RAGBRAI Day 3

The final day of RAGBRAI took us from Coralville to Davenport, home sweet home.  The stats: 65.6 miles and 2,363 feet to climb.  We agreed to try to get on the road by 6:00 because it had been getting so hot so quickly and its much easier when the sun is low.  But alas, despite our efforts, we didn't get going until 6:45.  Part of this was because I was still getting the shooting pains, but not as severe.  I tried to see the First Aid station, but they were not opening until 7:00, so I manned up and we left around 6:30.  We road through town in Coralville and into Iowa City.  First thing we hit, hills!  If you've ever walked around Iowa City, it's pretty hilly.  Well just to get out of the dang town, we had to go up some pretty massive, steep hills...and oh yes, we conquered them!

Team Teehee :)

From Iowa City, it was about 10 miles on to West Branch!  There were a couple of hills, but nothing too major.  We were still feeling great at that point because it was not hot yet.  We totally decided next year that it need to be REQUIRED that we leave at 6:00am, no later!  We need 2-2.5 hours before we can start feeling the heat of the sun.  West Branch is a cute little town, if you've never been there, it's home to the Herbert Hoover's childhood house and presidential library.  We decided to keep trucking through after a brief stop rather than visiting the memorials since we had all seen them before.

From West Branch, it was only 4.5 miles to Springdale..we bought some super cheap bake sale cookies at the local church and filled up our bottles and kept on pedaling.  It was 13.8 miles from there to Moscow, and it was the LONGEST ride of the whole trip!  It started getting REALLY hot and we were all separated and it was hilly!  I kept thinking, "When I get to the top of the next hill, I'll see Moscow..." I finally did stop to reapply sunscreen because it was getting crazy hot and I felt like my skin was boiling.  At that point, Laura met up with me as well and we rode into Moscow together.  From Moscow, we met up with Brooke, refilled our water and decided to eat lunch in Wilton, only another 5.6 miles away!  In Wilton, we had the most fun!  They had a petting zoo set-up which was so therapeutic :)

What?! How cute is this bunny??

We ate some lunch, and watched some martial arts performers as well before leaving Wilton.  We finally had to suck it up and keep going, even though it would have been nice to quit right then and there!! IT WAS SO HOT even just standing in the sun.  It was at this point, my bike thermometer was reading about 120 degrees in the direct sun.  From Wilton, we rode onto to Durant, 6 miles away and it was such a friendly little town.  We rested a little and then decided to go on to the last town before Davenport.  Walcott was nearly 8 miles from Durant and it was about 1:00, so hot hot HOT!  At this point, no lies, RAGBRAI was not fun anymore, it was a punishment.  But it was also a challenge and we were determined to finish the day.  We split off from Brooke in Walcott, since she was waiting for her Dad to catch up.  Brooke and her Dad were going to ride down to the river while Laura and I were going to catch the bike path in Davenport and ride straight back to my house.  Of course, we took one last picture before splitting off!

The ride from Walcott to Davenport was not very hilly, but boy was it punishing being dead flat, with no breeze, and killer sun!  Laura and I took our time, making sure to stop for water breaks and more sunscreen and we even took one break in the shade where we got to meet some really nice people who assured us it was just over that hill and we'd be crossing I-280 into Davenport.  It was true, we were so close!  We got back on and pushed through.   Once we crossed into Davenport, it almost felt like we were done, but then I remembered that even once we get to the bike path about 1.5miles up the road, it's still another 7 miles to my house.  At this point, I ran into the only three people I knew riding RAGBRAI, who were not even riding together.  How weird is that?! I saw my coworkers husband, who was just waiting up for a couple of people because they were also taking the bike path home.  Then I saw Kate and her husband!  I student taught at Ames High in the English department at the same time as Kate, but hadn't seen her since because she's been living in Korea.  WEIRD!  Anyway, we got to the bike path, took one final "Almost there" picture, enjoyed the shaded and mostly flat bike path home.

