Highlights from RAGBRAI

I completely meant to journal at the end of each day, but just was too wiped out most days, especially after getting the tent set up, having dinner and a beer after the rides. In lieu of this, I'll give you some of the higlights that still make me smile.

1. Iowans are probably the nicest people in the country. I don't think there is such a thing as a mean one. They were always over the top willing to open up their town to 10,000+ crazy riders and help them out. They were on the sides of the roads watching the chaos from their lawns. It was priceless.

2. The roads are fan-freakin'-tastic, especially when compared to the chip-seal hell in Texas.

3. Pie. Homemade pie just rocks. We ate it nearly every day at one of our morning stops. I had rhubarb, strawberry-rhubarb, peanut butter, cherry (twice) and one other. Kelly's pies, which are usually located alongside the Porkchop Guy, are the best, though a lot of credit has to go to the church ladies who take the time to bake all week.

4. Taking the time to walk through all the towns. Each had their own little character.

5. Skillet tossing is a great way to vent some frustration and have a few laughs! One town charged a buck for two chances to throw a skillet at a dummy with a basketball head. Fortunately there was a large wire cage to separate the iron skillets from the spectators, though Deeann nearly got it over the fence on one toss.

6. Crazy cyclists in outfits. It's a cacophany of color and sights. There was one guy riding in a banana costume, a team of guys in kilts (worn like true Scotsmen), a group of guys in the worst dresses ever, a team of superheros, and supposedly a guy in a diaper. Just a diaper.

7. Iowa is just gorgeous. The cornfields swayed in the breezes and brought the best sweet corn for dinner.

8. Bringing together people from all over the country is a delight. Small "licence plates" on the back of each rider's bikes showed their names, where they were from, and even how many RAGBRAIs they'd done in the past. Surprisingly enough many were first year riders.

9. Riding with one of my closest friends made the whole ride better. We laughed, talked about life, sang to anyone within earshot about mullets and made up a few songs about the damn hills. Coming back to a super camp to a specially prepared dinner each night was the highlight of the day.

10. Speaking of damn hills, Iowa is not flat, contrary to popular belief. We did about 25,000+ feet of climb over the course of the week. To top it off, we never got off and walked the bikes!

11. Finding a swimming hole on a hot afternoon is a treat. We spied the cold pond with a dock on it and jumped in...along with about 200 other people. At that point, we didn't care about the cow shit or chemicals in it, it felt great!

12. Accomplishing a 100 miler for the first time is an adventure in itself. Thankfully, the route had a lot of flats that day.

13. Friends push you to go. Luckily on one rainy morning, Deeann pushed me to not give up on the first part of the morning, while Dianna and Maribel were in my head to get going as well. I'm glad they all did, as this turned out to be one of the most fun mornings of the trip.

14. Rain, fog, thunderstorms, heat, cool, and even hail were a part of the trip. At least we didn't get snowed on.

15. The Iowan version of "thank you" is "you bet". It cracks me up.

16. Spotting the Mississippi River after riding towards it for seven days is the most heart-wrenching sight ever. I was overcome with a sense of accomplishment and disappointment that it was over.

17. After 490 miles, I'm going to invest stock in Chamois Butt'r and Boudreaux's Butt Patste. 'Nuf said.

Worrying about parents

An e-mail showed up in my inbox the other day with the title "Topsy Turvey Pop". In it Flo, my step-mom, told the 3 of us kids not to worry (which makes you start worrying immediately) but that Pop had broken his arm in a fall off the neighbor's boat. My dad is a very healthy, active 66-year old. You'd think he was in his early 50's easily.

He has been talking about selling everything, buying a sailboat, and cruising the oceans for many years. Flo likes sailing, but hadn't quite gotten to the point that she embraced the same ideas. She's picked up sailing over the years and recently took a captain's class, but her claustrophobia has gotten the best of her for long trips. That is, until last year.

In April, they chartered a bare sailboat for a month and sailed the Caribbean. After they came back, the house was on the market, the power boat they had in the canal behind the house was sold and they are ready to go. If they get the right price on the house, they're gone.

But all of this scares the crap out of me. I love so much that they're enthusiastic about their sailing adventures and that they're so full of life (still sickeningly like newlyweds after 26+ years of marriage). But I worry that he's starting to get to the point that there may only be 2 or 3 years left where he'll be spry enough to do this sort of adventure.

So while he was helping his neighbor on their boat, he went to step off the boat onto the dock. The boat moved back just a bit and he missed the dock. Only a few weeks before, he lost a cell phone and wallet to water damage (there's probably a good bar story there) so he was worried about it again. He wrenched around to catch the boat and ended up bashing his shoulder into the dock. He heard a lot of crackling. As it turns out, he crushed the top part of his humerus and tore some tendons. He'll be down for about 8 weeks.

It's these sort of things that are scaring me when he talks about running away on a boat like that. Surely he'll probably do fine, but will something like this happen while they're at some obscure island? Or worse, when they're at sea and in a squall? I worry that it takes so much time to heal once he gets older.

Is it wrong to worry so much or should we just encourage the dream? Or secretly hope the house doesn't sell?

Friday swims

Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I decided to check out the pool at the Y at lunchtime since I'm off early on Fridays. This turned out to be perfect!

My crack-o' morning swims have been tough. I have to be there at or shortly after 5am in order to get in enough of a workout before the kids start in on their team training at 6 and take all but one lane. It's been tough getting in anything more than about 1600-2000yds.

It hit me last night that I should check the Friday pool schedules and sure enough, it's pretty much open swim from about 10am on through the late afternoon. I think I've discovered my prime long swim time finally. So now I'll find a way to get my Friday swims in right after I get off work at 11/12pm and get the distance swims in. Whee!

I found a bunch of workouts online for people training for half and full Ironman triathlons. I tried a part of on on Tuesday and had to quit part way through it because of time. Today, I managed to do a 2600yd decent workout in about 1:15!

That was exciting, but the most exciting part of the day was when not one, but two people commented on my swimming telling me I should swim on the Master's team based on what they saw! Wow! That made my day. One was an older man and another a college kid practicing over the summer. Yippee!!!

Running haiku

Distant lightning glows
Footbeats keep the rhythmic pulse
Summer morning steam

There's always a conversation or song in my head. It can be exhausting. Many times I can't get it out and it just replays itself over and over, much like the movie Groundhog Day. Sometimes this happens when I'm running so I try to rechannel the noise into a creative outlet. I've written papers for school or blog entries as I run or ride many times.

Today, it was just a simple haiku that kept my mind running. It's not necessarily a good one, but it fell into the footstep patterns. Enjoy.