Day 4: Taos, Baby, Taos

Editor’s Note: Tim Case is cruising through the New Mexico portion of the Race Across America. This is a solo bike race that will have him cross the United States in about 10 days. He left Oceanside, Calif., Sunday morning and had completed 1044.3 miles by 10:45 a.m. Thursday, passing through Taos, N.M. on his way to Cimmaron, N.M. His team updated us briefly and hopes to check in later today. Tim is riding for Team Strong Heart to raise money and awareness for Camp Odayin, which is dedicated to serving children with severe heart problems.

Cheeseburger? We’re scared a hamburger isn’t going to agree with him. We’re at a McDonalds drive thru, trying to figure out what Tim wants. Get him a Big Mac. We also have French bread and brie; we are never sure what he’s going to want.

We are going to be meeting up with Tim in a few minutes, so I’ll keep this short and hope to update later today.

There are people all over this country cheering him on and watching every minute. We didn’t know what this whole thing meant until we were here. People are just so amazed. I just got a message from a patient; the whole family is watching from Louisville. My brother is checking the RAAM site every 15 minutes.

All the support helps Tim sooo much.

He did make it to Taos (time station 18; 1044.3 miles into the race, check out his picture) at 10:45 a.m. Mountain Time. That’s a big deal. He made it to his first goal. Last night, he started falling asleep on the bike; he started drifting. We had to keep him awake. The team pushed him to the top (figuratively, of course) of a big climb near Taos. Then they let him sleep. When he woke up from a three-hour sleep, he had 1 1/2 stations of serious downhill.

I have to run for now, got to give directions to the team so we can meet Tim and do a quick check in with him.

—Michelle Pearl, Tim’s girlfriend and crew member. Dictated to Jacob Harkins.

Other Posts:
Some thoughts from Tim
The Finish
Day 11 1/2
Day 11
Day 9
Day 8
Day 7
Day 6
Day 5
Day 4
Day 3
Day 2
Day 1