RAAM Solo

VIC’S RAAMIFICATIONS
JANET CHRISTIANSEN: “It took me 6000 miles to finish RAAM!”
Annapolis, MD
June 28, 2009

By Vic Armijo

Janet Christiansen has taken second place in the 28th Race Across America, finishing in
12 days, 3 hours, 54 minutes. In typical Janet fashion, her post-race interview was filled with quips and quirky remarks, the first coming right at the finish line, “It took me 6000 miles to finish RAAM,” she said, referring to getting painfully close to the finish in 2008 before pulling out with less than 270 miles to go.

She learned from that oh-so-close ride, “I sat down with my chief and went over things that went wrong and things that could’ve been better,” she said, “I think that I was actually fitter and stronger last year, but a little smarter this year. Last year I spent too much time off the bike, took useless sleep breaks—if you sleep in the afternoon, when you get up you’re really slowed down and it’s still baking hot, you ride really badly for a half hour to an hour. And you don’t really get much from an hour of sleep. I didn’t know how that would work, sleeping for three hours then going for twenty hours, for ten or twelve days in a row. But somehow I was able to do it.”

Indeed, Christiansen led for the first two thirds of the race before finally succumbing to eventual winner, Daniela Figueiredo Genovesi, “Daniela made the race very interesting to me,” Janet said, “She pushed me and my team. That’s good, I actually like that. We couldn’t figure out what she was doing. Both of us are kind of streaky riders—going along steady and all of a sudden ‘I feel good’ and gone. When she decided to go I couldn’t keep up with her on the flats, the descents, the climbs, nothing. But I guess she needs more sleep, which was the only reason that I was ahead of her. Then day seven or day eight I guess she decided to reel me in and say good bye. And she did—she was gone. She passed me like she was just going out for a day’s ride.”

At that point her focus went to getting to the finish. Which despite her careful preparation, she wasn’t fully confident of prior to the start, “I actually had a lot of doubts, she revealed. “My body was still beat up from last year. I had injuries that just didn’t seem to be recovering. Then I had a knee threaten to come apart on me just a week before RAAM—so a lot of doubts, like maybe I should wait another year. The thing about RAAM is that you involve so many people spending so much time and volunteering their resources, it just kills you to let them down.”

In the end she didn’t let them or herself down. “Coming down here and remembering how badly I felt last year and how great it was this year to come here to the finish with this huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Even at three o’clock this morning, going painfully slow over those last hills and telling myself ‘I can’t do this, this is too hard.’ And crew is ‘You can’t quit, we’re locking the van doors.’ That’s what they had to do; I made a list for them on how to deal with Janet when she loses her mind! “I’m content with RAAM now, I’m done with it. I guess I can be giddy for the next six months. And I think I want to let my body just recover for a year. I’ve had all these little injuries, little leftovers from last year all through training. I think that I was lucky to get through this with my funky knee and various other things that I don’t know how they held together. So I think it would be stupid to do much next year—maybe I’ll just furnish my apartment.”

“That wasn’t my crew. I was just baby-sitting those people ‘til their moms got home.”

“Hammer Nutrition has been a generous sponsor for the last three years. I do very well by Hammer Products.”