Yesterday three of the four Serpentine Golden Girls met early at Heathrow airport, London, ready to start their epic adventure. Hilary Walker and the supporting crew will follow between today and tomorrow. They are also very excited to have a media teamheaded up by Kristin Duffy of Slackline productions, who are filming throughout, with a view to producing a documentary.
The Serpentine Golden Girls list of what to bring was pretty long. Just count that a cycling kit includes more than 50 items! Here few items included in their luggage:
-A defibrillator loaned by the London Ambulance Service. Hopefullye after all those hours training outdoor or with the amazing Zwift app they won’t need it for RAAM! But great to have it, just in case!
-A new mascotte - Trial Weston Athletic Club foxy strapped in and ready to Race Across America (RAAM)
-Energy flapjacks and beetroot shots courtesy from Beet It to help them fuel during the race
-Sports bras provided by their sponsor TriGilr UK
-And of course their bikes!
The flight was pretty long, so a good opportunity for the girls to organise the last things before the race. They landed safely in LA at 5pm local time; this is 1am in the UK - there are 8 hours behind our time in California.
The jet lag is real!! Once landed the first challenge for our Golden Girls was “trying to stay awake” commented Margaret Sills, 68,on Facebook. They had scheduled to have a meeting there at 7pm (US), 3am in the UK – so sleeping wasn’t an option.
They will spend few days is Los Angeles, waiting for the rest of the team and crew to join them and then head to Oceanside where they will start their race moving steadily eastwards.
RAAM solo riders started yesterday but the team start – including teams of 2, 4 and 8 - will be Saturday 15th of June at 12pm (US), this is 8pm in the UK, so less behind in time of day.
The four of Serpentine Golden Girls are relaying 3000 miles across America, day and night, with a 9 day cut off. It will be hard and they can only hope they have put in enough training. Two of them cycle one hour on, one hour off, for 6 hours and then the other two girls take over, with two cars and a Winnebago supporting them 24/7. At night one car follows closely behind to give them light. So, assuming they make the 9 day cut off on 24th, they will each have cycled over 700 miles!
The Serpentine Golden Girls are the only 4-riders female team this year and the ‘oldest’ team ever to have done the race! “Ouraverage age is 70,” said Eddie Brocklesby, 76, “but they need meto bring that average up!”
Here is the link to the RAAM website so that you can track the SGG progress if you want to http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/ . For live tracking button Team is 408.
The Serpentine Golden Girls are raising funds for Silverfit, a charity led by older people for older people; promoting a happier, healthier ageing through physical activity. So if you wish to helping them showing that age doesn’t have to be a barrier to physical exercise you can donate here or visit Silverfit website for more information.
Through the SGG DONATE button the Serpentine Golden Girls could raise £845 – this is amazing! Thank you to everyone who made this possible. The Serpentine Golden Girls agreed to keep on the donation button even if the race is about to start, so if you wish to help them with the race expenses during the event you are very welcome to do it by clicking here.
They are supposed to have e-coverage most of the race event (15th– 24th) and they will be in touch sharing photos on the Serpentine Golden Girls social media.
Follow them on:
Instagram @serpentinegoldengirls and on Twitter @SerpentineGG19
If you want to wish them good luck or get in touch with their team you can also email us at serpentinegoldengirls@gmail.com
(Stefania Dall’Armi)