After giving it a lot of thought and weighing of the quality of racing and competition, the financial input, and how many days of leave I still have, I made a decision somewhere in the June that after eight long years since the race organizer George Thomas has invited me to his race, I will finally attend Race Across Oregon RAO 2012. This is one of the most difficult qualifying races for RAAM in the United States, 840km long and with more than 12,000 climbing.