Support Team Vacancies

There have been two changes to the support team plan recently with Tom unable to carry out duties in Indiana and Ohio and Graeme now starting a little later than planned in Las Vegas. Thankfully, the coast to coast support remains intact with at least one person on the team all the way from Coney Island to Huntington Beach. 

The support model I’m aiming for, requires two people on the team. That allows the support workload to be shared and to lessen the risk of any absence or illness impacting the run. The current rota looks like this: 

• TEAM ALPHA (Coney Island to Blaine) - Carlton and Deb
• BRAVO (Blaine to Indianapolis) - Deb and John
• CHARLIE (Indianapolis to St. Louis) - John and vacancy
• DELTA (St. Louis to Walsenburg) - Alan and vacancy
• ECHO (Walsenburg to Kayenta) - Deb and Thomas
• FOXTROT (Kayenta to Las Vegas) - Deb and vacancy
• GOLF (Las Vegas to Pahrump Valley) - Graeme
• HOTEL (Pahrump Valley to Death Valley) - Graeme and Phil
• INDIGO (Death Valley) - Phil and vacancy
• JULIET (Olancha) - Graeme
• KILO - (Olancha to Huntington Beach) - Graeme and Phil 

The vacancies are: 

• 24/05/25 - 01/06/25 (Indianapolis to St. Louis)
• 02/06/25 - 27/06/25 (St. Louis to Walsenburg)
• 12/07/25 - 23/07/25 (Kayenta to Las Vegas)
• 29/07/25 - 02/08/25 (Death Valley)

Some of those gaps in the rota present significant logistical challenges. St. Louis to Walsenburg and Kayenta to Las Vegas have limited options to join and leave the team. Death Valley is difficult for the same reason and also from the point of view of acclimatisation (or acclimation as the Americans might say). On the plus side, the parts of the route with only one person on currently are fairly easy to navigate. Also there is only really Alan who is on his own without any handover. John, for example, will partner Deb for the first 9 of his 18 days on the team. Graeme is only on his own for one day in Las Vegas and will be able to get a handover from Deb.

An attempt to plug those gaps will see another recruitment campaign get underway later today.