Of course, we ate fudgecicles when we got home and then showered ASAP!  What a relief to be home and what an accomplishment to have ridden 70.2 miles that day!  As much as we were hating it, and I probably did a horrible job making RAGBRAI sound fun...we can't wait to do it again next year, and probably the whole week this time!  That night, we went down to the Bix/Ragbrai festival, and I must say, we clean up pretty well :)

RAGBRAI Day 2

We woke our sore butts up at 6:00 to eat our usual breakfast of bagels w/ nutella and a banana!  Again, we attempted to leave by 7:00, got on the road by 7:22.  The ride was from Grinnell to Coralville, 74.9 miles and 2,681 feet to climb.  I figured, it's not as hilly because the day before was 20 less miles and almost 600 more feet to climb.  And it's true, we did have many more flat miles this day.

We started off the day pedaling to Brooklyn, which was 14.5 miles away.  Luckily, it was still pretty early and didn't feel too hot yet.  It was college spirit day, so I wore my ISU basketball jersey, which proved to be like a greenhouse, letting all kinds of heat in, but not letting any out!  Never, NEVER will I wear that biking again!  But anyway, we got to Brooklyn which is this cute little town with a TON of American flags; it's what they're known for I guess.  It was also a very Christian town, handing out salvation bracelets and the band was playing Christian music.  It was no big deal, but it wasn't exactly the motivator we were needing that day! 

This guy rode this crazy bike EVERY day of RAGBRAI

Brooklyn, IA

It was only about 9:00 in the morning, not even, and the sun was already getting very hot. The next town, Victor, was 8.2 miles away, so we pushed on to it.  When we got to Victor, my tummy was sending me mixed signals because I didn't feel very good when I woke up, so I didn't eat much of my breakfast, but now I was actually hungry, I think.  So I got a brat in Victor, and Laura enjoyed a Bloody Mary, both were delicious!  We enjoyed our small break in the shade, applied more sunscreen and then headed another 7 miles to Ladora.

It was a flat and I mean FLAT ride to Ladora, which was a super nice break from the hills.  However, with absolutely no shade, the sun was punishing and my tummy couldn't decide if it needed more food or needed to let it out.  On top of that, Laura's poor knee was giving her all kinds of pain.  It was nice Ladora wasn't too far away so we could take another rest and another sunscreen application break!  While in Ladora, we all ate some maid rites, sat in the shade, markered up some peoples legs :) and Brooke made a new friend! A dog of course, lol.

At this point, we evaluated our desire to push through the day, because it was super hot, we were all worried about pushing to hard and not being able to do our 3rd day which was more important to us.  With my stupid stomach and Laura's stupid knee, we decided to push to the next town, Marengo, which was another 7 mile, flat ride away.

When we got to Marengo, the heat had really started to affect us.  My bike computer was reading a heat index of 120 degrees in the direct sun, which is what we were ALWAYS in.  We all talked about it and agreed that we're in this together, is someones hurting, we're sticking with that person.  We also all agreed that we're on vacation and punishing ourselves to the point of exhaustion is not what we're looking for.  We decided it was more important to all of us to save our energy so we can ride the whole day into Davenport the next day, so we took the SAG wagon back to Coralville.

Stupid knee, stupid tummy

Ah well, we tried our best! :)

Brooke was falling asleep on the SAG wagon

We got to Coralville around 3:00, grabbed our stuff and headed for the pool! We went swimming, which was great on our muscles, and showered at the pool.  I was still getting these strange shooting pains in what seemed to be my kidneys, so I took it easy for dinner. After having a light pasta salad and an ear of corn, I was feeling better.  We all walked to this bar and enjoyed some drinky poos.  Laura, Jason, and Ryan wanted to go out in Iowa City, Brooke and I wanted to SLEEP. So we split up.  Brooke and I grabbed some ice cream at Dairy Queen and then walked back to our tents and passed out.

I can't say this was my favorite day of the trip, but I will say it could have been a heck of a lot worse if we had tried to push through and Laura's knee failed her, or we got heat exhaustion, or I did actually end up getting sick.  In the ended, we listened to our bodies, took the break we needed and enjoyed our vacation like we originally intended to!  Plus, we got amped up for the final day, which I will write about in my next post!

