Playing Catch-Up [ Personally and Professionally ]

When I had the idea to track my progress as a research assistant and support staff for Race Across USA, I knew that it would be a daunting task. I was warned from the start that I'd frequently be going through areas with little to zero cell phone service, let alone available wifi. So far, this has proved to be unequivocally true. For instance, although the hotel I stayed at two nights ago offered complimentary wifi, my phone decided that it didn't want to open the password page; today, as I sit in a Starbucks on 29 Palms Highway, is the first time I've been able to open my computer and access the internet.

So, to play catch-up:
On January 10th, I woke up in Beal Co-Op to one of the best send-offs ever, drinking Brazilian chocolate coffee with my fellow Beallionnaires before departing for Muskegon, MI, where I would pick up my new employer [ and meet him face to face for the first time ]. Over the course of the next three days, I would drive over 2,660 miles to get to Los Angeles, California, with a small detour to Las Vegas. To put this in perspective, I drove around 910 miles the first day [ East Lansing > Muskegon > Little Rock, AR; around twelve hours ], 880 the next day [ Little Rock > Albuquerque, NM; around ten to eleven hours ], then 570 miles [ Albuquerque > Las Vegas, NV; eight hours ], and finally ~270 miles on the last day [ Las Vegas > Los Angeles, CA; around four hours ].
Whether irrational personal preference or irrational stubbornness, I drove the entire way. On my way to such an incredible endurance event, a part of my stubbornness may have been my desire to accomplish an endurance event of my own.

I had hoped to draw one of these for each leg, but things happen. 

My hotel in Las Vegas!

The view from my hotel room!

On January 14th, preliminary testing began for the runners participating in the myriad research studies being conducted for RAUSA2015. Although my duties were initially going to center on shuttling people between the two testing facilities or picking them up from the airport, I instead had the honor of staying behind and assisting Dr. Dan Lieberman, a renowned Harvard professor studying running gait and biomechanics. To work with such an esteemed professor was incredible enough, but even more so was how well, normal he seemed, and how friendly he was.

One of the runners wanted me to take a picture with him and the unsuspecting Dr. Lieberman . . .

In fact, all of the people involved with the research studies were awesome -- from the varied professors, participants, and even other assistants. I was chosen to be one of two research assistants for this trip, and hadn't met or even spoken with my fellow assistant until the day I arrived in California; however, we hit it off immediately, and our friendship makes me even more excited to traverse the country!

In an effort to keep these posts short and sweet, I'll end off here, before moving into the most exciting aspect of the trip -- the runners and marathons!