SEVEN FIELDS — It was the bike ride of a lifetime.

Ryanne Forcht Palermo, a Butler High graduate, recently completed the 33rd annual Race Across America as a member of Team PHenomenal Hope.

Now 31, employed as a product manager for BUCHI Corp. and living in Seven Fields, Palermo joined teammates Stacie Truszkowski, Patty George and Anne-Marie Alderson in finishing the 3,000-mile race in seven days, seven hours and 15 minutes.

UPMC sponsored the quartet to raise funds for awareness of pulmonary hypertension, which is high blood pressure in the lungs than can leave its victims short of breath, dizzy, tired, even in need of a lung transplant.

The team departed Oceanside, Calif., on bicycles June 15 and arrived in Annapolis, Md., a week later.

“To see America at 18 mph was truly a unique experience,” Palermo said. “At times it was magnificent, at times it was torture. It was every emotion imaginable.

“Some riders do this race with their heads down, so focused that they don’t see anything. I wanted to see everything. I made a conscious effort to look around as much as I could.

“Riding through the desert, in mountains, seeing every sunrise and sunset ... I’ll never forget it,” Palermo added.

She listed seeing the rock structure of Monument Valley in Utah and going through the Rocky Mountains as her favorite two parts of the trek.

“Riding 40 mph down a mountain is exhilarating,” she said.

Palermo rode with Truszkowski, the duo trading riding shifts with George and Alderson every 20 to 30 miles.

Their bodies held up physically as the foursome trained for nearly two years in preparing for this event. But sleep deprivation became an issue.

“I didn’t sleep at all for the first two days, then averaged maybe two to three hours of sleep a day,” Palermo said. “Mental fatigue kicked in big time. There was a sense of brain fog.

“You become more emotional and disgruntled with lack of sleep. We were always looking for places to be silly. Humor helps you cope.”

The team rode through 12 states. Each time they crossed a state line, Palermo did a dance.

“We called it the New State Shuffle,” she said, laughing. “Just a bunch of silliness.”

But the journey wasn’t all fun and games.

During the trip, the bikers had radio plugs in their ears for communication and were followed by a team van.

While riding in the mountains of Colorado during the wee hours of the morning, Palermo and Truszkowski were alerted that heavy crosswinds would soon cross their path.

“I’m physically bigger than Stacie, so we decided I would handle the crosswinds and she’d get off her bike,” Palermo said. “Those winds were 50 to 60 mph and they hit during our final descent into Trinidad.

“I was riding the center lane at about 3 a.m. when a wind gust caught me and pushed me close to the edge. Another one nearly blew me off the bike. I wasn’t far from taking a tumble down the mountain. It was extremely frightening.”

Team publicist Chuck Finder was driving the van behind her.

“That was harrowing. I was scared for her. But she fought it,” Finder said.

The team has done well in its fundraising effort.

“They raised more than $150,000 so far and there’s more coming in,” Finder said.

The publicity isn’t over with, either. The team was featured on ABC’s “Nightline” early Tuesday morning and it will appear on KDKA’s “Pittsburgh Today Live” at 9 a.m. Monday.

During their ride across the country, Team PHenomenal Hope encountered supporters wearing their team T-shirt, cheering them on.

“We got into Illinois and a busload of PH patients were there to greet us,” Palermo said. “They drove over from Indianapolis just to support us. It was amazing.

“When we would get tired or start dragging a bit, two women in our van crew — Kate and Carol — stuck their heads out the window, ringing cow bells, shouting encouragement. I’ll remember them for the rest of my life.”

The race ended when the bicyclists rode into a gas station in Annapolis, Md.

“It seemed anticlimactic, like it shouldn’t be over,” Palermo said.

“Then we rode on to the harbor, there was a finish line banner, some family members from Pittsburgh. It was fun.”

But now it’s over.

“It’s like, ‘What do we do now?’ This was top priority in our lives for two years,” Palermo said. “Now I’m doing some running, having a good time doing some hiking with my husband, filling the void.

“We’re not athletes. We’re not professional bike riders. We pushed ourselves. We were totally out of our comfort zone for a week.

“At some point in life, everyone should experience what that feels like,” she added.