RAAM Solo

VIC’S RAAMIFICATIONS
PAUL DANHAUS: “Doing nothing, for about a week!”
Annapolis, MD
June 28, 2009

By Vic Armijo

When Paul Danhaus reached the finish line at 2:35 this morning, he joined the ranks of the only other three people age 60+ to finish solo RAAM. RAAM CEO Fred Boethling, record holder Jones and Peter Lekisch. I asked Paul, “What are your plans now?” He replied with a laugh “Doing nothing, for about a week!” Fair enough, because the age 60+ racer has been doing a whole lot of something for about a week and half, 11 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes to be exact.

Paul’s time was about five hours short of the age 60+ record set by David Jones in ’08. This raises the question of whether Danhaus could beat that record, now that he’s armed with 11 days of RAAM experience. That question will have to wait, for two years at least as Danhaus is already committed to other plans for 2010. “I’ve made arrangement to do the national 24 hour event in Midland, Michigan with a friend of mine on our tandem. That’s all during the same time as RAAM.”

Danhaus reported that he had—“No real physical problems except for the Shermer’s Neck. Otherwise everything came out fine.” His crew took a novel approach in dealing with the malady by making a chin rest, “We took my Syntace bars, rotated them up, three or four rolls of toilet paper all duct taped together, and we had to have a couple of Maxi-Pads.”

Danhaus said that the most memorable moments of the ride are of the wonderful people that he me. “The people. There was one couple that got up at 2:30 in the morning just to meet me at a time station and shake my hand and to have their picture taken. Man, 2:30 in the morning just to see me?!” There were hard moments too, “Sometimes I think you get down on yourself when you really shouldn’t. And that’s a downward spiral. When those kind of thought entered my head I just thought about people that are paraplegic, who’d give anything to be on a bicycle. And who am I to be sorry? All of a sudden my thought pattern would be changing.”

Congratulations Paul! You’re an inspiration to all, and especially to those age 60+. You’re proven that “activity” beyond 60 needn’t be limited to shuffleboard, bingo and early bird dinner specials!