Day 7 - Anamosa to Clinton

As stated previously, we have a strict deadline to meet with today's route. Elizabeth and Emily chose to leave an hour ahead of everyone else and I chose to ride the Windstream RV to one of the pass through towns with a few other members where we would get dropped off along the route. Elizabeth was really nervous about the timeline, but I knew she could do this! We made a stop on the RV in Lost Nation before arriving at my drop off point and who did we run into....Elizabeth and Emily! They were making great time...so good that Danny (team captain) asked me if Elizabeth had been holding back all week! I was so proud of her pace and pumped that she was going to be able to complete the entire last day!

We, Karen and myself, left Lost Nation on the RV to our drop site, Goose Lake. We would have a very short ride today of less than 20 miles. We gave Mike (RV driver) a hard time because he dropped us off in the middle of a hill! We were a little sad that our ride was so short, but once on our bikes we knew we had made the right decision. My legs were not in the game today; they felt like cinder blocks and did not want to move. My butt was also over being on my bike! Karen and I took our time and took in the sites. Being towards the front of the crowd is a completely different experience. There is no music and riders are serious whereas towards the back of the crowd there's loud music and plenty of conversation during your ride. Once in to Clinton all the locals were in their front yards cheering and clapping. Kids were yelling out and asking where everyone was from and keeping track of the responses. There really aren't words to describe what it felt like...I had goosebumps for a good 5 minutes.

Custom made wind vane

Once we made it through the neighborhood in Clinton, we popped out to the "dip site." This is where you make you ride official by dipping your front tire into the Mississippi River. Before Karen and I went down to the dip site we were asked to sign a custom made wind vane that features a cyclist on an downward arrow from Sioux Center to Clinton. Then Karen and I proceeded to the dip site to dip our tires in the Mississippi. We then waited on the rest of the crew to arrive and were able to capture some of them approaching the dip site.

Karen and I at the dip site

Danny, Ramon, Emily and Elizabeth coming into the dip site

Once Elizabeth arrived (2 hrs ahead of the deadline...woot woot!), I double dipped and dipped my tire with her! I'm so glad that she convinced me to do RAGBRAI and I definitely would not have survived the week without her! While I did not ride the entire week, I rode everyday and was able to complete 342.8 out of 471 miles over a seven day period and that is a huge accomplishment! People have asked if I would do this again and the answer is yes (with a caveat...I need to do more training on hills)!

Elizabeth and I at the dip site

Day 6 - Cedar Rapids to Anamosa

Team photo outside the Hiawatha office.

Today is the short day! We started our day off with biking through downtown to get back to the official RAGBRAI route which tacked on an additional 10 miles to the day. We stopped in Czech Village for breakfast as a team. We were all pretty pumped about the short day....until on our way out of the Czech Village we were greeted by a nice, steep hill. Today was the day that most of of realized that we had to climb out of every overnight town...not sure why it took us 6 days to catch on, but nonetheless this is not how I like to start my day!

Elizabeth, Ramon and me before leaving Czech Village

Our next stop was in Mount Vernon, home to Cornell College. This town was packed shoulder to shoulder once you passed Cornell. Emily, Elizabeth and I stopped for breakfast sandwiches and water and a little bit of people watching.

Entering Mount Vernon

Love this lady and would not have survived without her!

Along the route today we took in some beautiful scenery and stopped for a few photo ops.

Me, Emily and Elizabeth

Once we got into Anamosa I did my best at following our directions on how to get to the camp site. And for those of you who know me know that I follow directions to a "t." We began to doubt the way we were headed and stopped and ask for directions. The locals provided directions that were completely contradictory of what we were given...therefore I doubted their directions even more. Elizabeth encouraged me to trust the locals...after all they would be the ones who would know the way! Once we found our camp site at the country club we couldn't help but notice a neon pink tent. We figured that it belonged to one of the other female team members, but little did we know it belonged to Oswaldo. He was a good sport when we teased him about it! During dinner a few of us were able to catch part of the opening ceremony of the Olympics from the club house.

Following dinner a few of us were pulled aside to discuss the next day's ride.We have some fast riders on the team but some of us are the "stragglers" (and we openly know and admit this). We had a strict deadline of when we needed to be done the next day in order to stay on schedule and wanted to provide some options to ensure we could meet the timeline.

Camping does not come without it's nuances. Literally as soon as our team was in our tents ready to go to bed our lovely neighbors began to play music extremely loud. A few team members walked over and politely asked them to turn it down since they could hear it through ear plugs! However, they refused to turn the music down until an anonymous party called the cops on them. Needless to say they were still sleeping when our team was heading out on the road at 6 am the next morning.

