The bits and pieces have been floating around for a week, but here is the longview of that lovely little sufferfest called TransIowa.
I drove to the start town of Hawarden, Iowa with JK Purtzer (who was a last minutes support substitute for Tony Toth) and Emily Broderson. Nervous energy, nervous energy. We arrived and went to the Pizza Ranch for a prerace carb load/racer gathering. The only person I recognized, other than race director Jeff Kerkove, was Steve Fassbinder of endurance race fame. We also met our host family there, Tom and Elaine Kanes. The Kanes could not have been more welcoming, treating us like family during our short stay. In fact, the refused to let us thank them with any sort of gift. In fact, when JK tried to pay for their dinner. Tom powered his way to the front of the line, swim-stroked around me and elbowed JK out of the way to make sure his refusal was heard, some managing to seem polite at the same time. Wonderful people. Next year I will just be calling them straight away about lodging. They were that nice.
The morning of the race, Elaine served us a fit-for-king breakfast of french toast and an egg sausage cassarole. Perfect way to start a day that you know will hurt. Emily and I rode to the start, sat through an uneventful rider meeting and prepped for the race. It was ~30 degrees and the wind was straight out of the north at ~20 mph. It would only get about ten degrees warmer all day and the gusts hit about 35mph.
I was WAY to wound up. I purposely slide to the back of the start line to make sure I didn't let me competitiveness get the best of me when things got serious. I don't have the engine most of these guys do, so I knew I would need to stick to my plan and not get swayed into hammering at any point.
That worked, because I could see that the lead group (all on cross bikes) went out hot and at a pace which would have ended me early; but it also worked against me in that I really started too slow. I watched the group spread out (after all, this is still Iowa) and just started picking people off. In the entire race, I believe I was passed four times and two were by the same guy.
At one point, very early, I passed Rick who rides for LBC. I had no idea who he was but after he exclaimed, "CycleWorks? You guys are my rivals!" I just wished him a good race and kept moving along. It was shortly after this I had my first encounter with a 'B' road. Imagine rolling up on a road of mud and seeing that bikes had started in, only to veer off to the edge and ride along the upper edge of the ditch. You could see the path by all of the grass which was pushed down in a stretch of green single track. Incredibly rough and bouncy, I actually tried to push a little more through this, just to end it. There were a couple of sections like this in the race totalling about 6 miles. It was the only time I didn't think I should be on a cross bike.
Just as I made my first turn North, a guy riding a stunning Dean Ti softtail rode up to my wheel and asked if I wanted to trade pulls into the wind. "Absolutely." I regret not getting the guys name because he was class. We swap exposure for three miles, rode another ten together then shared another two into the wind right before the town of Primghar. He said he was stopping for water and food, which wasn't part of my plan, but I knew he was stronger than me so I told him I would see him later. I also saw my trusty support crew in Primghar, drinking a beer. I tolled through town, chatted with a guy rocking a SoulCraft SS and moved on heading east again. After several boring rollers, I headed north into huge gusts with a large climb looming ahead in the distance. Unfortunately, there wasn't another soul on the road to trade pulls with and as I neared the bottom of the climb, I can see that it had been freshly graded, so now I had the wind, the climb and the loose gravel to eenjoy. Near the top of the climb, I looked back to see another figure making his way to the climb. I stopped at the top to enjoy a banana and low and behold, it was the guy on the Dean. We laughed about the wind, discussed that we needed to make up some time and he rolled off ahead of me. I could still see him an hour later as a spec on the road ahead, but despite catching several other people, never saw him again.
The race is a blur until I reached Emmitsburg. Generally in a race this long, you see something interesting which becomes worth retelling. Not in Iowa. It was every cliche you know about the plains, rolling expanse of nothing. The problem I had was that I was out of food and needed to stop in Emmitsburg, which hadn't been a part of my plan. Some friendly locals, a quick Casey's stop for a turkey and cheese and I was back in route. I think I blew 15 minutes. Frustrating. I pushed on not thinking I would make the cutoff time. We had two miles outside of Emmitsburg where we rode south and I used the peace from the wind to call my wife and JK. Apparently JK had a busy day of pastry shopping and beer drinking while following the route with another support guy. Thank goodness he saved me a turnover.
At the original cutoff time of 6pm, I called JK and said,"A moment of silence please." "Screw that," he said. "You've still got an hour." With that bright news, I kept it at threshold all the way to Algona. When I stopped, there was a tv camera in my face and people immediately telling me that very few people had gone back out.
I took a rest for 20 minutes trying to figure out whether or not I should go back out. The legs were good, but I had ridden in all of my "cold weather" gear throughout the day. The problem was my hands. My circulation is horrible and I really needed lobster claws for 20 degree temps and 20-30 mph winds. Plus, once I stopped riding I had starting hacking like Doc Holiday in Tombstone. I pulled the plug. In total, 14 people went out on the second half. 9 finished. I am still kicking myself for not being prepared, but bitterness makes the heart train harder.
Since the race, I have taken it pretty easy on the bike, commuting mostly. This week I will start preparing for the marathon at Platte. I need to get out and ride the course a lot before the race. I haven't had a mtb in two years and therefore haven't ridden Platte in that time. I need to shake the rust off of the technical skills if I have any hope. Less skills = more energy spent. Not good in a +4 hour race.
Out the back.
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