Recency Bias

It may be recency bias but I think today way the hardest day I’ve ever done on RAGBRAI. We had it all…heat, humidity, headwind, and hills…copious amounts of hills. But I won’t complain about the headwind because there were so many hills it didn’t matter and it helped to keep a bit cooler. 

I actually slept really well last night. Got up at 4:45 and was on the road by 5:45. The guys rolled out before me and  Chris and Emily left later. It was super foggy and beyond humid this morning. The bad news was the fog created very thick air making it very stuffy. The good news was the fog was so dense you couldn’t see the hills ahead!! Leaving Des Moines we went through the state fair grounds. I haven’t been there in years but spent a lot of summers there!

Since today was a pedal and try to not to die of heat stroke I didn’t spend a lot of time in towns. I just got the nutrition and hydration I needed and moved on. So here’s a list of the food/drinks I had while riding:

Pancakes, sausage, 2 glasses of orange drink

Apple pie Thelma’s ice cream

Gooseberry pie..the elusive pie of a RAGBRAI 

Ribeye steak sandwich 

A giant peach

A huge pickle 

8 Oz of pickle juice

3 bottles of Gatorade endurance 

6 bottles of water

One pickle juice shot

2 chocolate chip cookies

I had big enough plans when I got to Colfax. But before getting there we had to do 2 miles of gravel because a bridge was out. Everyone was worried about it going in to today, but honestly it wasn’t that bad. They had scraped off most of the gravel so it was hard packed and fairly easy. The only issue was the amount of people so it slow going and took a lot of concentration to watch what everyone else was doing. The gravel led us in to Colfax. Family friend Lisa Holdgrafer grew up there so I was going to stop to see her dad and family at their farm….BUT I missed it. Lisa had told me that Colfax had hills and she wasn’t kidding. The hill in the town of Colfax was the worst hill of RAGBRAI so far. I almost fell over on it but I did get a picture of where Lisa and Gary were married! I blame that hill for missing Lisa’s family. 

The Thelmas cookie followed by pie wasn’t planned but when you hear that there is gooseberry pie you don’t pass it up. So the the Amish in Newton well done on your pie operation!  They are serious about the prep. They bring their wooden pie racks and everything. 

After Newton we headed to Kellogg and that’s where i got the steak sandwich. It was 11:00 am when we got there. The sun had just come out and it was hot. I checked the temp and it was 93 feels like 103…I decided I wouldn’t check again in order to save my mental sanity!

From Kellogg the hills were unrelenting. The sounds from the road were a lot of huffing and puffing and the sounds of internal struggle. I wasn’t sure I’d ever make it to Grinnell. I pulled off to a place that was selling peaches and pickles and sat in some shade. They were nice and had water coolers out for people to fill bottles. 

When I got to Grinnell I had a guy take my picture as proof of life in case I didn’t make the last 25 miles. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen with the heat. But right as I left town clouds rolled in and it was such a welcome relief! I bought some homemade cookies from Iola a little girl in Grinnell. She didn’t talk much but the cookies were delicious!!  

Had the clouds not come I really don’t know what today would have looked like, but we lucked out and still got in a very hot humid day. As I was riding today and thinking about how hard it was I was reminded that I’m lucky to be able to do this. Two years ago I met Aarika and Megan very briefly. Sadly, Aarika passed away last August from colon cancer. Those two brought so much light and even though we didn’t interact much they made me appreciate the life I get to live. 

I got by today unscathed but I can’t say the same for the rest of the crew. Gary’s zipper broke on his jersey going into Colfax. Lucky for him the football team was selling t-shirts so he bought one!  Then he threw his jersey in the trash. 11 miles later as he rolled into Newton he had a an epiphany….his wallet was in his jersey that he threw in the trash…so he turned around and rode back, dug out the jersey and found his wallet. Given the heat he decided to sag. Instead of using the RAGBRAI sag, a lady called their church bus and they brought him to Toledo. 

Carlos put his glasses in his back saddle bag, but forgot to zip it up!  So his glasses fell out. He realized it when he got to the next town. He had the DJ make an announcement and a few people said…oh yeah we saw glasses on the road about three miles back. Then another guy said…don’t bother to go back for them…they’re toast. So he now no longer has his glasses. 

I haven’t seen Emily and Chris yet. They tried to sag about midway through today and waited forever. Then they decided to ride on. Eventually they got a sag to Toledo. 

I saw Vince in the last 7 miles. I rode up and said “hey are you from Philly”, he said, “yeah, how’d you know?  Did you hear me say, water?” He had no idea it was me!  Then when he got to camp he left his bike by the trucks, an hour later he said he needed to go get his bike….45 min later he said I need to go get my bike. …he forgot why he went down the first time and never got it!  So he went back down a second time and forgot to get the bike again!  I think he needs food!! 

We had a few sprinkles this afternoon but was still very humid. It wasn’t until 7:00 when we get some good breeze and less humidity. For the day I did 92 miles and 3780 feet of climb. We had a decent amount of sprinklers today and Grinnell had some nice fire hydrants going. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be just as hot and humid, slightly less hilly and slightly shorter…less than 10 miles shorter. So not really sure what the day will bring, but I can guarantee we will have laughs no matter what! Today has been one full of laughs. But hey at least we have a great camp site with a good breeze.  

Emily and Chris just got to camp…Emily, how are you doing? “Oh you know…just another day in hell” They are in great spirits as you can imagine when rolling into camp at 7:40.