RAGBRAI Recap

My cellular provider (AT&T) had poor coverage along the route so I wasn't able to post much during the ride. "Contemporaneous" writing loses something when done after the fact so I won't try to do a day-by-day recap of the ride. Below are some of my general impressions from the ride.

First, in a good way, the ride exceeded my expectations. The people were great, the weather not unbearable and the food wonderful. Depending on what our schedule is next year, we'd have no hesitation about doing RAGBRAI again.

We had no major mechanical problems (one flat tire) and our bodies held up pretty well (Kurt's right knee started acting up towards the end of the trip). The conditioning we did before the ride must have been sufficient because physically, the ride was reasonable.

There are lots of people on the ride but you sign-on knowing that it is going to be you and 10,000 of your best friends on the trip.  

 

The atmosphere is such that you have no inhibitions over what you eat or drink. Your only responsibility is to have a good time and pedal yourself down the road to the next town. Remember, pie is breakfast food. 

 

 

The host towns and the pass-thru towns (places you go through during the day) go all out for this event. It is a celebration at every stop. 

 

There is a lot of corn in Iowa. From one end of the state to the other, we passed field after field of corn. Also, Iowa is NOT flat!

Hard Leg

7/21 - We made the real hard leg from Harlan to Jefferson. Fewer hills from here on. RAGBRAI is everything we expected & more!

First Day

First day done. Tonight we opted to be indoors at a Lutheran church sleeping on padded pews. Plus it is air conditioned.

Are we ready? The truth is in the saddle!

We fly today to Omaha where we will spend the night. On Saturday we take a bus to Missouri Valley where the ride begins.

For support along the ride we are using Pork Belly Ventures. They will ferry our gear between towns and provide support above and beyond that in the basic RAGBRAI package.

Since the ride is sponsored by the Des Moines Register American newspaper (the "RA" in the rides acronym), there is ample coverage on the web at the newspaper's web site:

  Register American's main RAGBRAI page

Bicycle Origami

Rather than carrying our bicycles with us on the flight to Omaha (near the ride's start), we shipped the them ahead on FedEx.

Marcia's Bike Friday is designed to be stuffed into a large Samsonite hard case. Kurt's Rodriguez is a conventional road bike and requires a larger case. Kurt's nephew Brett, a hard-core bicyclist, loaned Kurt his hard sided carrying case.

Before

Marcia's bike
Kurt's bike

After

Marcia's bike
Kurt's bike
Packed and ready to go

Weekly RAGBRAI Training Summary

This blog post will be a "living" post and list our weekly training log. The daily rides will be shown in the appropriate weekly log.

If you want to see what this training is about, see this earlier post - Summer 2008 Plans.

	Date	Total
Week 1	May 11-17	109 Miles
Week 2	May 18-24	127 Miles
Week 3	May 25-31	162 Miles
Week 4	June 1-7	119 miles
Week 5	June 8-14	150 miles
Week 6	June 15-21	208 miles
Week 7	June 22-28	215 miles
Week 8	June 30-July 5	135 miles
Week 9	July 6-9	149 miles
	Total	1374 miles

RAGBRAI Week 9 Training

This week has the last few days of training as we ship the bikes on Wednesday or Thursday.

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
July 6	Magnusson Park to Redmond	43 miles
July 7	Mercer Island Circumnavigation	13 miles
July 8	West Seattle to Bainbridge Island (route included extra miles on Bainbridge)	53 miles
July 9	Ballard to Woodinville (last training ride!!!)	40 miles

RAGBRAI Week 7 Training

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
June 23	West Seattle to Kent	45 miles
June 25	West Seattle to Bainbridge with island circumnavigation	46 miles
June 26	West Seattle to Vashon Island with island circumnavigation	45 miles
June 27	Mathews Beach to Marymoor Park (with a service break at Logboom Park on the return to fix a flat tire)	35 miles
June 28	West Seattle to Kent	44 miles

RAGBRAI Week 6 Training

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
June 15	West Seattle to Bainbridge Island with circumnavigation (hilly but not so chilly)	41 miles
June 17	Chelan to 25-Mile Campground (took an overnight trip to Eastern Washington)	41 miles
June 18	Cle Elum to Thorp (mileage was moderate but the strong westerly winds made the return ride grueling)	34 miles
June 20	Mathews Beach to Redmond	32 miles
June 21	West Seattle to Pacific/Algona	60 miles

RAGBRAI Week 5 Training

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
June 8	Renton to Maple Valley along Cedar River Trail	25 miles
June 11	Mathews Beach to Marymoor Park	37 miles
June 12	Mercer Island Circumnavigation with a side trip to Coulon Park in Renton	29 miles
June 14	West Seattle to Maple Valley (via Duwamish/Green River trail then through Renton to connect with Cedar River Trail)	59 miles

RAGBRAI Week 4 Training

Only three days of riding this week on account of unseasonably cold and wet June weather. On the days we missed riding, the 3rd through 6th, it rained 0.58, 0.26, 0.19 and 0.38 inches respectively. In addition, the high for each day rarely cracked 60 degrees.

Being a native Seattlelite, I understand that June is not summer in the PNW. But this year, it feels like late winter rather than late spring. We are hopeful for next week.

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
June 1	W. Seattle/Tukwila	36 miles
June 2	Mathews Beach/Redmond	37 miles
June 7	W. Seattle/Kent	46 miles

RAGBRAI Week Three Training

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
May 25	W. Seattle/Bainbridge Island (one way; stayed night in Winslow)	25 miles
May 26	Bainbridge Island/W. Seattle (1-way) Mathews Beach/Woodinville	28 miles
May 27	Mt. Vernon/La Conner Loop	29 miles
May 29	W. Seattle Hill Loop	16 miles
May 30	Mathews Beach/Redmond	33 miles
May 31	W. Seattle/Vashon Island	31 miles

RAGBRAI Week Two Training

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
May 18	Mathews Beach/past Ste Michelle	30 miles
May 19	Ballard/Log Boom (post ride Happy Hour libation at Hale's Brewery	29 miles
May 23	Mathews Beach/Redmond	33 miles
May 24	W. Seattle/Kent	35 miles

RAGBRAI Week One Training

Date	Destination/Comment (round trip unless otherwise noted)	Distance
May 11	Mathews Beach/Gas Works Park	15 miles
May 12	Mathews Beach/Woodinville	21 miles
May 14	Mathews Beach/Woodinville	21 miles
May 15	Fort Dent/Auburn	25 miles
May 17	West Seattle/Fort Dent	27 miles

Summer 2008 Plans

Since our return from Australia and Antarctica, we've been tending to personal matters and haven't done any significant travel. We are actively trying to sell our current boat and are not planning on cruising on it this Spring or Summer.

The one thing on the docket, though, is riding our bicycles in RAGBRAI. This 7-day ride across Iowa is the oldest and largest cross-state bicycle rides. This year it will have about 8500 riders moving en masse across the state.

The route, which changes every year, is 471 miles and, shockingly from our perspective, 22,500 feet of elevation. Being a native "left-coaster", I assumed that between the Rockies  and the Appalachians was nothing but flat. Where did those hills in Iowa come from???

Its time to start training and get some serious "seat" time.