Just do it. | loopnscc's Blog

About 30 years ago I was reading a magazine and found an article about RAGBRAI, the bike ride across Iowa.  Wow, people ride there bikes across a whole state I thought at the ripe old age of say 14.  Is that possible?  Well life moved on for me, but I still remember reading about RAGBRAI and wanting to do it.  Well July 18th Mom and I packed up her camper and headed out to western Iowa and camped in a Bass Pro Shop parking lot over night.  We were with 1000's of others and after a short ride around I realized it was actually 10000's of others.  They tell you not to worry about the start or where to go because you just follow the line of bikes and how true they were.  Sunday morning I was off on a 52 mile day.  I have rode my bike more then that this summer and was rested so it wasn't a big deal, but they said there would be hills and I live in a very unhilly area.  I ride on what I would call bumps, a 100 feet of vertical is a big hill in my parts.  I talked with a few people,  that morning and then got to the hills and it turned out not to be so bad.  I got used to riding with such a large group and came to realize my training paid off.  I was riding faster then 80% of the people, so I just kept to the left and kept moving.  The first town was packed.  I stopped and walked around a bit and got some water and a banana.  The first day turned out to be pretty easy and when I rolled into town I was surprised it was over.   Legs felt good and could have easily done it again, but I knew the days would get harder. 

Camping with Mom was fun, she is older and respects that I am an adult, but we worked well together, getting set up and doing the chores that go along with camping.   Had a little trouble finding a place to eat the first night, one church was sold out at 5 pm and another had switched form pasta to sloppy joe's, but ended up having a very good hamburger at the local cattleman's association. 

The next day we where woken up by a new helicopter at 5:30 which wasn't a big deal because my alarm was set for 6.  Hit the rode by 7 because we could see that rain was a brewing out west and we where headed east.  That day I ended up hooking up with a strong rider and we pushed each other all day long, up some pretty good rollers.  I have never shifted so much in my life.  Low gear to get up the hill and back to a high gear going down to keep up your speed to help you up the next hill then back to low to get over the top.  We did this over and over and over again.  Had my first piece of homemade pie and loved it.  Is pie for breakfast a bad thing?

Rolled into the next overnight town before the rain and got camp set up before a light shower started.  It wasn't a hard rain, but you couldn't sit outside.  Had our first dinner in a church basement and it was good food at a fair price.  Then off to bed by 9pm.  Early to bed and early to rise was pretty much the standard. 

The next day was a ride in a pretty steady cool rain.  If you ride a bike long enough you will get rained on.  You get wet and just keep riding,  the cool day added to the fact that stopping usually gave you a chill so getting back on the bike was harder and you needed to get your body warmed back up again.   Slugged out the first 50 miles, it stopped raining and met mom for lunch and changed into a dry top to finish the day.  We camped out of town and I ended up with 91 miles that day.  Even for someone that has put on 2600 miles this year 91 miles is a big day. The next day was a very short day and it ended up being the easiest.  Sunny not to hilly and down wind.  I was in the overnight town by lunch.   The next day was the Century day, 100 miles.  I got up early and was on the road by 6:30.  The route had flattened out and maybe I was just getting used to riding every day.  I could get used to this kind of vacation.   The day turned out to be long, but not to bad.  I made sure to take some breaks, and feed the ride.  The last leg I had some energy to burn so picked up my pace to 20+ mph.  I was moving and passing everyone and my legs felt good, but I was going to pay for this tomorrow.

The next day on paper looked like your average day, 75 miles, but the last 20 miles where straight south into a 20 mph wind.   I will take rain, hills, sunny, heat and just about anything but wind.    It just seems to suck the energy out of you and this was a steady wind.  In the middle of this section running low on water in my 2 bottles a church magically appeared giving away free water and lemonade,  I got just enough energy to get to the next town for a piece of pie under a shady tree and then it was just a few more miles to some fresh homemade ice cream.  After yesterdays 114 mile day I had to use all my reserves to get myself into the overnight town.  I was whipped when I was done.  I talked with some others and they agree that this was the hardest day of the ride.  I was so tired we didn't go into town for dinner just hung out at camp and had some dinner.

Last day was pretty easy, 43 miles, and a tire dip into the Miss. river.  I had finished, rode my bike across a state.  Next time I will know I can do it and maybe not be so focused on finishing.  I will spend a little bit more time talking to the people along the way.  Stopping and talking to the people watching from there homes.  Walk around town more.  Go into the stores more.  To answer the question, yes I will do it again in a heart beat.  Oh, and mom had fun too and thanked me for asking her to come along.