Sun Run Day 7- Reflecting Upon Our Journey

Last night was the longest sleep I had gotten since starting Sun Run, coming in at a whopping almost 7 hours of rest. Most of the team got as much sleep as I did making it a well-rested beginning to a long day of decisions. The morning started with several things on our agenda.

While we have made great progress so far, we have been continuously chased by rain, impacting the distance we have traveled thus far. Furthermore, the original planning for the Kansas City to Albuquerque leg of the journey was planned very tightly, spanning around 800 miles in two days. Given the progress of Aevum so far and the forecast for rain today, we decided it would be an unrealistic timeline to hit. With that in mind, we’ve decided to trailer to a spot closer to Alburqueque before continuing. This way, we would trailer through the flat plains of Kansas and Oklahoma, where we already have collected data from similar landscapes, and drive our car the rest of the way, testing its abilities in the Rocky Mountains.

Also on the agenda was a conversation regarding our team dynamics. Every team, no matter how big or small, how old or new, how successful or unsuccessful will always have teamwork problems that come up, not to mention in high-stress situations such as Sun Run. Though our time in race crew has brought everyone close to each other, disagreements are inevitable. For our team, this was a chance to both iron out disagreements as well as improve upon ourselves and the processes in Race Crew, to streamline our operations. Everybody had a chance to candidly talk about concerns with our team advisor moderating it. This was something our team benefited a lot from and something I think we needed.

Sun Run is not the 5 days of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, nor the 8 days of the American Solar Challenge; it is ten days crossing an ever-changing terrain filled with obstacles. It is not just a test of engineering, but of unity and by going through these past few days and taking time to reflect on them, we have come up with many ways to do better. It is in this state of improvement, acknowledging our shortcomings and implementing solutions, that we approach our journey in Solar Car, trying our best to go above and beyond what we are expected to do. Tomorrow will be a new start and a new day with hopefully no rain to block our united team and Aevum’s way..