Riding Across America

By TAD BARTIMUS

It is zero degrees F outside, a day when most people who don't have to go out in the weather are hunkered down under an afghan with warm slippers on their feet, sipping something hot from a mug and dreaming of spring.

Alaskan Janice Tower is not one of them. She is pulling on four layers of clothing, a helmet and face mask and talking enthusiastically about pedaling as fast as the wind down a snow-covered hill, taking tricky turns on black ice and seeing through eyelashes coated in frozen crystals.
Why would a human being put herself through such exertion?

"Because it's fun," she said. 

I am so amazed at this answer from my friend on the phone that I reach for another chocolate and sink lower into my recliner to give it some thought.

The older I get, the more I wish I'd embraced sports as a youngster. I came along before Title IX mandated federal funds be spent on girls' athletics as well as boys' sports. But even if girls' teams had been in place, I probably still would have resisted. One of my worst childhood memories is trying to climb ropes suspended from the gym roof; my hands had scrapes and burns for weeks, but worse, I never got over that image of myself barely making it off the ground. 

Tower never had that problem. Athletic all her life, she has constantly tested herself against the elements as well as her personal best. Only 14 percent of her body weight is fat, compared with a normal woman's 25 percent. She is constantly in training.

Supremely confident of her physical abilities, she'll put them to her biggest test yet this summer, starting on June 19th in Portland, when she and her Alaska teammates compete in the 20th Race Across America (RAAM).
It's a grueling cross-country biking marathon. The winners in solo, tandem, two- and four-person teams expect to cross the finish line 2,989 miles and seven days later in Gulf Breeze, Fla.. No, that is not a typo -- SEVEN DAYS! 
Biking day and night, with a support crew following them, Tower and her two teammates -- they're still looking for a fourth -- will compete in the only coast-to-coast ultra-marathon cycling event in the United States. 
The pediatric health coalition leader, who lives in Anchorage with her husband, Steve, an orthopedic surgeon, and their two teen-agers, said she's competing to encourage children to stay fit.

"So many of our kids get almost no exercise; they're overweight, and they risk getting diabetes when they grow older," she said. "This problem is serious and growing in America, and I felt that if I used the race as a way to publicize this concern, it might help and inspire some children."

Tower started mountain bike racing just four years ago and this month competed for just the second time in the 130-mile Iditasport race through central Alaska, where "I pushed my bike through snow for about 40 miles in unusually stormy weather, deep snow and white-out conditions. I think I experienced every possible emotion out on that trail."

Of the 125 bicyclists, Tower was the first woman across the finish line, and placed 21st overall. She says the only thing standing between her team and the Race Across America now is money.

"It costs a lot to achieve your dreams," she said, estimating it will cost $40,000 to cover transportation, food, lodging and equipment for four riders and nine crew members. The other Alaska RAAM team riders are Ben Couturier, at 14, the youngest rider ever to compete in the cross-country race, and his dad, Mike, 43. 
All wonder who will step forward to complete their four-person team.

"It's tough to find somebody crazy enough to do this," said Tower, "so I hope my husband will do it."
I bet he doesn't eat chocolate in a recliner, either. 

© 2001 The Women Syndicate

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