Guess I never really summarized how the broken knee went after the RAAM, so here goes.
First the RAAM:
Great stuff. If you ever get a chance ... do it. If I ever mention that I would like to do RAAM solo, please talk me out of it. After seeing what it did to those at the finish, I really don't want to abuse my body to that extent. Chapeau to those who can do it, but for me? Nah. I'd do it again on a 4 person team or even a 2 person team, though.
The worst part? Rain. We got a lot of it, and I hate riding rain. The toughest parts of the RAAM was getting woken up at 4AM, because you have to put on your wet kit, and go outside and ride in the dark and in the rain for the next 4 hours. The best parts (for me) were the mountain climbs of the West.
Oh, and some of the riders. There was a team of 4 tandems with blind stokers. Can you imagine that? Or the guy with diabetes who rode across with his monitor and insulin pump. Can you imagine trying to manage your food intake under those circumstances? Or the guy who rode for MS. The photographer at the finishing ceremony (an ex RAAM rider) has MS, and at this point it is difficult for him to walk around. Taking pictures exhausted him. But when the guy that rode for MS was up on stage, he went up and hugged him. That brought tears to my eyes.
The busted knee:
I was actually still using crutches the morning before the race. I could walk short distances (a block or so), but longer than that got difficult. It wasn't so much the knee as it was that the muscles in my foot and calf had atrophied a lot (cuz I really was a good boy and stayed off of it).
But by the end of the race, crutches were completely unnecessary. Whatever residual weakness I had had completely disappeared. One funny scene was getting on the plane to fly home. I asked the TSA guy what I should do with the crutch while going through the scanner:
Him: "Can you walk without it?"
Me: "I just rode a bike across the country without it."
Him: "You should have flown."
My kinda guy. lol
So anyway ... the RAAM went well. As I prefer climbing to descending a lot of the time, I took some of the longer climbs myself, and especially some of the steeper ones in West Virginia. And no problems at all with it. As a matter of fact, I recommend RAAM to anyone as the best PT to recover from a broken knee joint ... nah ... I wouldn't go that far. lol
Epilogue: I have the option of taking out the hardware or leaving it in. If I take it out this year, the cost will be free (as I have maxed my deductible), so I'm inclined to take it out.
Here we are at the finish!