JOHN & NANCY GUTH: “We ride because we love to ride and we love to ride together.” By Vic Armijo Few racers embody the spirit of RAAM and RAW as John (age 60) and Nancy Guth (age 63), UltraCycling’s most likable and enthusiastic couple. Nancy cut her RAAM teeth as a member of the 4-rider team “Operation Progress” in 2010 (with John as crew chief), and the following year was on the 2-rider female team “RAAM Boomers.” Then in 2012 the Guths rode RAAM as a 2-rider mixed team titled “Beau and Babe,” covering the 3,000 miles in 8 days, 3 hours, 43 minutes. Last year they did RAW, posting a time of 2 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes in that 858 mile event. “Once you’ve done RAAM and/or RAW it gets in your blood,” Nancy said in a recent interview, “You start thinking about it in November. It’s just not June without being in Oceanside!” Yes, they’re coming back for another go at RAW. When asked if he knew at the RAW 2013 finish that they’d be back just a year later, John replied, “Initially, no. But never say ‘never.’ You think ‘That’s enough, I’ve done it.’ Then somehow as you recuperate you think ‘Maybe I CAN do this again.’ And every year is different. Even though it’s the same race each one is unique.” To which Nancy added, “It’s the unknown challenge and always the goal is to do better. Of course you’ve got to look at your pocketbook and sometimes it’s ‘Hmmm, there’s not a whole lot of RAAM or RAW left in there!’” Contrary to what some might assume, the Guths’ UltraCycling isn’t a retirement diversion,”Noooo! Are you kidding? I work two jobs so I can pay for this!” Nancy declared. She works near their Stafford, Virginia home as a literacy supervisor for a county school system and teaches university masters classes, while John is a mining engineer and state mine inspector. These working stiffs know how to do RAAM and RAW on a budget, as Nancy related, “We don’t want to go whole hog, but still well enough that the crew is well taken care of and the racers too.” Toward that end they use their own vehicles instead of rentals, “We had confidence in our own vehicles so that was always a helpful way to go.” Nancy related, and John added, “It’s nice that we can outfit them and pack them up at our leisure here at home.” While some consider an RV to be essential on RAAM or RAW, the Guths prefer getting hotels along the way, “We know how much of a challenge an RV can be,” Nancy said. These measures have allowed them to come in well under the budget of most efforts, “RAW was about $8,000 and RAAM was a good $20,000 for the 2-person team,” Nancy revealed. They’ve learned much since switching from traditional road racing to UltraCycling in 2000. “We started doing 24-hour races in Michigan,” John said, “It was a really different world with an uphill learning curve!” Nancy commented, “It was great! After you get to be fifty you tend to get dropped by the young ones. But I could go forever, ‘I can win by just staying on my bike!’ So I actually won first female overall in Michigan four times. It was a real good demonstration that it’s not how you start out; it’s how you finish. We started competing in the UltraCup,” Nancy related, “I was the top female overall for five years running.” Next came RAAM and RAW, “We decided to try something different,” Nancy explained, “We’d gone from race to race year after year and wanted to focus on just a couple of races. This last year was awesome because we did RAW and then in August we did a cross state record.” The two rode the length of Virginia, North to South, completing the 331 miles in 19 hours and 21 minutes. “It was all climbing,” Nancy observed, “We were up and down the Blue Ridge the whole way—very challenging. Not probably the smartest route to pick…” John completed the thought, “It was a route that had been done, so that’s the route we had to do.” Nancy added, “And we beat it by a considerable amount. And then we went to California for the 6-12-24 Hour Worlds in November on John’s 60th birthday. That was pretty cool!” Having done both they have a few things to relate to RAW racers who want to step up to RAAM. Nancy offered, “Though it’s only the first two and half to three days of RAAM in many ways it’s actually is the hardest part ‘cause after that you can get into a rhythm. You’re going through a lot of climbing and heat and if you can get through that intact it’s a good preparation.” John added, “That’s rider preparation. But you’re also getting all of the logistical stuff that whether it’s three days or eight days it’s all right there with your vehicles. Towards the end of RAW your crew is pretty much into a routine and everybody has gotten through their initial adrenaline rush of not sleeping. That first 36 hours is almost non-stop and people don’t sleep and eat.” They also have strong feelings about their crews, John commented, “If you don’t take care of that crew they start to break down and can make poor decisions—not by any fault of their own—it’s just pure fatigue. We really try to take care of them and get it into them up front, ‘Take care of yourselves and watch out for each other.’” Nancy added, “We try to make it a fun experience for them. We’ve had wonderful stories from our crews—that they’ve been motivated to go on to college, or do different things…” John continued her sentence, “Change careers, start businesses, all kinds of things. They attribute it to having that time to get out there and see there’s so much of the world…” and Nancy completed the thought, “One of our crew members who has since passed, had never been out of Virginia until crewing on RAAM and RAW. That was the light of his life!” Beau and Babe happily use their racing as a means to raise funds and awareness for the Semper Fi Foundation, which as John explained, “…is an organization that concentrates on the families and the spouses—to assist them if they have to travel to a hospital for instance. Child-care while a spouse goes and visits. It’s more for the whole family.” That connection with the Marine Corp is deep, their daughter and their son-in-law are both active Marines and the Guths have been allowed access to a local Marine base where they’re able to train on roads with little to no traffic. “We can do 50 miles with only one or two stop signs!” Nancy said gleefully. Nancy summer up their feelings toward cycling, UltraCycling, RAAM & RAW, “We love it. We really enjoy doing it together. It’s something that we’ve shared. It’s something that we’ve learned together and that’s been fun.” “We ride because we love to ride and we love to ride together. It’s a wonderful way to see the country. There’s no better way to get a real appreciation of the United States than by biking across it.”
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 13:09:20 +0000
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