The Therapeutic Associates Hammer Shark girls rocked Race Across Oregon and brought home the coveted RAO Salami!

It's not everyday four women get together and ride their bikes in a 535 mile relay race across Oregon's high desert terrain, gaining over 40,000 ft in elevation along the way...all for a giant Salami. It all took place last Saturday and into Sunday as Sorella Forte's Colleen McClenahan, Sarah Tisdale, Kim Rueter and new-legs-on-the-block Deb Stewart sacrificed sleep and sweat (and arguably our common sense) to meet the challenge head on. With the help of our Dream Team support crew, we pedaled our way to a record setting 29:02 finish time!

We rode roughly 30 minute legs (90 minutes rest) up until about 30 miles from the finish when we started making very short pulls - some even less than a mile - whatever made sense to keep the pace as fast as possible. We had a monster motor home and two (alternating) follow cars with seven total crew members treating us like rock stars. No doubt this is a brutally hard race, but their encouragement and enthusiasm kept us going, and going, and going... BTW, it's very dark in eastern Oregon at night; none of us has seen stars like that in some time. Our crew chief Jeff Tedder (Hammer Nutrition) and his wife Shari took great care of us nutrition-wise and directed the master plans (nutrution and strategy). Other crew members included Deb's husband Jeb (EnduroFit.com), Colleen's husband Ken, Dan, Wiley and Derwyn. It was an unforgettable experience.

A HUGE thanks to Hammer Nutrition and Therapeutic Associates for their sponsorship support!

Follow these Flickr links to see some amazing photos from our ride:

Derwyn's camera

Kim's camera