I had the fastest commute EVER Tuesday night. It started out well - the last bit of a sunny day. Stopped at the light before the Samoa Bridge, I saw a speck heading over it in the distance - another rider, for sure. I wondered if I could catch up....
Yep. And when I did, we were both a little surprised. Me: nondescript-looking lady on a (sadly) filthy flat bar road bike, decked out with panniers and pretty-in-pink fenders. Him: Velo Orange Man - 20-30-something, facial piercings, immaculately clean uber-Rando-chic Velo Orange road bike. Gorgeous burgundy paint, long-reach cantis, Brooks saddle and matching handlebar bag, the whole nine yards..You could've eaten sushi off of his drivetrain, and from the looks of things quite honestly it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what he was riding to Arcata to do. 
If I had had time to think ANYTHING, what would've passed through my head is, "Thank god I came down here in 2010 and got established - if this guy's here,  the rest of Portland can't be that far behind...." 
Clearly, I had caught him napping, and I wasn't going to be able to make this one stick, but - what the hell. Once you pass someone, you are committed to at least make it look like you meant it. Sure enough, top of the last "climb" on the bridge, he passed me back. But...not...by...much - and we were just at the top. I tucked in behind him, made a stunning (to me, anyway....) move coming through the corner, and passed him back. I figured either he was in, or he wasn't. He was. 
OK....I can handle the "over threshold" pace for about a half mile, then I ease up. As he comes around, he makes some noises about "the headwind" and takes over. That's fine with me. Half a mile later, I'm coming back around. 
We kept it up on 1/2 mile intervals all the way to town.... 1/2 mile of blowing up, 1/2 mile of not blowing up. Over the tracks without incident - he was in front at that point and I was a little worried about getting back on, though it turned out to be a non-issue. 
I SERIOUSLY considered jumping off early, at Jackson Ranch, and pretending that was my normal ride home. But on a certain level, that would've been cheating, so I stuck it out. My payoff was the satisfaction of knowing that we BOTH slowed down  when I let him know that I did have to get off at V Street.  I thanked him and coasted home....
Long story short (or short story long, depending on how you look at it), I took 10 minutes off of my 9 mile commute just by working hard (and smart, by working with someone else). And it was FUN! But I was really not that sorry to not run into Velo Orange Man on Wednesday. You should only do intervals a a couple times a week....

...During nighttime, by rule, you can't send the racers out by themselves. So you have to stop the racer. And you have to fix this yourselves. AAA isn't coming – or if they are it's going to be a couple of hours, at least. There's no such thing as “Race SAG”. Bring the other van back – if they can get here faster than you can fix the flat, they can support the racers while you finish up. And since there's nothing better for the racers to do, they should have something to eat. (and try to relax). 

How'd you do? One of our crew members complained that a lot of the answers to my crew quiz "sounded plausible". That happens on RAAM - you reach a decision point and someone suggests something that sounds pretty reasonable - but it might be dead wrong. If you don't know better, you might just go with it. 

Crew meeting in 5...4...3...2...1....Woo hoo. Here's a crewing question for y'all: 

1. You are in the follow vehicle. It is night (of course it's night – ultra racing is just like horror movies; all the bad stuff is probably going to happen at night). BUMP! The follow vehicle just got a flat tire. What do you do?
   
   

• Send the racer ahead and fix the flat as fast as you can.
  
  
• Stop the racer. Call the other van back to help. Start fixing the flat and instruct the racers to remain calm and have something to eat.
  
  
• Call race headquarters so that the race SAG can come and help.
  
  
• Call AAA. That's what they're for.
  
  

  What would YOU do? Answer tomorrow.

The Red Pearl is our very excellent crew vehicle. She's got a few pirate details, as you'll see. But the overall concept was maximizing use of space and creating a vehicle that...

• is easy to drive, and gets at least decent mileage
• is comfortable for two people for extended bike camping trips
• holds 4 bikes and people and their gear for races
• eliminates many of the frustrations we've had using a minivan for races (eg floating lunchmeat).

We settled on the Chevy Astro as a beginning platform because it encloses the maximum usable space for a the minimum footprint. It gets okay gas mileage (19-20 highway if we're being prudent and lawful). Finding one was a bit of a challenge. In the end we got it up in Portland. It started life as a fire department vehicle, and did a short stint as a family vehicle for a young and growing family. When they outgrew it, it came to us - complete with some unique wiring and a pre-installed siren speaker, which we were able to put to good use. 
We added a jackknife seat/bed that we got from a junkyard and a "micro-fridge". The "micro-fridge" is designed for use in older college dorms with underrated wiring. It evens out power use by cutting power to the fridge when the microwave is in use. That's perfect for our purposes. We added a 2000w inverter (overkill, but...) and a deep-cycle cabin battery. 
Most foods stay nicely in the micro-fridge (which has a separate, USABLE freezer to keep my rice pudding popsicles cold!), freeing up the ice chests for - yep! - ICE. Keeping food out of the ice is one of the epic struggles of good crewing.. 
The bed is actually comfy for two - almost unheard of in a crewing vehicle. 
The shelving and storage areas are all usable, and the crows' nest (Yakima Space Case) is big enough to hold the gear that you don't want to have to climb over to get to the good stuff. 
We've added some more homey touches too (the seat covers, custom license plate). A platform rack in the back (not shown) hold two bikes, and two more fit on top on tray mounts, along with spare wheels. 
We've got a few small things left to do to her, but she's already had a couple of sailings and she's one sweet ride.  

Team Red Pearl Racing is off to a great start. Off season training regimen includes strength training, beach walking, apple salsa-making, and bike commuting (for me, at least). The off season is admittedly short - we're closing it down on 1/1/14. Join us then for a century ride in the redwoods!