Day 5 - Marshalltown to Cedar Rapids

The view from the repair tent in Garwin

Finally a break in the heat! This morning it was in the 60s, which after the first 4 days is welcomed with open arms. Today we're off to Cedar Rapids and will be staying at the Hiawatha office. The day started off to what we thought was good. However, Elizabeth and Karen were having some issues with their bikes, so we visited a repair tent in the first pass through town, Garwin. This was the slowest line....EVER! Elizabeth's bike turned out to be fine after a quick look and adjustment and more importantly free of charge! Karen's bike on the other hand was deemed defective and she was advised to not ride any further. Against the repairman's advice Karen decided to keep riding at least to the meeting town.So we continued on to the town of Clutier where we had one of the best $3 hamburgers I've ever had; it hit the spot!

Karen and I as we entered Clutier

Old fire truck at one of the cooling stations

Once we reached the meeting town of Vinton, Karen decided to keep riding as her bike did not feel any different than it did while she was training. Since we are staying at the Hiawatha office we were told that we would have a few miles shaved off  route. Little did we know that we would actually be adding additional miles to the day's route. Our path deviated from all other riders in Palo; this is where our ride became interesting. We rode with traffic...lots of traffic since it was late in the day. Our support truck followed us to ensure our safety. However, they also thought it would be fun to heckle us and yell out "go faster!" Nothing like a little pressure to keep you going at the end of the day.All day 85.9 miles

Headed to see Counting Crows

We arrived at the office shortly after 5pm. Which means we had an 11 hour day on our bikes...granted we did our fair share of stopping to take in the sites! We completed 85.9 miles! We ate dinner with some of the Hiawatha employees and shared stories from the day. After dinner we all headed downtown to listen to Counting Crows.

Headed back to the office for bedtime!

Me, Jim and Elizabeth at Counting Crows

Day 4 - Webster City to Marshalltown

Today was my first day to ride all day!!! Brent gave me a pep-talk before leaving this morning and told me to only think about crossing the finish line and that anything distracting me from that goal did not matter. So I pushed myself all day reminding myself about the finish line.

At the carousel in Story City

Pork tenderloin sandwiches!!!

The first half of the day went well; the mornings always fly by. We stopped in the meeting town, Story City, for lunch.To the right, you can see that Elizabeth and I selected pork tenderloin sandwiches for lunch. It was good when it went down, but it was not so good when the heat of day set in. It definitely helped slow me down in the afternoon. Elizabeth and Emily got ahead of me when I decided to take short little break in someone's shady front yard. I also was thankful for a cold shower on the side of the road to help break the heat.

I finally caught up with Elizabeth and Emily

A penny-farthing bike

Also, during the day's ride we had the chance to see a penny-farthing bike. I cannot imagine riding a bike with no breaks and no gears on the hills of Iowa. Apparently this bike's owner stretches out like super man when coasting down hills (wish i could have seen him in action)!

The route was supposed to be 77.1 miles but we were a little closer to 80 due to a little detour Elizabeth took us on (and it was uphill). We were very excited to make it to Marshalltown. Primarily because we were staying with Elizabeth's brother, but also because there was a Mexican feast waiting on us. Her brother catered fajitas and all the fixin's for our dinner. Shortly after dinner a few members of the team took a ride downtown only to return 15-20 minutes later due to a down pour. Some strong storms moved through during the night, but we were excited because behind the storm was cooler weather!!

We made it to Marshalltown!!

Day 3 - Lake View to Webster City

While Elizabeth and I started out riding together we did get separated on day 3. She climbs hills much faster than I do...let's just say that I'm very familiar with my "granny gear" when it comes to hills. Along with hills slowing me down, we also had record heat and 28mph head wind. As Elizabeth already stated, there was zero coasting down hill. You literally stopped dead in your tracks if you stopped pedaling. Once separated, I rode primarily with Raoul, another teammate. We stopped to have breakfast sandwiches in Auburn, our first pass through town of the day. We also stopped in the third pass through town, Lohrville to eat at Mr. Porkchop. I would have never imagined eating a 1.5 inch thick porkchop before 10am, but it was delicious!

Mr. Porkchop

Raoul and I let our food settle and then got back on our bikes to ride 8.2 miles to the meeting town of Farnhamville. This was literally the longest 8.2 miles of my life the wind wore me down to the point I had to stop every mile to take a break. I called it a day once arriving at our RV in Farnhamville...my little leggies were tired thanks to the wind.

Once in Webster City, a few of us decided to go see Dark Knight Rises to enjoy some AC and popcorn. Elizabeth snoozed a little bit throughout the movie, but the best is when she flinched real hard and woke herself up!