SIDE NOTE: Why oh WHY did I not have two water bottle holders installed on my bike?! Dumb dumb dumb...it's on the RAGBRAI 2012 must-have list.

RAGBRAI Day 1

One week ago today, I was waking up after my second RAGBRAI experience.  For those of you who don't know what RAGBRAI is (and who would that be I don't know, haha), it is a week long bicycle ride across Iowa!  Due to so many weddings this year and lack of vacation time to use, I only signed up for the last three days of RAGBRAI, pedaling from Altoona to Davenport.  My friends Brooke and Laura joined me on this trip, while Ryan and Laura's boyfriend, Jason, drove the vehicle to each overnight town.  Oh my goodness, it was such a great experience and we are already ready for next year!  


We arrived in Altoona Wednesday evening to set-up camp, eat some dinner, and get all settled-in and ready for the next day, our first day riding.  We got a pretty good camp site and when Laura and Jason got there, we got really excited.  However, it was SOO hot that night, it was hard to sleep.  Brooke and I sat up in our tent at 2:30am and watched the heat lightening.  OK, anyway, we fell back asleep and woke up at 5:30am to begin Day 1!

Day 1 Highlights

Despite our best efforts to get on the road by 7am, it was probably more like 7:45 when we finally got a start on our first day.  Altoona to Grinnell, 57.5 miles and 3,202 feet to climb.  It was a freakin' hilly route!  We started out the whole ride, all on the same page about this being vacation and making sure we actually enjoyed what we were doing.  We wanted to experience things, meet people, and have a great time!  So naturally, about 3 miles out of Altoona, there is a big sign asking us to wish Owen a Happy 80th Birthday, so we pull over, meet Owen and get a picture with him =)

As we continue on our day, we swung through Mitchelville, Colfax, and Baxter.  There was this massive hill to get out of Colfax, which dampened our spirits a little bit, haha...but as we got closer to Baxter, we saw people taking this bike path off to the ride of the normal route, which as we looked ahead, was just this huge hill.  We saw some volunteers who said the path would take us to Baxter and that it's not so much a "short-cut" as it is a "flat-cut"...SOLD!  We took this "flat" cut into Baxter which ended up being like 2 miles longer and pretty steady incline the whole way.  The worst part about it, we missed the giant slip and slide by not being on the route!  Moral of the story, stick to the route, the "short-cuts" aren't worth it!

Veering off onto the bike path, away from the road route

We spent a little time in Baxter, because it was then 21 miles to the next stop, which was Rock Creek State Park.  THIS WAS SO DIFFICULT! So many hills, and not many places to stop.  We did stop at the PB Jam, where I had the BEST Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich of my life!  Jif Creamy PB, Grape Jelly, Marshmallow Fluff, Chocolate Chips, and Bananas; it was heaven!  After passing at least 10 signs saying, "Only 3 more hills" or "This is the last hill," all of which were total B.S. because 3 hills later, there would be another "Only 3 more hills" sign, we finally made it to Grinnell!  We were totally beat, but had such a great day.

That night, we found some food, watched some crazy jugglers, and hit the sack pretty early and slept pretty hard!  We had to amp up for Day 2, Grinnell to Coralville.  To be continued...

Outfits I Want To Buy #2

Having just finished the last three days of RAGBRAI (yes, I will post as soon as I get pics), I have developed a jealousy to all cute workout/biking attire.  I saw so many cute options besides my basic, padded, black, bike shorts and so many tops besides my basic, solid-colored racer-back tank.  I also broke my biking glasses so was stuck wearing my normal ones (which looked silly in my opinion) AND I need new biking gloves because mine are so worn out now.  So here we go, this is my top-to-bottom wish list for RAGBRAI XL (next year!):

Oakley, $200

skirtsports.com, $65

skirtsports.com, $85 (and yes, they are padded!)

Pearl Izumi, $22

Lake, $75

Realistically, I will probably shoot for getting the clip pedals and clip-in shoes next year.  Oh, and new gloves because they are a must!  I can manage with the apparel I already have, but maybe the cycling skirt will make it on to my Christmas list :)