Area residents find it a nice break to volunteer at the timing station or to just stop by for a short time and hear some of the stories about participants in the race.
This will be the second year for the timing station to be set up on edge of the parking lot in front of the TJ Maxx store. In prior years it had been across the street but construction there prohibits that area from being used, although Kate Rousemaniere, said the owner of McDonald’s is again offering support.
Rousemaniere, the city’s vice mayor and a bicycling enthusiast herself, has been involved in setting up the timing station for several years.
Volunteers are still needed for the timing station which will be in place from Monday through Friday this week and registration for volunteer times can be done on-line at ohioraam.bike. On the home page is a statement about “Volunteers and Spectators” and a click-on link will take you to a sign-in sheet.
While volunteers are needed, everyone is welcome to just drop by and talk. Support teams often stop and rest waiting for their rider to get there and some riders stop for a short break. Those at the station go to the street to wave and encourage riders as they arrive, whether they are stopping or just going past.
“We encourage that. Two years ago, we had a grad student who lived nearby come with her child and she just sat under the tent knitting,” Rousemaniere said. “People just sort of stop by and hang out at the tent.”
Oxford has a team in this year’s Race Across America and they expect to come by timing Station #41 sometime Thursday, so there is likely to be a crowd out urging them on.
In an interview before leaving for California and the start of RAAM, Lisa Brunckhorst, one of the team members said they expect to be through Oxford “between 1 and 11 on Thursday.”
That is a wide variation, but the RAAM web site tracks the progress of riders through the timing stations and there is a phone app—tractalis.com—that can be downloaded. Users can locate the specific team they want to track and it will locate the team by a dot on a map.
The Oxford team is Team Autoimmune as they are riding to raise money for the Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, something affecting several of the team members, their families or support team.
Oxford has hosted a timing station for seven years and riders often look forward to it because they do offer water and snacks as well as the loud support for the riders. Several veteran riders last year called this the best timing station of the 55 on the route. Many are not manned during the full time riders come through or cheer riders on.
Rousemaniere got involved with the timing station along with a women’s exercise group calling themselves the Golden Tri—“Golden” because they are all over 50 and “Tri” because they originally formed to support the Miami University Triathlon.
“We stayed together to bike and to exercise. We’re about 20 women, more or less, and we took on the timing station,” she said. “Two men from somewhere else ran the timing station and did not get much support. They were going to move it. The Golden Tris took over.”
Now, she said, they have a Golden Tri banner they set up at the tent to welcome riders and teams and schedule volunteers 24 hours a day to insure no rider goes through unnoticed, the more people on hand, the better.
Under the tent, in addition to snacks and chairs to rest, every year is a computer set up to track the progress of riders so they always know when someone is nearing Oxford so they can be ready to cheer and shout their support.
Rousemaniere said many people do not realize the clock does not stop in the Race Across America. Once the race begins in California, participants are racing the clock and the competition across the country to Annapolis, Maryland.
“My experience is people do not realize what RAAM is. When you tell them, they say, ‘I thought they stayed in hotels and got back on the road.’ No. The clock does not stop and they many sleep only two hours at a time,” she said.
Many riders travel with a recreational vehicle in the entourage and catch a little sleep at timing stations but worry about where the other riders are.
“One of the best gigs is the midnight to 5 a.m. shift,” Rousemaniere said of the volunteer schedule.
She encourages people to come out on their lunch hour or in the evening or even overnight.
“People come from far away to be part of the tent,” Rousemaniere said.
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