Race Across America

The premature end to my coast to coast challenge of America has been well documented - but surely it is worse to start a blog with a cliché? Here goes...

‘The accident on Route 66 has forced me to swap one long road for another - although unlike America’s Main Street, the ultimate destination (my recovery) is unknown.’ 

I tried to make the aforementioned cliché as poetic as possible but...?

Hopefully I’ll do a better job of explaining what the challenge was and the reasons for doing it. I was on a ‘Greatest Hits Tour of America’ but as I’m not funny, have no musical ability and am even worse at dancing I was using what little talent I have. Unfortunately a decent set of heart and lungs doesn’t quite pack out stadiums like U2 - but they are helpful in getting you from A to B under your own steam. 

So that’s exactly what I was doing when starting at the terminus of Route 66 on Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles and finishing next to the Statue of Liberty in New York; getting from LA to NY using a combination of cycling, running, rowing and swimming whilst taking in the best America has to offer.

I find that self-propulsion gives a unique insight into an environment whether it’s Antarctica, the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara or the USA. I’m not just talking about an appreciation of the size and scale of the place, but a far clearer mental map of a country (or continent) than is gained by train, plane or automobile (sorry another cliché). 

Cycling from coast to coast would be a fantastic experience and certainly give you a useful mental map of the States but I wanted to take in the amazing environments and landscapes on offer.

The proposed journey was cycling out of LA on Route 66 to Death Valley; the driest, hottest and - at 86m below sea level - lowest place in America, home to the infamous shoe melting Badwater Ultramarathon - a brutal 135mile continuous run with strict entry criteria and even if you fulfill those there is still the selection panel to get past as only 80 competitors are allowed each year. 

The incentive for dealing with the 55 degree heat is a belt buckle if you complete the course in under 48hours.  Bev (my wife) said she’d just buy me a belt buckle. 

I wanted to run through Death Valley but timings for the trip meant I couldn’t do Badwater even if I had been able to pull the wool over the organizers eyes about my running pedigree. 

So I chose an 80mile route across the Valley where I’d get back on the bike and rejoin Route 66 for most of the 2,500miles to Lake Erie. 

66 officially stopped being a Highway in 1985 and was renamed Historic Route 66.  It’s also known as The Mother Road and also Will Rogers Highway after the political satirist who famously said, “I’m not a member of a political organization I’m a democrat.”

Established in the 1930’s, it gained its name and popularity for supporting the economies of the communities it passed through as people migrated west.  I was hoping it would support me all the way to Lake Erie where I was going to row the length (241miles) of the Great Lake. I would then disembark in Buffalo and ride the 500miles into New York. 

As Lake Erie is a national boundary between Canada and the US, the thought of zigzagging over the imaginary boundary line in the lake was appealing - certainly more appealing than being the first person to spot the Lake Erie Monster, similar to our own Loch Ness version except with its own beer brand and ice hockey team! Plus, I’d rather have seen the monster on the lake than in the River Hudson which was where the trip was due to end with me swimming down the river towards the Statue of Liberty.

I don’t want to spoil the film by telling you where exactly I was hit by a truck on Route 66 but what I can say is that I faced huge challenges before the accident and bigger unexpected ones afterwards. 

The heat of Death Valley made the Sahara feel chilly; there was one similarity to the MDS – problems with a broken bone in my foot and making sure I didn’t get dehydrated with over 80% of the journey left.

I owe the paramedics my life who patched me up on 66 and called the air ambulance to fly me to hospital. I was lucky to be hit only a couple of miles from their base, but it wasn’t luck I was wearing a helmet and it saved my life. It also wasn’t luck that my family was and continues to be amazing.

The way Bev has coped with the situation and been a never ending well of support on top of being pregnant, makes me feel so incredibly lucky. Plus, my kids Croyde and Kiki have been a source of inspiration.  I’m determined to get back to where I was, whether I do anything like this in the future will be a family decision but the fact I got hit on a public highway is a chilling thought for all of us. 

A positive note to end on is that there should be a decisive vote in the family by the weekend – our third baby is due to arrive with us then!

Don't miss Unstoppable: The James Cracknell Trilogy, tomorrow night (Thurs) on the Discovery Channel at 9pm.