyone and win the race, the consummate
road racer and Tour the France veteran had to become an ultra-marathon
cyclist. He was riding without sleep, eating his meals and changing
his clothes on the bike. Despite his pre-race predictions, he was just
chugging along like the rest of them-just trying to get through the
ordeal. Finally, he succeeded, winning the 1985 RAAM in a record time
of 9 days 2 hours and 6 minutes. His first comment to reporters was:
"I just gotta learn how to walk again!" Secrest took second place 4
hours after Boyer, giving a professional racer a run for his money and
proving that RAAM racers are not some freaks with a wish to punish themselves,
but real sportsmen.
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