The following is a guest post by SSgt Steve Arnold, who is one of eight British wounded servicemen racing 3,051 miles across America in eight days with the support of Help for Heroes. SSgt Arnold was carrying out search operations in Afghanistan when an IED exploded taking both his legs, and will be completing the race on a hand bike. Steve is the most recently wounded member of the Race Across America team, having passed the first anniversary of his injury on Easter Sunday this year, which he spent training with the RAAM team.
Steve talks about his journey as he and the team prepare one week before the race.
We got to Oceanside, CA last Sunday evening and the first day we set the bikes up and made sure everything was ok after the journey over from the UK. The mechanics, Gareth & Jonny, did a once over to make sure bolts were tightened and everything was ready to go. On Tuesday [June 12] we went for a 15 mile practice ride to make sure everything was working correctly on the bikes. Wednesday we did some acclimatisation training and went into the desert for a few hours. We did 40 miles training in total which was about 5 miles each to practice pit stops and changeovers. The heat was pretty energy sapping, it felt like you were riding on sponge and not getting anywhere. We learned we’d probably have to do shorter legs before changeovers on the actual race, instead of the 20 miles we were anticipating as we got tired really quickly. We also learned we could use ice packs around our necks to keep us cool while we’re out there which were really effective. Thursday we set up our bikes for the RAAM inspection, put all the reflective tape on the bikes and went out for a short ride in the morning. Thursday afternoon we had a team photo and team inspection by the officials. All went well and everyone passed, eventually, after a bit of concern around the height of the hand bikers lights.
I’m feeling a little bit nervous but doing a couple of days out here shows us what we will be up against during the race. For me personally, I think the heat is going to be what gets to me and the hills / Rockies due to the long steady inclines which will slow us down and be painful.
I also can’t wait to get going. It’s going to be a massive achievement, a year ago I was injured and now to be about to compete in the Race Across America which I probably would never have done before I was injured is brilliant. It will be great for me and all the team to complete it and hopefully give other people a bit of inspiration that when they are initially in hospital and think their luck is up, they will realise it’s not the end of life.
Thank you doesn’t seem to be enough – the support we’re getting now is amazing, there’s so many followers on Twitter and Facebook. I would just like to say keep all the messages of support coming through as it will keep us going – feel free to give us some encouragement and some banter!
Race Update: The team left Oceanside, CA on Saturday 16 June. They are currently through their fourth state, Colorado, on 19 June and are only one minute behind the US Wounded Warrior team and have moved up two places in the leader board.