Jeff G., Jeff M. and Elizabeth at the movies

Day 3 - Lake View to Webster City

Tuesday was hands down the most physically and mentally challenging day of my life. The combination of riding alone, big hills, 28 mph headwinds, and 85 miles will take its toll on anyone. I don't even recall what cities we went through or what I saw and ate. You couldn't coast downhill because you would come to a dead stop, and you couldn't reach for your water bottle or you'd blow over. The only thing that kept me motivated was the thought of the feeling I'd have when I crossed the finish line. I felt a little relief when I got into town and realized that everyone was just as exhausted as me.

That night, a group of us decided to go see Batman (mostly because of the AC and popcorn), and several other RAGBRAI riders had the same idea as we did. It sounded like a good idea until 15 minutes in when I started falling asleep. Please don't tell me how it ends..I plan to see it again.

We were once again very thankful to have indoor sleeping accommodations at a Dance Studio in this 100+ degree weather.

LeHigh Hill

Day 2 - Cherokee to Lake City

Let me start by apologizing for not posting last week; we did not have consistent Internet access in all the pass through and overnight towns.

Today's ride started off well, but it got hot fast. We stopped in Hanover Village around 8:15 am and it was still cool with a little cloud coverage. Hanover Village is teeny tiny; had it not been for the droves of cyclists we would have completely missed it. By the time we left at 8:45 am the sun was out from behind the clouds and things were heating up quick.

The view leaving Hanover Village

Hanover Village

Emily and Elizabeth

Today was a short ride for me as I only rode the first 29.3 miles (total route for day 2: 62.0 miles). I felt bad leaving Elizabeth on her own for the remainder of the day, but was relieved when she made into Lake City and told me about a new friend, Emily, she had made along the route.

View of the church while serving dinner

Tonight, we stayed in a church that hosted a spaghetti dinner and served over 1200 cyclists. Most of our team wanted to go to bed early, but those that showed up for dinner did not clear out of the church until 9/9:30 pm.

Day 1 - Sioux Center to Cherokee

We started on ride on Sunday bright and early at 6am. The daily routes on RAGBRAI are broken up into 10-15 mile segments, allowing riders to stop in towns for some food, rest, relaxation and whatever else. The first stop in Orange City has probably been the most memorable thus far. Its an old Dutch town that has maintained it's Dutch heritage - from the building facades to the food.

The morning flew by and was pretty uneventful. We met some strangers and stopped in some uneventful towns. Things changed around 11 when the temperature rose and hits 100 degrees. By this time several of our team members are done. Only if we were that fast.

Elizabeth's day took a turn for the worst when her tire and tube blew up only ten miles from our overnight town,  Cherokee. She was pretty disappointed that she couldn't finish the last 10 miles, but without a spare tire there was no choice. Luckily, she was not on her bike when it happened. With 10,000 other bikers packed around you on the road anything can happen. We had stopped for some water, food and shade and when she went back to get her bike a lady said "your tire just popped."

We capped the night off with some delicious pork tenderloin sandwiches (recommended by Jeff G.) and great conversation outside the team RV. It's all downhill from here!

Sioux Center

Stream team made it to the starting point, Sioux Center, Iowa. Here's a partial team picture before we left Grinnell, Iowa this morning (sorry its a little blurry). Today we enjoyed the expo and some live music...one band was from Arkansas. We finished the night with a private team dinner. We're pumped about the week ahead, but still have a few nerves too!

RAGBRAI Bound - Kansas City to Marshalltown

We are headed out of Kansas City and making our way towards Marshalltown!!

Windstream Technology Trailer

What's more exciting than biking across Iowa? Staying connected with family and friends! I know we'll spend a lot of time in the Windstream trailer charging our phones so we can keep everyone updated.

Windstream Technology Trailer

http://ragbrai.com/2012/07/19/stay-connected-on-ragbrai-xl-with-windstream-communications/

Railroad Tracks: Friend or Foe?

Recently we completed our longest ride to date, a mere 67 miles. This accomplishment did not come without  some blood, sweat and some almost tears. We chose to ride Harper's Loop for the day's ride but added some additional miles by starting at Maumelle Park. 

Sunflowers off Old England Highway

While Harper's Loop is primarily flat it's not necessarily the easiest ride. Flat means there is little to no coasting and therefore you are literally pushing it the whole time. We are usually in good spirits for the first 30-40 miles and then we hit a slump.On this particular day we had yet to catch our second wind. Just about the time I was mentally back in the game, we came upon some familiar railroad tracks. I say "familiar" because we have a history with these particular tracks. A few weeks prior, Elizabeth did not successfully complete her journey across said tracks. Me, being myself, laughed hysterically at this event. And yes, I made sure that she was okay.

One of our many stops to refill on water.

