Welcome to 2024. 2023 was another very busy year for Team Suicide Prevention. Instead of focusing on one Big event like Race Across America or Race Across the West, we shifted our focus to participate and help sponsor several events in our local community to continue our fund raising efforts and donations to the groups we continue to support. Please check out Blog pages for what we accomplished in these local events that expanded our participation amongst our growing Team Suicide Prevention family of members.

2022 Highlight :

In the very early hours of Friday morning June 17, 2022, the Team Suicide Prevention racers crossed the 2022 Race Across The West finish line In Durango, Colorado. After a grueling 930+ mile route with over 40,000 feet of climbing, the team finished together at 3:50am local time, 2days 14hours and 46mins after leaving the start line in Oceanside, California on Tuesday, June 14th. During our epic ride, we had at least one racer on the road day and night to achieve this result. Click here to learn more about this exciting development. RAW UPDATE

2021 Highlight

On June 27th, 2021, Team Suicide Prevention successfully finished the 3,037 mile Race Across America (RAAM) in a finish time of 7d 19h 34m marking a successful conclusion to over 18 months of training thousands of miles on our bicycles while also engaged in extensive logistics planning.

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to our sponsors and supporters whose assistance made this result possible. Thanks to your financial support, Team Suicide Prevention has already donated over $10,000 to organizations on the front lines of fighting the suicide epidemic with additional plans for further donations as we kick-off our campaign to train for the Race Across The West (RAW) in June, 2022. Our team was recently featured in a News6, (CBS) story regarding our successful efforts to help those in need. You can view that story at this link- News6 at The Coffee Bunker. So, why are we doing RAW? During our travels across the great United States of America, we had the opportunity to meet hundreds of individuals to hear their personal stories of struggles and tragedy and the need for focus and awareness on this critical issue is still as important as ever. The mission of Team Suicide Prevention will continue to raise awareness and spread hope. We ask you to stay tuned for additional information and insights as we prepare to undertake this important journey to Race To Help Save Lives and Spread Hope.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about an issue that is quietly taking so many of our loved ones right before our eyes, Suicide. Nationally Suicide is among the tenth leading causes of death in the United States and is the second leading cause of death for teenagers. Twenty-two veterans per day make the heartbreaking choice to end their life by suicide. In 2017, more first responders (Police and Firemen) took their own lives than died in the line of duty. From 2007 to 2017 suicide is up 56% among those age 10-24. One in four adults live with a significant mental health challenge, including severe depression. In total 47,000 Americans per year end their lives at their own hands. If you are riding on an elevator with three other people, statistically one of those with you may be suffering in silence. These people in need of critical help and support are our neighbors, our friends, or members of our family.

Team Suicide Prevention is a group of cyclists, crew, medical professionals and film personnel that has been deeply touched by Suicide. As we shared our biographies with one another, we became aware that each of us has been effected by depression or Suicide. An estimated quarter million people become Suicide survivors every year.

Suicide is preventable. Most suicidal individuals want to live, they are just unable to see other alternatives to their problems. When severely depressed people seek treatment there is a 80-90% success rate with therapy and/or medications.

Race Across The West

Open to all cyclists wishing to race solo, 2- or 4-person teams.  RAW is one of the longest and most challenging of the domestic RAAM qualifying races and is a sizable challenge in its own right. It is quickly becoming a global race, having had over 10 countries represented.

Becoming a RAW finisher means you have successfully pushed yourself to the upper levels in ultra-cycling.  Wearing the official finisher’s jersey means you have completed an adventure that few cyclists will ever attain.  RAW will stand on its own as one of the crown jewels of ultra-cycling .

RAW follows the first 930 miles of the RAAM course, from Oceanside, CA to Durango, CO and starts alongside the RAAM solo racers.  Traversing some of the most beautiful country in the west, RAW leaves the beach in Oceanside, climbs the Coastal Range and the drops into the scorching desert.  After crossing the deserts of California and Arizona, racers begin a gradual climb into the mountains surrounding Flagstaff, AZ and eventually into the Rocky Mountains. The race finishes at Fort Lewis College in the cycling mecca of Durango, CO.

 We are in this race to help save lives. We will support key organizations who are on the front lines and in the trenches in the Race to Save Lives. These organizations include The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Hope Is Oxygen, and The Coffee Bunker.

Team Suicide Prevention is proud to offer our support to the following organizations:

• Established in 1987, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is a voluntary health organization that gives those affected by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research, education and advocacy to act against this leading cause of death. AFSP is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide.

• Hope is Oxygen is an organization founded by Linda Pulver of Tulsa, Oklahoma that works with families whose lives are forever altered by suicide. Statistically suicide can “cluster” and the Boxes of Hope that are distributed immediately after a family loses a loved one have had profound impacts to those who are in the wake of a suicide.

• The Coffee Bunker is an organization that offers a place where veterans can make connections with other veteran, representatives from other veteran organizations, resource people related to employment and education, and others who can facilitate transition to civilian life.

• Hope is Alive : The mission of Hope Is Alive is To Radically Change the lives of drug addicts, alcoholics, and those that love them. In October 2012, Lance Lange and his wife Ally founded Hope is Alive Ministries (HIA) in Oklahoma City. Under Lance’s leadership, HIA has grown from one home and five residents to 21 homes with over 200 residents working hard to radically change their lives. HIA’s success rate is unheard of, with over 85% of all graduates successfully living the life God called them to live.