Flash back to the present. I'm now about to cross Elizabeth's favorite railroad tracks a head of her to show her that there's nothing to worry about. WRONG! I cleared the first track with no problem, but when it came time to cross the second my front tire went along the track throwing me and my bike into the hot pavement. It was like the cycling gods were getting back at me for laughing at Elizabeth a few weeks earlier. Elizabeth was lucky to leave her crash site unscathed. Me....not so much. As soon as I hit the pavement I wanted to jump up because it was so hot. However, I was unable to do so. I left the scene with scratched palms, a busted left elbow, and a scraped and bruised left leg.

One of my battle wounds; Railroad Tracks 1 - Allison 0

So the good news is that I was very lucky that these are the only wounds I received. After getting back on my bike it hit me that we had 15-20 miles left to ride. Those were the toughest miles I've experienced thus far. My legs were already tired, but now battered and I had to keep telling myself just a little bit further. As we continued onward, I fought back the tears when sweat hit my open wounds. I'm thoroughly convinced there is nothing worse than that. I was lucky to have Elizabeth by my side to crack jokes and encourage me on what seemed like the longest 20 miles of my life.

Stream Team

We got our Windstream garb last week, and we love it!! We are ready to represent Windstream and share our story with 10,000 people as we ride across Iowa!

Lookin good, Al!

Don't Do the Gu!

There's not many foods I won't eat and don't enjoy, unfortunately GU Energy is on the top of that list. I don't even know that this falls into the food category, so I'll just say there's not many things I won't taste more than once. I'm not sure you could pay me to eat, more like slurp, this gloppy gunk. I'm so thankful that RAGBRAI will have food every 10 miles because on our training rides the only solid food that is available is roadkill. Side note: Allison and I like to count how many dead animals we bike by, and then try to figure out what type of animal it was and how they died. It's a pretty difficult and grotesque game. Ok, back to the gel. Since our rides are out in the country we have a limited source of energy and carbs. Early on in our training we started eating Clif Shot Bloks and never really tried anything else. And I wish I never entertained the idea of actually trying something else. Don't ever, EVER, eat the Gu; it doesn't mix well with heat and lack of water. And if this makes you want to try it, go ahead..I warned you. Stick to Shot Bloks, they taste like delicious gummy bears. This afternoon I went to buy some packs of Shot Blocks for RAGBRAI and found myself opening a pack on the way home. Oops. They are so good you'll want to eat them like candy. The Jelly Belly Sports Beans are delicious, also. Ohh! Let's not forget the Honey Stinger Vanilla Wafer. I had that before a ride and wanted to put some ice cream on top of it and eat it for dessert. Allison, I'm getting some wafers for RAGBRAI..we can eat them with our pie and ice cream.

Allison squeezing out the Gu

I want to ride my bicycle!

Starting today we are two weeks away from our departure for RAGBRAI. We both felt slightly sick to our stomachs when we realized it's so close. In an attempt to motivate ourselves to push it for the next two weeks, we reminded ourselves of the great adventure we're about to embark upon. So I leave you with a song from Queen that gets us in gear:

Emphasis on Ride

RAGBRAI is not a race, people..it's a RIDE! Good thing it's not a race because I'm in it for the homemade pie that every town along the route is known for. Midwest Living published an article titled "EAT-RIDE-REPEAT", and my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  They have the RAGBRAI motto right, it's all about the food. We'll be sure to let you know if the myth is true about bland Midwest taste buds; and for the record, as long as Allison and I aren't the last people to roll into the overnight town, I'll consider it a first place win.

Getting in Gear

23 days until we begin our RAGBRAI adventure. Our 3 months of training have already been quite the adventure, so we're really excited to see what RAGBRAI has in store for us this year. We have been training, both on the roads and in the bars. We definitely favor the latter. Every time we ride (or drink), we say "we need to start our blog." So, here it is. Finally. You can only imagine the conversations, laughs, frustrations, mishaps, moans and groans that we have every weekend and almost every day.

I'm not sure I can recollect everything that has happened over the past 3 months, but I'll try. Backpedal to 5pm on March 21st - I was so excited when I saw this email that it didn't take long for me to decide that I wanted to join Team Stream in the ride across Iowa. I must have a knack for persuasion because it didn't take long for me to convince Allison to be my partner in crime. I wouldn't have done it without a buddy.

Once it was official that we were on Stream Team we got a little more serious. Allison bought a shiny new Felt bike and I went to my grandpa's house and asked to borrow his rusty Giant (which has since been tuned up thanks to a great co-worker, although the squeakiness was growing on me.) We have come a long way since March; we have become faster, stronger, tanner, but unfortunately not any skinner. We are dedicated to RAGBRAI and realize that in order to succeed we must drink more beer, thus prohibiting our weight loss. Most importantly, I have been able to spend more time with a great friend.

We want to share our stories with our families and friends, and we want to be able to look back and remember what a great time we had. We also know that there will be tough times the week of RAGBRAI, so it will be nice to look back and read over these stories for some much needed motivation.

Training in Week 1